A Review Of The Best Bruce Lee Films

Pop Culture — By Bizarre Bytes on July 29, 2011 5:27 pm

Bruce Lee changed martial arts cinema forever. He is a legend and one of the few actors to ever crack the Chinese and American markets. His films are still loved by martial arts films all over the world, almost 40 years after he tragically died.

Bruce Lee learned martial arts from a young age, studying Wing Chun under the now famous Yip Man and also Tai Chi with his father. Unlike many movie martial artists Bruce Lee was a fighter. he grew up on the rough streets of Hong Kong where would often get caught up in street fights. Bruce Lee moved to the USA for his own protection after beating up a local Triad leader’s son.

It was in America that Bruce learned about film making, he majored in Drama Studies at the University of Washington.

Bruce Lee only completed 4 movies. The Game of Death was completed after he died, with many previously unused clips being edited together to complete the story. Fortunately for martial arts fans all the fight scenes were completed before Bruce died. However, the actual story was not completed which means that his final film does not make it onto our review list.

The Big Boss

The Big Boss, Bruce Lee’s first film, tells the story of a corrupt businessman who is dealing drugs under the cover of an ice factory. It is slightly biographical in that Bruce arrives in the small town after his mother sent him to live with his uncle as he had been getting into too many fights it home. He promised his mother not to fight so tried to avoid trouble. But in time trouble came to him when work colleagues and family started to go missing. This film was originally called Fists Of Fury in America. A classic martial arts thriller with a fantastic final fight scene.

Fist of Fury

Fist of Fury was Bruce’s second film and told the story of how a kung-fu master was killed by a rival Japanese martial arts school in Shanghai. It has the classic fight scene where Bruce Lee single handily takes on the entire Bushido school.

Way of the Dragon

Way of the Dragon tells the story of how Bruce Lee’s character help a friend’s niece who is running a restaurant. Soon it becomes clear that a local crime boss wants to buy the restaurant and starts causing trouble. Soon Bruce leaps to the rescue and fights off the whole gang and saves the business. The film has some comic moments and is one of the most light-hearted to watch.

Enter The Dragon

This is the film that changed everything. Bruce Lee is hired by the CIA to infiltrate a drug baron by entering a martial arts competition on his island. The is constant martial arts action as the tournament keeps the fighters busy during the day and then Bruce investigate the island at night. There is a good story, with Bruce also out for the revenge of the murder his sister.

Bruce Lee’s films will always be remembered and loved by martial artists. He broke new ground, not only in martial arts choreography and film making but also in how the image of martial artists changed. Bruce Lee was single handily responsible for turning martial arts from an almost unknown past time to a major business all across American and Europe. People would watch his films and then want to learn kung-fu. For many years karate school filled that vacuum but in time kung-fu also became mainstream.

Jon Wade started learning kung-fu in 1992 while studying at University. He has written many articles on the subject of Bruce Lee’s training and workouts. Today he mostly studies health sciences with the Open University.