Dragon : L'Histoire de Bruce Lee

This is a great movie. Nice action scenes, nice soundtrack, nice photo...But it's not a biography of the greatest fighter of all time: Bruce Lee. I am a big fan of Bruce and I know his life from A to Z, and this is not what I saw in that movie. I could tell all the mistakes I saw in the movie but here's just a few: In the movie: he is a unique child Reality: He had one brother and two sisters and he didn't live with his father only, he had his mother. He didn't leave Hong-Kong because of the cops (what the?...) he left because he wanted to be famous. And please! What is that story of the ghost from the depts of hell?!?!?

No, if you want to make a great action movie, good, go ahead, the right way to do it. But if you want to make a bio of a true legend, please tell the true story.

7/10

Once you became a Bruce Lee addict and begin seeing and reading the numerous different biographies and biopics, you're going to realise that DRAGON has quite a bit of fiction in it - and in the bits you don't really expect it to. For example, Lee approached Raymond Chow's Golden Harvest production company to make a marital arts movie, not the other way round and Chow isn't even the guy! Also, due to Lee's 'mysterious' death, the film also doesn't really an idea of how its going to wrap it all up. Therefore, the film is the perfect example of the word 'vivid'.

However, what makes Dragon the fine film that it is is that it decides to look at the two lesser-known aspects which dominated Lee's life - his long, ongoing 'battles' with an inner-demon and of course the racism of sixties America. These are managed and brought to the screen extremely well although to be fair they aren't particularly well developed.

The highlights would have to be the performances of Jason Scott Lee as Bruce and Lauren Holly as his devoted wife, Linda. They share a remarkable chemistry together and are certainly a credit to their subjects. This review probably hasn't made Dragon sound like a very good movie. Well if that's the case, then please think the opposite.

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is directed by Rob Cohen who also co-adapts the screenplay with John Raffo and Edward Khmara. It stars Jason Scott Lee, Lauren Holly, Robert Wagner and Michael Learned. Music is by Randy Edelman and cinematography by David Eggby.

Based on Bruce Lee: The Man I Only Knew by Linda Lee Caldwell (Bruce Lee's widow), "Dragon" is more tribute movie than biography. A big success on release, it's a film that still causes some consternation with a number of Bruce Lee fans. The reasoning is because in true Hollywood style it tinkers with facts, misses out other notable points and has some time line issues. Yet if you can accept it as a "painted always in a positive light" homage piece more than a definitive biography? Then you find the essence of the man and his short life is there in glorious splendour.

In many ways it's an inspiring tale of a complex man, while it also plays out as a wonderful love story between two people of a different race making it work at a time when such a thing was frowned upon by the ignorant. Lee's skills as an artist and a human being are firmly portrayed, with Jason Scott Lee (no relation) proving to be admirable in his depiction of such. The fights are very well choreographed and perfectly OTT, but crucially they do not come at a cost to the story, it's the narrative that shines through even as the action appeases the action hungry hoards. While rightly there's iconography unbound, naturally.

The production value is high as regards quality of colour photography, set and costume design and recreations of famous moments. Edelman's score is a heart swelling and heroic scorcher that avoids over dosing on Oriental strains, Cohen moves it along at a nice clip and Holly is fabulous in her sympathetic portrayal of Bruce's wife. It's not all perfect, though. Away from the issues the hard core Lee fans have, the Demon that haunts the Lee family dreams is more funny than scary and the finale feels rushed and not dramatically fulfilling. It's fair that Lee's wife voices over the end and tells us it's about celebrating his life, but his death remains a key issue and skipping over it is a mistake.

In the year of the film's release, the Lee's first child, Brandon, would be killed whilst filming The Crow, aged 28. Thus as Linda Lee Caldwell helped craft a film about a husband who died aged just 32, she lost her son. There is added poignancy in that, it's something that undeniably makes Dragon even more of a moving experience, but rest assured, as a film tribute to Bruce Lee, it earns every one of its emotional and thoughtful beats. 8/10

The story told in the movie is really excellent and entertaining. However it feels more like a story based on the life of Bruce Lee rather then an actual biopic of his life.

Jason Scott Lee perfectly plays Kung Fu legend Bruce Lee. Not only the way he plays Lee is impressive but also his fighting skills.

The music by Randy Edelman was also surprising good.

There are way too many fictitious and untrue things added in the movie to be considered a fair biography. But does it really matter for the movie? It's like "Ed Wood" that was also filled with altered things and false truths but still it was a movie that told us the story of an unique character and what drove him. "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story" isn't much different in that way. OK it's not completely fair to compare this movie to "Ed Wood" since that was a far superior movie to "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story" (what a horrible title by the way).

The fight sequence are probably the best thing about the movie and they were highly entertaining, although very hard to believe that they actually really happened that way.

It's a good entertaining movie but if you want to get to know more about Bruce Lee this isn't the best material for you to start with.

7/10

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52. DRAGON: The Bruce Lee story (action, 1993) A re-telling of the life of legendary martial-arts star Bruce Lee (Jason Scott Lee). From his brief childhood days in Hong Kong, to his days as a dishwasher, martial-arts teacher and eventual cinema superstar in Hollywood.

Critique: The life and death of Bruce Lee has inspired many a film and documentaries since his death. Most of these accounts center around Lee's 'mysterious' death from a 'brain edema', never developing anything really new of interest, just speculations. Incredibly it took over 20 years for a film to finally put to rest the many theories and innuendo.

"Dragon" is by far the best of the legendary Lee story, not only for omitting the many death scenarios but also for giving us the closest account of the man. Apart from these welcome omissions, the film wouldn't have worked without Jason Scott Lee in the role. He gives a spirited, charismatic performance that captures the zest for life that Lee possessed. It's a long way from one of his first 'extra' roles as an Asian immigrant in the rather forgetful "Born in East L.A." (1988). Scott Lee is totally appealing here, taking on such a legendary figure and making us believe that Lee is truly up there once again on the screen.

The film's major theme of the "demon curse" Lee's family inherited, had a frighteningly real resonance when, after the movie premiered, Lee's eldest son Brandon (for whom the film is dedicated) was accidentally killed on the set of "The Crow". This would prove to be his breakout film, just the same way Lee's last film, "Enter the Dragon", made him a world wide superstar. This gives the film an added prophetic note that puts it in a category all its own.

Based on wife Linda Lee Cadwell's book, "Bruce Lee: the man only I knew", directed with skillful restraint by Rob Cohen (who also co-scripted). Randy Edelman created the unforgettable musical score (you'll be humming the tune long after you hear it).

QUOTES: Linda: "All these years later people still wonder about the way he died. I prefer to remember the way he lived."