The Challenge

CBS Theatrical. Director John Frankenheimer; Producer Lyle Poncher, Robert L. Posen, Ron Beckman; Screenplay Richard Maxwell, John Sayles; Camera Kozo Okazaki; Editor Jack Wheeler; Music Jerry Goldsmith;; Art Director Yoshiyuki Ishida

A correction was made to the cast on April 11, 2005.
Scott Glenn
Toshiro Mifune
Donna Kei Benz
Atsuo Nakamura
Calvin Jung
Clyde Kusatsu

Heads seen being split or cut off in swift but bloody closeups, along with a lot of aesthetic juxtaposition of ancient Japanese manners and architecture versus modern ditto, are the main attractions of John Frankenheimer's The Challenge.

Pitted against each other are two brothers (Toshiro Mifune and Atsuo Nakamura) and two swords of the kind that certain Japanese even today believe to have a soul of their own. The good one wants both weapons back at his own home shrine where the true martial arts are trained daily by a minor Kimono-clad army, while the industrialist's army uses guns and breaks all the rules of gamesmanship.

Into all this is lured a young American boxing bum known only as Rick (Scott Glenn). Later, he is solidly serving on the side of old-fashioneds where he finds his various true loves and a new dignity. When the action gets going, aesthetics are thrown to the side and just as well.

Mifune carries himself with eye-twinkling dignity as the good brother. Glenn, with the long donkey face and occasional grin to match, may well prove to be just the star material Frankenheimer thinks he is.

(Color) Available on VHS. Extract of a review from 1982. Running time: 112 MIN.

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