Popcorn and Inspiration: ‘Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story’

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PG-13 | 2 hrs | Drama, Biopic | May 7, 1993

The year 2023 marks the 50th death anniversary of San Francisco-born martial artist and actor Bruce Lee. It also marks the 50th anniversary of “Enter the Dragon” that catapulted Bruce to global fame, and the 30th anniversary of screenwriter-director Rob Cohen’s “Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story.”

Rumor and controversy so surround the Bruce legend that it feels futile to try and separate fact from fiction. Mr. Cohen doesn’t even try. His film isn’t a scrupulously accurate documentary. Instead, it entertains, inspires, and celebrates Bruce (Jason Scott Lee) the man, the myth, the master, the movie star.
Bruce Lee (Jason Scott Lee) and his wife, Linda (Lauren Holly), in "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story." (MovieStillsDB)
Bruce Lee (Jason Scott Lee) and his wife, Linda (Lauren Holly), in "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story." MovieStillsDB

In the film, Bruce’s parents send him back to America, hoping that studying will distract him from the scuffling he can’t seem to resist in Hong Kong. They'd moved to Hong Kong after his birth, and it’s where he was raised as a boy. Teaching, he refines his learning of martial arts. Marrying a white woman, Linda (Lauren Holly), he finds strength in combating racism. Manager Bill Krieger (Robert Wagner), spotting Bruce’s grasp of the theatrical, introduces him to showbiz. Bruce’s magnetism does the rest.

This is a love story. It’s about Bruce’s love for America, for Linda, and for the finest that the martial arts has to offer. Its explosive combat scenes happen not only in fighting rings but also on a movie set, in a gym, at a dance club, and even in the backyard of a restaurant kitchen. It’s an overtly physical story of a man known for his ascetic physique and his astounding physicality. But it characterizes his greatest battle as spiritual, ranking it above his undoubtedly daunting physical battles.
(L–R) Director Rob Cohen, stars Lauren Holly and Jason Scott Lee, with cinematographer David Eggby on the set of “Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story.” (MovieStillsDB)
(L–R) Director Rob Cohen, stars Lauren Holly and Jason Scott Lee, with cinematographer David Eggby on the set of “Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story.” MovieStillsDB
At this battlefield’s center is the “Demon,” a towering, armed, and armored figure who haunts the dreams of Bruce’s father before he haunts Bruce’s own. Playing the Demon, the nearly 6-and-1/2-foot-tall bodybuilder Sven-Ole Thorsen towers regardless of whether you’re seeing the 5-foot-10 Jason or imagining the 5-foot-7 Bruce.

Familiar to Asian traditions, the Demon is like the gargoyle in Western traditions: a fearsome-looking sculpture guarding sacred sites, not to embody evil (selfishness, pride, fear, envy, greed) but to scare it away. Yet for all of its fearsomeness, here it embodies Bruce’s subconscious, raging behind (and beneath) his conscious insecurities.

Bruce Lee fans favor the climactic room-of-mirrors sequence in “Enter the Dragon” as the summit of screen spectacle; for sheer drama, it’s hard to beat. Still, Mr. Cohen portrays it as Bruce’s battle with himself, his fears, his ego, and his struggle to find fulfillment apart from his ambitions and attachments.

Bruce died a month before “Enter the Dragon” was released. Eerily, Mr. Cohen’s script has Bruce fending the Demon off his son Brandon; the real-life Brandon died weeks before Mr. Cohen’s film released.

Bruce Lee and his son Brandon in 1966. (Public Domain)
Bruce Lee and his son Brandon in 1966. Public Domain

Battling the Ego

Martial artists are rarely considered athletes the way sprinters or marathoners are, implying more art and artistry than athleticism. And art, or striving toward it, pervades Bruce’s life: the art of staying a student while teaching, the art of rising after each fall, the art of building balance while embracing extremes, and the art of enduring punishing training routines as preconditions for his envied ease during heated combat.

In a film about fighting, Mr. Cohen, supported by Randy Edelman’s heroic score, spends considerable time contemplating reconciliation. Bruce reconciles with sudden riches and a soaring reputation; he reconciles with Linda’s formerly racist family, with setbacks from grievous injury, with rejections by major film studios, and with reversals from a near-fatal injury.

Bruce warns that meekness shouldn’t be mistaken for weakness. Sure, he learns that racism isn’t always worth losing your shirt over. But in sync with Mr. Cohen’s cheeky style, in one electrifying tussle with a racist bully, Bruce loses his shirt twice!

The Actors

Fittingly, it’s Jason’s humility that won him the part. Mr. Cohen knew that Chinese actors would jump at the role, hard selling their nationality, physique, and martial arts prowess. But Jason, having seen several actors play Bruce poorly, and wary of mocking Bruce’s memory by compounding that farce, said, “I think you’ve got the wrong guy." Instantly, Mr. Cohen knew that Jason would be perfect, and in the film, he is.

Bruce’s martial arts student Jerry Poteet, coaching Jason, told him something that Bruce was fond of saying: “To see is to be deceived, to hear is to be lied to, but to feel is to believe.”

Jason’s disarming smile compensates for the fact that he doesn’t resemble Bruce as much as actors who’ve played Bruce before him. Instead, he captures, as no one does, Bruce’s indomitable spirit, his effervescence, and his “Chi.”

Linda, as a voice-over at the end, poignantly salutes Bruce’s elusive qualities when she says that although many speculate about how Bruce died, she prefers to remember how he lived. After all, isn’t that what matters?

Bruce Lee (Jason Scott Lee), in "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story." (MovieStillsDB)
Bruce Lee (Jason Scott Lee), in "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story." MovieStillsDB
“Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story” can be watched on Vudu, Prime Video, and Apple TV.
‘Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story’ Director: Rob Cohen Starring: Jason Scott Lee, Lauren Holly MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 2 hours Release Date: May 7, 1993 Rated: 5 stars out of 5
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