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nTitle: Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993)
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nDirector: Rob Cohen
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nCast: Jason Scott Lee, Lauren Holly
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nReview:
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nDragon: The Bruce Lee Story is a biographical film based onnthe book written by Linda Lee Cadwell, Bruce Lee’s wife. The book was callednBruce Lee: The Man Only I Knew. It’s good to keep that in mind because the filmnis told mostly from the point of view of Linda Lee; something I rather enjoyednabout this movie. It’s a love story, and a very engaging one. Bruce Lee isnidolized by millions across the world, he truly is an example of what we cannachieve when we commit our minds to achieve a certain goal; for this I’venalways admired Bruce Lee. He was focused, disciplined and determined, somethingnwe should all aspire to be in life. That plus he had such charisma, such a glow,nit’s no surprise he became the icon that he became. Did this film do justice tonthe hero?
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nDragon: The Bruce Lee Story starts out when Lee was innChina, dreaming of coming to America. He gets into a brawl over a girl and endsnup having to leave his country in order to escape the authorities, a situationnhe has no problems with because he loves the American culture, he loves moviesnand James Dean. After he arrives to America, we see how he goes from dishwashernat a Chinese restaurant to college student, to karate teacher, to becoming anhusband and a father and finally, a powerhouse movie star. But one thing isnalways hounding Bruce Lee and that’s the demon that’s always followed hisnfamily. Will he ever confront his own personal demons? Will he always live innfear of them?
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nThe film was directed by Rob Cohen, a director who’s nevernreally wowed me with anything he has done. He’s the guy behind Dragonheart (1996),nxXx (2002), Fast and the Furious (2001) and Stealth (2005), not the greatestnbunch of films, watchable sure, but good or great, nope. This is why Dragon:nThe Bruce Lee Story is a surprise to me; it is without a doubt Cohen’s finestnfilm. Unfortunately, he’s never truly done anything as good as this. But that’snokay, hey, at least he’s got this one great film on his repertoire, and what anbeautiful film it is. It’s purely entertaining, while still managing to tell usnBruce Lee’s story and his fantastic rise to fame. I loved how the film ends upnbeing a film about films, we get to see Lee work his way through all the Hollywoodnbackstabbing. We see his devastation when they give the role that was supposednto be his for the television show Kung Fu, to David Caradine. In retrospectiventhis was probably a good thing, had he ended up as a television star, maybe he wouldn’tnhave gone on to make the great films he made. And speaking of Lee’s films, onnDragon: The Bruce Lee Story we get to see him on the set of The Big Boss (1971)nand Enter the Dragon (1973), which is quite fun, I loved how Rob Cohen playednaround with these familiar images and situations, especially those scenes thatntake place in the mirror room on Enter the Dragon.
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nThe film is told from the point of view of his wife, LindanLee, the film is after all based on her book. Having Linda Lee give her inputnto this production is a wonderful asset to the production because she was thenclosest to him throughout his entire life. She was there through his collegenyears, she was there through the first time he opens his karate schools, shenwas there when he made his first television show, his first movie. She wasnalways there, so her side of the story is probably the most complete side ofnthe tale. What I also enjoyed was how romantic the whole film is, the way Brucenand Linda fell in love is a beautiful love story that broke through racial barriers,nthey had to deal with Linda’s parents rejecting Bruce over him being Chinese. I’mnso glad that their love for each other was stronger than racism; it was antriumph to humanity. It also helps that Lauren Holly and Jason Scott Lee had wonderful on screen chemistry.
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nThe role of Bruce Lee was at one point offered to BrandonnLee, Bruce Lee’s son. Unfortunately, Brandon declined to play his father. Inwonder how Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story would have turned out had Brandon Leentaken the role because Brandon Lee turned out to be a wonderful actor; he trulynblossomed as a performer when he made The Crow (1994), his final film. Not tonmention all the input he could have brought to the role, after all, Bruce Leenwas his father. It’s interesting to note that had Brandon Lee accepted to playnhis father, then maybe he wouldn’t have died while making The Crow, since bothnmovies where shot on the same year. Sadly Brandon Lee was accidentally shotnwhile shooting The Crow less than two months before the theatrical release ofnDragon: The Bruce Lee Story. This is a tragic real life story; Brandon Lee’sndeath only adds fuel to that myth about Bruce Lee’s family being cursed, whichnis just silly non sense. So instead of Brandon Lee, the production ended upnusing Jason Scott Lee to play the role of Bruce, which was an excellent choicenin my book, Jason Scott Lee not only has the look, he also brought that physicalitynto the role. He captured to perfection the mannerisms, the intensity and thencharismatic persona of Bruce Lee.
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nThe only thing I don’t like about the film is that it takes somenartistic liberties with Bruce Lee’s life story. The film has many discrepanciesnwith Lee’s real life story. For example, in the film, they lead you to believenthat the Chinese are angry that he is teaching Karate to the Americans, so henfights with these Chinese dudes who end up breaking his back. In real life thenstory is substantially different, this fighting match did take place, but itnwas in Lee’s own Karate school and not in some temple like in the film. Andneven worse, Bruce Lee actually won that fight! In the movie they make younbelieve that he loses this fight and that one of the fighters purposely injuresnhis back. This was not true either; his back was injured not by an angerednfighter, but because of a weight lifting incident, so Lee’s back injury wasnself inflicted! In the film they make you think he actually managed to see hisnbook ‘Tao of Jeet Kune Do’ published, in real life the book was printed posthumously.nAnd speaking of his death, the film leaves it as something of a mystery, whennin fact he died because of an allergic reaction to a muscle relaxant called ‘Equagesic’,nwhich apparently worsened a condition he had been suffering from called,ncerebral edema, basically, excess fluid in the brain. For the most part thenfilm tells Lee’s story like it is, but it takes artistic liberties to makenthings more dramatic or visually interesting, which is to be expected on anynbiographical film.
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nIn the end, the film ends up being very inspirational. It’snone of those movies that makes you want to do something with your life afternseeing it. It makes you want to believe in yourself, it sends out that ideanthat if you put your mind to it, you truly can accomplish anything. Linda Leensays she’d rather remember her husband for the way he lived his life, than fornhis death and I have to say I agree, the guy lived an amazing life overcomingnracism, personal fears and demons. The whole demon part of the story is wherenthe film kind of dives into the fantastic because we actually get to see himnfighting against this giant Samurai demon. This is yet another scene in whichnthe film takes artistic liberties, but I didn’t mind because it is all kinds ofncool to see Bruce Lee fighting a giant Samurai demon, plus it’s just sonsymbolic of all the struggles he went through to get to where he got. I guessnlife is like that, you always feel like there’s something hounding you, tryingnto stop you from achieving your goals, but Lee fought those and won in mynopinion, the guy went on to become a legend in life and death. Bruce Leenremains one of my personal heroes, he exceled at what he did and always aimed higher,ntrying to be all that he could be.
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nRating: 5 out of 5
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