10 Things You Didn’t Know About Black Eagle
1988’s Black Eagle is sort of a tale of two movies for the stars of the film, Shô Kosugi and Jean-Claude Van Damme. For Kosugi, Black Eagle was the start of his acting career winding down after years of capitalizing on the ninja craze he helped start. For Van Damme, it was the calm before the storm as his career would explode in the late 80’s and early 90’s.
Black Eagle may not get the notoriety of Kosugi’s Revenge of the Ninja or Van Damme’s Bloodsport, but the fact that it features two martial arts legends going one on one makes it truly something special.
The fine folks at MVD Visual have made something even more special out of Black Eagle with their Special Collector’s Edition Blu-ray release (part of their growing MVD Rewind Collection). The Blu-ray features packaging that will give you flashbacks to the days when video stores roamed the earth, two different cuts of the film in magnificent high definition, deleted scenes and behind the scenes features that include exclusive interviews with Shô Kosugi, Shane Kosugi, Director Eric Karson and more!
After soaking in all the special edition features I compiled a list of interesting tidbits, fun facts and stories as I present…
10 Things You Didn’t Know About Black Eagle
1. Director Eric Karson noticed something out of the ordinary during one of the scenes featuring Shô Kosugi‘s real life sons, Shane and Kane, playing soccer on the beach. The camera was picking up some women sunbathing topless in the background, a common practice on the beaches of Malta and other parts of Europe. So Karson asked some of his production assistants to ask the ladies to put their tops back on while they were shooting. Karson then wanted it put on record in the daily production notes that he was the first Hollywood director to ever ask a woman to put their top back on.
2. Eric Karson actually ended up having a small role in the movie as the CIA chief. The reason for this case of double duty was the original actor cast for the role cancelled at the last second so Karson, who did have some acting experience in the theater, stepped in.
3. The deal to bring in Jean-Claude Van Damme was not finalized until late in the pre-production process which meant all of the scenes featuring Van Damme were last minute additions into the script.
4. Jean-Claude Van Damme was adamant that his character Andrei could not be killed by Shô Kosugi’s character Ken Tani in their final fight, but it was essential to the story that good triumphed over evil in the end… so Andrei was killed by a boat propeller instead of at the hands of Tani as a compromise.
5. During the filming of the final confrontation between Andrei and Ken Tani, Jean-Claude Van Damme accidentally hit Shô Kosugi full on. During the next take Shô Kosugi delivered a receipt to Van Damme and Eric Karson had to step in and calm Van Damme and Shô down before one or both of the guys ended up in the hospital!
6. The movie centers around the CIA and the KGB in a race to recover a high tech laser guidance system that was on board an F-111 Aardvark aircraft that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea. The submerged plane that was used was not an actual plane, but a fabrication crafted by the crew in Malta and put into a tank to film the underwater sequences.
7. Producer Shimon Arama was described as a passionate and overly aggressive individual. These traits were on full display when Shimon got into an argument with a guy on set that resulted in Shimon punching the guy so hard that Shimon broke his own hand. After hearing a story like that it was not a surprise to learn that the studio execs sent Shimon home before filming of Black Eagle was completed.
8. Screenwriter Michael Gonzalez’s first draft of the film did not include Kane and Shane Kosugi, who played Brian and Denny Tani respectively. Nor did it feature the female CIA agent Patricia Parker, who looks after the Tani boys while their dad is on the hunt for the laser guidance system. But Shô Kosugi was the star of the film and if he wanted his sons in the movie, they were going to be in the movie. Shô Kosugi’s reason for wanting his sons in the movie were two fold… he wanted his sons to get experience working in front of the camera and more importantly he wanted to spend time with his sons. Shô shared a story that in the year 1984, he was actually at home with his family for less than a month, due to all his movie and television commitments.
9. A second writer, A.E. Peters, was brought in at the last minute to make some of the last minute changes to Michael Gonzalez’s draft and reformat the script with scene breakdowns and sluglines so it was more shooting friendly. A.E. Peters was a pseudonym and Director Eric Karson reveals Peters true identity in his interview.
10. Van Damme refused to kiss Dorato Puzio (who played Andrei’s love interest Natasha) on the mouth because he said his wife Gladys Portugues would kill him when she saw that. Van Damme opted to kiss Dorato’s neck instead.
The Special Collector’s Edition Blu-ray is a MUST for any fan of Shô Kosugi and/or Jean-Claude Van Damme! MVD has done a magnificent job with it and I’m looking forward to picking up other titles in their MVD Rewind Collection in the future including Lionheart!
