El dragón

If, like me, you have only seen Bruce Lee in the wonderful, but portentous, ENTER THE DRAGON, than you might be surprised by this quite potty earlier film. In ENTER THE DRAGON, Lee was amused, but sombre; a fighting machine, pivotal piece in a deadly serious mythological puzzle, his strength never in doubt.

The first third of this film couldn't be more different. Played as (very funny) comedy, Lee is passive (we first see him waiting for someone), a figure of fun, a fish out of water, exagerratedly polite, bewildered by alien custom and language, as well as his own bowels. A number of scuffles take part early on in which he takes no part, and which make us doubt his prowess.

Lee directed this film, and his visual conception is much more inventive that Robert Clouse's (ENTER). Although it lacks the insane invention of A TOUCH OF ZEN, or the dizzy verve of Tsui Hark's films, Lee is not content with simple ego gratification. His two directorial mentors seem to be Melville and Leone. The former (hugely influenced by Oriental martial discipline himself) gave him a hero who is narcissistic (check the opening shot), whole; whose physical prowess is ironically the result of mental superiority, an almost Zen laid-backness; concealing the coiled, taut, muscle-burst of Lee's beautiful body.

Kung Fu is primarily an art of self-defense, and this film returns to these roots: its conception of protecting the oppressed rings throughout the film (in the seemingly gratuitous picture-postcard scenes, Lee makes the connection between European colonial splendour, and the poverty and repression of Hong Kong). Chuck Norris's character has betrayed Kung Fu by siding with the oppressor - his art is bestial and clumsy, lacking the spare geometric elegance of Lee's.

But Kung fu's self-defense is also a defence of one's 'self' (this is where Melville comes in) - it protects one from any threat to one's powerful wholeness, especially women (and men. There is a slight whiff of homophobia, mitigated by the outrageous campness of the film (all that red! The whole idea of SHANE recast in a restaurant!). This is ironic, since it is the proof of Lee's martial art power that makes the initially sceptical heroine (very stylish and lovely) fall for his charms (and who can blame her?).

Lee's second master is Sergio Leone, from whom he has learnt an irreverent approach to genre, with jokey zooms, close-ups and cuts; mocking, yet mournful and melancholic Morricone-esque music; a ritual stand-off between mythical archetypes (an awesome set-piece in the Colosseum), with the film's heart belonging to the slightly silly, but loveable, subsidiary characters.

The use of these iconoclastic directors adds a reflective and critical dimension to a genre previously (in its most populist form) a showcase for male vanity (although Lee never lets us forget how gorgeous and sweetly small and cuddly he is). A supremely entertaining film which unexpectedly achieves a climactic power and melancholy.

Bruce Lee really rules. Before this I had seen only "enter the dragon". It is usually considered to bee his best film, so I didn´t really know what to expect from "way of the dragon". I liked it very much. Biggest problem I had with it was that I had to watch the english dubbed version. I prefer the original language! Lee really knew how to entertain the audience. He was funny, but not too funny. I particulary enjoyed the last fighting scene when "Colt" was defeated. For once the bad guy went down with honour! I recommend this to anyone who likes a good kung-fu movie. There might be better ones, but no complains. 8/10

Bruce Lee demonstrates why without ever being a tournament champion that he was one of the best martial artists of all times. His speed and technique easily out class the other real martial artisits this film presents. His fight with Chuck Norris in this film is legendary. Watching Chuck in his prime is intense, high speed and accuracy. What scares me is that Bruce is faster. And even though he is lacking size, its obvious that the little dragons power is intense. Yes the scenes in these movies may be choreographed, but it's hard to make duplicate the skills shown by these fighters with trick photography and ballet lessons.

This is the first film Bruce took a major role in both on and off the set. He searched for quality martial artists for the fight scenes and was the one who reccomended Italy for this shoot.

The film revolves around a restaurant in Italy run by Lee's uncle and his (assumably ) cousins. Local gangsters try to close the restaurant down and get a piece of the action. To avoid complications with the law, they try and man handle the resteraunt owner and workers and Lee comes to the rescue.

Even though this movie was dubbed, and the dubbing isn't that great. the whole movie is great. I actually find this movie way better then Enter the Dragon. Plus, you got Bruce Lee, writing, starring and directing it, and he knew what to do to make this kung fu movie awesome. I reccomend this one to any kung fu fan who has not seen this one yet... i give it 9 out of 10.

The Way Of The Dragon had the potential to be Bruce's best film in my opinion but was bogged down by the dubbing and acting. But it still stands solid as one great Bruce Lee film and boasts the greatest fight scene ever in my opinion. Bruce plays Tang Lung who travels to Rome to help his family battle local gangsters who are trying to take over their resturaunt. Bruce almost plays a Charlie Chaplin type role here which would later be more fitting to Jackie Chan's slapstick style. Much like the Big Boss the first Bruce fight scene is way into the film but in my opinion this good because it creates a good build up, the nunchuka scene is second only to the one in Fist Of Fury or the uncut Game Of Death. The fight scene in the Roman Colliseum deserves the credit it gets because of one simple reason, its a simple fight, there are no gimmicks, sure its set in the colliseum and the fight is supposed to reflect two roman gladiators but there are no weapons and no sweet talk. It truly has epic scale. The thing that also makes this fight scene work is the end when Tang Lung out of respect covers Colt with his Karate jacket. There may have been better fights since on screen and I havn't seen many Hong Kong films with Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan, Donnie Yen etc but this is the first great one on one fight, therefore it set the standard.

There will indeed never be another Bruce Lee. I find it fascinating to imagine what Bruce would have done if he had lived, the 80's and 90's would have been very different if Arnie, Stallone, Wiilis, Seagal and Van Damme had Bruce to compete with, Bruce is sometimes critcised for being a bad actor, but i disagree, if anyone has seen his episodes of `Longstreet' or `Marlowe' they will see that Bruce could convincingly carry a dramatic scene given the right script and no dubbing and he oozed charisma, and he showed glimpses of good acting in Enter The Dragon.

Being a Bruce fan i kind of wish that Jet Li would do the films that bruce did or was planning on doing, Jet's early work in Honk Kong like the Shaolin Temple or more recent stuff like Fist Of Legend(remake of Fist Of Fury) and Once Upon A Time In China was very promising and it seemed he was the successor to Bruce but instead now he's doing crap in Hollywood with DMX and Jason Statham. Strangely the mediocre Lethal Weapon 4 is Jet's best Hollywood film, Maybe Jet should do a project with John Woo, it would be interesting and they'd probably get the best out of each other.