No Retreat, No Surrender (;) is a 1985 martial arts film directed by Corey Yuen in his English-language directorial debut, based on a story co-written with producer Ng See-yuen, and featuring fight choreography by Mang Hoi. It stars Kurt McKinney as Jason Stillwell, a teenager in Seattle who learns martial arts from the spirit of Bruce Lee and is eventually matched up against a Soviet fighter, played by Jean-Claude Van Damme in one of his earliest film roles.
The film was an international co-production between Hong Kong's Seasonal Film Corporation and the American company Balcor Films. It premiered in Italy on October 20, 1985, before being released in the United States on May 2, 1986. It received generally negative reviews from critics but has developed a cult following.
Casting
Jean-Claude Van Damme was cast as the Soviet villain Ivan Kraschinsky, in one of his earliest acting roles. Despite repeated warnings, Van Damme continued to do so, performing kicks on Baker during filming. Other actors and martial artists claimed that Van Damme had not been reckless with his physical contact, including Ron Pohnel, who said, "His control wasn't such as mine, but I had no complaints". a Blu-ray edition of the film was published by Kino Lorber Classics in Region A, on February 21, 2017, which contained both the American theatrical release and a longer international cut.
Alternate versions
Two different versions of the film were prepared for release, an international cut by Seasonal Film Corporation and a shorter American cut by New World Pictures. The American cut runs approximately 14 minutes shorter, features a different musical score, and omits several overtly comedic scenes. It was the eleventh-highest grossing film on its opening week at the American box office, earning $739,723; it grossed a total of $4,662,137 in the United States and Canada.
The film sold tickets in the United States and 395,013 in France.
Critical response
Walter Goodman of The New York Times gave the film a negative review, writing that the story appeared to have been "slapped-together". Time Out compared it to The Last Dragon, Karate Kid, and Rocky IV, noting that it "borrows heavily" from those films and "makes them look like masterpieces". Martial arts magazine Black Belt gave the film a rating of one-and-a-half out of five, noting that Jean-Claude Van Damme does not have much screen time and that the film was derivative of The Karate Kid. Patrick Goldstein of the Los Angeles Times called it "hilariously bad" and an "amateurish clunker" with poor action scenes.
Legacy
In 1993, Black Belt placed the film at seventh on their list of top-ten choreographed martial arts films. The magazine specifically praised Van Damme's jump kicks, while noting that McKinney's look "suspiciously quick", mentioning that, "unlike the Hong Kong movie industry, American filmmakers have yet to master the technique of speeding up the film without "jumpy/fidgety" side effects". In 2017, Ed Travis of Cinapse said the film "manages to entertain and delight with a combination of pure earnestness and legitimately cool fight work". Austin Trunick of Under the Radar said Van Damme's scenes "are prime Van Damme, at least, with some fantastic fight choreography and a full showcase of splits, high-kicks, and bug-eyed snarling".
The film was riffed live at a number of venues on the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Live: The Great Cheesy Movie Tour, by Joel Hodgson, in 2019. It was also riffed by RiffTrax on October 15, 2015.
Sequels
See also
- American films of 1986
- List of action films of the 1980s