R0BTRAIN's Bad Ass Cinema:The Best of Norris

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Norris, Chuck Norris. In the 1970’s and 80’s the name struck fear into the heart of every cinematic low-life and hood. Arms dealers, gangsters, scientifically engineered killers, the entire country of Viet Nam; no one could stop Chuck Norris on screen. Most know Norris from these roles such as James Braddock (The Missing in Action Trilogy) or Sheriff Dan Stevens (Silent Rage), but unlike most stars of the time, what gave Norris an extra air of invincibility was that off screen he could back it up.

Joining the United States Air Force right out of High School, Norris began to learn the art of Tang Soo Do. By the time he was done, Norris was a black belt in the Korean Martial Arts of Tang Soo Do and Tae Kwon Do. Norris became the first Westerner ever to reach an eight degree black belt for Tae Kwan Do. In 1968, Norris won the World Middleweight Karate Championship. He held the title undefeated until he retired in 1974. Norris even founded two new Martial Arts with Chun Kuk Do (“the Universal Way”) and American Tang Soo Do. I’ve also heard that Chuck Norris invented the bolt-action rifle, liquor, sexual intercourse, and football, but that could just be a rumor.

Much like Bruce Lee, Norris ended up becoming a Martial Arts instructor to the stars, one of which was Steve McQueen, who encouraged Norris to take some acting lessons. At first he landed small roles in films such as the Dean Martin vehicle The Wrecking Crew. He then got his feet wet in pictures such as Slaughter in San Francisco, The Student Teachers, and most famously in Return of the Dragon (AKA: Way of the Dragon), where he faced Bruce Lee in one of the greatest cinematic Martial Arts battles of all time.

Norris got his first lead role in Breaker! Breaker!, a film combining the actor’s fighting skills and the Truck Driving craze of the 1970’s. From there he built a relationship with Independent film studio American Cinema where he starred in a trio of films; Good Guys Wear Black, A Force of One, and The Octagon. After the success of The Octagon, Norris would star in one of the best film’s of his career. Teamed up with a great actor, Mako, and one of the greatest villains of all time Norris would raise his career to the next level with An Eye for an Eye.

An Eye for an Eye Starring Chuck Norris, Mako, Christopher Lee, and Professor Toru Tanaka. Directed by Steve Carver.

Chuck Norris IS Sean Kane, an undercover narcotics cop who doesn’t do well with authority. After his partner (Stuart Pankin’s Nicky LaBelle) is killed in the line of duty, Kane even quits the force. When his partner’s wife, Linda Chan (Rosalind Chao) is killed, Kane begins his own personal quest for vengeance. Teaming with Linda’s father, James Chan (Mako), the two begin to uncover a drug ring conspiracy involving police officers, Hong Kong Triads and a wealthy TV station owner.

Norris, even sans beard, is really not that bad here. He’s quite charming throughout the picture and the team up with Mako is quite effective in the comedy department. Norris doesn’t even seem to stumble in the film’s love scenes as he has decent chemistry with actress Maggie Cooper who portrays Linda’s roommate Heather Sullivan. This wasn’t going to win Norris any awards, but he doesn’t hurt himself in any way.


Of course, where Norris really excels is in the Action sequences and the Tae Kwon Do Grand Master really shows his stuff in this picture. Especially considering Martial Arts in American cinema was a big rarity at the time, Director Steve Carver sets up some really thrilling sequences to accentuate Norris’ talents. The best sequence has Mako and Norris dueling to the death with a room full of Triads as a helicopter swarms the building trying to take out the duo. The film’s finale is a barrage of action that owes much of its formula to the 007 series as Norris has to face the film’s henchmen villain first, and then the conspiracy’s mastermind.

The film has got a good group of heavies to do battle with Chuck. Professor Toru Tanaka is awesome as The Professor, the hulking sidekick who takes Norris’ Kane to the limit. The former wrestler made his big screen debut here and apparently his gargantuan presence was enough to keep his career alive as the actor returned over and over again in films such as The Running Man and Last Action Hero. Lastly, when you’re going to borrow from 007, you might as well have a Bond Villain to go with it. Christopher Lee is properly menacing here (the guy is probably frightening in his sleep), and gives the film some great flavor with his over the top performance.

As for the good guys helping Norris, it’s a great idea to surround him with guys that will make him look even better than he is. Mako helps the film immeasurably as his cantankerous character is full of wit and humor from start to finish. Also Richard Roundtree tempers his Shaft cool a bit, but is still awesome as Kane’s Police Captain. Still, Norris is the focus here and he delivers the goods for his audience with fists and roundhouse kicks to spare.

An Eye for an Eye is a surprisingly good thriller, with Carver focusing strongly on martial arts battles more than shootouts, which is atypical of 80’s Action cinema. Norris would follow-up the film with two in 1982 including his Action/Slasher film Silent Rage and then returned to form with Forced Vengeance. In 1983, Chuck would team up with Director Steve Carver again, but change his formula ever so slightly to give his fans the best film of his career.

Lone Wolf McQuade Starring Chuck Norris, David Carradine, Robert Beltran, and Barbara Carrera. Directed by Steve Carver.

As soon as you hear the opening notes of Francesco De Masi’s score for Lone Wolf McQuade, you know the film is going to be different from almost every other Action film of the 1980’s. Everything from the font on the opening credits to the haunting photography of a wolf walking through the Texas desert harkens back to the days of Sergio Leone, Clint Eastwood, and Charles Bronson. The Spaghetti Western was long dead by the time this film came out, but no one bothered to tell Chuck Norris that! This modern day version of the genre gives the Action star his perfect role and his audience a silent, hard nosed hero to root for.


Chuck Norris IS J.J. McQuade, a no nonsense Texas Ranger who’s too brash and violent for his superiors. He doesn’t fit the style of the New Ranger persona, who lives clean and is a pillar of his community. In the film’s opening scene, McQuade takes down an entire gang of bandito horse thieves all by his lonesome, but does he get credit for it or a pat on the back afterwards? Of course he doesn’t. He gets dressed down from his Captain (R.G. Armstrong) for the way he does his job, and before you can say “Get off his back and stop being such a cliché Police Captain!” McQuade is saddled with a rookie partner in Robert Beltran’s Kayo.

This is the quintessential Chuck Norris role. Many of Chuck’s other characters seem to fit a similar mold to the Action heroes that were popular at the time. In Code of Silence, Norris doing his Dirty Harry. In Missing in Action his Jim Braddock was in the style of Stallone’s John Rambo. The closest character to J.J. McQuade was Clint’s Man With no Name, which hadn’t been on screen for 20 years before this film came out.

Everything in his life is cluttered, from his house, to his job, to his relationship with his divorced wife and their daughter. Everything that he is is tied up with being a Texas Ranger. Director Steve Carver makes McQuade an almost mythic character in the film’s sequences where he’s laying down the law. Norris is shown as an unstoppable force of nature, mowing down thugs with his .44 magnum and his roundhouses. Norris is, of course, up to the task.


He moves through the film’s action with ease, as if he were a character in a “side-scroller’ video game. One of the film’s best scenes actually has him getting beat down when the thugs he’s facing decide to attack him all at once (it takes like twelve of them). Like many Spaghetti Westerns, our hero is buried alive, with the thugs using McQuade’s truck for a coffin. The sequence grows into this awesome spectacle as Norris pours beer over himself and drives the truck out of his grave as the music blares. He even finds the strength to cut down a baddie before his partner finds him near death.

These days both Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez have both assimilated the Spaghetti Western as part of their style. In this way Lone Wolf McQuade is almost the forerunner to these pictures. McQuade even features the same villain as Kill Bill with David Carradine playing Rawley Wilkes, a gun runner and murderer with a penchant for wearing “Cosby” sweaters. Much like his character in Kill Bill, Rawley Wilkes plays off Carradine’s most important acting role, Kwai Chang Caine, from the TV series Kung Fu. Wilkes shows his “interesting” but deadly form in an exhibition of his Martial Arts skills early in the film as he disposes of three opponents.

Things get personal when Wilkes and McQuade start to battle over the same woman, Barbara Carrera’s Lola Richardson, and the Texas Ranger starts to look into Wilkes’ business. After being suspended by his superiors for insubordination, McQuade seems on the edge of quitting, until Wilkes kills his best friend and kidnaps his daughter. With his daughter’s life on the line McQuade, goes down to Mexico for a titanic showdown. Teaming up with his loyal rookie partner Kayo (Robert Beltran) and FBI Agent Jackson (Leon Isaac Kennedy), McQuade and his wolf-pack take on Wilkes’ small army of goons in a small villa south of the border. Facing down Wilkes’ mercenaries Wild Bunch-style, the small band of heroes come together to save McQuade’s daughter until all that’s left to do is for McQuade and Rawley to go mano a mano.

In a traditional Spaghetti Western, this would be a standoff. That wouldn’t do for a Chuck Norris Movie. The final battle here between Norris and Carradine is one of my favorite fight scenes made in America during the 1980’s. As Francesco De Masi’s score blares, the two face-off in brutal one on one combat with no wires or stunt men to be seen. Apparently, Carradine decided to take some liberties with Norris in the fight scene. He only had to be warned once.

This is the best film of Norris’ career. Perhaps Steve Carver is the only director that could use Norris to his full potential as each film here builds up his mystique. In An Eye for an Eye, as one villain makes a remark about him not carrying a weapon, another cries out “He IS a weapon!” A similar scene in Lone Wolf McQuade has a thief stating to his leader that “No one has ever taken on a Texas Ranger and lived to tell the tale!” The next shot even has Norris almost blocking out the sun. Both of these films put the action star in his best light, as he only has to do minimalist acting, but when he does speak he’s usually pretty funny. If you ever get the urge to check out some Chuck, these are the one’s to go for.
Picture Credits: impawards.com,peeperstv.com, jedimc.tripod.com, filmthreat.com, reelcriticism.com, dvdmaniacs.net

Robert Sutton feels the most at home when he's watching some movie scumbag getting blown up, punched in the face, or kung fu'd to death, especially in that order. He's a founding writer for the movies section of Insidepulse.com, featured in his weekly column R0BTRAIN's Badass Cinema as well as a frequent reviewer of DVDs and Blu-rays. Also, he's a proud Sony fanboy, loves everything Star Wars and Superman related and hopes to someday be taken seriously by his friends and family.