This film is outstanding, if not a cinematic work of excellence. The level of camp it displays works well with the oddly exotic Israeli background it was filmed upon. Many stories are offered about how Bruce Lee and James Coburn struggled to move this project forward, and how David Carradine capitalized on his fame in the TV series "Kung Fu" to pick up the story rights, but the work also honors what Lee felt was the essence of the martial arts. This film is mistakenly classified as a "martial arts" film, and subsequently knocked for Carradine's friend and co-star Jeff Cooper's lack of grace and skills in both fighting and acting. "Circle of Iron" also has its flaws in direction and incidental music but shines in its eccentricity, cast, zen precepts, and Cord's awakening that "there is no meaning in life except the meaning that man gives his life by the unfolding of his powers".
Review of Circle of Iron
