Home Entertainment Guilty Pleasures – Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story

Guilty Pleasures – Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story

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Nothing beats a good biopic. I honestly don’t care if the events within are about as real as my legendary fight with General Zod where I single-handledly brought down real estate values, but they make for great cinematic fodder. And while I’ve yet to see a movie based on events “inspired” by the life of Chuck Norris, Bruce Lee was the next best alternative.

And that 1993 film starring Jason Scott Lee as the late martial arts actor got the balance between fiction and reality perfect.

Based on the life and career of Martial Arts superstar, Bruce Lee. Haunted by demons. Bruce was taught Martial arts at childhood. Bruce then was told by his father to flee to the United States. There, he opened up a Martial Arts school, then was chosen to be the Green Hornet’s sidekick, Kato. Then, his big movie career that included “The Big Boss” and “Enter the Dragon”. Fighting many enemies along the way, including his childhood demon.

I’m kinda sad that Jason Scott Lee is barely seen in films these days. In Dragon, I think he did a great job as Lee, capturing that confident nature and intensity of the actor perfectly. And it certainly helped with some of those great fight scenes as well. From USA bullies to Chinese demon death curse monsters, the film has plenty of great scenes that demonstrate how well JSL could perform a snap kick scream combo.

But what I dug most about this biopic, was just how little of a crap it gave to actually getting the facts about Lee right. Lee never got back-Baned by his fight with with Wong Jack Man. Lee never had a revenge fight with the brother of Jack Man on the set of Big Boss. Hell, they never even got the circumstances of Lee’s death right.

And yet, I don’t care.

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Dragon is a solid film because it takes those liberties, because it does what it pleases. Sure, some scenes may have been absurd, but the combination of some great acting, fight scenes and a fantastic orchestral score set this film apart from other biopics.

And hell, at least they managed to cast an Asian guy this time, instead of David Carradine yet again.

 

 

Last Updated: July 24, 2013

3 Comments

  1. I have to agree. I enjoyed this movie.
    Bruce Lee fans should look out for I Am Bruce Lee.
    Good doccie.
    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1954299/

    Reply

  2. James Francis

    July 24, 2013 at 17:58

    Hmmm, I haven’t watched this in a long time. Back when Lauren Holly was a big deal!

    Reply

    • Kervyn Cloete

      July 24, 2013 at 19:05

      I had honestly forgotten all about her until I saw this.

      Reply

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