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March 8, 2014 |
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Chan plays Billy Wong, a New York cop whose partner is gunned down in the line of duty. Set up with new partner Danny Garoni (Danny Aiello), the pair find themselves on the trail of kidnappers who have taken a wealthy businessman's daughter, eventually leading them to Hong Kong where they battle both a drug kingpin and the authorities to try get her back. Jackie Chan was the biggest star in the Asian market, surpassing even that of the legendary Bruce Lee. He had starred in approximately 40 films in his native land, so it was a logical step in his career to take a stab at Hollywood. The only real drawback was that Chan didn't have a strong grasp of the English language because since his movies focused mainly on dynamic action sequences, only a basic understanding of the English language would be sufficient. For The Protector, Jackie would team up with an American director by the name of James Glickenhaus. Glickenhaus had previously directed Z-grade action star Robert Ginty in a film entitled The Exterminator, which was also his only real profitable film. The Exterminator was a violent, gritty, and crude vigilante action film, which has been perceived as a rip-off of Charles Bronson's Death Wish. The Protector would only be Glickenhaus's fourth time in the directing chair. It is no secret that Jackie Chan and James Glickenhaus didn't get along. Glickenhaus wanted Jackie Chan's character in The Protector to be a "Dirty Harry"-type, speaking softly, carrying a big gun and swearing a lot. There was also gratuitous nudity in the film, specifically a scene in which Chan's character walks into a drug lab run by nude women. To make matters worse, Chan was shocked at how bad Glickenhaus's directing was, especially since The Protector was to be ostensibly a martial arts film, but instead had become another Dirty Harry clone. Chan had gained much experience directing in his Asian films and was disgusted with the way Glickenhaus would move onto each subsequent scene, even when prior ones needed to be reshot. In his autobiography "Jackie Chan: My Life in Action", he relates how he called up his manager saying, "He keeps going after four takes of each scene. FOUR Takes! I've never done a scene that took less than 20 takes!" Chan knew that his Asian audience would be offended by the frequent foul language, the exploitive nudity and Glickenhaus's poor direction. Chan asked Glickenhaus to let him direct the fight scenes but Glickenhaus refused. As far as Glickenhaus was concerned Chan was the actor and he was the director and there should be absolutely no confiding between the two of them. In a heated argument between Glickenhaus and Chan halfway through the shoot, Chan said he "quit" and walked off the set. Back at his hotel room Chan phoned his manager in Hong Kong and told him what he had done, saying, "Glickenhaus is destroying my career." His agent responded that he had to return to the set and finish the film because Glickenhaus had an iron clad contract. When the film was finally completed and Glickenhaus left Hong Kong, Chan decided at first not to release the film in Asia, but changed his mind after reshooting some scenes including doing away with the nudity, vulgar language, and re-coordinating the final fight between his character and the villian played by Bill 'Superfoot' Wallace. In the end the American version was stiff and editing was sloppy, whereas the Hong Kong version was more elaborate, dynamic and faster. Subsequently the American version flopped at the box office while the Hong Kong version received moderate success in Asia. It is claimed that Chan's next Hong Kong film, the hugely popular and critically acclaimed Police Story (movie)|Police Story, was made in order to atone for The Protector. imdb title| ID=0089847|title=The Protector imdb name|id=0322785|name=James Glickenhaus Category:Martial arts films This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "The Protector".
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