Customer Reviews

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story

5 star:		(75)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

"Dragon" is an epic depicting the life of Bruce Lee. In my opinion, it is one of the most entertaining biopics of recent times. It follows the life of Bruce Lee from his childhood in Hong Kong to right before his death. The DVD version is particularly interesting because it comes with a few interviews that really shed light on Bruce Lee the man. This movie doesn't just focus on his martial arts, but it also shows his life as a family man, and an American. I found his struggle against racism to be the most moving point in this movie. Prior to Bruce Lee, the roles of Asians in Hollywood were restricted to laundrymen, villians, and caricatures. Through his effort and self-confidence, Bruce was able to make Asians into Hollywood heros. Suddenly Asia was cool.

Jason Scott Lee does a great job of portraying Bruce Lee and it's a shame that we can't see more of him these days. You can really feel the power of his performance on the screen. If you have any interest in Bruce Lee, you have to check out this film. It's sure to inspire you to reach for your own impossible dreams.

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story takes liberties with the bio-film setup and succeeds in spades, resulting in something much more interesting and challenging than straight adaptations of a life.

Director Rob Cohen's sure hand with actors gives him an edge, surely, and his cast is wonderful -- Lauren Holly was in her late 20s at filming but plays her character as a teen deftly. Jason Scott Lee may not look much like Bruce Lee, but unless Brandon Lee were cast, that's an insurmountable limitation. What Jason Scott Lee creates is a Bruce Lee that's much more likeable, more of a boy next door, than the real Bruce Lee, and considering the romantic, mythical tone of the film in general, it was an apt choice. His athleticism and dedication make him come alive onscreen, and the moment when he explodes at Holly shows him as nuts as Bruce Lee was.

The most brilliant touch of this movie was in its appropriation of certain Bruce Lee film idioms. The single most true-to-fact sequence in Dragon, in fact, is the back-alley fight with the cooks. The music, staging, editing and character behaviour here are so much like Lee's films (with the exception of The Chinese Connection) that they emblematize Lee in a way that's purely cinematic. Randy Edelman's score for the whole film was excellent ; this is one reason why you'll very often hear the "Dragon" theme used in film trailers -- it is perhaps the most widely used trailer score throughout the '90s. But his work was especially fit in this sequence.

And the DVD edition? Consider this: Three pages worth of just selection screens for bonus materials; interviews with Linda Lee Cadwell, Jason Scott Lee and Lauren Holly (I wish there could've been more, though); Jason Scott Lee's screen test -- and not just standing there doing a monologue, but a fantastically staged and filmed fight sequence that could easily have been in a feature; outtakes of the Ed Parker fight sequence; storyboards; a Bruce Lee on-camera interview, photographs from Bruce Lee's life...the only misstep here was Linda Lee Cadwell's verbal commentary to lead off the film. Though quite charming on camera and approachable, she's unbelievably stiff when delivering a written speech, and I wish she had just improvised and *talked* instead of *presented* her thoughts on her husband's life.

Dragon is not true to life. The real-life Bruce Lee, though vivacious and ambitious, is not as likeable as the persona presented here. As the interview footage shows, Bruce Lee was an arrogant man, a man not afraid to proclaim his own greatness, with very little sense of gaucherie. And Dragon's ambiguous ending ("Bruce fell into a mysterious coma...") is probably because some reports placed Lee at a mistress' house at the time of his death, while others pointed to drug use and/or triad affiliations. But Cohen has made a conscious choice to make Dragon part of the myth, not the "truth", and his sensibility remains consistent and effective throughout the film.

Don't watch Dragon to get a real sense of Lee's real-life character. Instead. sit back and watch an earnest celebration, a film interested in proponing the Bruce Lee myth, and simply a good story about an interracial romance made more dynamic by means of action-film conventions.

This is a great film of the legend of Bruce Lee. It's not an acurate portrayal of his life, but it's still a great movie. The fights scenes in the movie were awesome. Jason Scott Lee does a great job imitating Bruce's style and mannerisms. It also accurately showed us the racism involved at the time directed at the Chinese. Although Bruce Lee was a great man with great ambitions and accomplishments, he wasn't as friendly as the film depicts him to be. At times Bruce Lee was a bit arrogant and very strong minded and the movie fails to show us that, except when he seemingly temporarily loses his mind argueing with Linda Lee played by Lauren Holly. Anyway, I love this movie and I love the legend of Bruce Lee, so I reccommend this to any one interested in action movies, Bruce Lee, and inspirational movies. If you love this film I also recommend movies like "Fist of Fury", "The Chinese Connection", "Return of The Dragon", "Enter The Dragon", and "Rapid Fire". If you want to know more about the real Bruce Lee, I reccomend "The Curse Of the Dragon", it has pictures, interviews with people who knew Bruce Lee, a special but short interview with Brandon Lee, and film excerpts.

If you're looking for a biography of Bruce Lee -- you will not get it from the movie. 95% of the movie is fake. If you were looking for an action movie with martial arts thats pretty good Dragon is something you should watch.

The movie starts with Bruce Lee's father leading us to a young Bruce Lee, which leads us to believe he was an only child which is not true at all. He had many siblings. It is also mistaken that his family was poor - also not the case. When he is shown down in the bowels of a freighter going to "Land of Opportunity" that is also fake. He was on a passenger liner, albeit not first class it was still like a "cruise ship."

He also didn't take Wing Chun kung fu to fight his inner demons... it's because he was punk kid who got into alot of trouble and he needed it to defend himself from other punks.

The scene where he is fighting to be able to teach the non-chinese although real was not fought in a secret cave as the filem indicates, he fought it in his own school as a teacher named Wong Jack Man (his name is mentioned in the film) challenges him. He didn't get his back broken from a kick in the fight. He had back problems from lifting weights...

This is just to mention the baloney supposed biography in the film. If you're interested in really knowing who Bruce Lee really was you can get a few good documentaries and you can also read the book that inspired it by Linda Lee (Caldwell).

To those who slammed this movie: you missed the point.

This is a wonderful story. It was endorsed by his family! It is a Bruce Lee movie about Bruce Lee. As such, the overly dramatic fight scenes pay a tribute to his film legacy. This movie simply attempts to introduce the public to the legend using his own style of film; it doesn't try to squash his entire lifetime into a 2 hour movie. That would be like trying to contain a nuclear blast within a shoebox.

What the nay-sayers neglected to mention is the commentary audio track with the director. If you watch it, you will see that they tell the REAL story about his back injury, among other things. There are also stories about the making of the movie that attest to the power of Bruce Lee's impact on the world. The commentary track alone is worth the price of the DVD. (Did I mention the many other DVD extras?)

I've read Bruce's books. I've visited his grave in Seattle. I know his real story. And I applaud the movie for paying tribute to his life and his style of film.

So get over yourselves. This is a great movie by any standard. "It is like a finger pointing away to the moon. Don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory." -Bruce Lee

Another reviewer commented that this movie is a decent action flick, but as a bio-picture, it's actually very poor. And guess what....that reviewer was right!

I'm a big Bruce Lee fan & maybe it's just me, but if I'm going to see a movie that purports to feature the life of a particular person, I expect to see just that, no baloney, no b.s.!

I understand that some things have to be condensed & changed for dramatic purposes, because of the time frame of the movie format.

But, c'mon! Most of this picture is just innacurate & a lot of it is pure fantasy!

Check out the two Biography Specials on Bruce Lee from A & E if you want to know what the life of this late, great innovater & genius was really like!

If you want action, watch a Jackie Chan or an old Shaw Brothers flick.

But if you're expecting a reasonably accurate portrayal of Lee's life, avoid this mess like the plague!

Director Rob Cohen intended this movie to be an entertaining and thought-provoking homage to Bruce Lee and his wife Linda, not a historical re-enactment. As such, the movie only follows the outlines of the real Bruce and Linda Lee story. And the movie is definitely as much about Linda as it is about Bruce. It is as stirring a love story as any other put onto the big screen in recent times.

For all those hyper-Bruce Lee fans who have panned this movie, I have just one thing to tell you - watch the DVD version with the Director's Commentary turned on. You might learn a thing or two about the real Bruce Lee story. Yes, Rob Cohen's commentary track is worth it all by itself to get this DVD, because he discusses many of the changes made in the movie from the real story, and explains why he made the changes. He doesn't have time to explain everything, but he covers a lot (e.g., the deletion of Seattle from the storyline came about because the Univ. of Washington pissed him off with their refusal to allow him to film on campus, so he just scratched out the entire city and changed it to San Francisco). Along the way, he throws in a number of little historical gems, pointing out things in the movie that might have been put in for dramatic effect but in fact really did happen (e.g., Linda's mother making the comment to her about "having yellow babies" - Linda's mother, who was still alive, actually signed a release to allow herself to be portrayed this way).

Anyway, here's why this movie is great:

1. It is one of the first of the few major Hollywood movies ever made that depict an interracial love story of a Chinese/Caucasian couple where the Chinese person in the story is a MAN. Even today, Hollywood still seems to be much more comfortable with putting cute Chinese women matched with Caucasian leading men onto the big screen.

2. The movie really emphasizes the racial discrimination aspect of the Bruce Lee story, for example, bringing out to the general public the real story behind how David Carradine got the TV show "Kung Fu" (Carradine became very defensive about this part of his acting resume after this movie came out). Cohen dwells on this racism aspect more so than either Linda or Bruce Lee ever did in real life. Most likely, they preferred to ignore the racism and rise above it rather than draw attention to it. It's great that themes like this finally get explored in movies.

3. Jason Scott Lee is terrific. He's bigger and buffer than the real Bruce Lee (who at 5' 7" was shorter than my teenage daughter) And he's a better actor. And no, he's not as quick as the real Bruce Lee, but few people ever were, and for somebody not trained in the martial arts, he sure did a great job of faking it. Unfortunately, since this movie, Jason seems to have undergone a Bruce Lee experience of his own - after making a few more major movies, his career has started to fade from the big screen as more "authentic" and bankable (in the Asian market anyway) Chinese actors such as Jet Li, Jackie Chan and Chow Yun Fat take over Hollywood's slot for Asian leading men.

4. The soundtrack by Randy Edelman is terrific (if somewhat repetitious). One of the most beautiful parts of the movie was the scene where Jason Scott Lee and Lauren Holly go through their balletic kung-fu excercises in perfect unison to Edelman's stirring score.

5. Lauren Holly is terrific. She too is a Hollywood improvement on the original. For one thing, in the movie, although she cuts her hair short after marriage, just like the real Linda Lee, her hair never takes on the 60's - era puffed bun look of the original Linda Lee (geez, was there ever a more horrible hairstyle than the puffed bun). For another, her role is much more aggressive and pro-active, more of a proto-feminist from the 90's. The ending of this movie makes it seem as if she was close to leaving Bruce Lee to return to the U.S., whereas the real truth was that Bruce Lee at the time was already traveling back and forth to the U.S. as well as all over the world, and it would have been far more likely that he would have been the one to spin out of her orbit as he scaled the heights of international superstardom.

This is not just a movie about Bruce Lee, it is a great and moving love story. Listen to Director Rob Cohen again as he talks about the final scene in this movie, when Jason Scott Lee gives a good-bye kiss to Lauren Holly and then climbs up the stairs to the Han Island movie set:

"When I look at this scene, no matter how many times, I still get choked up.... Part of it is that how much these people loved each other. Part of it was how beautiful they were together, and what a stand they made for their time. Part of it is that, as he's finishing this film, he's finishing his life, and we know it and he doesn't.....I wanted to give the homage of his fellow martial artists to the great image, the great work, the great place in history of Bruce Lee....to see him again, mythically, legendarily, above and eternal, in motion, never stopping, always kinetic, and always with us."

The story opens in Hong Kong, as Bruce Lee (Jason Scott Lee) is forced to flee to America to avoid gang violence. He meets his future wife, Linda (Lauren Holly), and their love story is quite touching. They marry, despite her prejudiced mother (Michael Learned), and have two children. A near-fatal fight results in paralysis, but Lee bravely recovers. He becomes a respected martial arts teacher and then starts his acting career on television as Kato in The Green Hornet. He is soon starring in Chinese action films in Hong Kong. He makes "Return of the Dragon," an important American movie filmed in Hong Kong. Tragically, he dies as a result of a mysterious coma, only weeks before the film's premiere, at the age of 32.

Jason Scott Lee is so charismatic and likeable here, that you simply cannot take your eyes off of him. He is equally adept at action scenes and love scenes, and even if you don't like martial arts films, you will like this movie very much. Lauren Holly has her best role to date as Linda Lee, strong, supportive, and courageous wife and mother. The script is excellent.

This is a heartwarming film about love and courage; I highly recommend it.

The life of Bruce Lee is fascinating story of one man's triumph over racism, poverty and cultural backlash. Bruce Lee was not just a martial artist, he was a man who believed in making himself and his art, his life and his soul, better than it was.

Although inaccurate in many parts, Dragon lays down a story that is very close to what Lee had to endure in coming to America and wanting to make a life for himself. Dating an American girl and starting a martial arts school that taught traditional style had people on both sides persecuting him. The Chinese elders did not want him teaching Americans their ways, while Americans threw racial slanders at him. Lee was willing to teach anyone, his did not believe in the cultural boundries and wanted to share what he knew.

Dragon contains six separate fight scenes, all very energetic and very faithful to the moves and skill of Bruce Lee in the Kung Fu style he studied since he was a child. Jason Scott Lee (no relation) is very athletic and does a spectacular job of imitating the moves of the master. Closer scrutiny may show that his is just mimicking, Scott Lee is not a strict martial artist and pretty much learned things from the ground up for this film.

He plays the part with even more conviction though. His character performance is powerful and striking, containing many nuances and mannerisms that Bruce Lee had. He may not look that much like him, but he makes up for it in sheer character. Lauren Holly holds her own as Linda, the girl ousted by her parents for being with Bruce because he was Chinese. She has good strength of character but nothing really stands out about her.

This was director Rob Cohen's first major film and although his track record afterward is non-impressive, this movie probably holds the most substance of any of his work. Although there is a lot of creative license going on in the movie, it is a touching tale of overcoming adversity and personal fear. A piece of trivia; Bruce Lee's son Brandon died on the set of `The Crow' the same year this movie was released. In Dragon, Bruce fights off a menacing creature who is trying to kill his son...the parallels are creepy.

Lets do the good things first. If you like martial arts movies you will probably enjoy this. Jason Scott Lee does a good job portraying Bruce Lee, and there are some very good fight sequences in the film. There are also some clever recreations of some of Bruce Lee's most famous moments, such as the classic scene in The Green Hornet, and the mirrors sequence in Enter the Dragon.

However the film is a big let down in many ways. Supposedly its based on the book his wife wrote, but clearly the writers and producers just decided to ignore the book. All the key points in the film revolve around Bruce Lee fights. Some of these may have been for real but I just didn't believe that most the key moments in his life revolved around him beating somebody in a fight. As a previous reviewer has pointed out, his back injury was the result of training not a fight.

The ending of the film was very disappointing. A voice-over that may or may not have been his real wife makes a bland statement about people always talking about the way he died, and not about the way he lived. Thats it - no explanation for his death is given at all. The filmmakers had the opportunity here to portray the likely truth* in the film which would have helped stop further speculation.

*He took painkillers for a headache, and lay down on a bed and never woke up.

So from an entertainment point of view this is worth watching, though its no masterpiece. From a factual point of its of very limited value, and you would be better reading some of the more reputable books on Lee, if you really want to know about his life.