All language subtitles for Der Protector (1985) Special Hard Edge Ein Interview mit Regisseur und Autor James Glickenhaus.eng.full

The motorbike was staged
and done and figured out by U.

S. stuntmen, not
by Jackie's guys.

I think if Jackie's guys
had done it, it would have

been a disaster and someone
would have been killed.

Golden Harvest, you know, I talked
to them for a while about it and I said,

look, I really like Bruce Lee and his
movies, but so far what I've seen from Jackie

has been a lot more comedic and a
lot less serious martial arts and action.

And they said, no, he
wants to become more

American, more like
the kind of films you do.

We really like the Exterminator.
We want that kind of edge to it.

And they said...

They said they were willing to
finance the film and that I could write it.

And they wanted initially
to film it all in Hong Kong.

You know, I think that
from their point of view,

they were humoring
Jackie a little bit and saying,

oh, yeah, we'll make
you a big American star.

But he was a cash cow for them in
their local films they were making.

And I think they didn't
want to really spend the

effort or the time to
shoot in the United States

and they were sort of humoring him.

Oh, yeah, we'll put you up with an
American director who's been successful.

But they were much more interested
in his Chinese martial arts films.

I pointed that out to them and they agreed.

They said, OK, you can have some
of it take place in the United States

and here's the budget
we're willing to spend

and give us an outline
of what you want to do.

So I outlined The Protector.

And I included a big action set
piece in New York that started it off.

And I also said, look, Jackie, if
he's going to make it in America,

he's going to have to work
with real American actors.

You know, people like
Danny Aiello isn't just

someone who shows
up and reads the script.

I mean, Danny gets into the character.

He needs an actor who he can
relate to and can ad lib a little bit.

One of the problems was they represented.

They represented that
Jackie could speak English.

He really couldn't.

He could parrot English.

And he was studying
and trying to learn English.

But they also had him doing
everything 24 hours a day.

You know, they had him trying to
make him a singing star in Japan.

They had his Chinese movies,
which were very lucrative.

And they sort of, once again, I think,
were humoring Jackie and saying,

yeah, you know, you'll learn
English and we'll get you.

Someone to work with.

And Jackie said, I'm going to make
the commitment to learning English.

I think Jackie understood English.

When I spoke to him, he
understood what I was saying.

But he could not free think in English
and he could not ad lib or whatnot.

So his acting was really learning the
lines by road and parroting them back.

I'm going to hit the can.

Another round for my two friends.

Got it.

I met Jackie, as I remember
it, in Cannes shortly thereafter.

We made a deal to make The Protector.

He was very friendly, very personable.

He obviously had a lot of
talent as a comedian and

as a comedic actor with
his facial expressions.

And I had seen some of his films
and I thought they were interesting.

But personally, I really prefer to.

A little harder edge action.

He said, look, I saw the success
you had with The Exterminator.

And interestingly enough,
The Exterminator opened

the same week that his
film, The Big Brawl, opened.

And we did a lot better
than The Big Brawl did.

And he said he wanted
to be number one and he

understood that I might
know how to do that.

And he didn't in the U.S.

And however, that's what he
told me, what he really thought.

And after the film.

Was over and in subsequent
years, you know, he said

a lot of stuff that I never
understood who he was.

And he never wanted to be
Bruce Lee or Clint Eastwood.

But.

Whether or not that was
true, he never said it to me.

So and he never complained about the
direction of the script or anything like that.

Oh, man, you shouldn't have done that.

My conversations with Golden Harvest
was they hope Jackie could be a U.S. star.

But I never got the feeling
they cared if he was a U.S. star.

I almost got the feeling that they would
have been just as happy if he wasn't a U.S.

star and just kept on in China making these
churning out these money making films.

You know, in Cannonball
Run, it was a cameo role.

I mean, he he wasn't
a central actor in that.

And I think that they
threw this to him as a bone.

And I think he said, hey, I'm an actor.

I have talent.

I want to go on.

I want to go on to America.

But if you look at his career
in American films, frankly, I

don't know of one that was
successful just on its own with him.

You know, he was he was a successful actor.

He was a successful
sidekick to other people.

And he did find a little
bit of a wider audience

eventually, but he wasn't an
he wasn't an American star.

And unless he learned English, could work with
actors and understood what, frankly, American

audiences in the world audiences wanted, I
think his success would be always in a box.

I don't think he would
have broken out from that.

Very difficult.

I do think Jackie tried very hard.

I think he wanted to do a good job.

You know, I think he respected
Danny Aiello, who is a great actor.

And while he's certain, while Danny never became a
single movie star, like, let's say, Clint Eastwood

or a lead, he certainly did a lot of amazing
performances and was considered an actor, a real actor.

And I think Jackie wanted
to work with that, try

to make that happen,
but he was very distracted.

I mean, there was a section
that we shot where we had to

shoot at night for scenes that
were allegedly during the day.

I've never done this before.

This is like shooting night
for day, not day for night.

And the reason that was
is, is because he had to go.

He had to go to Japan and do
singing concerts and things like that.

I mean, it was just stupid.

They were using him just to
wring money out of him, frankly.

Now, he was obviously a part of that.

This is what he thought.

He thought he would be a singing
star and a movie star and everything.

But, you know, I don't
want to make it sound like

on the set that we had
arguments or problems.

We really didn't.

He was extremely friendly.

And I think it was only afterwards.

When people saw The Protector
and realized that his performance

in it was, frankly, just another
Jackie Chan performance.

It wasn't anything different.

And I think he became
defensive about that and,

you know, threw some
shade on the film and on me.

But I never cared or took it seriously.

We're turning south at the Brooklyn
Bridge, heading down the river.

Golden Harvest.

No restrictions on me.

They accepted that I would write
a big action set piece for New York.

They accepted that I would make it more
hard-edged than a normal Jackie Chan film.

And they had some comments on it.

And they asked that I
come to Hong Kong to rewrite

certain sections of it
based around real locations,

which was the way I like to make films.

I like to go to different locations.

And they encouraged me.

They inspired the writing.

I like the fantastic scene in the Aberdeen
Harbor with the Hacklow boat people.

But there was never any
massive back and forth with Jackie.

They had a producer who worked
for Golden Harvest, David Chan.

No relation to Jackie.

Very nice guy who worked
with me on the script.

And there was back and forth.

But there were no real arguments about it.

They asked me if I would
make it more comedic.

And I sort of...

Said I really wasn't interested in that.

But they didn't push back on it.

I remember it being a very
smooth and enjoyable process.

I like Golden Harvest.

I like working with them.

They were very fair.

They lived up to all their obligations.

They promoted the film a lot.

They were very kind to me.

When the film was done,
I mean, Raymond Chow

actually sent me a large financial bonus,
something I never expected or asked for.

So he must have...

I think that was
sort of saying, look,

I know you put up with a lot of stuff.

And here you go.

Yeah, Raymond was an amazing talent.

He pulled himself up
from being a runner to

a messenger to having
an empire over there.

I think Raymond loved film.

I mean, Raymond and I talked about
a lot of different films and movies.

And he was...

He'd become very educated
and was a very smart guy.

But I think he looked at...

You know, a little unfairly,

the American producer who was
involved in the film, Boyce Harmon,

who had been involved with some of my other
films, who has subsequently passed away,

you know, kind of made
remarks along the lines

that Jackie was just a trained
circus performer for them

and they didn't care as
long as he brought in money.

I think Raymond liked Jackie.

I don't think that that
was... That's completely true.

But he didn't protect him in this way.

He didn't say to Jackie, look, if you
want to become a real American star

who can be a lead in a
film and stand on your own,

you really should put aside
this Japanese concert singer stuff

for the time being.

Learn English and learn how
to work with actors like Danny.

I mean, he was a great actor.

He was a great actor.

He was a great actor.

He was a great actor.

He was a great actor.

He was a great actor.

He was a great actor.

He was a great actor.

He was a great actor.

He was a great actor.

He was a great actor.

He was a great actor.

He was a great actor.

He was a great actor.

He was a great actor.

But Raymond never said that.

He just wrote the checks and moved on.

Yes, it was a factory.

And I think that's an
important thing to say.

They had a factory.

They had a whole back lot.

They wanted to keep it churning.

I mean, I remember
Jackie's wife at the time,

even though officially he
wasn't married, he was married.

The kid told me that she was an actress

and, you know, working
for Golden Harvest was

she would get in one costume
and stand there and say,

oh, our love is doomed
because you're going off to war.

And then she would do a costume change

and go to the next set and say,

oh, our love is doomed because
it turns out you're my cousin.

And then she would do, you
know, another wardrobe change.

And this was like what making films were.

They were made.

They were made four at a time.

They shot films simultaneously.

And she, when she came to the set,

she said it was really interesting to her

to see only one film being made
at a time in the way we made it.

And, you know, she allowed
that she would like to work with it.

That guy's crazy.

I think it was different times.

You know, there was the MTV, which
was the music and television division

and video division of the police force.

And basically, if you could tell them

how you would do things safely,
they would enable you to do it.

I think they still perhaps
will let you do big stunts

in New York City, but I
think it's getting harder.

One is, I think the city's more crowded.

It's just, there are more
tourists on the sidewalk.

Manhattan makes so much money from
this constant flow of tourists in and out.

That they're much, perhaps less interested
in getting revenue from filmmaking.

I mean, when we made films in the
city, we brought a lot of money to the city

and they cared about it.

I think they care about it less.

I think they also feel
that, oh, you can use CGI

and, you know, you don't need
to shut Times Square down.

First of all, there were
some very good crews there

that had worked with Golden Harvest.

We brought a lot of Americans
who worked well with them.

There were a few incidents.

There was an incident
with the art department

where the art director really had trouble

getting the sets that he
saw and Wanda designed.

And to be honest with you, we sent
him home and we found a solution for that.

But that was really
the only hiccup in that.

And they really would let us do anything.

You know, the chase in
Aberdeen Harbor, the scenes out.

In the shipping container port
on the crane and stuff like that.

But yeah, they were
very open to filmmaking.

But, you know, what was
strange is I don't think that

people had quite shot
American-type films in Hong Kong.

And even if you look
at the Bruce Lee films,

they were really period
martial arts films, you know.

They weren't big action set pieces.

And there were some
logistic issues in that.

I don't think you could have
done a huge car chase there.

It would have been a nightmare

because the traffic was so
crowded and to control that.

But I never found a
location I wanted to use

that they weren't
able to wrangle for me.

His guys were very talented.

There was good choreography.

You know, I think when we
had the climatic battle at the end,

I was less interested in it.

I was less interested in Jackie's
opinion as to how that should be.

And I wanted to make it
more hard-edged and brutal.

You know, he eventually
looked at that and said,

you know, I mean, I don't know cool
stuff or flips or backflip or whatever.

And Raymond came to me and said, look,
Jackie would really like to have you come

and redo that and put more
stuff in for the Asian market.

I said, that's not going to
play in the rest of the world.

He said, no, no, no, I know that.

But would you come and redo that?

And I said, Raymond,
I really have no interest

in coming back, but I
will let you have Jackie.

I said, let Jackie direct the
scene the way he, you know,

adds some of that stuff
for the Asian market.

But you can't show it anywhere
except, I think it was Hong Kong

and Japan or something.

And I said, if you do, you've
got to take my name off the film.

And he said, no, no, no,
no, we don't want to do that.

Please, please.

I saw it.

They had it.

They had to send it to
me by contract, and I did.

I thought it was silly and
laughable, to be honest with you.

It was just a redoing of the last fight.

It was stupid.

I mean, he was doing flips and dips
and, you know, it was a comedic whatever.

Fearless implies that you're doing stunts
where someone's in danger of getting hurt.

I think in Chinese films,
they did that every day.

I never did anything like that.

I never staged a stunt where I thought
there was any chance of anyone getting hurt.

I mean, people did get hurt because
things went wrong or things were misjudged.

But I never set out to
do a stunt where I thought

there was any chance
of anybody being hurt.

I mean, it's a movie.

It's not real life.

You know, Jackie would decide
how far someone could jump

by he would line up one
guy and the guy would jump

and he would not make it
from one boat to another.

And then he'd move him an inch
closer and he'd try another guy.

And finally, once one
of the guys broke his arm

because he almost reached
the boat he reached out for it.

He didn't get a good
grasp when it broke his arm.

And I said, Jackie, no more.

I said, I want you to stage stuff
that's not going to hurt people.

And he was almost like proud of, oh, it's a
badge of honor when someone gets hurt.

And I said, you know, not
for me and not on my film.

So I stopped that.

I think after the fact,
I'm going to stop that.

In fact, you know, Jackie
was kind of looking for reasons

that the film did not turn
him into a big American star.

And he, you know, he made stupid remarks
like, I didn't understand who he was.

I tried to change him.

I didn't understand, you know, my film
was too hard edged, the nudity and whatnot.

I mean, that was all based on reality.

I mean, Nicky Barnes and those drug guys
used to make people both men and women.

And by the way, there were
naked men and women in the film

who worked in their drug labs, worked
naked, so they couldn't steal drugs.

And that's just what they did.

They were strip searched both in and out.

They were paid a lot of money.

And, you know, in real life,
they were given no protection.

They weren't given masks
or HEPA filters or anything.

In the film, I put that in.

And it wasn't like we
were using real drugs.

We were using talcum powder.

I tried to make it realistic.

I mean, I thought that my
audiences expected realism from me,

certainly in The
Exterminator and The Soldier.

And I also had, you know, I wanted
to make sure that audiences saw

that there was nothing
really great about violence.

I mean, violence was very ugly and violent.

I mean, I think if you watch
some of the great gory movies,

I'm not talking about Gore Fest.

I'm talking about, like, Taxi Driver.

I'm talking about The Deer Hunter.

The gore in those films
made you come to grips

with the emotional state of
the actors and of the story.

They had a real reason to be.

I think The Godfather did, too.

But, and I tried to stay true to that.

But it was a hard, nasty edge.

But it wasn't to be nasty
for the sake of being nasty.

The guy at Warner's who picked up the,

"Protector and Khan," Jack
Freedman, understood the film.

But I think that it was a time
of change at Warner Brothers.

And I think that they had had a big success

with the first Raymond
Chow cannonball films.

I think they did actually have a
gigantic failure with Megaforce.

Yeah.
I mean, that was a monumental disaster.

It was an awful freaking film.

And I think that that made, I think
Warner Brothers took Megaforce

based on the, you know, the
success of Cannonball Run.

After the mega bomb, I think
that Warner's wasn't all that,

I mean, Warner's didn't
even go national with the film.

And they didn't spend a lot of money.

They just opened it in New York
City and saw what would happen.

And the film did okay, not great.

And they walked away from
it and sent it straight to video.

And everybody made money.

I mean, you know, the thing from
Raymond is he put up three and a half,

he got five and a half up front,
and then he got video and whatnot.

And the film made money.

I'm quite honestly shocked that people
still watch my films after 30 or 40 years.

I mean, it's a long time.

There are a lot of films made
40 years ago or 30 years ago.

That people don't talk about, that
aren't on video, that aren't on TV,

that people don't, I mean, I get emails
all the time from people asking questions.

I mean, there are fan groups,
there are Facebook groups.

I mean, I think some of these
films will stand the test of time.

I don't know about The
Protector, but I think The

Exterminator is going to be
shown for many, many years.

I mean, I think that film for
several reasons really worked.

If my passion and hobby of cars
hadn't quite grown into a business,

which it now looks like it is, and, you
know, we're designing, building, racing,

and engineering our own
cars and actually selling cars.

I mean, next year we're going to build
50 cars and sell them of our own design.

And the year after that, maybe 100 or 200.

So it's turning into a real business.

The good news is my son,
Jesse, is working with me full time.

I think he's doing a great job.

So had that not grown quite
as quickly and successfully

as it seems to be, I definitely
would make another film.

I still think someday I may.

But if I do make another
film, I'd like to make

a film like people used
to make in the 60s.

So, yeah, I think that someday I
very well may make another film.

I think I would do it on a
very reasonable budget.

I think that's what I'm going to do.

I think that's what I'm going to do.

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