Comments on: Long Enough to Finish My Point: The Life of David Carradine

By: brent

brent — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 01:40:48 +0000

I worked on a TV series with Mr. Carradine. He would get drunk, call and insult us. He also used to grab popcorn out of our machine by hand and munch it – talk about double dipping! Yet it was easy to forgive him because he was a genuine character – one of a kind. You could snese it. And hearing his end, somehow… it isn’t right, of course, especially for his friends and family, but it seems… in character? Do you know what I mean? Rest in peace Sir. (P.S. catch “The Golden Boys” with David Carradine, Rip Torn, Bruce Dern,Charles Durnign and Muriel Hemingway. All Mr. Carradine had to do was let that amazing grin do it’s work!)

By: Marvin T.

Marvin T. — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 01:33:30 +0000

I was never a Kung Fu fan and didn’t have him on my radar until a photo spread in – I think – Playboy with his companion at the time Barbara Hershey for Boxcar Bertha (prior to its release). This would have been around 1972 and I really wanted to see more of Barbara after Last Summer and The Babymaker and I got my wish. But she was with this weird hippie dude. Jump ahead a few years later and I catch Death Race and Mean Streets and I notice this same guy again. This time I’m impressed. He’s unusual and definitely has screen presence. The films that really sold me on him though were Bound for Glory and The Long Riders. Unfortunately his great promise was never fulfilled but hey…that’s not a bad record. Those four films are a great sampler for him and I’d throw in Sonny Boy, a true oddity and he’s great in it, and Kill Bill Vol. 2 as a swan song, even though I find that film overblown, overlong and unnecessarily pretentious like its prequel.

By: Chris in Vegas

Chris in Vegas — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:10:36 +0000

Carradine actually owes a great debt to Bruce Lee. If it wasn’t for the fact that Hollywood was very Asian-phobic, Lee, who was up for the Kung Fu role would have gotten the part as opposed to Carradine. Lee was already an established martial artist and co-starred in The Green Hornet as Kato. Carradine was, well, charismatic maybe, but non quite as adept in the arts. But he was white, had Hollywood “royal blood”, and could fake it.

On the strange note, the movie The Magic Flute known in the US as Circle of Iron, was co-written by Lee and Stirling Siliphant. Carradine to his credit performed four roles and does give it a wonky, far-out quality befitting the Zen-induced theme. I submit that it was a role well suited to his sensibilities.

His end, a la Vaughn Bode’, is kind of fitting when taking his temperment and roller coaster lifestyle into account. Just a bit saddening that it proves that people aren’t always living up to the characters that have made them famous.

By: Marilyn

Marilyn — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:27:42 +0000

Having just seen The Serpent's Egg as the TOERIFC selection for April, it's hard for me to appreciate Carradine's work. He was not very good at all in that film. Yet, his turn as Woody Guthrie in Bound for Glory is masterful. And, of course, that Carradine face. Nice work, RH.

By: Suzi

Suzi — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:01:13 +0000

I grew up with David Carradine, too, beginning with KUNG FU. Though I had forgotten he was in MAYBE I’LL COME HOME IN THE SPRING, this is a terrific made-for-TV film. It’s better than most junk in the theaters today.

Carradine is absolutely the heart and soul of THE LONG RIDERS, which makes me forgive him for the dozens of clunkers he was in. Many of his lines are more than just dialogue between characters; they are commentary on their fates. (“We played a rough game…and we lost.”)

I saw him once about 12 years ago. He was at the American Booksellers Assoc. convention in Chicago. He must have been promoting a book of some sort, but he walked by me dressed all in black with a hat and cape. He was breathtakingly charismatic.

By: Kwai Chang Cane Lover

Kwai Chang Cane Lover — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:57:19 +0000

Thank you for this eulogy with these beautiful pictures. David has always been in my heart as Kwai Chang Cane and will remain there as such.