Enter the Dragon
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Robert Clouse
Bruce Lee
John Saxon
Jim Kelly
Shih Kien
Ahna Capri
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Synopsis
Lee is a martial arts artist who makes it his business to help catch the drug dealer whose gang killed his sister. The dealer works from an island that is heavily-guarded by his own team of martial arts experts. A kung fu tournament is regularly held on the island, so Lee enters the contest and then proceeds to fight his way into the leader's headquarters.
Director
Robert Clouse
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Enter the Dragon
Putting an espionage twist on the familiar revenge theme, Enter the Dragon features Lee as a martial arts expert whose sister was killed by drug smugglers. The smugglers' island is heavily guarded which prevents Lee from easily gaining access until a police agency recruits him for a secret mission there. It turns out that the smugglers' boss is hosting a martial arts contest which allows Lee and two partners to visit the island as contenders in the championship.
The genesis of Enter the Dragon began with producer Fred Weintraub who thought Hollywood could make a good martial arts film. He convinced Warner Brothers to back the project and then hooked up with Bruce Lee's own production company, Concord. Michael Allin was hired as the scenarist (he would later write Truck Turner (1974) and the 1980 Flash Gordon as well as Zarafa, an acclaimed book about the first giraffe brought to Paris). The director was Robert Clouse, a two-time Oscar nominee for Best Live Action Short Subject (The Cadillac (1962), The Legend of Jimmy Blue Eyes, 1964). Supposedly Clouse was the only director who wanted the job. For added box office appeal, the producers signed up perennial B-movie actor John Saxon and karate champion Jim Kelly.
Because it was his first starring role in an American film, Lee felt tremendous pressure to succeed. In fact, he was so nervous that he didn't appear for the first three weeks of shooting. Producer Weintraub told writer Rick Meyers at the time that Lee was feuding with his old boss Raymond Chow and giving him a hard time as well. The first day Lee appeared, his nerves manifested themselves in a facial tic that required 27 takes to get a good shot.
Most of the extras were actual martial arts fighters and some of them couldn't resist the urge to take on the famous Bruce Lee, scuffles that invariably ended in Lee's favor. But Lee knew what he was doing. He staged all the martial arts sequences that made the film so memorable. One of his kicks was actually so fast that it was filmed in slow motion so that viewers could see it wasn't a camera trick; other shots were sped up. After principal photography was completed Lee added the Shaolin Temple scene that places Enter the Dragon in a cultural context, linking it more closely to Chinese traditions. Weintraub recognized Lee's immense talent and was planning to sign him for a second American film at the pay rate of one million dollars.
But Lee died July 20, 1973 of a brain edema. Enter the Dragon was released in the U.S. barely a month later and became a huge hit. Many of Lee's earlier Hong Kong films were then dubbed and released in the U.S. Other Hong Kong martial arts films starring Jimmy Wang Yu, Ti Lung and other Chinese stars began appearing in U.S. theatres, often presented in poorly dubbed and crudely re-edited versions. The Bruce Lee clones appeared as well, featuring names like Bruce Li, Bruce Le and the quite improbable Bronson Lee (sporting a Charles Bronson mustache; he was actually Japanese). It would be years before martial arts films would overcome the negative image created by this flood of third-rate product.
Today, kung fu fans and martial arts film buffs will find plenty of familiar faces in Enter the Dragon. The most famous have two of the smallest parts. At the start of the film Lee spars with Sammo Hung and at the end one of the men in the crowd fighting Lee is Jackie Chan (Lee breaks his neck). Yuen Biao, another friend of Hung and Chan's, also has a small part. You can also spot Chuck Norris, Lam Ching-Ying, the vampire-buster from numerous ghost films, and Yuen Wah, a perennial action star. But even the larger roles feature martial arts stars. Mr. Han was played by Shih Kien, who appeared in numerous films as the legendary Wong Fei-Hong (the same quasi-historical character that Jackie Chan plays in the Drunken Master films, Jet Li in the Once Upon a Time in America series and Donnie Yen in the Iron Monkey films). Angela Mao (as Su Lin) was one of the best-known of the many female martial arts stars and Bolo Yeung (as Bolo) has enjoyed a long career in this genre though the quality of his films can't compare with Bruce Lee's work.
Producer: Paul Heller, Fred Weintraub
Director: Robert Clouse
Screenplay: Michael Allin
Cinematography: Gil Hubbs
Costume Design: Louis Sheng
Film Editing: Kurt Hirschler, George Watters
Original Music: Lalo Schifrin
Stunts: Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Robert Wall, Biao Yeun and others.
Cast: Bruce Lee (Lee), John Saxon (Roper), Jim Kelly (Williams), Kien Shih (Han), Ahna Capri (Tania), Robert Wall (Oharra), Angela Mao (Su Lin), Bolo Yeung (Bolo), Marlene Clark (Secretary).
C-98m. Closed captioning.
by Lang Thompson
Enter the Dragon
Quotes
It's the dough Roper, or we gotta break something. You got it? Freddy says this is for your own good.- Thug#1
The art of fighting without fighting? Show me some of it.- Parsons
Later.- Lee
You have offended my family and you have offended the Shaolin Temple.- Lee
Mr Han, suddenly I wish to leave your island.- Williams
It is not possible.- Han
Bullshit, Mr. Han-man.- Williams
Never take your eyes off your opponent... even when you bow.- Lee
Trivia
briefly towards the end of the film in the big fight scene in the cave. Lee grabs his hair for a while before breaking his neck.
Production was halted briefly when the corpse of a young woman was found near the set.
'Lee, Bruce' 's sparring partner during the fight before the opening credits.
'Lee, Bruce' died in Hong Kong three weeks before the film's premiere in 1973.
Production was halted when 'Bruce Lee' cut his foot badly when he kicked the bottles from Bob Wall's hands. (They didn't use sugar glass back then)
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 1998
Released in United States 1999
Released in United States Fall September 1973
Shown at Newport Beach International Film Festival (Bruce Lee Tribute) March 25 - April 4, 1999.
Shown at WideScreen Film Festival in Long Beach, California October 23-25 and October 30 - November 1, 1998.
Selected in 2004 for inclusion in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry.
The last film appearance of Bruce Lee, who died on July 20, 1973.
Released in United States 1998 (Shown at WideScreen Film Festival in Long Beach, California October 23-25 and October 30 - November 1, 1998.)
Released in United States 1999 (Shown at Newport Beach International Film Festival (Bruce Lee Tribute) March 25 - April 4, 1999.)
Released in United States Fall September 1973