“You people sit tight, hold the fort and keep the home fires burning. And if we're not back by dawn... call the president.”
Welcome to Harbour Highlights, a series of cult and classic films, all handpicked by the staff of Harbour Lights. This month, Matt’s jumping into The Pork Chop Express to revisit a genuine cult classic – John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China.
Originally written as an 1880’s-set Western, Big Trouble was rewritten and rushed into production to beat fellow fantasy-action-comedy The Golden Child into cinemas. However, the gamble didn’t pay off with The Golden Child becoming one of the top ten films of the year’s box office while Big Trouble ended up at 71 – lower than Howard the Duck, Psycho III and a re-release of Sleeping Beauty.
Still, like many of Carpenter’s films, the original disappointment turned into a hit on home video, with the film building up a passionate cult following enamoured by the mixture of fantasy, humour and martial arts, the film’s confidence in its unique tone matched only by the swagger of the protagonist – the wisecracking, self-mythologizing Jack Burton, memorably played by Carpenter’s iconic leading man, Kurt Russell. A film that could only have been made in a certain moment by a certain director, don’t miss your chance to see it back on the big screen – tickets only £8 / £5 Members.
