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Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993)

May. 07,1993
|
7
|
PG-13
| Drama Action History

This film is a glimpse into the life, love and the unconquerable spirit of the legendary Bruce Lee. From a childhood of rigorous martial arts training, Lee realizes his dream of opening his own kung-fu school in America. Before long, he is discovered by a Hollywood producer and begins a meteoric rise to fame and an all too short reign as one the most charismatic action heroes in cinema history.

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ThiefHott
1993/05/07

Too much of everything

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Solemplex
1993/05/08

To me, this movie is perfection.

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AutCuddly
1993/05/09

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

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Scarlet
1993/05/10

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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Wuchak
1993/05/11

RELEASED IN 1993 and directed by Rob Cohen, " Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story" stars Jason Scott Lee as the martial arts superstar, tracing his early life in Hong Kong to his fresh start in the San Francisco area where he starts a martial arts school, meets his babe (Lauren Holly) and moves on to TV and Film. He must boldly face many enemies along the way, including his childhood demon. This is basically a rags-to-riches flick and ranks with my favorite films due to its excellent meshing of dynamism, fun and potent drama. I haven't seen too many martial arts flicks, but "Dragon" is easily the all-around best of those I've seen. It mixes real-life with Hollywood mythmaking, which is what many cinematic biographies do, e.g. "Buffalo Bill" (1944) and "Braveheart" (1995). In these types of movies the gist of the story is true, but it's mixed with numerous fictional or even fantastical elements to make the protagonist a larger-than-life hero, but also to entertain the audience because real-life is always more mundane and therefore dull. And movies are made primarily to make money through entertaining, not to relay the truth in exact detail. Right from the get-go the film telegraphs that it's a mythmaking account when Bruce takes on the arrogant British sailors at a dance. He throws one of them and the sailor topples 3-4 other men accompanied by the sound of a bowling ball striking pins (lol). While this particular episode never happened, occasions LIKE IT did, even if it was to someone other than Bruce. The same is true with other sequences, like the fight in the gym, which never happened. But, again, events LIKE IT have. The movie is really meant as a celebration of Bruce Lee, his phenomenal expertise in martial arts and the genre he made popular. If you're looking for an actual biography of his life check out the two biographies listed below (under "WRITERS"). Speaking of which, "Dragon" was partially based on the autobiography of Linda Lee Cadwell (Bruce's wife). Someone offered that she couldn't possibly have been happy with the film since so much of it is fiction (for instance, Bruce didn't injure his back as depicted, but via lifting weights). Actually, she was happy with the final picture. But why did she allow so many things to be embellished? Simple: Because the embellishing fed into the Bruce Lee legend from which she benefits.In any case, there are a lot of martial arts thrills mixed with the drama with an exciting action scene occurring roughly every ten minutes. The film gives the protagonist & a few others power over time and space. Of course, one cannot do in real life many of the things these characters perform due to the restrictions imposed by Newton's Laws but, hey, it's entertaining. This factor explains why "Dragon" has been criticized for springing from one thing to the next too quickly, never pausing long enough for any strong emotion to resonate or for us to feel we really know the man beyond his proverbs. I disagree; I sensed strong emotion on several occasions, like when Bruce exclaims to Linda: "You make be believe I can do anything" or when he wildly screams at her to leave his hospital room, not to mention his outstanding meltdown later in Hong Kong (I've had a few of those in my life, so I know).Speaking of Linda, Lauren Holly is just mind-blowing in her physical prime.THE MOVIE RUNS 2 hours and was shot in California (San Francisco, Los Angeles & Valencia), China (Macau) and Hong Kong. WRITERS: Three screenwriters wrote the script based on the biographies by Linda Lee Cadwell (Bruce Lee: The Man Only I Knew) and Robert Clouse (Bruce Lee: The Biography).GRADE: A-

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MovieBuffMarine
1993/05/12

You see a lot of complaints from people other than Linda Lee Cadwell and Bruce's family complaining about the "accuracy" of "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story." These FANS claim they "know" him through his movies, TV shows, books and numerous documentaries that have been done on the late Bruce Lee. I've seen and read many of the same and I still don't know him better than his widow and the rest of his family!What this movie is, is a WORK OF ART. Someone said it best on the IMDb discussion of this movie: "The movie is really meant as a celebration of Bruce Lee and what he represented. It isn't necessarily meant to be a complete biographical movie." I couldn't have said it better.There is no 100% biopic on Bruce Lee or any other figure out there. "Artistic License" or "Liberties" are always taken, period. Many argue that his life was "interesting enough" that embellishments were not necessary, that is far from the truth. People who say that have never written a movie script whether for real or for a writing class. It's not as easy as it seems whether you are writing total fiction or about someone living or dead. Before I saw Dragon, my first Bruce Lee biopic was "Bruce Lee: The Man, the Myth" from 1976. After viewing that so many times and seeing Dragon, I got confused about who I thought I "knew" and the many things he experienced.Dragon's 1976 predecessor was just as riddled with "inaccuracies." After I got through my "confusion" about Bruce, I decided to enjoy what was made. I enjoyed the "artistic license" of both movies.To paraphrase Bruce Lee: a biopic is never a portrayal of total accuracy - it is a guide, a pointer to the actual person and his/her real happenings/events that each viewer must find for him/herself. A good biopic is merely a catalyst.For the uninitiated to Bruce Lee, that should be the case for this film. Again, there is no 100% biopic in existence about Bruce Lee or any other figure from history. A good biopic (be it 100% "accurate" or otherwise) should motivate one to seek out the subject matter. For the ones that know of Bruce or think they "know" him (because of the various material---dramatic portrayal or documentary---put out about him before this movie), this movie should give them more appreciation for who Bruce was and what he did. It should also motivate them to seek more. Again, for me after seeing "Bruce Lee: The Man The Myth" so many times before Dragon, I was confused about Bruce. Watching Dragon motivated me more to read about Bruce Lee! Take it or leave it. If you get butt hurt about what you uncover about the real Bruce Lee and it wasn't in this or other movies, that's on you. Stick with documentaries.This movie is a masterpiece in STORY TELLING celebrating Bruce Lee's life and what he represented, period. It is not a History Channel or A&E biography that will (supposedly) tell what "really" happened in his life.

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bowmanblue
1993/05/13

I don't know that much about Bruce Lee, besides the obvious - i.e. his legendary status as the man who basically brought the martial arts genre to the West. Therefore I can't really say how factually accurate this film is (although, in the version I watched, Bruce Lee's real wife gave a brief speech at the beginning of the movie, saying how faithful it was). However, I hope I know a good story when I see one and I'm pleased to say that this is it.If, like me, you don't know too much about the man himself, I'm not sure how much more you'll know after watching Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. I've read Bruce Lee 'purists' online saying how inaccurate this film is, but, the one thing even they can agree on, is what good performances Lauren Holly and Jason Scott Lee give as Bruce Lee and his American wife.Therefore, with good performances, decent fight scenes and an - albeit questionably good - storyline, there are worst films you can watch if anything about Bruce Lee's life or the martial arts genre in general interests you.

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freemantle_uk
1993/05/14

Dragon is a semi-fictionalized bio-pic of Bruce Lee, the most famous martial artist and one of the most famous film stars of all time. It tells the story of Lee's youth in Hong Kong, before going to America where he is a dishwisher, goes to university, meets his wife Linda, sets up a successful school, writes his book on the philosophy of material arts and becomes a successful actor in Hong Kong before dying at the age of 32.This film is based on Linda Lee's book and she was involved with the production, but this film does have a artistic license with the events of Lee's life, especially of the inner demons he has to fight and some of the fight that Lee fought.This is the only Hollywood film that I am aware of that looks at the life of Bruce Lee. As well as the fight scene which were done with relish, the film goes deeper then that. There is the obviously love story between Bruce and Linda, there is the philosophy of Bruce Lee and his style of material arts which he developed and there is the fact that Bruce Lee had to battle against racism in America and the politics of the film industry. There were moments of comedy as well, which were decent for a small laugh.Jason Scott Lee (no relation) and Lauren Holly both offer good performances in this film, but I think Rob Cohen, the director of later hits the Fast and Furious, xXx (terrible film) and the Mummy: Curse of the Dragon Emperor, did his best work with this film. He shows that he could easily direct fight scenes and able that he could balance it out with personal drama.If you are interested in Bruce Lee or material arts this film is worth a look.

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