Saint Jack (film)
Saint Jack is a 1979 American drama film directed by Peter Bogdanovich and based on the 1973 novel Saint Jack. Ben Gazzara stars as Flowers in the film. The film also features Denholm Elliott and Lisa Lu. PlotThe film follows the life of Jack Flowers, an affable and independent-minded American pimp operating in Singapore during the 1970s. Jack makes his living managing prostitutes while maintaining an appearance of legitimacy by claiming to work for a local Chinese businessman. He is well-integrated into the expatriate underworld and adept at navigating the city's complex social and criminal landscapes. The plot begins with Jack picking up William Leigh, a reserved British accountant from the airport, ostensibly on behalf of his 'boss'. Jack introduces William to the nightlife of Singapore, taking him first to a hotel and then to a bar popular among British expatriates. They eventually accompany a client to a brothel, though William expresses little interest and prefers a quiet game of squash. Their evening ends in a tense encounter when they are pursued by members of a Chinese triad who are hostile to Jack's unauthorised operations. The following day, one of Jack's local friends is found murdered, sending a clear warning from the syndicate. As the narrative develops, Jack is portrayed as a man of principle despite his profession, forming genuine relationships with locals in contrast to the often cynical or hedonistic attitudes of other expatriates. William's quiet and orderly temperament, along with his desire to retire peacefully in the English countryside, provides a counterpoint to Jack's chaotic existence. The contrast between the two men leads Jack to reflect on his own circumstances. The film reaches its climax when Jack is approached by American agents who attempt to coerce him into helping blackmail a visiting United States senator. Jack's decision in the face of this moral dilemma serves as the film's critical turning point, revealing the depth of his character and underscoring the broader themes of integrity, identity, and displacement. Cast
Film adaptation rightsCybill Shepherd sued Playboy magazine after they published photos of her from The Last Picture Show. As part of the settlement, she got the rights to the novel Saint Jack, which she had wanted to make into a film ever since Orson Welles gave her a copy.[3] ProductionSaint Jack was filmed entirely on location in Singapore over the course of May and June 1978. The production captured a range of city landmarks, including the former Empress Place hawker centre, Bugis Street and the former Singapore International Airport, which was repurposed as a military airbase after the opening of Changi Airport in 1981. Due to the controversial nature of the original novel and the conservative social climate of Singapore in the late 1970s, the filmmakers avoided revealing the true nature of the project to local authorities. To obtain filming permits, they submitted a false synopsis for a fictitious romance film titled Jack of Hearts, which Bogdanovich described as "a cross between Love Is a Many Splendored Thing and Pal Joey."[1] Most Singaporeans involved in the production believed this fabricated narrative and were unaware of the film's actual plot during shooting. The film is notable for being the first feature to depict a gay sub-plot involving a Singaporean character, including scenes with full-frontal male nudity, as well as the first to feature a nude scene with a Singaporean trans woman.[4] Among the cast was Australian actor George Lazenby, known internationally for portraying James Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. His involvement marked one of his few prestige roles outside the Bond franchise.[5] In 2006, Singapore-based writer Ben Slater published Kinda Hot: The Making of Saint Jack, a detailed account of the film's production. Slater traced and interviewed members of the original cast and crew, providing insights into how the controversial project came to be made in Singapore.[6][7] ReleaseAs expected, Saint Jack was banned in both Singapore and Malaysia shortly after its release on 17 January 1980. In Singapore, the ban was imposed "largely due to concerns that there would be excessive edits required to the scenes of nudity and some coarse language before it could be shown to a general audience" as well as the inclusion of LGBT-related content.[6][8] Malaysian authorities also barred the film from distribution, in line with similarly conservative attitudes at the time. In March 2006, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) lifted the ban in Singapore, classifying the film with an M18 rating.[8] The film remains banned in Malaysia.[6][8] Saint Jack was re-released in North America on DVD in 2001. In the decades after the film's release, it gained more appreciation in Singapore. In 2019, it was screened there as part of Singaporeana!, a curated retrospective by the Asian Film Archive celebrating rarely seen films with local cultural significance.[6] Box officeThe film was a box office bomb in the United States and Canada, earning less than $1 million. It performed better outside those countries however, with a gross of $3 million.[2] In an interview with The New York Times on 15 March 2006, Bogdanovich said: "Saint Jack and They All Laughed were two of my best films but never received the kind of distribution they should have."[9] Critical receptionFilmink argued "A trashier version of this story – one directed by, say, Steve Carver... probably would have been more lucrative. I’ve never read Corman admitting that in an interview, but I bet he felt it."[10] On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 72% of 18 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.4/10.[11] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 57 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[12] Roger Ebert gave the film a four-star review. In praise of Gazzara's performance, he writes: "sometimes a character in a movie inhabits his world so freely, so easily, that he creates it for us as well. Ben Gazzara does that in Saint Jack." He goes on to say: "The film is by Peter Bogdanovich and what a revelation it is, coming after three expensive flops. But here everything is right again. Everything."[13] Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic described Saint Jack as "otiose and odious".[14] Filmink magazine called it "a great hangout movie. It just works. A peak for Ben Gazzara."[15] References
External links
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
.jpg)
