Customer Reviews

The Legend of Bruce Lee

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If you'd like to know more about the world's first Chinese American superstar, this book is the place to begin. Published not long after Bruce Lee's tragic death, it benefits from the author's in-depth interviews with many figures now lost to us, including the master screenwriter Stirling Silliphant. Great photos and great background on Angela Mao also. Worth checking out!

Alex Ben Block, somewhat known the time, produces a hurried bio on Lee soon after his death, as Dell capitalizes on the death of Bruce and the Kung Fu craze. Block makes several terminology mistakes, which was much more common in the 70s when non-martial artists were largely ignorant of terms and definitions. This is an irritant, but nothing more.

Block tries to get a "feeling" about Bruce Lee's pressures, the events surrounding him, and the Hong Kong movie business - here he largely succeeds. He succeeds in the Hollywood - Hong Kong connection, but largely fails in his martial arts knowledge and those circles where Bruce walked, taught, and associated in.

My biggest disagreement? Block finds Return of the Dragon (Way of the Dragon)to be Lee's worse movie - it is my personal favorite.

Not your typical biography. Block gets very deeply into the history of China, religious beliefs, etc. Some of that can be boring, but it's stil ok. His in depth description of the life of the 'busy ninja' is especially interesting to read. Because this book was written far more closely to Bruce's death than many books on the life of BL, it has the most in depth review of all the autopsy's I have seen.
I didn't find his review of Bruce's films on the mark all the time. There are a few interesting photos here that I haven't seen anywhere else, which was a nice bonus. When Alex Ben Block was interviewed in one of those documentaries, he really explained the BL films and the effect they had on people very well, but he didn't show too much of that attitude in the book. Still a good read.

A great bio of the martial arts legend. Detailed account of his life, entertainment and martial arts career. Great section of photos too.