Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is an American biographical film directed by Rob Cohen, released in 1993. It draws on Linda Lee Cadwell's book Bruce Lee: The Man Only I Knew (1975), on Robert Clouse's Bruce Lee: The Biography, and on the own research of Cohen, Edward Khmara and John Raffa. Before shooting, Cohen spent hours in conversation with Linda Lee Cadwell and with Brandon Lee. The film is dedicated to Brandon Lee, who died in March 1993 while filming The Crow, less than two months before the premiere. The film tells the life of Bruce Lee, the founder of Jeet Kune Do, and his relationship with his wife Linda. Bruce is played by Jason Scott Lee, Linda by Lauren Holly. Cohen cast Jason Scott Lee, a gymnast and athlete with no martial arts training, reasoning that it would be harder to teach a martial artist to act than to teach an actor martial arts. Both lead actors then spent several months learning Jeet Kune Do from Jerry Poteet, a former student of Bruce Lee. The fight scenes were choreographed by John Cheung, who had earlier worked as a stuntman on Enter the Dragon; Cohen insisted that the fights be made in the Hong Kong style rather than the American one. In June 1994 Virgin Interactive released a fighting game based on the film for the Sega Mega Drive, in which the player controls Bruce. Jason Scott Lee was nominated for the role at the MTV Movie Awards 1994 in the Best Breakthrough Performance category.

Martial arts in this work

Fight choreography

John Cheung was not only the choreographer but also the stunt coordinator, and in the film he himself plays Bruce's opponent Johnny Sun. Cohen wanted fights with the humor and flair of Bruce's own films, in which reality is not followed exactly. Of the film's more than 1,600 shots, roughly a thousand fall to eight fight scenes, and no sound effect is repeated in them. The long warm-up of Bruce and Johnny before their fight refers to the warm-up of Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris before their fight in Way of the Dragon. The critic Roger Ebert wrote that the fight scenes defy gravity and logic, but are fun to watch.

Fact and fiction

The opponent Johnny is a fictional character, whose fight with Bruce is based on Bruce's version of his clash with Wong Jack Man; Wong disputes this version and claims that his challenge had nothing to do with Bruce teaching non-Chinese students. Invented are the challenge to a fight at the Long Beach International Karate Championships 1964 (Ed Parker invited Bruce there to speak, and no fight took place), the attack on the set of The Big Boss, and the breaking of a 200-pound block of ice with a fist. All of Bruce's managers were replaced by a single fictional character, Bill Krieger. Bruce actually injured his back while training with barbells; Cohen, in his own words, did not consider such a moment cinematic enough. The supernatural demon that pursues Bruce in the film is Cohen's metaphor for an inner demon, inspired by the fact that Bruce's parents dressed him as a girl for the first two years of his life because of a superstition that demons target firstborn sons.

People and martial arts

• Bruce Leethe real person the work is about· Jeet Kune Do
• Rob CohenDirector
• John CheungFight choreographer
• Jason Scott LeeActor — as Bruce Lee· Jeet Kune Do (portrays the art on screen)
• Lauren HollyActor — as Linda Lee· Jeet Kune Do (portrays the art on screen)
• John CheungStunt coordinator
• Jerry PoteetTechnical advisor· Jeet Kune Do (real practitioner)

Awards

• Nominated · MTV Movie Awards, Best Breakthrough Performance (1994)