Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993)

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

Director:

Rob Cohen

Writers:

Robert Clouse (book), Linda Lee Cadwell (book)

Stars:

Jason Scott Lee, Lauren Holly, Robert Wagner

1 win & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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 (as Sterling Macer)
Sven-Ole Thorsen	...	The Demon
Ong Soo Han	...	Luke Sun
Eric Bruskotter	...	Joe Henderson
Aki Aleong	...	Principal Elder
Chao Li Chi	...	Elder (as Chao-Li Chi)
Iain M. Parker	...	Brandon Lee

Storyline

Based on the life and career of Martial Arts superstar, Bruce Lee. Haunted by demons. Bruce was taught Martial arts at childhood. Bruce then was told by his father to flee to the United States. There, he opened up a Martial Arts school, then was chosen to be the Green Hornet's sidekick, Kato. Then, his big movie career that included "The Big Boss" and "Enter the Dragon". Fighting many enemies along the way, including his childhood demon.

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Plot Keywords:

kung fu | kato | racism | martial arts | demon | 

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Taglines:

The Mystery. The Life. The Love. The Legend

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Genres:

Action | Biography | Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for martial arts violence and sensuality

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Cantonese

Release Date:

7 May 1993 (USA)

Also Known As:

A sárkány - Bruce Lee élete

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Box Office

Budget:

$14,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$10,019,970, 9 May 1993

Gross USA:

$35,113,743

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$63,513,743

Company Credits

Production Co:

Raffaella De Laurentiis Productions, Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

120 min 80 min (online release) (edited)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Dustin Nguyen, Robin Shou, Donnie Yen, Russell Wong even Brandon Lee were considered for the leading role of Bruce Lee.

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Goofs

When the first chef swings his cleaver at Bruce in the kitchen, it wobbles very badly as if made of rubber.

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Quotes

Bruce Lee: Don't touch me!
Joe Henderson: Or what?
Bruce Lee: Or I'll touch you back.

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Alternate Versions

The theatrical release had a different camera angle in a few scenes that different in the video or DVD releases. One of these includes when Bruce Lee (Jason Scott Lee) says "This is the first Bruce Lee Kung Fu Institute.", and punches the air. In the theatrical version the shot of him is a closeup from the front and the punch looks fast and powerful. In the video and DVD release this shot is a distance shot that shows his back and the punch seems fast, but lacking in power.

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Connections

Featured in The Slanted Screen (2006)

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Soundtracks

Hong Kong Cha Cha
Music by Robert Randles
Lyrics by Rob Cohen

User Reviews

Dragon Review And General Feelings On Bruce's Death

Very Good But Horribly Inaccurate Account Of His Life

If you are watching this as someone who has no knowledge of Bruce Lee's life then this is a good fun action film but someone who knows the history and the story of his life may be dissapointed as this is not at all accurate. And knowing Bey Logan, he must cringe watching this. The film depicts Bruce's early childhood in Hong Kong, his teenage years in the US right way through to his eventual death in 1973. The element that I think drags this film down the most is the mythological side of it, if it had just been a realistic account of his life without the myths and demons, it would have faired much better. There are many innacurate scenes and occurences in this film which understandably makes the film more exciting for mainstream audiences but as a Bruce fan myself i wish they would have stuck to what actually happened. I wish there were more scenes where Bruce was on set of one of his films, like Way Of The Dragon or Fist Of Fury. There could have been more scenes with Bruce with Yip Man or Brandon. There could have been scenes of Bruce being challenged on the street in his infamous street fights, the episode of the green hornet they portrayed i don't think was an actual episode. And Bruce was not injured by the fighter at the martial arts challenge in Chinatown it was when he was weightlifting and pulled his back out. But the fight scenes are well choreographed.

Jason Scott Lee has got his portrayal of the man spot on, he brings the right amount emotion and power to the role, he's clearly done his research on Bruce's mannerism's and got himself in shape for the role as well as training for the fight scenes. Its hard to imagine anyone else who could have played the role, maybe Jet Li who at the time the film was made was 30 and roughly the right age to play Bruce, but Jet spoke very little English. Lauren Holly is equally as good in her role as Linda. The strong portrayals are in many ways successful because of the on set help of the real Linda and Shannon(who makes a cameo as a singer). The music is perhaps the film's strongest part, somehow the main score seems to catch the right emotion of Bruce's death and Brandon's death in 1993. I like the way the film captures the aura of Bruce Lee.

There will indeed never be another Bruce Lee. I find it fascinating to imagine what Bruce would have done if he had lived, the 80's and 90's would have been very different if Arnie, Stallone, Wiilis, Seagal and Van Damme had Bruce to compete with, Bruce is sometimes critcised for being a bad actor, but i disagree, if anyone has seen his episodes of `Longstreet' or `Marlowe' they will see that Bruce could convincingly carry a dramatic scene given the right script and no dubbing and he oozed charisma, and he showed glimpses of good acting in Enter The Dragon.

Being a Bruce fan i kind of wish that Jet Li would do the films that bruce did or was planning on doing, Jet's early work in Honk Kong like the Shaolin Temple or more recent stuff like Fist Of Legend(remake of Fist Of Fury) and Once Upon A Time In China was very promising and it seemed he was the successor to Bruce but instead now he's doing crap in Hollywood with DMX and Jason Statham. Strangely the mediocre Lethal Weapon 4 is Jet's best Hollywood film, Maybe Jet should do a project with John Woo, it would be interesting and they'd probably get the best out of each other.