Read Online Films of Fury: The Kung Fu Movie Book by Ric Meyers - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Ric Meyers
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never personal. It was for the film, for art’s sake. He knew I cared and that was all that counted. He knew, in a funny kind of way, that I was the only one who cared enough to get him into the international market. Nobody wanted him. In the history of show business, there had never been an international Chinese star, especially not one who was five-foot-seven and not gorgeous. Bruce stood tall. Bruce is martial arts. He made the form work. No matter who you see doing martial arts, you always compare him to Bruce Lee . Say ‘cowboy’ and you think ‘John Wayne .’ Say ‘martial arts’ and the name that pops to mind is Bruce Lee . That makes him one of the few giants in show business. That’s the mark of his influence and his genius.”
And like any icon, he would not stay down. Decades after his death, he has remained a constant, with books, magazines, posters, re-releases of his films, statues, countless collectibles, and more. At the time of this writing, there is both an amusement park and a Broadway musical being planned. So, naturally, a big budget Hollywood bio-pic was green-lit. The production started promisingly. Rob Cohen , an eclectic and enthusiastic director, and the producer of such popular projects as The Running Man (1987) with Arnold Schwarzenegger , set about adapting Linda Lee ’s biography Bruce Lee : The Man Only I Knew, with the Lee family’s cooperation. He even hired several top jeet kune do teachers to choreograph the film’s many real and imagined fight scenes. Then the problems started.
Ironically, most of the people who created Dragon : The Bruce Lee Story (1993) probably wouldn’t think of them as problems. As far as they may have been concerned, Dragon was a critical and financial success, so what could possibly be the problem? There were really only two: finding the bite-size bits of truth amid the total fabrications and wild flights of fantasy, then, perhaps more importantly, honoring Lee’s non-cinematic life’s work: the creation of jeet kune do .
Dilemma one: how to communicate the anger Lee reportedly felt throughout his life — the anger that made him win any confrontation at all costs. In the case of Dragon , the anger was visually manifested as a demon — a demon dressed in what appears to be Japanese, not Chinese, armor. Was this a clever nod to the Japanese villains who helped make The Chinese Connection so successful, or Hollywood standard operating racism? You decide.
Dilemma two: the direct power of jeet kune do (like Chinese armor, apparently) is not visual enough. Lee himself always did an exaggerated version of it for the cameras — but not so exaggerated that it would ever be mistaken for the acrobatics of the Power Rangers. Complicating matters further was that a non-martial artist was cast as Bruce. And while Jason Scott Lee (no relation) is an excellent actor, it was somewhat akin to hiring a nondancer to star in a Fred Astaire biopic.
So, while they had such jeet kune do notables as Jerry Poteet on the set, the decision was made: bring in the acrobats. Instead of showing the true power of jeet kune do in an informed, imaginative way, Lee was pictured flipping and cart-wheeling all over the place like some sort of demented pinwheel. That way, the leading actor wouldn’t be required to communicate the true artistry of Bruce Lee ’s kung fu. Not that many American audiences knew the difference. One critic even went so far as to review the movie’s martial arts by saying, “Fittingly, fight coordinator John Cheung previously worked with Hong Kong martial arts star Jackie Chan .” No, not fittingly. For Chan, as you will read later, purposely patterned himself as an anti-Bruce Lee .
Screenwriters Cohen, Edward Khmara , and John Raffo worked hard to honor Bruce, and there are things to like in the result, but it remains an inaccurate portrayal, and ends with an equally tragic dedication: to the memory of, not Bruce, but Brandon Lee .
The first call came
And like any icon, he would not stay down. Decades after his death, he has remained a constant, with books, magazines, posters, re-releases of his films, statues, countless collectibles, and more. At the time of this writing, there is both an amusement park and a Broadway musical being planned. So, naturally, a big budget Hollywood bio-pic was green-lit. The production started promisingly. Rob Cohen , an eclectic and enthusiastic director, and the producer of such popular projects as The Running Man (1987) with Arnold Schwarzenegger , set about adapting Linda Lee ’s biography Bruce Lee : The Man Only I Knew, with the Lee family’s cooperation. He even hired several top jeet kune do teachers to choreograph the film’s many real and imagined fight scenes. Then the problems started.
Ironically, most of the people who created Dragon : The Bruce Lee Story (1993) probably wouldn’t think of them as problems. As far as they may have been concerned, Dragon was a critical and financial success, so what could possibly be the problem? There were really only two: finding the bite-size bits of truth amid the total fabrications and wild flights of fantasy, then, perhaps more importantly, honoring Lee’s non-cinematic life’s work: the creation of jeet kune do .
Dilemma one: how to communicate the anger Lee reportedly felt throughout his life — the anger that made him win any confrontation at all costs. In the case of Dragon , the anger was visually manifested as a demon — a demon dressed in what appears to be Japanese, not Chinese, armor. Was this a clever nod to the Japanese villains who helped make The Chinese Connection so successful, or Hollywood standard operating racism? You decide.
Dilemma two: the direct power of jeet kune do (like Chinese armor, apparently) is not visual enough. Lee himself always did an exaggerated version of it for the cameras — but not so exaggerated that it would ever be mistaken for the acrobatics of the Power Rangers. Complicating matters further was that a non-martial artist was cast as Bruce. And while Jason Scott Lee (no relation) is an excellent actor, it was somewhat akin to hiring a nondancer to star in a Fred Astaire biopic.
So, while they had such jeet kune do notables as Jerry Poteet on the set, the decision was made: bring in the acrobats. Instead of showing the true power of jeet kune do in an informed, imaginative way, Lee was pictured flipping and cart-wheeling all over the place like some sort of demented pinwheel. That way, the leading actor wouldn’t be required to communicate the true artistry of Bruce Lee ’s kung fu. Not that many American audiences knew the difference. One critic even went so far as to review the movie’s martial arts by saying, “Fittingly, fight coordinator John Cheung previously worked with Hong Kong martial arts star Jackie Chan .” No, not fittingly. For Chan, as you will read later, purposely patterned himself as an anti-Bruce Lee .
Screenwriters Cohen, Edward Khmara , and John Raffo worked hard to honor Bruce, and there are things to like in the result, but it remains an inaccurate portrayal, and ends with an equally tragic dedication: to the memory of, not Bruce, but Brandon Lee .
The first call came
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