Marked For Death, 1990
Welcome back to a proper martial arts edition of Kung Fu February on Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers! Dion & Blake are back and taking on a cult classic, featuring the man, the myth, the legend, Steven Seagal, in his 1990 iconic film, Marked For Death!
The boys unpack the 3rd film in Steven Seagal‘s catalog, discussing his backstory and more importantly, they discuss the martial art he practices, Aikido and it’s history, and Dion‘s connection to it. They then take the way-back machine way down the alley to 1990, and analyse the movie/marital arts scene at the time, and how bad-ass Seagal was. They lay out the argument of why we need a director’s cut of this film, on this all new proper Aikido installment of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!
EXTRAS!
Here, here and here is Dion back in 2010 when he met Seagal.
Check out the founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba aka O-Sensei, doing unbelievable looking things, using his martial art.
And here’s some more footage of him in Japan, in the late 80s.
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Dion and Blake jump right in as they remember their first memories of The Karate Kid and how they were originally introduced to the film. Sharing a similar story and a lot of the same themes as another sports classic of director John G. Avildsen‘s, the 1976 movie Rocky, the fellas explore the similitude between both movies. They discuss how amazing the entire cast of this film really was, as well as touch of their own recent interview with actor Martin Kove, who portrays the Cobra Kai dojo sensei John Kreese. They again utilize the novelization to explain some of the story elements that didn’t make the final cut (like Daniel‘s mom was actually sacked and was in fact working as a hostess at that Chinese restaurant they were having lunch at- whaaat?!). Blake and Dion also try and set the table of the era this film was released within, a time when a term like ‘karate‘ became almost as Americanized as ‘pizza‘ was within the cultural lexicon of the 1980s. They also analyze this story and examine why this movie is considered a classic in the annals of sports, beach/summer, and coming-of-age films. And they dissect the disgusting phenomenon of bullying in this film, and the ugly part it sadly plays in so many people’s life’s, both young and old. So how was everyone trained in preparation for this project, and how did that help contribute to each actor’s individual or group performance(s)? Was Chuck Norris really offered the role of Cobra Kai Sensei Kreese? And speaking of Kreese, how great is actor Martin Kove in his role, compared to the relatively short amount of screen time he ultimately has? Well you better do some arm and leg stretches, clean and bleach those Gi’s, and watch out for those notorious Cobra Kai leg-swipes, because here comes another all new exciting edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!
