Film Review: The Protector (1985)

Before finally hitting pay dirt in 1998 with Rush Hour, Jackie Chan made several failed attempts to break America. Not counting his small roles in the Cannonball Run films, there was The Big Brawl in 1980 (also known as Battle Creek Brawl), Rumble in the Bronx in 1995 (although that was a Hong Kong production), and Mr. Nice Guy in 1997.

The most curious of all of these early American Chan films was 1985' The Protector. Starring Chan, who is well known for not liking excessive violence, language or nudity in his films, it was written and directed by James Glickenhaus, best known for violent cult hits The Exterminator, Shakedown and McBain.

The plot is what you would expect from your average cop movie. Chan plays Billy Wong, who after his partner is gunned down in the films opening scenes, is partnered with Danny Garoni (Danny Aiello), who after witnessing a wealthy man's daughter being kidnapped at a fashion show, travel to Hong Kong to find those responsible and stop their drug trafficking ring.

What's so bizarre about the film is the sight of Jackie Chan in such a violent film. Of course, it's not like his fighting style isn't violent, but seeing him shooting someone and squibs exploding everywhere, and hearing him actually drop an F-bomb is really odd.

The film itself is OK. It's nothing original at all, but the presence of Chan takes it a step above your typical 80's action fare, although there's not really an abundance of fight scenes that'd you would come to expect.

In the end, Chan wasn't too pleased with all the swearing, excessive violence and nudity on display, and re-edited the film for Hong Kong consumption, adding in more fighting, a new sub-plot, and removing all the naughty bits. But like it did in the States, the film tanked anyway. Disappointed with the failure of the project, Chan decided to make his own cop film. That film was called Police Story...

***

An interesting curio for fans of Chan and Glickenhaus alike, but it's pretty run of the mill 80's action, albeit bolstered by Jackie Chan starring.