The Street Fighter movie still stinks, but thirty years later, Raul Julia’s performance looks even better.
After Chun-Li finishes, Bison pauses and then apologizes, admitting that he remembers none of it.
But it only works because of the delivery from Bisons performer Raul Julia.
Furthermore, Julia was dying from stomach cancer while he shotStreet Fighter, his final film appearance.
Yet the celebrated thespian never condescended to the material, not once.
They loved theStreet Fighterfranchise and aided his research for the character.
Of course, it helps that Julia gets to deliver some wonderfully hammy lines from de Souza.
He knows how to give characters absurd lines to match the absurd tone, amping up the theatricality.
By now the longheld legend that de Souza wrote the movie in one substance-assisted overnight binge has been debunked.
However, both de Souza andCapcom, the company behind the games, had high ambitions for the project.
De Souza saw the film as his shot at making a legendary genre movie.
However, it also gave Julia room to chew some scenery while delivering hair-raising speeches.
Take another infamous moment in which Bison describes the motivations behind his super-soldier program.
Why do they still call me a warlord?
Not for power, not for evil, but forgood.
Carlos Blanka will be the first of many.
Julia relishes every single word, striding through a model of his ideal city while bellowing the speech.
Even better, he delivers the monologue like a true believer.
Its also a model for talented actors today in our current IP-driven media landscape.
However, condescending to the material doesnt help anything.
Instead disinterested performances just make everything worse.
Raul Julias devotion to his ridiculous character doesnt turnStreet Fighterinto a good movie.
But it does cement his reputation as a professional and a screen favorite.
Thirty years later,Street Fighterremains a mess of a movie, but Julia still shines.
