Kung Fu (TV Series) The Soul Is the Warrior (1973) User Reviews

Ashteo, ashteo sumi teo

[cranialsi · 8/10 · 15 November 2009]

Apologies to any native Americans if the summery is misspelled. This is another great episode from the first season. Many of the characters speak in almost biblical phrases about the land in which they live, obviously stolen from the Apache. The central theme is also biblical in flavour, having property, family, redemption and snakes as central characters.

John Doucette plays a very believable role as a half Indian landowner and Pat Hingle a well worn Sheriff but for me the stars here are Masters Khan and Po ""Grasshopper, be yourself and never fear thus to be naked to the eyes of others. Yet know that men so often mask themselves that what is simple is rarely understood. The dust of truth swirls and seeks its own cracks of entry, And a tree falling in the forest, without ears to hear, makes no sound. Yet it falls".

The Soul is the Warrior - Whip scene

[rjlewis-64-986822 · 8/10 · 14 April 2017]

When Mr. Rankin takes a whip to Caine, the whip breaks the straps off his shoulders. However, at the end of the show, he is seen leaving with the straps seemingly undamaged. Are we to assume he had a needle and thread to use to repair the straps, or did he replace both straps with new ones? I know this is may seem unimportant, but we should have been shown what happened.

John Doucette and Pat Hingle

[kevinolzak · 10/10 · 4 June 2024]

"The Soul is the Warrior" finds Caine arriving at the Edward Rankin ranch in search of his brother Danny, who left behind great bitterness by stealing son Breck's girl away before leaving weeks earlier. Breck Rankin (Shelly Novack) shows Caine some trinkets left behind by Danny, intending to teach him a few lessons on manners before his father (John Doucette) intervenes (we are told that the absent Danny was 'a lying coward'). Pat Hingle's General Thoms is the town sheriff, inviting Caine to a plate of beans before continuing his search, but Breck's rude interruption forces his hand and the hotheaded youth is shot dead. Rankin, with his Indian blood, is the most powerful man in the entire territory, not one to be trifled with, and when his attempt to shame Caine comes for naught, the priest suggests an exchange: the life of General Thoms for Rankin's fear. All denials meet upon deaf ears, for his pit of deadly rattlesnakes prove that fear not only exists, it has its temple, and Caine, a man who knows no fear and is one with nature, will save the sheriff's life by walking through it. We learn early on Rankin's philosophy about holding on to a pit filled with instant death: "every man learns something about watchin' what he's a-feared of." The philosophy is made clear: "seek always peace, wear no path for the footsteps of others unless the soul is endangered...we are all linked by our souls, to endanger one endangers all...(thus endangered) in such times, the soul must be the warrior." Viewers continue to be appreciative of the show's adept writing, even with the lesser characters ("if he don't stink of death, I never saw a carcass").