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Bloodsport (1988) is, without a doubt, not only the finest movie in the great Jean-Claude Van Damme’s back catalogue, but the greatest martial arts film ever made.
Yes, better than Enter The Dragon. And yes, better than Ong Bak.
The difference? The sheer diversity in the kick-ass fight scenes.
Even now, an unfrickingbelievable twenty years later, it’s pretty much the only example of mixed martial arts (MMA) to make it to the big screen (or even direct to video). That’s pretty amazing given the success of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), and the like. Sure, later this year we’ve got Redbelt to look forward to, but that’s about it in the MMA world. (I’m ignoring teenage fodder like Never Back Down).
What Bloodsport isn’t, however, and this came as a crushing blow for millions of fans around the world, is a true story. Despite what it says on the box, it’s not even based on a true story. It’s based on a package of bull, fed to the kind of gullible dipshits that existed at the beginning (and the end) of the 1980s.
Allegedly based on real-life events that took place at the end of the 1970s, Bloodsport features Jean-Claude Van Damme as Frank W. Dux (pronounced ‘Dukes’), an American who claims to have been trained in the ways of ninjutsu - i.e., to be a ninja - during his adolescent years in Woodland Hills, California.
By his neighbours.
Now, let’s analyse these facts for a moment. It’s very difficult - naturally - to find a lot of concrete data about Dux. We’ll come to the reasons behind that later (but obviously it has something to do with his secret life in the CIA), but I can only find one site on the entire Internet that lists his birthdate, and that claims it was January 31, 1971.
Which means that when Bloodsport went into production, Dux was 17.
To make matters worse, IMDb claims that Dux played the part of “Old man in car” in 1986’s action classic, Highlander. As a 15-year old!? Give that boy an Oscar!
But hold on: the tournament featured in Bloodsport, The Kumite, was allegedly dominated by the real-life Dux at the tail end of the 1970s… when he hadn’t even hit puberty.
No wonder the guy is such a legend.
Clearly, the website above isn’t entirely accurate (damn you, Geocities, that’s the last time I’ll buy into your lies.)
However, I can’t find a single plausible recording of Dux’s birth date, so I’m going to have to work some mathematical wizardry here. Van Damme was born in 1960, and was 28 when Bloodsport was released. Dux claims to have fought in the Kumite between 1975 and 1981, so if we assume he was the same age as Van Damme portrayed him, that would make him 28 in 1975, which means he was born in 1947.
Which makes him 61 today.
And 13 in 1960. So let’s assume that is so. The young Dux, maybe he’s a troublemaker. Maybe he’s not doing so well at school - maybe it’s not his fault as his dad changes jobs all the time and the family has to move, and the poor kid never gets a chance to settle, and the few friends he’d had he’s been forced to leave behind. His mother drinks too much. His ‘Uncle’ - really a non-relative whom his mum is probably fucking behind his dad’s back - is a little too friendly with his ‘wrestling’. What the kid needs is stability. What he needs is direction. What he needs is a mentor.
And, fuck me, he only goes and moves next door to a family of ninjas.
In California. In 1960.
I don’t really think that happened. I mean, first of all, I don’t believe there is any recorded evidence of ninjutsu training, at least not in any kind of genuine sense, outside of Japan until Stephen K. Hayes returned to the USA in the early 1980s, fresh from the teachings of Masaaki Hatsumi, who was the personal student of the the last known active ninja, Toshitsugu Takamatsu.
And correct me if I’m wrong, but ninjas didn’t even really exist until Chuck Norris’ seminal The Octagon in 1980. Certainly not to Western audiences.
Also, this (to the right) is what he used to look like, probably sometime in the late 80s/early 90s, by the garb and badass weaponry (click to enlarge).
Now, I’m sorry, but that’s blatantly a picture of the young Steven Seagal, which makes this all even more of a hoax!
But we haven’t even begun to scratch on the surface of shite that makes up the life of Mr Dux.
As said, Frank claimed to have fought in the Kumite between 1975 and 1981. (One major difference is Dux’s Kumite allegedly took place in Jamaica, and not Hong Kong as in the film.)
“My involvement in that tournament was part of a plan, launched in 1975, to infiltrate the criminal organizations that organized the fights. The original idea was to participate in the Kumite tournament and make a few contacts. We initially assumed I would lose, but eventually I became one of the best Kumite fighters to ever participate in the event.”
At the end of Bloodsport, the film gives a mini-bio of Dux and lists his accomplishments in the tournament. They’re actually a bit mental.
This motion picture is based upon true events in the life of Frank W. Dux.
From 1975 to 1980 Frank W. Dux fought 329 matches. He retired undefeated
as the World Heavy Weight Full Contact Kumite Champion.Mr. Dux still holds four world records:
Fastest Knockout - 3.2 seconds
Fastest Punch with a Knockout - .42 seconds
Fastest Kick with a Knockout - 72 mph
Most Consecutive Knockouts in a Single Tournament - 56Subsequently Mr. Dux founded the first American Ninjitsu System, Dux-Ryu.
Now, let’s have a quick gander at that data. 329 matches, undefeated. That’s over seven tournaments (1975-81). So roughly 47 opponents per tournament.
What the fuck?
But it goes on to say he holds the record for most consecutive knockouts in a tournament, at 56. Now, unless that same tournament lasted about a month, and not three frickin’ days like it does in the movie, I’ve gotta raise my hand on this one, too.
And consider the way the data is presented for his other records. He holds the record for the fastest knockout at 3.2 seconds, but this seems to clash with his stat for ‘fastest punch with a knockout’, at 0.42 seconds, which also clashes with his ‘fastest kick with a knockout’, which for some reason is measured in miles per hour.
Clearly, somebody made all this shit up in two minutes. You can make up your own mind who.
In his hard-to-find 1996 book, The Secret Man, Dux states that he was approached by CIA director William Casey to become a paramilitary agent for top-secret missions around the world, and that he made significant contributions to the training manual used by the Navy Seals. Luckily for Dux, Casey died in 1987, a year before Bloodsport was released, and Dux’ boasts became public knowledge.
(Oddly, Steven Seagal would make similar claims on both fronts many years later.)
In that same book, Dux boasted about how he once punched through bulletproof glass.
And that he fought in Vietnam.
It didn’t really add up. Using the Freedom of Information Act, researcher B.G. Burkett obtained a copy of Dux’s Marine Corps records, and thereby discovered that Dux served in the Marine Corps Reserve in the U.S. from 1975 to 1981, never seeing any overseas action. If we assume that this data is correct, it means that not only was Dux not even in the military during the United States efforts in Vietnam (which ended for the USA in 1972), but that during his alleged 329 match-winning run in the Kumite, in Jamaica, he was actually a jarhead, at home.
Burkett published his findings in his 1998 book, Stolen Valor: How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of Its Heroes and Its History. When the book was praised in US gun-totin’ bible Soldier Of Fortune, alongside claims that Dux’ was a wannabe, Dux sued the magazine for defamation of character.
But wait - it gets weirder. After the success of Bloodsport, Dux and Van Damme became pals, with the former even dating Jean-Claude’s sister-in-law at one point. Dux had written a follow-up to Bloodsport, The Kumite, and the plan was for Van Damme to again portray his friend in the title role. (Three sequels had already been made to the original film, but none of them starred Van Damme or had any involvement from Dux.) Dux received $50,000 for his script, and claimed that Van Damme verbally agreed to pay him 2.5 per cent of the movie’s gross.
Except Van Damme hadn’t agreed, or at least, that’s what he said. In court. Yes, in 1998 Dux sued again, in a case that was heavily covered in the States, and one that he would ultimately lose, both in a financial and credibility sense. All kinds of shit came out. Dux’ military and martial arts record was heavily scrutinised and even his close friends suggested that various claims he’d made, including his infamous bulletproof glass punch, were hoaxes perpetrated by Dux himself.
Richard Alexander, Dux’s friend for 20 years, testified that the plaintiff’s feat of breaking bullet-proof glass with a single punch was a hoax. According to Alexander, the bullet-proof glass was really Plexiglas that Dux had found. Alexander also described another allegedly staged stunt in which Dux shattered a candied glass bottle that appeared to be real glass. This “long-time friend” called Dux a liar who “tries to get something for nothing.”
(From Court TV Online.)
The single thing that has benefitted Dux the most is how gullible - nay, stupid - people are, or certainly were back in the days of yore. Even now, if you Google his name, half of the many pages you’ll find will be dumbly listing his various claims and boasts as fact, while the other half will be holding up red flags. But apart from a couple of web sites (listed below), nobody is really calling the guy a fraud. The allegations, on both sides, are impossible to prove.
And does it really matter? It was twenty years ago and nobody really cares. But pick up a copy of Bloodsport tomorrow and it’ll still say “based on a true story” on the front cover, even though anyone who is prepared to scratch just a little at the surface will see that it’s blatantly not.
This is Frank Dux in 2001.
Oh wait - is that Tim Burton? My bad. Either way, he’s approximately 54 in that picture, so he’s obviously doing something right. Yeah - lying through his frickin’ teeth.
Further Reading
For a lot more detail, check out the Bullshido page, which takes enormous pride in picking apart the very questionable claims of many martial artists.
Here’s Court TV’s coverage of the Frank Dux vs Jean-Claude Van Damme case.
Also, ChasingTheFrog.com was really helpful in getting right to the point.
Update: On June 4, 2008, a person claiming to be the real Frank Dux contributed a lengthy rebuttal to my article. In the interest of being entirely fair, I’ve published it in full for you to read below in the comments section (as he asked), as well as my reply. Frank also included details of his official site (cached link) and MySpace page.
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