I have to respectfully disagree with those who think Bruce Lee would have made a better Kwai Chang Caine than David Carradine's interpretation of the character. Having seen several Bruce Lee films, I found his acting ability very limited and one-dimensional, despite his skill at martial arts. The TV series was about far more than the practice of kung fu. Carradaine made the half-American, half-Chinese monk understandable to the American audience for which the series was intended. Furthermore, he was a very, very skillful actor, and really understood the role he was playing. He said himself in various interviews and in his autobiography that he thought he was born to play the part, and I concur. Some things are just meant to be. It was the greatest success of his life, even more than his portrayal of Woody Guthrie. Carradine's personal complexity came through, which leant depth to his struggle to remain true to his Daoist ideals. Furthermore, he began a lifelong study of kung fu during the making of the series, and the martial arts scenes were carefully choreographed. One of the most remarkable scenes was the confrontation between Kwai Chang Caine and the Confucian tong leader-- it was a masterpiece of the essential difference between Confucianism and Daoism, which are diametrically opposed to each other philosophically. In the same program, "Tong," the script writers cleverly brought in the essential Christian message (since that installment was about a Chinese slave boy who ran to a Christian missionary for safety) and the blood sacrifice that had to be paid for the boy's ransom from slavery. This is the essence of the Christian message, as well as being true to the Daoist ideal of living for others. The real nature of Confucianism could not have been more tersely and starkly presented. That one installment was a masterpiece of screen writing. Another very sensitive and beautiful installment of the series was the "Spirit Helper" story of the Native America youth who mistook (?) Caine for his Spirit Helper. Was Caine the Spirit Helper who had been sent? The question remains a mystery-- the viewer is left to decide for himself. "Cenotaph" is both amusing and yet Daoist, as the stone image that, says Caine, "may be the Mother of the Ten Thousand Things"-- straight from the Dao De Jing, and absolutely true to Daoist belief. Sorry, but Carradine was the best choice for the part, a triumph by the studio which overcame its reservations about the person and went for the obvious talent and subtlety that Carradine brought to the role. Carradine himself said that by the third and last season, the character he was playing was himself, which of course is the best possible acting there is. Carradine was Caine and Caine was Carradine. He then left the series, which was masterful on his part, because it's always better to leave when you're winning than to have the series fizzle out with hackneyed plots of decreasing interest. His two spectacular performances, one as the Daoist monk and one as Woody Guthrie, speak for themselves. He was a marvelously gifted, though troubled man, and like many great artists, his own complexity was what helped greatly in making these two roles so successful.
Reviews
2 Reviews
Kung Fu
(1972–1975)
Best ever "eastern western"
7 October 2018
Despite being panned by people who were mainly ignorant, the important cultural/historical aspects and moral clarity of the TV series "Kung Fu" make it as excellent today as it was in the late 70s when it was a smash hit. First, the movie accurate presents Daoist philosophy with its overlay of Buddhism in a way that westerners (to wit, Americans) could grasp. Secondly, the plots were interesting and historically accurate. Thirdly, David Carradine has to be one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood history. He proved himself not only in "Kung Fu" but also in "Bound for Glory," playing American songwriter and social activist Woody Guthrie. I could never understand why he has not been more appreciated for his art and abilities. Forget the personal life-- some of Hollywood's greatest actors have been as much or more on the edge as David Carradine. Maybe it takes that kind of mind to be sensitive to the characters that the artist has to portray on screen. But over and above all, in "Kung Fu," Carradine successfully and beautifully plays an exiled Shaolin monk in America, where the Chinese and other ethnic minorities were hated and exploited. The moral clarity of the program is evident from the beginning; there is a high ideal to which the monastic order strives in China, and the character Kwai Chang Caine (who is half-American in the story) remains faithful to Daoist teaching throughout some extreme provocation. By the way, the Dao De Jing is the second best-selling book in the world, exceeded only by the Bible. It is therefore one of the world's greatest pieces of wisdom literature, and it's too bad that the people who made fun of this excellent TV series were too ignorant to understand what they were seeing. The focus was mainly on the fact that for the first time, martial arts suddenly became something more than an arcane skill known only to a few, and rapidly achieved the status of a national craze, just as women's gymnastics did after Nadia Comanice's Olympic performance. Now even small towns in America have martial arts studios and most people are aware that there are many different types of this difficult and demanding discipline, kung fu being one of many far eastern versions of self defense. However, the moral lessons of each program are as true and worthwhile today as they were 2000 years ago, and it is a shame that this aspect of the series is so universally overlooked.
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