Saint Jack
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| Saint Jack | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Peter Bogdanovich |
| Produced by | Hugh M. Hefner Edward L. Rissien |
| Written by | Peter Bogdanovich Howard Sackler Paul Theroux |
| Starring | Ben Gazzara Denholm Elliott |
| Cinematography | Robby Müller |
| Editing by | William C. Carruth |
| Distributed by | New World Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 27 April 1979 (New York City, USA) |
| Running time | 112 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Saint Jack is a 1973 fiction book by Paul Theroux and a 1979 film of the same name. It tells the life of Jack Flowers, a pimp in Singapore. Feeling hopeless and undervalued, Jack tries to make money by setting up his own bordello, and clashes with Chinese triad members in the process.
Ben Gazzara stars as Flowers in the film, directed by Peter Bogdanovich.
[edit] Controversy about the film
Saint Jack was shot entirely on location in various places in Singapore in May and June of 1978. As of 2006, it is the only Hollywood film to have been shot on location in Singapore. Places featured in the film include the former Empress Place hawker centre (now demolished) and Bugis Street. The local authorities knew about the book, hence the foreign production crew did not tell them that they were adapting it, fearing that they would not be permitted to shoot the film. Instead, they created a fake synopsis for a film called "Jack Of Hearts", and most of the Singaporeans involved in the production believed this was what they were making.
The film was banned in Singapore and Malaysia on 17 January 1980. Singapore banned it "largely due to concerns that there would be excessive edits required to the scenes of nudity and some coarse language before it could be shown to a general audience," and lifted the ban only in March 2006[1]. It is now an M18-rated film.
Saint Jack was re-released in North America on DVD in 2001.
A book which details the development, production and aftermath of the Saint Jack film, entitled Kinda Hot: The Making of Saint Jack in Singapore, was published by Marshall Cavendish in March 2006 and is written by Ben Slater.
In an interview with The New York Times on 15 March 2006, Bogdanovich said, "Saint Jack and They All Laughed were two of my best films but never received the kind of distribution they should have."[2]
[edit] References
- ^ Suk-Wai, Cheong. "Saint Elsewhere", Life!, The Straits Times, 29 March 2006, p. 5.
- ^ Ibid. (A search of The New York Times' archive on 29 March 2006 failed to find the text of the interview.)
