Bruce Lee, the Legend Page #4

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Well, not initially, anyway.

Invariably, his character resisted

intolerable provocation...

before violence

was forced on him.

We're very thirsty, sweetheart.

We need to cool off.

- You're hurting me!

- We'd like to have a little bit of fun.

Don't meddle. No fighting.

Remember your promise.

If you don't leave me alone,

I'm going to call the police.

Please.

Only when he was pushed

beyond his ability to resist...

did he become the aggressor.

Yeeaahhh!

All right! Hold it!

Now you get out of here.

I'm warning you.

You bastards

can't push us around.

You want to fight?

I'll take you on.

I think Bruce was a great actor,

a very good director...

and a very good filmmaker.

His main ambition in life

is to introduce...

Chinese Gung Fu

and Chinese movies...

to the whole world.

And he wanted to show

that the Chinese...

could be just as good

as anybody else.

In Bruce's films, the enemy were

always foreigners-- non-Chinese.

Even when he was pounding

the life out of his compatriots,

it was abundantly clear they were

misguided pawns of a foreign boss.

In The Big Boss, he works

in an ice factory run by Thais.

The Thai foreman and his gang

bully Chinese workers into servility.

We're on strike!

We won't work anymore,

you slob.

Get to work! Inside!

To hell with you, man!

Bastard!

It took the murder

of his Chinese fellow workers...

to push Bruce over the edge.

In Fist Of Fury,

thejapanese are the enemy,

who deliver an insulting message

to Bruce's school.

The characters read,

''The Chinese are

the sick men of Asia.''

Well, clear a space there.

My friends promised

to put up a good fight.

There must be someone.

Who's your champion?

So many here, and not one of you

with any courage?

What's the matter with you?

Are you afraid of us? Huh?

Ha ha ha!

Later in the film,

a sign on a park gate...

is an insult that

cannot be ignored.

What do you want?

- I want to pass.

- Not allowed.

And that?

You're the wrong color.

Beat it.

Hey, you.

Come here.

You, uh-- You were wanting

to get in here.

No, no, no.

Tell you what.

There's one thing you need do.

Pretend you're a dog

and I'll take you in.

In Way Of The Dragon,

which takes place in Rome,

the underworld tries to extort money

from a Chinese restaurant

where Bruce is working.

Almost every day,

Italian thugs harass the Chinese,

forcing them to agree

to the payments they demand.

May I help you?

May you help me? Sure.

Invariably, these foreigners' assaults

on Bruce and those he championed...

weren't just personal or physical,

but strongly racial,

leaving Bruce no other alternative

but to demonstrate the effectiveness...

of Chinese martial arts.

Movement number 4--

Dragon seeks path.

Dragon whips his tail.

Hey!

All right.

Bruce's screen personality

as a hero...

was undeniable

and unshakable.

How much of that personality...

was injected into his real life?

Without a doubt,

the screen image of Bruce...

was very much like

the Bruce in real life.

He was so energetic

that even when he was among friends...

his gestures

were very physical.

Even when he was relaxing,

he looked restless.

Left, right, left, right.

A-1 , 2, left, right.

Hup, 2, 3, 4.

Left, right, left.

Hey, what's going on there?

Hup, 2, 3, 4.

A-1 , 2, 3, 4.

Left, right, left, right.

Left, right, left.

1 , 2, 3, 4.

A-1 , 2, 3, 4.

Left, right, left, right.

Left, right, left.

1 , 2, 3, 4. Halt.

Bruce didn't drink.

So the parts he played

didn't know how to drink either.

How about a little drink?

You're quite a drinker.

You put it away like water.

That'll make him feel better.

Strong.

Hey. Hey, hey!

In his movies,

his relationship with women...

is usually shy, often coy,

and invariably wholesome.

You've grown very pretty.

If I was ten years younger--

Chang, meet our sister,

Chow Mai.

This is Chang, our cousin.

How are you? It's hot.

Thanks.

Let me go!

Ow!

I must go.

I'll see you... later.

While there are occasional hints

of romantic feelings,

Bruce's leading ladies are usually

treated like one of the boys.

Overt sexuality is alluded to when

the encounter is with prostitutes,

and then only when Bruce's lack

of sophistication allows it to happen.

The foreigners here are friendly.

You'll see.

When people smile, smile back.

It's only right.

While you're here,

just don't be so uptight.

In the only bedroom scene

Bruce ever filmed,

a prostitute

first gets him drunk.

Even then, he goes to sleep.

In his films,

Bruce Lee was at his best...

as a fighter, not a lover.

He was concerned that he would be

typecast as a one-character performer.

In Fist Of Fury,

he disguised himself,

perhaps to demonstrate

his dramatic range,

here as a news vender.

They're forcing my hand.

Where can I find him in this place?

Sir, get back to

Ching Woo's school...

to see if he's

turned up there yet.

Here, as a telephone repairman.

I'm from the telephone company.

What took you so long?

We haven't got all day.

Just got my orders minutes ago.

These vignettes were

more comedic than convincing.

But later around the time

he was working on Game Of Death,

he was experimenting

with new characters.

He makes a very believable

blind swordsman,

his version of a character

called Zato-Ichi,

who appeared in severaljapanese films

popular in Asia at the time.

Tagashira!

Surprisingly, these characters

were developed...

from classical archetypes.

Most were associated

with traditional weaponry,

contrary to his declared philosophy

of the martial arts.

It's not possible to say how

he'd have developed these characters,

but it's interesting to conjecture what

Bruce Lee would have made of roles...

like the classic period

Chinese swordsmen...

in films like Duel To The Death.

For some time,

actorjames Coburn,

writer Sterling Silliphant,

and Bruce...

put together a project

to be called Silent Flute.

Finally, 20th Century-Fox

agreed to do it,

but on a tiny budget,

providing it could be shot in India.

Bruce and his colleagues spent weeks

location-hunting there and in Nepal.

India, they decided,

was a waste of time,

but in Nepal,

pagodas like these...

inspired Bruce for Game Of Death.

Bruce never crystalized the plot,

but it went something like this--

there would be a great

martial arts training center

in a many-storied pagoda.

Each level would be guarded by a master

of a different martial art.

Bruce accumulated the people

he wanted to use--

Dan Inosanto.

The Korean seventh-degree

Aikido master, Tse Hon joy.

He began doing screen tests.

This footage of the tests and outtakes

has never been publicly shown before.

In his still-incomplete concept

for Game Of Death,

his objective would be to get to

whatever was at the top of the pagoda.

In the middle of this,

producer Fred Weintraub...

had finally convinced Warner Brothers

to coproduce a project...

with a partnership of Raymond Chow

and Bruce Lee.

This was to be

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