“Force: Five” On a New Blu-ray Collector’s Set!

U.S. Government contractor Jim Martin is an expert martial artist, hired as a contracting agent in the field to handle special missions against country threats when they arise.  When Martin is subcontracted by a wealthy man who has ties to U.S. politicians, he’s assigned to rescue the plutocrat’s daughter from the clutches of the World Church, a fronted religious cult promising to its followers a palace of celestial tranquility from an oppressive world but their intentions are to trick the trust funded young adults into signing over their inheritance to support smuggling drugs and guns.  Martin builds a team of hand-to-hand fighting specialist to take down the World Church’s martial arts master Revered Rhee and his large right-hand man, Carl.  Infiltrating with a visiting U.S. Senator, masquerading as his aids, the team also tries to convince the U.S. Senator of the organization’s corruption while searching for their assigned rescue target. 

Joe Lewis, known as the Father of Modern Kickboxing and perhaps one of the leading martial artists out of the U.S. of his time, had his time on the action-packed silverscreen like most popular fighters of his ilk, such as Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee but certainly not as profound in appearance credits.  One of his first films is a martial arts and rescue actioner titled “Force:  Five” that was released just off the heels of the swanky 1970’s where the disco and soul-infused soundtrack and the chopsocky Kung-fu films reigned as one of the supreme sounds and subgenres on the globe’s East and West terrains.  Serial martial arts film director Robert Clouse, famously known for his co-direction on Bruce Lee’s “Game of Death” and notoriously known for his it’s so bad, it’s good “Gymkata,” writes-and-directs the film based on an alternate screenplay from debuting writers Emil Farkas (“Vendetta”) and George Goldsmith (“Children of the Corn”).   “Enter the Dragon” and “Black Belt Jones” producer Fred Weintraub hoped to capitalize on the melding of the aging martial arts and with the rising rescue/POW films that were on the rise and base the idea off of real events, such as People’s Temple and their cult leader Jim Jones that spanned two decades prior to the film’s written foundation and subsequent finished release.  The Italian language disc is pressed with the same sleeve art with the second disc pressed with alternate, dark-toned artwork, also original to the initial film release. 

Having already touched upon the star of the film, one of the best martial arts competitors in the world, having once beat Chuck Norris in an official event, Joe Lewis is surrounded by an entourage of real fighters who dabbled in acting.  Sonny Barnes plays the large muscle Lockjaw, the only black character in the story, and Barnes is trained and became a Sensei in Kenpo Karate, and he wasn’t the only minority listed in the eclectic group with Latino and Native American representation in Spanish-American Benny “The Jet” Urquidez, a skilled black belt Kickboxer with proficiency in a variety of fighting styles.  Lastly, Richard Norton, another major name in martial art features, hails from Australia and implanted his styles of Karate, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and Kickboxing in his work on both sides of the moral fiber with his characters, having played good and bad guys in “The Octagon” opposite Chuck Norris and in “China O’Brien” with Hong Kong superstar Cynthia Rothrock.  Rounding out the “Force:  Five” team is the only female member in Pam Huntington (“They Call Me Bruce”) with no fighting background and another nonfighter in Ron Hayden as the unhinged chopper pilot.  Though Huntington and Hayden’s fight scenes are limited to just a few in contrast to the trained martial artists, even the nontrained eye can tell the actors haven’t spent years learning the craft.  Now, what really nags at the pedantic in those in the audience is the film is titled “Force: Five” but the team listed above consists of six members so there’s ambiguity in if that was an elementary math error on the story’s part or the “Force:  Five” is just the team minus Joe Lewis, that’s not entirely clear, but what is clear is the antagonists with Korean grand master Bong Soo Han (“Kill the Golden Goose”), master of Hapkido, as the duplicitous Reverend Rhee and the very large and blank faced Bob Schott (“Gymkata,” Russ Meyer’s “Up”) taking trust babies fortune to back their drug and gun smuggling operation through an alternative church façade and scheme.  Reverend Rhee is a character that embodies the very essence of a stereotypical chop-socky or evil organization boss with bad lip sync and a flair for the ostentatious death, “Force:  Five’s” being a killer bull goring those in its labyrinth path, a deadly trap that’s a man-eating shark tank-type, James Bond-like thing to have in his possession. 

By today’s standard, “Force:  Five” is extremely formulaic but for 1981 and with the rise of the action rescuer, mostly inspired by the rescuing of POWs in either during or post-Vietnam War, the film’s a treasure trove of classic conventions of the subgenre that’s inundated with different kick and punch techniques and styles that strayed away from the Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan type of kung-fu that’s more an ostentatious showcase of ability rather than practicing in the practical realm but still pays homage to the craft masters.  Yet, these films resembled an espionage structure with an incognito infiltration, extraction, and scheming villainy pool rounded out exactly how we think movies play out in our head, with a swanky soundtrack that integrated the heart of Carl Douglas’s everybody was Kung-Fu Fighting into a clandestine operation conducted by U.S. operation contract agreement with confident, slightly cocky, Jim Martin.  However, “Force:  Five,” unlike other ensemble entrenched soldiers on a mission, came out too clean for comfort with an unscathed extraction and not one team member lost.  There isn’t even any nearly escape death by the edge of a fingernail.  Joe Lewis takes a couple of kicks to the face by Reverend Rhee and a handful of peripheral characters on the side good did take mortal damage at the hands of the bull and the wishbone split of one main contractor at the hands of Carl’s impatience, but none of the actual operators took one for the team and that usually puts a sour taste in the mouth by begging the question, was the mission really that impossible?  It appeared all too easy from the comforts of the couch to see an unarmed team of martial artists stroll into heavily armed compound (recall – they’re selling drugs and guns) and make it out alive without as much of a minuscule ballistic scratch. 

Coming in at number 70 on the catalogue of the Rewind Collections, MVD’s throwback sublabel, “Force:  Five” kicks itself back onto Blu-ray having been out of a print for nearly a decade on Hi-Def.  A slight better presentation with it’s return to the original widescreen aspect ratio of 1.851, the 2K scan evolves the detail levels to an only slightly higher degree when enlarging the pixels without sacrificing quality, producing a cleaner image perhaps from an advanced scanner.  There’s a balanced color diffusion with warmer palette that focuses mostly on greens and browns and there’s no sacrifice of grain but there’s still some dust/dirt speckling and the occasional vertical scratch but nothing too egregious to note viewing disruption.  The original 35mm print has been nicely preserved and now stored on an AVC encoded BD25.  The audio is generally the same as the previous Blu-ray release with an uncompressed English LPCM 2.0 mono that brings the double impact of all audio layers through the dual channel network, relishing in its small triumphs with small, enclosed explosions.  Dialogue has adequate carry over but there are hissing discharge and underlining crackle, but the overall general discourse is coherent in its post-production recording that leaves Master Bong Soo Han unfortunately reminding us of the higher pitched villainous voice of Betty from “Kung Pow:  Enter the Fist.”  Soundtrack doesn’t instill motivation or embark on danger with its standard stock coursing.  Foley hits and kicks are where “Force:  Five” makes its bread and butter with plenty of vehemently overlaid whomps and whacks.  Special features include a number of archival interviews, or more so toward fighting instructions, from a pair of actors, beginning with Joe Lewis in a sit down that really feels tense when he discusses his martial arts training and contests that lead into the movies and ending with Benny “The Jet” Urquidez offering fighting lesson tidbits in a pair of archived video instructions, such as wrapping your knuckles properly to avoid injury.  The original theatrical trailer rounds out the encoded extras.  The Rewind Collection’s physical treatment is unrivaled with a retro O-ring slipcover that doubles as a faux top secret objective folder on the backside and a VHS rental semblance on the front with previously viewed for sale stickers and mock wear of sun bleach and box creases.  The clear Amaray case inside houses a reversible slipcover with a cleaner, saturated image of the slipcover that has the same layout design on the reverse but with a variant character composition design encircled by a black border.  Inserted inside a mini-folded poster of the primary Blu-ray art.  The disc is also pressed with VHS nodule imagery that further it’s retro appeal into videotape.  The region A release has a runtime of 95 minutes and is rated R. 

Last Rites: “Force: Five” is about as skilled as any Chuck Norris or Jean Claude Van Damme film, and just as hokey as well, with an ensemble of experts of the kick and punch craft that go into a cocky show of bulldozing armed and dangerous smugglers with nothing more than their feet, fists, and wits.

“Force: Five” On a New Blu-ray Collector’s Set!