"Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story" Movie Review

The title character is played by Jason Scott Lee (no relation) and his wife, Linda, is played by Lauren Holly. Robert Wagner plays the producer that discovers Lee at the 1964 Ed Parker International Karate Tournament.

The storyline and script are well thought out and parlayed onto the screen. Bruce Lee is forced to leave Hong Kong at a young age after getting into some trouble with some American sailors. He comes to America where he works as a dishwasher, before finally meeting his wife-to-be. After starting a martial arts school, he is challenged by the traditional martial community for teaching non-orientals. He wins the challenge, and begins creating his own style, Jeet Kun Do. After moving to Southern California, he is discovered while taking all comers at the Ed Parker International Karate Tournament of 1964. From here, he gets his break into Hollywood with his portrayal of "Kato" in "The Green Hornet." Upon going to back to Hong Kong for his father’s funeral, he is offered the opportunity to make movies there. He stays and makes "The Big Boss" before finally coming back to America and starring in his biggest production, "Enter the Dragon." Throughout the movie, he battles spiritual demons that are attacking his father, his son, and himself, as well as more real-life demons such as poverty and racism.

Apparently, Brandon Lee was approached to play his father in this movie, but he turned it down. That would have been very interesting to see. Jason Scott Lee, however, is very convincing as Bruce Lee playing the role with an enthusiasm and exuberance that draws the viewer into the movie. Although Lee had no prior martial arts training, he is fairly good in the scenes requiring martial technique. Lauren Holly does an great job portraying Lee’s wife, Linda. Other great performances include Nancy Kwan as his boss when he is a dishwasher at her restaurant.

The only thing that bothers me about this film is how fast and loose the script is with the facts. I understand that a certain amount of "creative license" is required to make a picture more entertaining and almost all films based on actually events have some changes from reality. However, writers can get carried away with this, and that is what I think happened here. For example, in the movie Linda suggests to Bruce that he open a commercial martial arts school, and he does saying, "...it was your idea." In reality, however, he already had a commercial school when he met her. At the tournament, Bruce Lee never actually fought anybody, he simply gave a demonstration (and a darn good one too!). Also, the "Tao of Jeet Kun Do" wasn’t published until 1979, six years after the death of Lee. In the movie, they receive a finished copy. Also, for some reason unknown to me, they created a fictional character (Bill Krieger) who discovers Bruce Lee and breaks him into Hollywood. In reality, Raymond Chow (executive producer of some of Bruce Lee’s movies and others including Rumble in the Bronx, Jackie Chan’s Police Story, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the China O’Brien series) was the man who discovered Bruce Lee. Probably the biggest inaccuracy of the movie, however, is how Bruce Lee breaks his back. In the movie, he breaks it from a cheap shot delivered during the challenge match, but in real life he broke it lifting weights.

There are some exceptional scenes where as a viewer, you really get into the movie. Particularly is the scene where Linda’s mother see’s Brandon for the first time. Also making the movie fun to watch is a series of cameos from people who were involved in the real Bruce Lee’s life. His daughter, Shannon, plays the singer at a party for people involved with the "Green Hornet" production. Ed Parker, Jr. plays his own late father, Ed Parker at the tournament. Van Williams (who played the original Green Hornet) plays the director of "The Green Hornet." And finally, Rob Cohen, the movie’s director, plays the director of "Enter the Dragon."

The movie overall is a very watchable fair, and I recommend it for anyone, regardless of whether you are fan of Bruce Lee or not!

Since I never go to a karate movie to see the plot, I have devised a scale to rate karate movies different than a non-karate movie. Along with an overall rating, I have four subcategory ratings, including: Acting, Storyline, Martial Art Coreography, and Martial Arts Technique. Here are the ratings for "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story."

From 1 - 5 stars.