Usually, when the deaths of famous people are covered in the media, I'll tend to react with a typical mixture of disinterest and detachment. No matter how much the dearly departed in question accomplished, in almost all cases, I simply could not give a shit.
When I saw the morning news crawl concerning the death of David Carradine, it was a different story. It's been a while since I've felt this sorry to hear of the passing of someone whom I didn't know personally , although in a sort of indirect way, I feel like I did know this guy.
I remember when Kung Fu was on the air back when I was a kid, and like a lot of my generation growing up back then, I was sorta sucked up into the martial arts fad of the time. I even watched the latter day revival Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, which was on the air in the 1990s, well into the era that Carradine's abilities as an actor were considered by many to be (falsely) a punchline to a joke of mediocrity.
I was pretty much over Tarantino's films by the time that the Kill Bill movies were made, but Carradine certainly deserved the revived recognition. My personal admiration of his talent will always be his larger-than-life portrayal of Woody Guthrie in Bound for Glory, which helped to earn a Best Picture nomination for the 1976 Oscars. I consider it to be the best Depression-era film since The Grapes of Wrath, and a big reason for that opinion is because I feel that Carradine completely wraps himself around his role of Guthrie, transforming into a character straight out of one of those Steinbeck novels.
I've also never been ashamed to admit that I was impressed with, and actually went out and purchased, Carradine's Tai Chi and Chi Kung instructional videos. Carradine technically took the lead in these videos but the real expert was a gentleman by the name of Arnold Tayam, an instructor with over 30 years of experience. These tapes triggered my interest in both forms and I expanded my knowledge of them on my own, moving my interest past these tapes. I do a mix of Chi Kung and Tai Chi stretches and motions every morning before my weights, and I am convinced that it has kept me from transmorphing into a pear shaped stiff limbed hunchback, as is the case for many cubicle-trapped proles at my age. I feel that I will be eternally grateful to Mr. Carradine for this positive change in my lifestyle.
I am going to refrain from any commentary on the circumstances regarding Carradine's death. I will leave the discussion of certain speculated causes to folks like Larry King and Rush the Donut Worshiper.
I consider David Carradine to be a True Original and, personally in my life, an inspiring figure who seemed to do some things in his chosen career that he didn't quite want to do, but got to live some great life in between. By all eyewitness accounts, he was a rare mix of integrity, wisdom and joie de vivre who was liked and respected by so many that got to know him and work with him. The man deserved a much better closing scene to the later years of his life. Dammit, I want to hammer out a re-write and to re-shoot an updated ending, pronto.
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