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Oh, movie origin, yeah. :\"> Once addicted to the books, I will hold YOU responsible, timmer!
:)>-
You're practically Sinanju already. You'll be dodging bullets and running on water in no time. Even Remo struggled with giving up hamburgers in the early going. In one famous episode, Remo grabbed a burger behind Chiun's back. Due to his already highly developed Sinanju nervous system, the offending meat, poison to his system, nearly killed him. Chiun had to save his sorry carcass, and naturally never let him live it down. The carping and haranguing went on for pages.
Remo of course recovered and has since gone on to fulfill Sinanju prophecy and his own destiny, of becoming the most formidable Sinanju Master of all time.
Chiun naturally takes all the credit.
These days, only if they come in real slow. ;)
I am astounded that @Perdogg is astounded. Although he's quite happy to blame Vietnam on Democratic presidents -- and to cite a highly dubious statistic (sources, please?) that evidently blames Obama for Afghanistan -- he's eager to let Bushes 42 & 43 off the hook for Iraq. Please try this on for size, @Perdogg: after 9/11, America was eager to go wherever our President led in the fight against the perpetrators of that hideous evil. Bush 43 flat out lied about the existence of WMD in Iraq, and led us into war in Iraq based on those lies. The Republican Party has lost a lot of credibility with the international public over those lies. Please don't perpetuate them.
Now then: has anybody got a point they'd like to make about James Bond, Superman, Batman, or even Remo Williams? I don't really come here to argue politics; there are plenty of other web-sites I could do that on if I cared to...which I don't.
Now you mention it yes - just who the hell is Remo Williams that he's being mixed in with such exalted company?
I've honestly never heard of him but a quick google shows him to be some sort of pulp fiction hero (with the emphasis on pulp - those who claim Flemings work was hardly literature should take a look at this series. 7 books released in 1973 alone!? Equating to a writing time of less than 2 months per book the quality must be astounding) with one failed film and a TV pilot that never went to a series. Hes hardly in the same league as Bond, Batman and Superman is he?
Why are we discussing him at all here? Surely the likes of the Sherlock Holmes, Richard Hannay, The Saint, Spiderman, Indiana Jones and John McClane not to mention hundreds of others are far more worthy of being included before we have to stoop to barrel scraping like this and listing a guy whose ranking should be somewhere between Colt Seavers and Howard the Duck.
Am I missing something here? Is Remo Williams a cultural icon that has somehow passed me by al these years?
Baffling.
Let me educate on Remo Williams. Remo Williams is a pulp fiction superstar. The books sold by the bushel in the '70s and '80s as the Destroyer series. Sales were quite brisk in the '90s as well, and into the 2000's. The series finally petered out in 2008 after 149 issues between 1971 and 2008, after Warren Murphy ,co-creator, couldn't renew his publishing contract to his liking. Sales tapered, only after the original authors had turned things over to ghosts. Some ghosts were better than others.
There was also a whole series of comic books at one point too.
What distinguished the Destroyer from the pulp fiction imitators that would follow, is that the two authors, Warren Murphy and Richard Ben Sapir, were both accomplished fiction authors in their own rights. They were both originally jouralists by trade. Both have numerous mystery and thriller works published as well. The quality of writing was thus top notch. Warren Murphy also wrote the Eiger Sanction for Clint Eastwood.
The two could put out titles pretty fast in the early days, because the two of them were working non-stop to keep up with the demand, and the books were a modest length. I could read them in a day and a half, although I didn't latch on to the series until after I had seen the movie, which was coincident with book #62 The Seventh Stone. That book was so enjoyable, I headed down to the big book store, which had a full Destroyer section, and managed to buy up the entire series. The manager ordered the few titles that were missing from his stock. I then went on a major catch-up readathon, which stretched out for many months. I couldn't put the things down.
The Destroyer specialized in over-the-top, actually humourous violence, courtesy of the two Masters of Sinanju, Remo Williams and his aged Korean mentor Chiun. But what distinguised the series was its irreverent humour, scathing satire and topical social commentary, including lampooning of public figures, plus a dash of the supernatural as encompassed in Sinanju lore. Remo for example, is the avatar of the Hindu Destroyer God Shiva, who occasionally takes possession of Remo, when Remo gets in a tight spot. Remo has no memory of these rare occurrences though. It's quite scary when Shiva manifests. It terrifies even Chiun.
The 1985 movie was a modest success. It did OK, nothing special. Not enough to warrant a sequel. It was a little light weight, compared to the irreverent edge of the books.
Of interest to Bond fans, the film was directed by Guy Hamilton and scripted by Christopher Wood.
The authors freely acknowledge, that Bond was one of their influences, ie the escapist spyfy nature of Bond. The Masters of Sinanju, under contract to a top-secret US government organization, CURE, fight supervillains and all sorts of zany foes, planning outlandish crimes against humanity. Eg Dr. Quake. The books also feature girls galore. Remo is a chick magnet, moreso than Bond, although unlike Bond, he wearies of all the attention. Women cannot resist his Sinanju pheromones. They sense his abilities. He has a particularly hard time with airline stewardesses.
Sinanju is an ancient House of Korean assassins going back millenia. Sinanju is the sun source of all martial arts. The other arts are merely rays. At any given time, there is only one reigning Master of Sinanju in the world, and when he finds a worthy heir, his apprentice too.
Throughout history, the House has contracted it's assassination service to kings and other world leaders. Sinanju can discreetly eliminate all enemies and guarantee protection.
American Remo Williams is the first non-Korean Master. He was railroaded into service by CURE which had contracted the reigning Master Chiun, to train an enforcement arm for them. Cure btw was originally formed by JFK to operate secretly as an extra-legal intelligence arm, known only to the sitting President of the day. JFK figured that upholding the constitution could use some help, when the system didn't quite work the way it should. Harold Smith, a veteran intelligence bureaucrat/operative was hired by JFK to be the Director of Cure. Smith was able to hack into any and all databases with the help of the supercomputers that he maintained. Master Chiun was hired when it was agreed that Cure could use an enforcement arm, thus expanding the payroll to 2 persons, Smith and Remo.
As Presidents have retired, Chiun has applied a Sinanju memory wipe, so that they leave with no memory of Cure's top secret existence.
It should also be noted that Cure maintains poltical independance from the President of the day. It operates autonomously in the interests of the country. The President can only make suggestions. The only order the President can give, is for Smith to disband the operation, at which point Smith would dutifully destroy any and all records and take his suicide pill. No President has ever seen the need to issue that order though, as Smith lacks any imagination or ambition beyond upholding the Constitution, thus he is incorruptible, which is why JFK handpicked him for the gig.
I think the authors, being products of the '60s were JFK fans.
Chiun being mercenary, originally figured he would take the U.S. cash, actually gold, as Sinanju is historically paid in gold only. The Masters store the accumlated horde at Village Sinanju on the Korean peninsula. No-one would dare steal it, for that would invite the wrath of the Master.
Chiun originally figured he would show Remo a few tricks and move on. However, in short order, Chiun to his great surprise, recognized huge potential in Remo, and saw that Remo was indeed a worthy heir, despite his whiteness. Chiun later realized that Remo was actually the fulfillment of an ancient Sinanju prophecy; that Remo was indeed the "Dead Night Tiger made whole by the Master of Sinanju," the Master destined to be the most formidable Master of them all, thus he finessed with Smith to stay on full-time as Remo's trainer.
Remo of course was railroaded by Smith to be the Cure enforcer. Remo fit the profile that Smith was looking for, an orphan, combat veteran and patriot. Good raw material that could be molded. Remo was working as a beat cop, when Smith framed him for murder, faked his death on the electric chair, and forced him to work for Cure, under a new identity.
Remo naturally was hostile to both Smith and Chiun in the early days, but eventually came around when the Sinanju training radically changed him for the better.
Plus he was a patriot, so he bought into the ideals of Cure. Remo of course ultimately became Sinanju, and in the later books, to much fanfare, did ascend to Reigning Master with Chiun continuing as Master Emeritus.
Masters of Sinanju btw are virtually indestructible. Through perfected breathing, very strict diet and Sinanju training, they utilize close to 100 percent of the human body's physical and mental capabilities, and put this training to work as Master assassins. Remo and Chiun for example can dodge bullets, run as fast as a train, scale walls, punch a hole in a tank, all via superior Sinanju discipline, which is inaccessbile to others.
Chiun considers assassination, to be the most noble of human disciplines. Far more civilized than war and other such barbarities.
The authors have also taken pains to develop the father/son relatonship between Remo and Chiun, so there is a human touch to the proceedings, blended with all the mayhem.
If one wishes to embark on a Sinanju journey, one could start with any book from #3 to #70. The ghosts kicked in early '90s with book #71. Don't start with the first two books. They are more prequels. Visit them later. The authors didn't get the Chiun/Remo relationship, which is core to the narrative, figured out until book 3, Chinese Puzzle.
I would also recommend starting with book #59 The Arms of Kali. This introduced a new phase where the publishing schedule was stretched and the books became a little longer and meatier. #59 to #70 is my favourite stretch. The first 40 or so though are the craziest, when the authors were milking the formula with boundless creative energy and passion.
The dialogue is outstanding. Remo is a major smartass - very funny. Chiun is a riot with his condemnation of barbarian western culture and his constant carping at Remo. The one author Sapir is Jewish. He handled most of the Chiun stuff. He says he modeled Chiuns constant carping and berating of Remo, on the Jewish mother stereotype, but in a funny friendly way. ie Remo can never live up to Chiun's expectations. Chiun though is fully aware that Remo is a prodigy, but he doesn't want it to go to his head. Remo can be quite brash. Chiun is both harsh and wise mentor.
Smith's utter greyness and lack of personality ismilked for comedic effect as well.
As an example of the OTT, outlandish violence, Chiun often dispatches with annoying delivery persons and other boors that offend his personage. Remo complains that he gets stuck taking out the bodies. This is all presented within a context of escapist satire.
Remo often freelances too. The authors will have him eliminate any public figures, that they've taken a disliking to. For example, Remo took out OJ Simpson (re-named BJ Orenthal for the book) on the golf course, with a well-placed iron shot from a few hundred yards away, thus it looked like an accident. Sinanju can be quite discreet when it wants to be. A Master of Sinanju of course can execute such a shot with pin-point accuracy. Back in the day, Remo also famously hung-up Richard Nixon, by his underwear from the Washington monument, and left him there to be found, quite alive. I think Nixon was ex-President at this point.
Actually Warren Murphy briefly revived the series last year, publishing an ebook, Detroyer #150, The End of the World, where he has some fun with the Mayan prophecy.
Post book number #70, the series can be hit and miss, depending on the ghost. The first ghost was quite capable, and wrote many books. He just didn't write with the same zip and irreverence as the originals. He was a little more careful.
But one of the later ghosts Jim Mullaney, very much impressed Murphy (co-createrSapir had since died), and Murphy happily turned the series over to him. The Mullaney books are of similar quality to the originals.
If the book series gets revived, and it might, Mullaney would continue the writing, as Murph is an old man now.
btw in one book, I can't remember which one though, Remo goes to London, where he deals with Mi6, and encounters a James Bond caricature. It's quite funny. Bond and his handlers are lampooned. The Destroyer has no sacred cows. Anyone can be given the bizness.
I find it rather odd that something that sounds well suited to comic books or TV episodes should thrive in literature (I use the word advisedly) which seems to me the very last medium it is suitable for.
And the 1985 movie a 'modest success'? A return of $12.5m on a budget of $40 seems to tell a different story. A sad way for Guy Hamiltons career to peter out as this was one of his last films.
I like the poster of Remo hanging from the Statue of Liberty though. Evocative of the AVTAK posters and Towering Inferno.
Screen adaptations are only going to be as good as the filmmakers vision.
Your skepticism is noted and the Destroyer may not be your bag, but you won't really know until you pick up a book.
As Gerard points out the Destroyer towers over other pulp offerings of the time. In fact I don't think there is any comparison. The writing is far superior,and the irreverent humour, and character relationships, is really what drives the narrative. I also sampled both Penetrator and Executioner. I could barely get through either book, they were so dull.
I started reading Destroyer ideally as a possible escapist Bond-like series and it delivered, in ways I could never have imagined.
Bond thrived in comic book form as well. The Destroyer's global appeal is what prompted a comic book deal. Like any big selling series, the books were re-printed in multiple languagues and distributed all over the world.
Here's the book that really started it all. The cover art, reminds of Bond posters and did help draw me into the series. I was a Bond-fan, long before I discovered the Masters of Sinanju.
Here's a Warren Murphy bio blurb. Even his bio's are funny.
Warren Murphy's first jobs in life were working on a pig farm, then as a movie usher, a sequin polisher, a public relations man for a brothel, a newspaper editor and a Democratic politician in Jersey City, New Jersey. "And then I went bad," he says, "and became a novelist."
That was back in the last century, and after some 200 books and several threatened retirements later, he is still at it. Now he is moving full-bore into the world of electronic publishing. Murphy has collaborated with his sons in forming his own publishing company, Destroyer Books.
Murphy is probably best known for the Destroyer series, which he created with the late Dick Sapir. With over 150 books and worldwide sales of over 50 million copies, the series is one of the longest-running and bestselling series of all time. The books were made into a movie, "Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins" (a second movie is threatened to be in the works), a TV pilot, as well as more film and TV rip-offs than anyone could ever imagine
http://www.amazon.com/Warren-Murphy/e/B000APEJD4/ref=pd_rhf_ee_s_cp__e
another old classic cover as Remo deals with bad doctors and nurses
and remo goes hippie dippie in Acid Rock
A minor B masterpiece, unfairly overlooked.
Never seen it or read one of the books. As I said I've never heard of him. I've got quite a few friends who (I thought) know their action heroes and none of them have any knowledge of him either. I do recall having vaguely heard of the Destroyer series but I think I always assumed it was either some sort of Judge Dredd type comic or some sort of Conan the Barbarian rip off - neither of which appeal to me.
Is my lack of knowledge of Remo a defect in my cultural upbringing or is he more popular stateside than he his here? Is he indeed part of the common lexicon in the US like Bond, Batman and Superman are or is he only listed here at all because the OP is a fan?
Or am I just too young and needed to be a teenager in the 70's?
I'd never heard of him either
Yes, I'll have to add that name to ze list, there! Is the film at all representative to the novels etc. @chrisisall?
Oh, great. I'll have to go out and get this one, then, and end my ignorance of Remo Williams.
Well, I sort of bought them blind in a second-hand shop. I see that The Executioner series is linked with that of the Remo Williams Destroyer series.
Destroyer separates itself from the pulp-pack with clever satire and Bond-style escapist fantasy, supervillains, bizarre henchmen and femme fatales, along with a dash of Sinanju mysticism to mix with all the mayhem.
Both Fleming's Bond and Remo are good with the smart digs and villain-baiting jibes too.
The connection with pulp is that you would find both Executioner and Destroyer in the same section of the book-store. They both fit with the pulp-fiction template, in that the authors cranked out the books on a regular schedule, and the titles were numbered.
When I bought my first Destroyer books (50-60 in my initial buy) in 1985, the big book-store, had both a huge Destroyer and Executioner section. Virtually all the titles were stocked.
I sprung for the big buy after watching the film in cinema and then reading the latest book of the time #62 The Seventh Stone. The movie appealed to my Bond/Uncle escapist spyfy adventure instincts, while the book was something else. The book was the movie on steroids, way better, much meatier, and real funny in an edgy very un-pc way.
ie Wouldn't you like to once just put the obnoxious delivery guy, clerk, etc out of his misery?!
In the Destroyer, they just do it - like a freebie for humanity. You're welcome :)
The Masters are helpful that way. Even Remo's Cure mission-statement is essentially to clean up the garbage, that manages to beat the justice system. Remo tosses in some bonus work for the greater good as well, when he's feeling magnanimous. Think Dirty Harry, but way wackier and minus the "boomstick" Remo is also much talkier and far glibber than Harry.
Chiun is utterly unpredictable though. Cross to the other side of the street if you see him....... unless you are a mother who wants to kvetch about her ungrateful offspring. Then he would invite you in for tea and a full day of kvetching. Maybe Soap operas too. Chiun loved his American soaps, "America's only worthy cultural contribution." Bother Chiun during soaps though....... not pleasant.
But the series also has it's sublime moments, dare I say even tender, especially when it comes to the Chiun/Remo father-son relationship. Remo, the orphan, is essentially Chiun's adopted son. The Remo/Smith relationship is interesting too. They basically endure each other, as their personalities are very opposite. Remo relentlessly razzes Smith and is always threatening to quit, but there is a mutal respect that simmers under the surface. Remo is loyal to Smith, but he asserts an independance as well. Chiun however considers Smith to be a loon.The Mad Emperor Smith he calls him.
He can't understand why Smith doesn't simply have them kill the President, so he could assume his place on the Eagle Throne, and then the Masters wouldn't have to work in secret. Smith and Remo long ago gave up attempting to sell Chiun on the merits of constitutional democracy. Chiun though, endures as long as the gold gets delivered to village Sinanju on schedule.
Anyone I've loaned the books to, laughs their head-off. The books are that irreverent, which separates them from the pulp pack. The satire is way over-the-top.
The series hey-day was the '70s and '80s, especially the '70s. Sales I think leveled off, to the core fan-base in the '90s. I noticed the pulp sections shrinking in size in the '90s, to the point where only the 4 most recent titles would be in stock.
It's primarily an American series, even if it had a global audience too. Destroyer message boards in the 2000's were mainly American fans and a smattering of Euro and Asian.
I'm on nightshift so I thought I'd give old Remo a go on Youtube but really - its pretty grim stuff.
Maybe I'm doing it a disservice as I couldnt stick it out all the way but this is a TV pilot surely not a genuine theatrical release?
It appears to have the production values of an Albanian soap opera. The fight scenes are so pedestrian and choreographed they make Rog v Sandor look like Bond v Grant.
Fred Ward is hardly Mr Charisma and whats with the Chinese guy? He looks like his face is moulded in plastic. Were there genuinely no Asian actors available they had to get a white guy and then make him up to look like a burns victim? Pretty sure Pat Morita or David Yip couldve been talked into it if the money was right.
To be fair even if it had been half decent it never really stood a chance in 1985 with Back to the Future, Rocky IV, Rambo II, The Goonies, Mad Max III, Commando and our very own AVTAK all ranged against it.
Was this how the Guy who directed GF ended his career? Not with a bang but with a whimper.
Over the course of any stretch of books, the Masters combined body-count might crash one of Smith's supercomputers. Remo and Chiun are very commited death-dealers.
Compare with Mack Bolanthough. Unlike the Masters, he's not actually assassin by trade, more like warrior, yet he runs around mowing down scores of badguys with all the latest weapons-tech he can get his hands on. In fact Brozzer-Bond used to remind me of the the couple of Bolan books I managed to finish. Bolan is almost weapon-porn, yet still quasi-believable, as Bolan doesn't have any extraordinary abilities. However his not-stop gun battles beg credulity as well. Such is the nature of pulp. It has license to go very OTT. "What's with the Chinese guy"?! :-O Keep your voice down. Chiun would literally have your head on a platter for that remark. Calling his exalted Korean personage Chinese, is a grave insult. He's as disdainful of the other Asian races, as he is the white races, probably more so.
Remo did have stiff competition back in 85, that's for sure. I happily attended though as such movies are my cup of tea. The movie probably works better on bigger screen, and like any film, betterwatched in a relaxed environment.
The movie though enjoyable, I find is a little weak, considering what a bolder presentation might have done with it. It'sreally just a sanitized Destroyer fun romp.
One big problem with the film, is that the villains are so bland. He's basically fighting bad army bureaucrats.
Although in the final scenes, when Remo does seem to get a grasp of his nascent Sinanju skills, he does manage to take out the lead henchman in a fairly nasty Sinanju way, and he's running across water by film's end too. =D>
Film could have used better "girls" or a decent femme fatale. Kate Mulgrew was rather meh. This movie could have been a whole lot better, without being as crazy as the books.
But yeah, a bit more dough would have made it better, but then the investors were backing essentially a pulp series translated to silver screen...