I 3 dell'Operazione Drago

As a child, one of my first and best friends was a strange boy who worshiped the ground Bruce Lee walked on - cutting his hair, taking Jiu Jitsu and Hapkido lessons, and often stalking around with that intense animal fury that only Lee could create all over his 7 year old face. My friend took a lot of abuse for this and other odd behaviors with dignity that his hero would have applauded. Unfortunately, Mr. Lee passed from this world very young, leaving a legend and a pair of shoes that have never really been filled. For most Americans, this is the only Hollywood film worthy of mention with his name in the cast.

Don't get me wrong, I love Jackie Chan and Jet Li and even the few Chow Yun Fat roles involving martial arts, but each of these actors have their own, very big, personalities, and - at least in the case of Chan - have built their own unique legend. Unlike his successors, what Lee excelled at was the intense physicality and drama of his performance. He worked every muscle of his body in every beautifully choreographed fight scene of Enter The Dragon, and made art out of violence in ways that today's Hollywood gun violence schlock-directors can only dream of. And Enter the Dragon is one of his most stunning vehicles.

The pseudo-Taoisms are kept to a minimum and concentrated near the beginning of this film. Lee enters a martial arts tournament to avenge the murder of his sister, and to defend the honor of the Shao Lin Temple, where he helps to train young martial artists. John Saxon, a down-on-his luck playboy and brigand is the closest thing to a co-star, and comes to the tournament hoping for a solution to his financial problems. The tournament is hosted by a mass-murdering heroin manufacturer who hides his production facilities, literally, beneath a martial arts school, using the instructors and students in the school as an army of body guards. Kien Shih is absolutely compelling as the evil Han, even if his fight scenes are, at times, a bit less convincing than the master Lee's. Lee and Shih are the performance highlights of the film. Though Saxon does a passable job, his performance is a bit fibrous at times.

Worth seeing for the sets and settings alone, this film is driven well by its fast pace, simple but engaging story line, and the sheer talent of Bruce Lee. Of course, there are the usual problems of the martial arts genre - villains whose sense of honor for the most part only applies to life-threatening situations fighting would-be heroes, the lack of any weapons besides fists and unused knives, unnecessary nude scenes - it is very easy to overlook these problems and just enjoy the film.

Highly recommended.

"Destroy the image, and you will break the enemy."

It's a real shame that I'm just now getting acquainted with Bruce Lee's work because I really love this stuff. Enter the Dragon is a joy to watch for any fan of martial arts flicks.

The story is about Lee's quest to bring justice to a renegade Shaolin monk (with a fake, removable hand) at a tournament he hosts to recruit people for his criminal organization, but the thin plot is really there only to give Lee lots of guys to fight. The man beats the crap out of people to the point where you wonder why the villains even bother to try to attack him. There are lots of great, old-school fights to check out, and the choreography is very impressive. 

If you have any kind of a fondness for martial arts in film, then Enter the Dragon should be at the top of your list of movies to see. It's absolute proof of what a talent and natural star he was, and a nice introduction to Lee's personal philosophy for life and the martial arts.

I first saw this in the late 80s on a vhs. Then again in the early 2k on a dvd which I own.

Revisited it recently with my family.

This time Lee plays a martial arts instructor who is approached by the British Intelligence and is persuaded to attend a martial arts tournament on a private island owned by Han, a crime lord.

Lee's assignment is to gather evidence that will prove Han's involvement in drug trafficking and prostitution.

The movie has amazing star cast, few top notch martial arts fight scenes n wonderful music score.

This one is not as intense as Fist of Fury but very entertaining.

The villain Han is not intimidating or a convincing fighter yet he is able to take down the character of Jim Kelly.

We have Sammo Hung in an uncredited role in the opening fight scene against Lee at the start of the film.

Enter the Dragon along with Game of Death were the foundation for fighting games. Both these movies inspired various martial arts n action movies.

We also have Bolo Yeung before he became the usual villain in JCVD's movies.

In Fist of Fury, Lee's character bites the leg of a Russian fighter during a duel.

In this movie John Saxon's character bites the leg of Bolo Yeung during a duel.

A non-stop succession of brightly-coloured, almost continuous aggro with a villain with a metal hand who actually strokes a white cat that was a huge hit and posthumously made a star worldwide of Bruce Lee.

Very seventies, full of flairs, sideburns, zooms and a groovy Lalo Schifrin score; it was shot on location in Hong Kong without bothering to record any sound, the dialogue and sound effects obviously post-synced.

Although billed third, the delectable Ahna Capri actually gets sadly little screen time.

Enter the Dragon (1973) was Bruce Lee's first (and only) solo big Hollywood production. Too bad he never got to see the fruits of his labor. He passed away during the film's post production (don't fret, two more official Bruce Lee films were made after this one. Despite all of the years of hard work and finally making it to the big times, he wasn't around long enough to enjoy it. Even though Robert Clouse is credited as director and another person is credited for writing the screenplay. This film has Bruce Lee's fingerprints all over it.

The movie is about a shady underworld crime lord (aren't they always) who controls most of the world's opium drug ring and a lot of other illegal dealings. British Intelligence is stumped, so they seek out someone who's slick, sly, stealth and who can kick a lot of butt and take care of himself. They find their man (Bruce Lee). After a great deal of convincing they get him to go to the island and participate in the crime lord's fighting tournament. Along the way, Bruce meets two American fighters (John Saxon and Jim Kelly) who are in the tournament for various reasons. Whilst on the island, Bruce does his nightly snooping around so he can find out more about the crime lord and his illegal activities. Will Bruce topple the organization? Can he make it out alive? Does Bruce really kick a whole lot of butt and take names? To find out you'll have to watch Enter The Dragon!!!!

Bruce Lee worked a great deal on this picture. He wrote most of the screenplay (uncredited), filmed all of the action scenes (uncredited) and directed several scenes (uncredited). Lam Ching-Ying, Angela Mao, Jackie Chan and Bolo Yeung appear in this film. If you haven't seen this film already then you're either a kid, lame or something is wrong with you.

Highly recommended.