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Interview with author Lou Gaul</title>
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<td valign="bottom" colspan="3" width="574"><b><font size="3" face="Arial">An
Interview with author Lou Gaul -<font color="#0000FF"> </font>"The Fist that shook the World"</font></b></td>
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<td valign="top" width="301" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><font face="Arial"><font size="3"><img border="1" src="../shop/fsw.jpg" align="left" hspace="6" vspace="6" alt=""Bruce Lee,"Fists that shook the world - Buy from Midnight Marquee" width="96" height="140"></font></font><font face="Arial" size="4">T</font><font size="2" face="Arial">he
Bruce Lee Club has recently interviewed Lou Gaul, the author
of <font color="#0000FF"> </font>"The Fist that shook the World,".</font>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial">Lou has kindly agreed to answer
questions put from the fans of Bruce Lee in the UK.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><b><u><font size="2" face="Arial">Background Information</font></u></b></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><b><i><font size="2">When did you start your writing career?<br>
</font></i></b></font></p>
When I was on active infantry training duty in the Army in 1970, I
promised myself I'd do something I enjoyed for a living when I got
back to civilian life. Upon returning to Trenton State College (now
the College of New Jersey), where I was a business/distributive
education major and planned to become a teacher, I went to the school
newspaper, The Signal, and asked if I could write film reviews.
Although I had never written one, I loved movies and thought it would
something different from my major.<br>
Like many college newspapers in the 1970s, the mood was very casual
at the Signal and to my surprise and delight, my first review (of Mike
Nichols' "Carnal Knowledge") appeared in print. I kept turning them in
and the paper continued to print them, which sparked my interest in
newspapers.<br>
After graduating in 1973, I landed a job at New Jersey's Burlington
County Times (part of the Calkins Newspaper chain, which has six
newspapers) as a news reporter. I took the job because the editor
agreed to let me do film reviews and stories on my own time. The paper
printed them, and with filmmakers like Sam Peckinpah, Martin Scorsese,
Robert Altman and Francis Ford Coppola creating motion pictures, it
was an amazing time for films. In 1976, I became the full-time film
critic for the chain, a position I still hold and feel blessed to
have.<br>
<p><font size="2" face="Arial"><b>Thanks for the information Lou.</b></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><b><i><font size="2">Why did you decide to write a book about Bruce?<br>
</font></i></b></font></p>
As I explain in "The Fist That Shook the World: The Cinema of Bruce
Lee," I had never experienced anything like the jolt that went through
the theater when I saw "Fists of Fury," "The Chinese Connection" and
"Enter the Dragon." It was like a combination of a live sporting event
and a religious revival meeting. <br>When I first saw them, I wasn't
working at the newspaper and promised myself that some day I would
study the reaction and analyze Mr. Lee's impact on motion pictures.
<p><font face="Arial"><b><i><font size="2">How long did it take for you to research your book on Bruce?<br>
</font></i></b></font></p>
"The Fist That Shook the World" actually started as a two-semester
independent study when I was attending New York University, where I
obtained a masters degree in Cinema Studies. The university -- which I
consider one of the best film schools in the world -- was surprisingly
open to my proposal to study Mr. Lee's motion pictures. <br>
At the university, a student had to team with a professor, who
would agree to provide guidance and grades. I approached Professor
William Everson, a wonderful teacher and author who has since passed
away, and made my proposal. <br>I thought he might have second thoughts,
but instead, he was excited, because it was something so different. He
had read many independent studies on talents such as Alfred Hitchcock,
Howard Hawks, Orson Welles and others too numerous to mention.
Reading about Bruce Lee intrigued him, and his support was the
first step in my creating "The Fist That Shook the World."
<p><font face="Arial"><b><i><font size="2">
<br>
Who was the first and the last person you interviewed?<br>
</font></i></b></font></p>
I did my two-sememster independent study on Mr. Lee in the early
1980s and information on him and his films was very limited at that
time, making the project quite a challenge. I had the idea for a book
right from the beginning and even approached a couple of publishers,
who weren't interested. <br>
I then put it on hold until the mid-1990s, when I approached Gary
and Sue Svehla of Midnight Marquee Press in Baltimore, Maryland. They
published mostly books on horror and fantasy but were intrigued by
Bruce Lee. I then took a year (while working full-time for my
newspaper) to expand all of the material, visually re-read the films
and start intensive research into everything I could find published on
Mr. Lee.
<p> </p>
<p><font face="Arial"><b><i><font size="2" face="Arial">
Who were the first and last persons you interviewed?
<br>
</font></i></b></font></p>
Actually, I didn't interview anyone. The book is a critical
analysis. I do have some short interviews with people like Steven
Seagal, Chuck Norris and Jackie Chan in the back of the book, but they
were interviews I had previously done and my publishers felt they
would give some color to the book, so I added them.
<p><font face="Arial"><b><i><font size="2">Did you interview Linda Lee?
<br>
</font></i></b></font></p>
The one person I didn't want to approach was Mrs. Lee, for whom I
have a great deal of respect. I felt that she must have been contacted
by countless people over the years, and I didn't want to burden her in
any way. My book was designed as a study of Mr. Lee's films and not
his personal life, so I didn't feel that contacting Mrs. Lee was
imperative.
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<p><i><b><font size="2" face="Arial">
In your book at the end of each film evaluation, you have a small
piece of information for people to watch out for in the movies. Whose
idea was that?
<br>
</b></i></p>
It came out of a conversation I had with my publishers. We felt a
reader-friendly touch like that -- with some items to watch for that
might be otherwise overlooked -- would interest Mr. Lee's fans and
perhaps inspire them to view the films again. (Of course, I believe
you can never see his work enough and I still find elements that
intrigue me despite how well I know the films.)<p>
<font face="Arial"><b><i><font size="2" face="Arial">Do you intend to write a book about Brandon Lee?</font></i></b></font><p>
The hardest part of writing "The Fist That Shook the World" was
doing research on the accidental shooting death of Brandon. I was
fortunate enough to meet him in New York City when he was doing
publicity for "Rapid Fire," and he had an incredible spark.<br> Brandon
was respectful of his father's memory but kept the conversation
focused on what he hoped to do with his life.<br>
He talked about soon heading to film "The Crow," which he felt
would have been his breakthrough film to a mass audience.
I have no plans to write a book on Brandon.
<p><font face="Arial"><b><i><font size="2">
How many copies of "The Fist That Shook The World: The Cinema of
Bruce Lee" have you sold worldwide?
<br>
</font></i></b></font></p>
My publishers would have that information. I do know it's sold out,
though Midnight Marquee has collected some copies. To order a book, please contact the company at <b>(800) 886-0313 USA</b>. Also at these numbers (1-410) 665-1198; the publisher's fax
number is (1-410-665-9207; the publisher also has an e-mail:
<a href="mailto: MMarquee@aol.com"> MMarquee@aol.com</a>
<p><font face="Arial"><b><i><font size="2">Do you intend to write any more books on Bruce Lee?
</font></i></b>
</font></p>
I think my book is unique, because I approached Mr. Lee's work in a
serious manner and visually analyzed his cinematic efforts. Throughout
my life, I've been disappointed whenever people shrugged off Mr. Lee's
films, tossing them aside like one of those poorly dubbed, haphazardly
directed pictures that air on Saturday afternoons in America on shows
called "Kung Fu Theater."<br> His work is much deeper than that, which is
something people can see and appreciate if they become active viewers
willing to analyze the images and dialogue rather than passive viewers
who simply want the combat scenes to wash over them.
There are political overtones, social observations and much more,
elements I'm sure Mr. Lee intended to insert.<br>
One fanzine-type publication, "Video Watchdog," which I respect,
reviewed "The Fist That Shook The World" and took me to task for
pointing out Mr. Lee's emotional outburst where he cries and actually
jumps into the grave of his Master in "The Chinese Connection." (aka Fist of Fury UK). The
reviewer felt that this type of crying scene had been done in
countless martial arts pictures and was expected.<br>
The point I was trying to make was that Mr. Lee saw himself as a
Steve McQueen-type figure, a superstar with an air of cool about him.
Despite that, Mr. Lee was willing to bare his emotional soul
(something most American stars never do out of fear that it reflects
weakness) and do that scene. <br>To me, it's of major importance, not only
due to Mr. Lee's emotional performance but also because it reflected
his real life in which he was late for his father's funeral and walked
on his knees to the cassock in front of the coffin.<br>
Though respecting stars like McQueen, Lee was a performer who did
things his way -- making him a true artist in the best sense of the
word.
<p><font face="Arial"><b><i><font size="2">Do you still have the "Enter the Dragon" poster which you were
photographed with for your book?
<br>
</font></i></b></font></p>Yes, but that's a repro poster, which I purchased for $25 through a
mail-order company. I wish I had an original "Enter the Dragon"
poster, but as much as I admired Mr. Lee and his films, I never felt
the urge to collect posters and lobby cards and such.<img src="../Picts/lou.jpg" alt="Lou Gaul" width="107" height="147" align="left" vspace="4" hspace="4"><br> I understand why
people want such materials, but I never sought them out. Perhaps the
images in the films were so vivid to me -- and are still so clear to
me -- that I never felt the need to purchase posters or collectibles
that would remind me of Mr. Lee and his work.<br>
Those images of Mr. Lee, I'm happy to say, remain as fresh to me as
when I first saw them almost three decades ago.
<p><font face="Arial"><font size="2"><b><i>Thank you for your time Lou
it was a pleasure to talk to you.
<br>
</i></b></font></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"><font size="2"><b><i>Lou can be contacted by
email at <a href="mailto:LGaul@bti.calkinsnewspapers.com">LGaul@bti.calkinsnewspapers.com</a></i></b></font><b><font size="3"><br>
<br>
</font><font size="1" color="#0000FF">All text and graphic are � of
Lou Gaul and The Bruce Lee Club UK 2000.</font></b></font></td>
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