A Blacksmith (Rza) is working in a violent Chinese town in 19^th century China and he is saving up enough money to quit making weapons for rival clans and run off with his girlfriend, Lady Silk, who is a prostitute at the local brothel.   The plans start to be in danger when Golden Lion of the Lion clan is murdered by his lieutenants, Silver Lion and Bronze Lion.   They want to take over the town and steal gold that is going to be traveling through as a way to pay for a truce between the north and the Chinese Emperor.   Also coming to town is Jack Knife (Rusell Crowe), a man who says he is on vacation and he takes up at the brothel.

 

THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS is a homage to the 1970s Chinese Kung Fu movies/ the Shaw Brothers movies being produced at the time down to the open and end credits.   However, it is also influenced by Quentin Taratino’s KILL BILL movies and it has a blacksmith (who is a former black slave) in addition to Russell Crowe having the time of his life in a role he filmed in ten days.  It is an enjoyable action film with some incredibly directed martial arts sequences with the performance of Rza as the blacksmith being the only character being overshadowed by the other characters. It is a love letter to those old Kung Fu/ Shaw Brother movies that just happens to have Russell Crowe in it.  It is a fun cocktail of martial arts action that will probably do very well on Blu-ray and DVD.  The extended cut doesn't really add anything, but it doesn't hurt the pace of the movie either.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

24 minutes of deleted scenes were cut for pacing reasons which include scenes that add much clarity on why everything is going on where it gives a whole back story to what lead up to the opening credits and the events of the film and a longer introduction for Jack Knife

 

The short featurettes are promotional fluff which include A PATH TO THE EAST, A LOOK INSIDE THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS, and ON SET WITH RZA.  The featurette only dent the surface in what went into making this film and you only come away why Rza made it and why he had to shoot in China.

 

Also included in the combo pack is a DVD version of the film and a code to download a digital copy of the film.

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:  THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS is still an enjoyable martial arts cocktail which is also a homage to the old 1970s martial arts films, but I wish the discs had more in-depth making-of extras.

 

This review is (c)2-15-2013 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com