Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Rob Cohen
Screenplay by	Rob Cohen John Raffo Edward Khmara
Produced by	Raffaella De Laurentiis Rick Nathanson John Badham
Starring	Jason Scott Lee Lauren Holly Robert Wagner
Cinematography	David Eggby
Edited by	Peter Amundson
Music by	Randy Edelman
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	May 7, 1993 (1993-05-07)
Running time	120 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$14 million
Box office	$63,513,713

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is a 1993 American semi biographical martial arts film written and directed by Rob Cohen, and starring Jason Scott Lee, Lauren Holly and Robert Wagner. The film was released in the United States on May 7, 1993.

The film tells the story of actor and martial artist Bruce Lee. Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story was dedicated to Bruce and his son Brandon Lee, who died to two months earlier while performing in his last film The Crow.

Plot

The film begins with a nightmare of Bruce Lee's father (Ric Young), who sees a terrifying phantom (Sven-Ole Thorsen) in black samurai armor that haunts the young Bruce Lee (Sam Hau). Bruce is shown as a child receiving instruction in traditional Chinese martial arts in a montage that passes quickly through his teenage years in Hong Kong. As a young adult, Bruce (Jason Scott Lee) becomes involved in a fight with British sailors (who are harassing a young Chinese woman) and this results in him having to leave Hong Kong because of the incident. His father suggests that Bruce go to the US, since he was actually born in San Francisco when his father was on a tour there and has a US birth certificate. His father asks Bruce to become a success, so big a success that his name will be famous even back in Hong Kong.

In the US, Bruce starts off working as a dishwasher at a Chinese restaurant, where he becomes involved in a fight with some of the staff, and he fends them off until the restaurant owner (Nancy Kwan) arrives and fires Bruce. As well as severance she gives him an all-purpose loan and convinces him to use the money to invest in a future with education. At a university, he begins to teach martial arts classes, and during these classes he meets Linda Emery (Lauren Holly), and the two begin dating. They eventually marry in defiance of Linda's racist mother. Linda suggests that Bruce open up a martial arts training school, which he does, but some other Chinese martial arts schools feel that he should not train non-Chinese, and they challenge him to fight Johnny Sun (John Cheung) to resolve the issue. Bruce wins the fight but Sun attacks Bruce from behind after the fight is over, resulting in a serious back injury.

While immobilized and recovering Bruce and Linda quarrel of why he did not tell her about this duel, but she furiously rejects his despairing assumption that she will abandon him because of this injury. To give his recovery time purpose, Linda coaxes him to examine the weaknesses of his combat technique, which leads to him developing the fight philosophy of Jeet Kune Do while she helps him write "The Tao of Jeet Kune Do." During this period Linda gives birth to their first child, Brandon, and he is the key for the couple to reconcile with Linda's mother (Michael Learned). Later at Ed Parker's martial arts tournament, Bruce has been challenged by Johnny Sun, this time in a 60-second demonstration of his new fighting style. Johnny Sun appears to have the upper hand in the first half of the match but then Bruce recovers and ends up kicking Sun over the top rope.

After the match, Bruce meets Bill Krieger (Robert Wagner) and is hired for The Green Hornet television series. Bruce and Bill work together and create the idea for the Kung Fu television series. At a cast party, Linda says she is now pregnant with their second child, Shannon. Shortly afterwards, there is an announcement for the cancellation of The Green Hornet. Kung Fu makes it onto television, but starring David Carradine and not Bruce.

Bruce travels back home for his father's funeral and whilst in the country is approached by Philip Tan (Kay Tong Lim), a Hong Kong film producer. He says that Bruce is well known in Hong Kong and that The Green Hornet show is called The Kato Show there. Bruce begins work on the feature film The Big Boss. In the filming of the final scene, set in an ice factory, the brother of Johnny Sun attacks Bruce, wanting revenge. Bruce successfully defends himself against the attack. The Big Boss is a success and Bruce makes several more films – working as actor, director and editor. This causes a rift between Bruce and Linda, as she wishes to return to the States. Bill Krieger shows up, and although he knows that Bruce is still angry with him, he offers him a chance to work on a big-budget Hollywood movie, which Bruce decides to do, particularly as Linda wishes to return to the States.

On the 32nd day of shooting Enter the Dragon, Bruce has a vision of himself fighting and defeating the phantom that haunted his childhood. At the end, he decides to walk off of the set and go home to see his family. The film ends during a shot of the final scene of Enter the Dragon, with a voice-over by Linda informing the audience of his death before the movie's release, and her preferred choice to discuss his life, not his death.

Cast

• Jason Scott Lee (Sam Hau, young) as Bruce Lee
• Lauren Holly as Linda Lee
• Robert Wagner as Bill Krieger
• Michael Learned as Vivian Emery
• Nancy Kwan as Gussie Yang
• Ed Parker Jr. as Ed Parker
• Kay Tong Lim as Philip Tan
• Ric Young as Bruce's Father
• Wang Luoyong as Yip Man
• Sterling Macer Jr. as Jerome Sprout
• John Cheung as Johnny Sun
• Sven-Ole Thorsen as The Demon
• Eric Bruskotter as Joe Henderson
• Aki Aleong as Principal Elder
• Van Williams as TV director of The Green Hornet
• Lala Sloatman as Sherry Schnell
• Rob Cohen as Robert Clouse, Enter the Dragon director

Production

The film is based upon the biography Bruce Lee: The Man Only I Knew, written by Linda Lee Cadwell, Bruce Lee's widow.

The role for Bruce Lee was first offered to his real-life son Brandon Lee, who declined. Brandon Lee died in a fatal shooting accident while filming for the film The Crow in March 1993, less than two months before this film's release. The film is dedicated to his memory at the end credits. In the film Brandon was portrayed as a child by Iain M. Parker.

To prepare for their roles both lead actors Jason Scott Lee and Lauren Holly trained in Bruce Lee's Martial Art Jeet Kune Do for months under former Lee student-turned-instructor Jerry Poteet. Jason Scott Lee has continued to train in Jeet Kune Do under Poteet since 1993.

Jerry Poteet also portrays himself in the film, he can be seen in the background of many scenes. Van Williams, who played The Green Hornet in the 1960s TV series of the same name appears as the director of The Green Hornet in this film. Bruce Lee's daughter, Shannon Lee, has a cameo appearance as a singer in the party scene (singing "California Dreamin'"), at which Linda tells Bruce she is pregnant for the second time – carrying Shannon.

The tombstone that Bruce is forced to see when confronting his demon towards the end of film is the actual tombstone of Bruce Lee. The picture on it is different from the one that is actually on the real one but the date of birth, date of death and the epitaph are the same.

Deleted scenes (UK)

Scenes from Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story were deleted by British authorities, ostensibly to meet age-rating prior to its release in the United Kingdom, in particular the scenes in the Lantern Festival dance party in Hong Kong where a foreign sailor who abuses a woman, is confronted by Bruce Lee, and the fight between Bruce Lee and his inner demon near the end of the film was shortened in a way that viewers can not see Bruce Lee fighting with the nunchaku weapon.

Divergences from real life

Lee started training in Wing Chun at the age of 13 after losing a fight with bullies, not because of inner demons.

Lee´s first student in the USA was Jesse Glover and they were in touch from 1959–1962. Bruce met Linda in 1963. In the movie Glover was named Jerome Sprout, and met Lee 1963 or 1964 when he and Linda were a couple already.

While making The Green Hornet, Van Williams actively petitioned the studio in support of equal screentime for his non-white co-star. Williams' pleas to the studio fell on deaf ears.

Wong Jack Man did not kick Bruce Lee in the back while Lee was walking away from the fight. The fight did take place, but it was at Lee's own school, not at the temple seen in the film. According to Lee and his wife Linda, Bruce won, but his fighting style was very limited at the time. This fight was the reason that Lee would develop his own style, Jeet Kune Do. Lee's back injury is based on his months-long hospitalization due to pinching his sacral nerve while doing weighted good-mornings. In the movie Wong was named Johnny Sun.

There was no rematch between Lee and Wong Jack Man or a fight against Wong Jack Man's brother while making The Big Boss. However, a challenge match did take place between the real Bruce Lee and a local Thai boxer during the filming of The Big Boss.

The book Tao of Jeet Kune Do was published after Lee's death.

In the closing narration, Linda states that Lee died three weeks before the release of Enter the Dragon. Lee died six days before the film's release.

The ending of Dragon states only that Lee died from a mysterious coma of unknown cause. In reality, there was more information about the cause of death.

Reception

The film received generally positive reviews, with a rating of 83% on RottenTomatoes, based on 18 reviews counted.

Box office

The film debuted at #1 at the box office. The film had a domestic gross of $35,113,743, with an additional $28,400,000 earned in foreign territories. The film grossed $63,513,743 worldwide.

Soundtrack

Untitled

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic

The soundtrack for Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story was composed by Randy Edelman. Randy Edelman's soundtrack is best known for its use in film trailers, particularly the love theme Bruce and Linda and The Premiere of the Big Boss. There is an uncredited song named Green Onions in the restaurant fight scene.

Legacy

A video game, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (video game), was released in the mid 1990s to various consoles.

In the film The Fast and the Furious, Dragon was on Dominic Toretto's television during a scene in his house. Both films are directed by Rob Cohen.

External links

• Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story at IMDb
• Template:Amg movie
• Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story at Box Office Mojo
• Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story at Rotten Tomatoes