Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins
Many people have tried to replicate the same formula so they can try and recreate the magic of The James Bond Franchise into their own âsuperspyâ type of character. Steven Spielberg (who in the 1970s campaigned to be in the directorâs chair for a legitimate Bond movie) has openly admitted that the Indiana Jones series (particularly Raiders where Indy was clearly working as a government operative) was his own personal Bond Franchise. The Jason Bourne Franchise was also clearly an effort to update the scenario to a more modern setting. But one of the most interesting (and failed) attempts to recreate a Bond feel (with an American character in an American setting) was this 1985 release that seemed to have it all going for it: it was adapted from the very popular Destroyer series about a highly trained assassin who specialized in âperfect accidentsâ to take out his target; it utilized a screenwriter (Christopher Wood) who had actually written two Bond scripts in The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker (creating the character of the unstoppable killing machine Jaws in the process); and most importantly of all the producers had brought on board as director one Guy Hamilton, the British born helmer behind no less than FOUR James Bond films including two of the all time best in Goldfinger and Live And Let Die. The pieces were in place creatively with the main question being who would now play The Destroyer, Remo Williams, a character who has been described by many as being a âblue collar Bondâ. And admittedly, Fred Ward turns out to be a pretty good choice for the part in one of the very few lead roles he has had over a very long run as a rugged character actor. Wardâs character is first seen (under his original identity) as an almost slovenly NYPD cop (with a ridiculous Groucho Marx moustache) munching burgers in his cop car until he stumbles upon a mugging in progress and has to go three against one with some street punks, showing himself to be a naturally tough and capable fighter before suddenly being ambushed again and dumped into a river, apparently dead in the eyes of the world. But itâs all fake. Ward wakes up (cleaned up and clean shaven) in a hospital bed only to be told that he fits a certain profile (ex marine, no family or connections) to be recruited into a very classified organization that consists of only him, his first contact (J.A. Preston) and its leader (Wilford Brimley) who sits behind a desk in a typical office setting doing what appears to be office drone work when in reality he has access to literally every piece of information made available to the government, claiming that only The President and five other higher ups in the government are even aware of his existence. The purpose of this top secret organization (CURE) is basically to ânot let them get away with itâ, that being the bad and corrupt types who want to destroy this country from both the inside and the outside. Ward is told that his old identity died in the line of duty when he went into the river and that his new identity (Remo Williams) will be the name that he goes under from now on in his duties as an assassin. But first (despite his profile being what they were looking for), he must undergo further training under the guidance of Chiun, a Korean fellow who apparently is the most deadly stealth assassin in the world due mostly to his mastery of his own personal form of martial arts, one that can allow him to dodge bullets and even walk on water basically by treading VERY lightly. But the real audacity of the character is in the casting, as while many feel that this Asian mentor character was inspired by Pat Moritaâs Mr. Myagi from the year before in The Karate Kid, the actor actually playing the part is the Caucasian (and Jewish) Joel Grey, having already won an Oscar a decade earlier for his perverse Master Of Ceremonies in Cabaret and now piling on the makeup to play this distinctly Asian type role. Grey had actually turned down the role several times due to not only not being Asian, but also having no formal martial arts training whatsoever, only to be sold on taking the part after submitting to a makeup test and being amazed by the results. And with good reason too, as the makeup FX work here was nominated for an Oscar while Greyâs acting performance surprisingly picked up a Golden Globe Nomination for Best Supporting Actor, so itâs pretty clear THAT aspect of the film was a success as even while Greyâs Chiun reassures his superiors that Wardâs Remo will be fit and ready for duty in about 15 years(!), they decide that theyâre going to need him a little sooner than that in order to take down a billionaire (Charles Cioffi) whose apparent master plan is to scam the U.S. military out of billions of dollars that they think theyâre spending on advanced weapons only to be given faulty equipment instead. Uh, okay. It turns out that the main villain and his master plan (a key component in almost any action adventure movie) is actually the big weakness here as played by an actor (Cioffi) who was best known for his soap opera work (a bit of an irony since Chiunâs favorite and only enjoyed form of entertainment is soap operas which he feels to be Americaâs only real quality contribution to our culture). So while the bad guys go about their scheming (and try not getting found out by a nosy female American major played by Kate Mulgrew), the real enjoyment to be found here is in the developing relationship between Remo and Chiun with the subsequent chemistry between Ward and Grey as Greyâs Chiun is really a harsh and prickish taskmaster with an attitude that his people (Koreans) are actually the superior race on the entire planet as the comparatively bumbling (and Caucasian) Ward as Remo nonetheless is able to learn only but a few techniques that will get him through his first mission despite his teacher treating him like a bumbling oaf. But we also get a major action sequence on the (still being renovated at the time) Statue Of Liberty that is both awe inspiring and ridiculous as despite the phenomenal stuntwork on display, the scenario involves the bad guys paying off some CONSTRUCTION WORKERS in chump change to go up there and commit MURDER on Remo who was conducting some kind of a training exercise up there, only for Remo to fight them off and send them to their own doom (okay) with a last minute save from Chiun at the very end. Ward does well to invent his own brand of action hero here, that of a big dumb lug made to do all of the heavy lifting on an assignment only to remember some aspect of his training at the last minute and out of nowhere in order to get himself out of another tight spot. Even then he still has to worry about Chiun appearing on the scene and giving him an impromptu beatdown for not doing something right. Yes, it IS a winning team that plays their camaraderie for laughs rather than facing serious threats in a serious manner and the expansion of their ongoing relationship in future movies may very well have been enough to sustain things even with cardboard cutout, generic villains (as is the case here), but for many just the utter strangeness of seeing Joel Grey playing this role (and a few years later in the one and only TV movie sequel where Roddy McDowell played Chiun opposite the still unknown Jeffrey Meek as Remo) may have been enough to make many think that a long term franchise would not have been feasible here despite the fact that Grey did get awards consideration and really is a lot of fun in the role. Whatever it would have taken to have gotten this promising series off the ground (even the original writer would admit that the lame premise and villain is what sunk this like a rock) probably would have been worth it (even if Ward wouldnât necessarily have stuck with the role just like The Bond Actors). But alas, this is all we got with the mighty Destroyer character, stuck against a villain whose primary tactics are to pay off civilians to do his dirty work and keeping Pentagon officials on his payroll to stay protected. But what we do get of Ward and Grey is good stuff anyway, a fun teaming of two guys, one of which knows just barely enough to get the job done while the other is a master of his art beyond compare, one who is quoted as saying that professional assassination is the highest form of public service, a statement that no doubt James Bond, Jason Bourne and many others would find some very deep relevance inâŚ
7/10