Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Rob Cohen

Writers (WGA):

Robert Clouse (book)
Linda Lee Cadwell (book)

Release Date:

7 May 1993 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Biography | Drama

Tagline:

The Mystery. The Life. The Love. The Legend

Plot:

A lionized account of the life of the martial arts superstar.

Plot Keywords:

Martial Arts | Demon | Green Hornet | Hong Kong | Kung Fu

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Jason Scott Lee	...	Bruce Lee
Lauren Holly	...	Linda Lee
Robert Wagner	...	Bill Krieger
Michael Learned	...	Vivian Emery
Nancy Kwan	...	Gussie Yang
Kay Tong Lim	...	Philip Tan
Ric Young	...	Bruce's Father
Luoyong Wang	...	Yip Man
Sterling Macer Jr.	...	Jerome Sprout
Sven-Ole Thorsen	...	The Demon
John Cheung	...	Johnny Sun
Ong Soo Han	...	Luke Sun
Eric Bruskotter	...	Joe Henderson
Aki Aleong	...	Principal Elder
Chao Li Chi	...	Elder

Runtime:

120 min | UK:119 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:16 | South Korea:15 | Finland:K-16 | Germany:18 | Ireland:18 | Norway:15 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:14A | Canada:G (Quebec)

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

The movie that Bruce and Linda are watching soon after they meet is Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961).

Goofs:

Factual errors: When Bruce and Linda are at the October 1971 Hong Kong premiere of 'Big Boss', the wrong version is playing. It was the Mandarin-language print (with English/Chinese subtitles, no credits and finishing with 'The End') that played. In the film, it's the 'National General Pictures' version which was created in 1973, two years after the HK premiere (evidence of this is the English credits and soundtrack).

Quotes:

Linda Emery: Stop whining and start fighting.

Movie Connections:

Features Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

Soundtrack:

The Big Boss

Good as a movie, not really as a biography.

The story told in the movie is really excellent and entertaining. However it feels more like a story based on the life of Bruce Lee rather then an actual biopic of his life.

Jason Scott Lee perfectly plays Kung Fu legend Bruce Lee. Not only the way he plays Lee is impressive but also his fighting skills.

The music by Randy Edelman was also surprising good.

There are way too many fictitious and untrue things added in the movie to be considered a fair biography. But does it really matter for the movie? It's like "Ed Wood" that was also filled with altered things and false truths but still it was a movie that told us the story of an unique character and what drove him. "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story" isn't much different in that way. OK it's not completely fair to compare this movie to "Ed Wood" since that was a far superior movie to "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story" (what a horrible title by the way).

The fight sequence are probably the best thing about the movie and they were highly entertaining, although very hard to believe that they actually really happened that way.

It's a good entertaining movie but if you want to get to know more about Bruce Lee this isn't the best material for you to start with.

7/10