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Why Chuck Norris Never Quite Reached Superstardom
BY
DAVID GROVE
PUBLISHED 1 DAY AGO
Bad choices and a lack of ambition prevented Chuck Norris from equaling the popularity of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone in the 1980s.
SUMMARY
Chuck Norris's films in the 1980s did not perform as well at the box office compared to his action superstar peers like Schwarzenegger and Stallone.
Despite this, Norris had an unparalleled aura of authenticity and a loyal cult following during this time.
Norris's career was ultimately derailed by his lack of determination and precision, both in fighting for his career and in choosing film projects.
While Chuck Norris certainly made an indelible impression on the action film genre in the 1980s, only two of Norris’s films from the decade, Code of Silence and Missing in Action, grossed more than $20 million at the domestic box office, well below the box office performance of 1980s action superstars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. However, to Norris’s ardent legion of followers in the 1980s, he seemed to be so much bigger than this.
Indeed, with his unparalleled aura of authenticity, as a former world karate champion, and an unforced screen presence, Norris became an omnipresent genre figure in the early to mid-1980s, when Norris seemed poised to transcend his loyal but contained cult following and achieve major film stardom.
Norris’s inability to attain major film stardom in the 1980s, in comparison to Schwarzenegger and Stallone, is emblematic of the essential contradiction within Norris’s career, which was ultimately derailed by Norris’s inability, or unwillingness, to fight for his career, so to speak, with the same determination and precision that Norris’s heroic characters employed against countless on-screen villains.
Chuck Norris’s first major film appearance came in the 1972 martial arts action comedy film The Way of the Dragon, which stars Bruce Lee, who also directed the film, which is highlighted by an approximately ten-minute fight sequence between Lee’s character, Tang, and Norris’s Colt, a world-class martial artist who has been hired to fight, and presumably kill, Tang at the Roman Coliseum.
However, Colt’s inherent size and strength advantage is quickly surmounted by the precision and speed of Tang, who eventually batters Colt to the point where Colt’s right arm and leg are virtually disabled. Instead of accepting Tang’s offer of mercy, Colt stubbornly refuses to concede to Tang, who reluctantly kills Colt by snapping Colt’s neck. Tang then places Colt’s black belt and gi on top of Colt’s body as a sign of respect.
While The Way of the Dragon was an effective showcase for Norris’s martial arts skills and natural physical presence, he needed more acting experience and training. Through the mentorship of superstar actor Steve McQueen, who was one of Norris’s karate students in the early 1970s, Chuck Norris took acting lessons for the purpose of crafting the essential Norris screen persona, which was grounded in both Norris’s martial arts expertise and McQueen’s basic insistence on a bare minimum of dialogue.
Norris made his feature film starring debut in the 1977 trucker action film Breaker! Breaker!, in which Norris plays a California trucker who descends upon a corrupt desert town to rescue his kidnapped brother. While Breaker! Breaker!, which had a budget of just $250,000, received negative reviews, including from Chuck Norris himself, the film nonetheless grossed over $10 million at the domestic box office and helped establish Norris as the first successful homegrown American martial arts film star.
Edge of Greatness
While Chuck Norris certainly came closest to achieving major film stardom in the mid-1980s, Norris’s most successful commercial period was actually the late 1970s and early 1980s, with the action films A Force of One, Good Guys Wear Black, and The Octagon, each of which grossed approximately $20 million at the domestic box office.
Except for the 1984 action film Missing in Action and the 1985 action thriller film Code in Silence, Norris never reached this commercial level again in the 1980s, at least in North America, as Norris’s films certainly gained a sizable following in the international markets, for which Norris’s often monosyllabic screen characterizations were easily digested and dubbed.
However, Norris’s big breakthrough as an actor and a star came in Code of Silence, which ultimately became the most critically acclaimed film of Norris’s career. Expertly directed by Andrew Davis, who later guided Steven Seagal to major stardom with the films Above the Law and Under Siege, Code of Silence provided Chuck Norris with his most layered screen role in Eddie Cusack, an incorruptible Chicago vice cop whose toughness is contrasted by uncommon displays of tenderness and thoughtfulness.
Norris’s multifaceted performance in Code of Silence suggested that Norris, at the age of forty-five, might be ready to inherit the mantle of Norris's mentor, Steve McQueen, as a man of the streets, so to speak, who could occupy an expansive urban landscape, in this case, Chicago, with the mere force of his presence. Unfortunately, this isn’t the direction Chuck Norris decided to take with the next phase of his career.
The Cannon Years
Chuck Norris on top of some sort of vehicle which appears to hold missiles on it.Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Instead of expanding his creative horizons following his breakthrough performance in the great action thriller film Code of Silence, Chuck Norris inexplicably chose to align himself with Cannon Films, the renegade action-oriented film studio whom Norris entered into a multi-film contract with in 1983. This turned out to be a fatal career mistake.
Norris’s attachment to Cannon essentially destroyed Norris’s box office credibility and heralded the eventual demise of Norris’s film career. Norris’s post-Code of Silence starring film vehicles The Delta Force, Firewalker, Hero and the Terror, and Invasion U.S.A., all of which were distributed by Cannon between 1985 and 1988, were defined, to varying degrees, by lackluster storytelling and shoddy technical credits.
Norris’s increasingly deleterious existence within the Cannon assembly line indicated a serious lack of creative ambition by Chuck Norris, who was clearly unable, or unwilling, to exert the same quality control principles over his career that inspired Arnold Schwarzenegger to sever his professional ties with producer Dino De Laurentiis in the mid-1980s, for the purpose of taking his career to the next level.
Moreover, Norris’s seemingly passive response to the steepening decline of his film career in the 1980s suggests that Chuck Norris, who debuted as a television star in 1993 with the CBS action crime television series Walker, Texas Ranger, became oblivious to the factors that made him so effective in films like Code of Silence and Lone Wolf McQuade if Norris ever truly understood this at all.
Why Chuck Norris Never Quite Reached Superstardom
BY
DAVID GROVE
PUBLISHED 1 DAY AGO
Bad choices and a lack of ambition prevented Chuck Norris from equaling the popularity of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone in the 1980s.
SUMMARY
Chuck Norris's films in the 1980s did not perform as well at the box office compared to his action superstar peers like Schwarzenegger and Stallone.
Despite this, Norris had an unparalleled aura of authenticity and a loyal cult following during this time.
Norris's career was ultimately derailed by his lack of determination and precision, both in fighting for his career and in choosing film projects.
While Chuck Norris certainly made an indelible impression on the action film genre in the 1980s, only two of Norris’s films from the decade, Code of Silence and Missing in Action, grossed more than $20 million at the domestic box office, well below the box office performance of 1980s action superstars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. However, to Norris’s ardent legion of followers in the 1980s, he seemed to be so much bigger than this.
Indeed, with his unparalleled aura of authenticity, as a former world karate champion, and an unforced screen presence, Norris became an omnipresent genre figure in the early to mid-1980s, when Norris seemed poised to transcend his loyal but contained cult following and achieve major film stardom.
Norris’s inability to attain major film stardom in the 1980s, in comparison to Schwarzenegger and Stallone, is emblematic of the essential contradiction within Norris’s career, which was ultimately derailed by Norris’s inability, or unwillingness, to fight for his career, so to speak, with the same determination and precision that Norris’s heroic characters employed against countless on-screen villains.
Chuck Norris’s first major film appearance came in the 1972 martial arts action comedy film The Way of the Dragon, which stars Bruce Lee, who also directed the film, which is highlighted by an approximately ten-minute fight sequence between Lee’s character, Tang, and Norris’s Colt, a world-class martial artist who has been hired to fight, and presumably kill, Tang at the Roman Coliseum.
However, Colt’s inherent size and strength advantage is quickly surmounted by the precision and speed of Tang, who eventually batters Colt to the point where Colt’s right arm and leg are virtually disabled. Instead of accepting Tang’s offer of mercy, Colt stubbornly refuses to concede to Tang, who reluctantly kills Colt by snapping Colt’s neck. Tang then places Colt’s black belt and gi on top of Colt’s body as a sign of respect.
While The Way of the Dragon was an effective showcase for Norris’s martial arts skills and natural physical presence, he needed more acting experience and training. Through the mentorship of superstar actor Steve McQueen, who was one of Norris’s karate students in the early 1970s, Chuck Norris took acting lessons for the purpose of crafting the essential Norris screen persona, which was grounded in both Norris’s martial arts expertise and McQueen’s basic insistence on a bare minimum of dialogue.
Norris made his feature film starring debut in the 1977 trucker action film Breaker! Breaker!, in which Norris plays a California trucker who descends upon a corrupt desert town to rescue his kidnapped brother. While Breaker! Breaker!, which had a budget of just $250,000, received negative reviews, including from Chuck Norris himself, the film nonetheless grossed over $10 million at the domestic box office and helped establish Norris as the first successful homegrown American martial arts film star.
Edge of Greatness
While Chuck Norris certainly came closest to achieving major film stardom in the mid-1980s, Norris’s most successful commercial period was actually the late 1970s and early 1980s, with the action films A Force of One, Good Guys Wear Black, and The Octagon, each of which grossed approximately $20 million at the domestic box office.
Except for the 1984 action film Missing in Action and the 1985 action thriller film Code in Silence, Norris never reached this commercial level again in the 1980s, at least in North America, as Norris’s films certainly gained a sizable following in the international markets, for which Norris’s often monosyllabic screen characterizations were easily digested and dubbed.
However, Norris’s big breakthrough as an actor and a star came in Code of Silence, which ultimately became the most critically acclaimed film of Norris’s career. Expertly directed by Andrew Davis, who later guided Steven Seagal to major stardom with the films Above the Law and Under Siege, Code of Silence provided Chuck Norris with his most layered screen role in Eddie Cusack, an incorruptible Chicago vice cop whose toughness is contrasted by uncommon displays of tenderness and thoughtfulness.
Norris’s multifaceted performance in Code of Silence suggested that Norris, at the age of forty-five, might be ready to inherit the mantle of Norris's mentor, Steve McQueen, as a man of the streets, so to speak, who could occupy an expansive urban landscape, in this case, Chicago, with the mere force of his presence. Unfortunately, this isn’t the direction Chuck Norris decided to take with the next phase of his career.
The Cannon Years
Chuck Norris on top of some sort of vehicle which appears to hold missiles on it.Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Instead of expanding his creative horizons following his breakthrough performance in the great action thriller film Code of Silence, Chuck Norris inexplicably chose to align himself with Cannon Films, the renegade action-oriented film studio whom Norris entered into a multi-film contract with in 1983. This turned out to be a fatal career mistake.
Norris’s attachment to Cannon essentially destroyed Norris’s box office credibility and heralded the eventual demise of Norris’s film career. Norris’s post-Code of Silence starring film vehicles The Delta Force, Firewalker, Hero and the Terror, and Invasion U.S.A., all of which were distributed by Cannon between 1985 and 1988, were defined, to varying degrees, by lackluster storytelling and shoddy technical credits.
Norris’s increasingly deleterious existence within the Cannon assembly line indicated a serious lack of creative ambition by Chuck Norris, who was clearly unable, or unwilling, to exert the same quality control principles over his career that inspired Arnold Schwarzenegger to sever his professional ties with producer Dino De Laurentiis in the mid-1980s, for the purpose of taking his career to the next level.
Moreover, Norris’s seemingly passive response to the steepening decline of his film career in the 1980s suggests that Chuck Norris, who debuted as a television star in 1993 with the CBS action crime television series Walker, Texas Ranger, became oblivious to the factors that made him so effective in films like Code of Silence and Lone Wolf McQuade if Norris ever truly understood this at all.