Enter The Dragon
The martial arts movie genre is generally one that is actually NOT misunderstood, as it exists almost solely to showcase various fighting styles and (with the overrated exception of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) suffers from no illusions of grandeur that their films would ever be considered either good nor prestigious enough to become eligible for Oscars, various criticsā best of lists, or even ranked amongst being the all time best when it comes to ACTION films themselves, as the majority of them feature a second rate script with story elements being cribbed from various, better sources (or even each other), lousy, one note actors (particularly when it comes to the casting of the villains), and the same tired old clichĆ©s being served up over and over again which are usually most noticeable when consuming a veritable glut of various titles that the genre has to offer. So, outside of the endless fight sequences themselves, just what is it that these films have to offer? In a word, The Star, as in many ways these films are usually only as good as the lead actor who tries to carry it. As the Asian Hong Kong film industry was starting to really crank these out and exporting them all over the world, Hollywood began to take notice and would soon offer a movie deal to not only their one brightest star, but to the man who is still recognized worldwide as the single greatest martial artist to ever live: Bruce Lee, for whom both his name and image still remain iconic in pop culture lore and in fighting circles to this day, a guy who was not only rumored to be virtually invincible in hand to hand combat, but according to all of the people who actually knew and worked with him, so much lived up to every last bit of the hype surrounding him that all of the rumors about him are actually TRUE. Said by some to be so egotistical that he actually had his own sweat glands removed in order to look better on screen, and also by others to be so generous and bipartisan that he alone made the decision to begin teaching martial arts to Westerners (earning criticism and even death threats in the process), Lee was the epitome of someone who had crossed all ethnic boundaries to become such an inspirational figure that people of all ages, races, and creeds wanted to become a martial artist themselves just so that they could carry on a great tradition fueled by this one man (who was said to have held, and won, private fights with everyone from Chuck Norris to Muhammad Ali to Kareem Abdul Jabbar) and whose sudden, shocking, early death at age 32 in 1973 shortly after completing the filming of this historic ābreakthroughā film that no doubt would have legitimized him to the mainstream Hollywood system and wound up instead standing forever as his immortal epitaph (much like son Brandon would be later with The Crow), a crowd pleasing classic that combined a James Bond style plot with having plenty of reasons to see full contact martial arts battles on display. Lee stars as āMr. Leeā, the highest possible ranking member (i.e. the best fighter) in a Shaolin temple who spends his time passing on his knowledge to a cadre of students while first being seen espousing some nuggets of wisdom on the TRUE meaning of martial arts. Enter a mysterious government official (possibly from The CIA) who is fully aware of Leeās reputation and recruits him to accept the invitation to compete in a tournament on a remote island while also digging up dirt on its illegal operations involving heroin smuggling and human trafficking as well. Turns out that Lee has a personal reason to accept the mission on his part, as the islandās leader, Han (Kien Shih) is a former Shaolin temple member himself who has since gone renegade to turn himself into a completely self sufficient warlord and has perverted all of the teachings of Leeās people, while his head bodyguard (Bob Wall) as it turns out is responsible for the death of Leeās little sister (Angela Mao Ying) during a rape attempt a couple of years earlier. During the boat ride over to the island, Lee acquaints himself with some of the other competitors, namely Roper (John Saxon, whose casting and character were said to only be included so that they could feature a caucasian American movie star in the film with some name recognition), a fast talking yet amicable huckster and hopeless debt ridden gambling junkie who is also supposed to be a good enough world class martial artist in his own right to have received an invite, and Williams (Jim Kelly), Roperās war buddy who is a smooth acting black man sporting an afro as well as an āunorthodoxā style of fighting. Once they reach the island we meet the other major characters, including Tania (Ahna Capri), the white, blonde āHead Madamā of the prostitutes (whom Roper falls for), Mei Ling (Betty Chung), another operative already in place on the island who acts as Leeās contact, and best of all, the legendary Bolo Yeung as another one of the top lieutenants whose specialty seems to be in dispensing deadly punishment to any of the employees who make bad mistakes (and relishing in it). And after an elaborate welcoming party to help make everyone at home, we are underway with the tournament itself and some spectacular fight sequences (all choreographed by Lee himself) at hand, and while Lee, Kelly, Shih, Wall, and Bolo all look truly amazing in action (with them all being actual world class martial artists), it is really only Saxon (in reality just a movie star who happens to practice martial arts as a hobby) who gets exposed here as not being quite up to par with the others, as only his fight scenes seem to be covered up by a graituitous amount of fast editing and tricky camerawork (including the use of a fight double) which winds up hurting the flow of the tournament scenes a bit. And so while the tournament winds on and various major showdowns take place amongst all the different characters, we also have Han giving the Bond villain type tour to Roper showing him his illegal operations while making an offer that he canāt refuse, Williams being targeted and accused of sabotaging the command center of the island, and Lee himself being the actual perpetrator skulking around in the dead of night killing guards as if he were stepping on cockroaches and taking care of his all important mission, and the true beauty of Lee himself is in the way he really does project a charisma and presence that very few Asian movie stars before or since have ever been able to approach (only Jackie Chan really comes close) despite an almost funny to the point of distraction speech impediment even though this is only one of two films where he was actually allowed to use his real voice. With the steady directorial hand of Robert Clouse at the helm (a guy who made a whole career out of specializing in martial arts films), the film is best remembered today as obviously not only being Leeās ultimate go to film for all his fans, but for a plotline that would be used, copied and even spoofed in the genre time and time again, and for also having some of the best, most brutal, intense, and realistic fight scenes one could ever hope to see (with the exception of the fearsome Bolo seemingly dying from a well placed shot to the balls). Then there is the final battle between Lee and Han, who while being an older man with a metal prosthetic hand (much like Dr. No), is still a dangerous, crafty sort with a bit of a genuine demonic edge to him, so much so that he manages to lead his prey into a massive hall of mirrors with the intention of using tricks of perception to disorient and defeat Lee even as the older fellow is brutally on the receiving end of several clean shots to the head that would surely cause an aneurysm of some kind for any lesser sort. But here itās all just part of the show and a spectacular show at that for connoisseurs of the martial arts in a film that can best be described as being a quantum leap forward for its genre before it became stuck in a deep freeze for years to come following the mysterious death of its greatest starā¦
9/10