Wednesday Night Southeast Asia Movie: Singapore

November 4, 6:30pm - 8:30pm
Mānoa Campus, St. John Plant Lab Auditorium (basement) Add to Calendar


Saint Jack

USA (1979, 112 min)

Director: Peter Bogdanovich

Screenplay: Howard Sackler, Paul Theroux, Peter Bogdanovich

Based on the novel by Paul Theroux

Cinematography: Robby Müller

Film Editing: William C. Carruth

Cast: Ben Gazzara (as Jack Flowers), Denholm Elliot (as William Leigh), James Villiers (as Frogget), Joss Ackland (as Yardley), Rodney Bewes (as Smale), Mark Kingston (as Yates), Lisa Lu (as Mrs. Yates), Monika Subramaniam (as Monika), George Lazenby (as the US Senator), Peter Bogdanovich (as Eddie Schuman), Joseph Noël (as Gopi), Kian Bee Ong (as Hing), Edward Tan (as Tony)

Saint Jack was groundbreaking in that it was the first Hollywood movie to be filmed entirely on location in Singapore. The film was adapted from the 1973 novel by Paul Theroux. It tells the story of Jack Flowers, a pimp in Singapore. Feeling hopeless and undervalued, he 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 movie which was directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Saint Jack paints a portrait of a pimp with a heart of gold, who is less an ugly colonial American abroad than an outsider trying to make the best of a bad situation. Even though it was not Bogdanovich's original intention, the film forms an invaluable cultural and geographical chronicle of Singapore in the late 1970s. Banned in Singapore in 1980, it was finally screened at the 2006 Singapore International Film Festival to rave reviews. -S’pore LGBT Encyclopedia

Please Note: This film contains adult content.


Ticket Information
Free and open to the public

Event Sponsor
Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Mānoa Campus

More Information
(808) 956-2688, cseas@hawaii.edu, http://cseashawaii.org

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