Lionheart is the kind of late-20th-century action movie that shows a guy doused in gasoline and set ablaze within the first five minutes of runtime. The violence is rough, and brutal acts against the human body are depicted without hesitation. But on the other side of that, the sublime physique of our hero, Lyon Gaultier (Jean-Claude Van Damme), is objectified by the camera. There is a godlike glow surrounding him. He is the era’s golden standard of a certain kind of physical masculinity. The overwhelming majority of the human population will never look like that (this writer included), but it’s easy to be entranced by the imagery of a gratuitously shirtless Van Damme (Bloodsport) shoveling coal into a furnace, steam and sweat glistening on his rippling muscles. This was photographed in 1990, but I have a feeling that director Sheldon Lettich (Double Impact; Only the Strong) and cinematographer Robert C. New (Prom Night) composed these visuals with the understanding that we might still be talking about them 36 years later. Transferred into a crisp, director-approved 4K, the extended A.W.O.L. Cut of Lionheart is now available courtesy of the MVD Rewind Collection.
The plot of Lionheart is secondary to the action, but there’s just enough of a foundation to get things moving. There’s some business early in the movie with Van Damme’s Lyon Gaultier deserting his French Foreign Legion military base in Djibouti, East Africa, after he receives some bad news about his brother. This takes him on a journey across the desert, across the ocean, and across the United States, with Los Angeles as his ultimate destination. He doesn’t have a dollar to his name, but he does have the ability to punch and kick people, if necessary. Sure enough, this does become a necessity, for a couple reasons: (1) So that he can make money within the world of the movie, and (2) so that the movie itself can exist. Lionheart came out a few years before Chuck Palahniuk’s 1996 novel and David Fincher’s 1999 film that warned us against talking about fight clubs, so we’re safe to discuss the fight clubs that Gaultier encounters. Lionheart was the follow up to the first collaboration between Van Damme and Lettich, 1988’s Bloodsport, which also featured a shirtless and ripped Van Damme fighting people in front of a crowd. The setting and aesthetic are much different in Lionheart, with Bloodsport’s arena in Hong Kong traded in for, well, anywhere Gaultier can find a fight across the United States. The volume and diversity of the action scenes make up for some of the questionable frenetic cutting in the edit. Gaultier fights under overpasses. He fights in swimming pools. He fights in front of rich people exploiting his body, mind, and soul. He fights a guy wearing a kilt. And he keeps winning. Early on in the film, it’s easy to question the narrative potential of this external conflict. Why do we care about this movie if he’s just going to easily win every fight? He’s got to lose eventually, for dramatic purposes, right? Thankfully, he starts struggling with the fights at just the right point in the narrative. In a film about the highs and lows of the human body, Van Damme does not shy away from taking a beating.
I will give credit to Lionheart for granting enough characterization to Lyon Gaultier that we almost believe that he’s only kicking and punching this many people because he loves his family. We all know that this is a guy who’s the best at what he does (beating people up). But we are presented with a reason for his actions. Gaultier loves his brother, and this extends to a love for his brother’s wife, Hélène (Lisa Pelikan), and young daughter, Nicole (Ashley Johnson). There is a tragedy to his heroism as Hélène wants nothing to do with her brother-in-law whom she believes to be indirectly responsible for the grief that has befallen her family. But Gaultier stays the course, putting his body on the line, willing to allow himself to be temporarily exploited by these rich bastards because he understands what he can do with the situation in the long run. In addition to his relationship with Hélène and Nicole, another indispensable emotional angle of Lionheart is the budding friendship between Gaultier and Joshua Eldridge (Harrison Page). This character is initially introduced as someone who could be another exploitative figure in Gaultier’s arc, but the audience is never against Eldridge because Page (Magazine Dreams) injects an irresistible charm into this performance. Gaultier was thrust into this journey because of the circumstances with his brother, and by the end of the film, he has found another brother in Eldridge. “Nice to have friends, ain’t it?” Eldrdige says in one poignant moment. Yeah, and it’s nice to have Harrison Page in this movie.
This release from MVD is also stacked with special features, primarily on the Blu-ray disc. There’s a trio of documentaries from 2018: “The Story of Lionheart,” “Inside Lionheart with the Filmmakers and Cast,” and “‘Lionheart: Behind the Fights.” Interviewees include director Sheldon Lettich, Van Damme, producer Eric Karson (Nemesis), actress Deborah Rennard (Kazaam), actor Brian Thompson (The Tragedy of Macbeth), and Harrison Page. While there is nothing tremendous about the presentation of these features (which mostly follow the traditional talking head format), the interviews provide a comprehensive look at the story and legacy of the film with informative anecdotes from these artisans reflecting back on their experience with it. And some of the comments from the cast and crew about Van Damme’s physique and the way he moves further support the notion that Lionheart is ultimately a film about the human body. I can promise you that this reviewer isn’t the only one mesmerized. These documentaries total 80 minutes of solid interviews, which is generally enough for me to forgive the inconsistent audio quality. There is also a brand-new audio commentary on the 4K disc by Lettich to supplement an archived commentary from Lettich and Page.
Lionheart 4K UHD Special Features:
- *NEW* Director Approved 2025 4K Scan & Restoration (2160p – 16-Bit Scan of the Original Camera Negative) of the extended “A.W.O.L. Cut” of the movie presented in 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio in HDR Audio: LPCM 2.0 Stereo (4K + Blu-ray) and 5.1 Surround (Blu-ray)
- *NEW* audio commentary by director Sheldon Lettich moderated by Heath Holland
- Archival audio commentary by Sheldon Lettich & Harrison Page (4K & Blu-ray)
- “The Story of Lionheart” (Blu-ray, HD)
- “Inside Lionheart with the Filmmakers and Cast’” (Blu-ray, HD)
- “‘Lionheart: Behind the Fights’” (Blu-ray, HD)
- Archival making-of featurette (8:53) (Blu-ray, SD)
- Archival interview with Sheldon Lettich (25:52) (Blu-ray, SD)
- Archival interview with Harrison Page (13:05) (Blu-ray, SD)
- “Behind the Scenes of the Audio Commentary” archival featurette (5:40) (Blu-ray, SD)
- Original theatrical trailer (Blu-ray, SD)
- Collectible Lionheart “4K LaserVision” Mini-Poster
- Reversible cover artwork (with original Rewind artwork on the reverse side)
- Limited edition slipcover
Available on 4K UHD and Blu-ray July 28th, 2026.
For more information, head to the official MVD Entertainment Group Lionheart webpage.
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