Ultimate Warrior, The
Entry updated 16 February 2017. Tagged: Film.
Film (1975). Warner Bros. Written and directed by Robert Clouse. Cast includes Yul Brynner, Joanna Miles, William Smith and Max von Sydow. 92 minutes. Colour.
New York in 2022 CE is in an advanced state of decay after a man-made biological catastrophe that occurred decades earlier. The leader of a group who have barricaded a street against gangs of thugs roaming outside hires the services of a super-Samurai (Brynner). This was promoted as the first Kung Fu sf movie, following, as it does, the basic formula of the Kung Fu genre (two camps each with their own champion fight it out to the death in the final reel) and it was produced by Fred Weintraub and Paul Heller, who had made Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon (1973), also directed by Clouse. But, surprisingly, it is well scripted and unpretentious, though cynical. The Ultimate Warrior was a forerunner of the Post-Holocaust action-movie boom represented by Mad Max (1979) and its many sequels and imitations, including Escape from New York (1981). [JB/PN]
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