"We need emotional content," he instructs a student at the beginning of the film. "Don't think! Feeeel."
In Enter the Dragon (1973) Bruce Lee plays a martial arts expert recruited by a British intelligence man named Braithwaite (Weeks) who places great disdain on guns: "Any bloody fool can pull a trigger."
Lee learns he must spy on Mr. Han (Shih) in order to bring him down, and the way to get to him on his forbidden island is for Lee to accept Han's invitation to his private martial arts tournament held every three years.
To complete his mission, Lee must bypass tight security and face many dangers, including a chunky dude named Bolo (Yeung), and Oharra (Wall), the man who killed Lee's own sister.
For the fist to hit all by itself, and to have a technique of no technique, because in reality there is no opponent, and the word "I" does not exist--these are examples of the philosophy conveyed by the film, a philosophy essential to understanding Lee's art on-screen and off.
For Lee's part, Enter the Dragon gathers everything the Seattle-born star had developed, starting with his childhood martial arts instruction in China and early film roles there, and unleashes it all with the phenomenally empowering masterpiece of his unique career.
Also starring John Saxon as a guy entering the tournament because he owes some people a lot of money, and Jim Kelly as a guy looking for money, and a good time, and a good way to get away from bad cops he beat up.
The music by Lalo Schifrin is out of sight--and so is one of Mr. Han's hands, but he compensates for the missing appendage with a wide array of custom prosthetics, like Captain Hook, bearing varying sorts of sharp metal features.
What makes the film unforgettable is of course Bruce Lee himself, who choreographed the fight scenes which demonstrate his legendary skill (spectacular bits with nunchucks, for example) to maximum effect--and with emotional content.
He wasn't the biggest, but he was the best. And made everybody want to start Kung Fu fighting.
He'd achieved notoriety as the kicking sidekick-chauffer on the campy "The Green Hornet" TV show in the '60s and taught martial arts to Steve McQueen, James Coburn, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. But Enter the Dragon showcased Lee's talents with the best production value of his career.
At the time of his death July 20, 1973, one month prior to the movie's release (his death probably being due to complications related to medication), Lee had seen the finished film and was proud of it.
His son Brandon Lee, who starred in The Crow (1994) died during filming as the result of an accident with a prop gun.
ENTER THE DRAGON
Starring Bruce Lee,
John Saxon,
Jim Kelly,
Kien Shih,
Ahna Capri,
Robert Wall,
Geoffrey Weeks,
Angela Mao,
Bolo Yeung
Directed by Robert Clouse
Written by Michael Allin
Runtime 102 minutes
Rated R
Stewart Kirby works for the United States Forest Service and writes for
THE INDEPENDENT
and
TWO RIVERS TRIBUNE
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