Operation Condor

The fact that Jackie Chan does every single one of his own stunts shows a type of intensity to the ability of watching his movies: An actual person in actual time is performing something dangerous. Roger Ebert said, “There's an element of Evel Knievel to it. And also an element of Buster Keaton, because Chan is above all a silent comedian, who depends on broad humor and timing to make action comedies in which the violence is secondary ("No guns!'' he likes to shout).”

Even though Chan does his own stunts, obviously they are stunts – safety precautions are taken, and camera angles are chosen to make things look more difficult than they are. Sometimes there is even a type of awkwardness which makes the realism even more helpful.

For example, early in “Operation Condor,” released in 1991, Jackie puts on a hang-gliding uniform powered by an airplane engine, starts it up, and runs with increasing anxiety across a field, trying to get airborne. Eventually, he does. Ebert noted, “In a slicker action picture, the flight would have been effortless. It's more fun to watch Chan sweating a little. And that's really him in the air.”

Ebert admitted, “There are a couple of other stunts in the film that had me seriously impressed. In one of them, Chan is hanging from a beam near the roof of a warehouse. A car catapults through the air, straight at him. He swings up out of the way and the car misses him. It looked to me as if trick photography wasn't involved; there was a real car, and perfect timing. In another stunt, he leaps from a motorcycle speeding off a pier, and grabs a safe hold on a fisherman's net. And there's a wonderfully choreographed fight above odd flat moving steel platforms high above a hangar floor.”

Even the little moments are a type of excellence. Chan jumps against a wall, pushes off to the similar wall, and leaps over a gate in the wall. The stunt joins an acrobat’s skill with a dancer’s style. Then there are scenes where he jokes himself, like when he rescues a baby carriage in the middle of a fast chase, or when he makes a quick escape by bouncing down a hill inside what looks like a giant inflated volleyball.

“Operation Condor” was originally released in Asia in 1991 with the prefix “Armour of God II.” Chan is the writer, director and star. The plot is about as hilarious as most of his movies. A European count tasks him on behalf of the United Nations to find Nazi loot – a fortune in gold buried in the North African desert near the end of World War II. Chan is given a sidekick, an agent named Ada (Carol Cheng) and eventually collects two more beautiful women: Elsa (Eva Cobo De Garcia), who is the granddaughter of the Nazi who hid the gold, and Momoko (Shoko Ikeda), an innocent soul they encounter in the desert, who is searching for the meaning of life and death, and keeps a pet scorpion.

Ebert noted, “It's a little dizzying, the way the movie switches locations from the desert to Arab bazaars to fleabag hotels to a really elaborate set representing some kind of long-lost Nazi headquarters with a built-in wind tunnel that stars in the final action scene. (There is a bomb in the buried headquarters, and in a nod to period detail, it has a countdown timer that uses analog hands instead of a digital readout.)” The screenplay takes a little break for as minimal dialogue as possible (“Look out behind you!” “Take this!”) and gives a couple of teams of bad guys who motivations are barely told – but then what do we really need to know, except that they want the gold and are enemies of Jackie? Ebert noted, “Most action pictures are, at some level, a little mean-spirited: They depend upon macho brutes getting their way. Jackie Chan is self-effacing, a guy who grimaces when he's hurt, who dusts himself off after close calls, who goes for a gag instead of a gun. He brings that light-hearted persona to the fact that he is also a superb athlete and does amazing things in every film.” There’s a type of innocence to everything, and an enjoyment of performance. Half of the time, you see yourself putting on a silly grin.

If you liked “Armour of God,” then you should see this movie. Remember; make sure to see “Armour of God” first since that technically came before. “Operation Condor” is the sequel, even though it was released in the USA first. Despite that, if you’re a Jackie Chan fan, this is the one for you, especially if you’re a fan of older, classic Chan films.

Look out next week for the latest in this trilogy in the finale of “Jackie Chan Month.”