Bruce Lee, the Legend (1984) User Reviews

New information hadn't heard before about Bruce Lee.

[guyster-2 · 8/10 · 9 February 2000]

This documentary included footage from movies Bruce Lee made as a child. I didn't know he started making movies when he was 6 years old. The movie definately shows him in a very positive way; they only mention some of the rumors in passing. There are film clips throughout which made it more interesting. If you like Bruce or martial arts films, this is a movie worth seeing.

Hong Kong hitmaker

[nickenchuggets · 8/10 · 6 November 2023]

Although it took me quite a long time to finally get around to talking about his films, Bruce Lee was one of the most renowned figures of the 20th century for a reason. This documentary focuses on him, his seemingly superhuman exploits in the world of martial arts (and how he invented an entirely new one), and how he was able to become an idol to millions all over the world in an age before internet. Lee Jun-fan was born on the 27th of November, 1940 in San Francisco to Lee Hoi-chuen and Grace Ho, the latter being half German (although the claim is disputed). Although he was born in America, Bruce's first films would be made in Hong Kong. Among these were The Kid and In the Face of Demolition. At the age of only 12, he was enrolled in a Catholic college in hong kong, but wasn't a very good student due to his preference for fighting over studying. Lee would eventually start to train in Wing Chun, a southern Chinese martial art that puts emphasis on speed. His teacher was Yip Man, who would end up mentoring many people who would go on to become acclaimed martial artists. However, many of his students refused to train with Lee after discovering he was part white, since martial arts at this time was thought to be a strictly Asian skill. It seems hard to believe, but he was also an accomplished dancer, winning a hong kong championship for cha-cha. Meanwhile, Lee continued to have a difficult time at school when he got into more fights, sometimes with kids whose parents were members of chinese triad organized crime families. In 1959, Bruce's parents decided to make him move back to California. Later that year, he began to teach martial arts himself, and his official style was an offshoot of wing chun. In the mid 60s, Lee was featured as the costar on the American action series The Green Hornet, and many audiences felt he should have been the main character. His fighting style was so fast cameras at the time were unable to reliably track his movements. Actor James Coburn studied Lee's version of martial arts, now called Jeet Kune Do. Although successful among audiences, Lee wanted to star in something and not just play a side character. He returned to hong kong after 12 years of being absent there, and went on to star in his first major movie: The Big Boss. Shot in Thailand, the movie was a big hit and was released in America as Fists of Fury. By some strange coincidence, his next hong kong film was called Fist of Fury, which was eventually retitled to The Chinese Connection. In 1972, he starred in Way of the Dragon, which also featured an infamous duel in Rome's Colosseum with Chuck Norris. This was sadly the only film Lee wrote and directed, as he was given complete control of how he wanted the movie to be. He also choreographed the fight scenes. A recurring trend in his movies is that his adversaries are basically always foreigners. Despite Way of the Dragon taking place in Italy, the plot is about thugs who habitually harass owners of a chinese restaurant, and Lee has to stop them. In the last movie he managed to complete (Enter the Dragon), the Japanese are the enemy. Shortly before Enter the Dragon was released in 1973, Lee was in his house discussing his upcoming film with producer Raymond Chow, prophetically titled Game of Death, when both went to visit a Taiwanese actress named Betty Ting Pei. When Chow left, Lee said he had a headache, for which Betty gave him a painkiller. That night, he went to bed early but was supposed to get up for dinner, but didn't. According to Betty, she went into his room and found Lee unresponsive. After being taken to hospital, he was pronounced dead immediately at age 32. According to his autopsy, Bruce Lee's brain had swollen to over 10% its normal size due to the presence of a tranquilizer found in the painkiller Betty gave him. People all over the world were too shocked for words. It seemed inconceivable to all that someone like Bruce Lee could just drop dead. Betty Ting Pei would have to put up with people accusing her of having something to do with Bruce's death for years, and conspiracies were rife. Bruce Lee is gone, but he will always be remembered as the pinnacle of human physical prowess and the man who introduced martial arts to american audiences. However, his filmography doesn't end just yet. At the time of his death, Lee's film Game of Death was about 30% completed. Robert Clouse, who directed Enter the Dragon, finished the movie utilizing a double for Lee and footage from his other movies. This meant the plot had to be changed, but the newly slapped together Game of Death was released in 1978. While not a total overview of Bruce's life, I thought this was a pretty good documentary. One thing bothers me though: I don't know how they managed to talk about Way of the Dragon and not bring up Chuck Norris. It's also quite disappointing how there's no mention of the one inch punch, which was a move demonstrated by Lee that seems to defy physics. Standing just mere centimeters away from a person, he could use several of his body's muscle groups to generate a strike so powerful it would often send the person flying back a couple of feet. Overall, this documentary is not as in depth as I would have liked it to be, but it does at least go over the brief but spectacular career of a fighting legend.

Tribute to the Legend

[hrkepler · 6/10 · 14 May 2018]

For the hardcore, and even to casual Bruce Lee fans, this documentary might not give much insight into the life of legendary martial artist. The documentary mostly covers the films Bruce made for Golden Harvest (no wonder, the documentary is produced by the same company, and it is called 'The Official Golden Harvest Tribute'), and leaves out many interesting stuff outside these films that made Bruce Lee an international superstar. Most interesting part of the documentary was probably (at least for me) that it concentrated good enough time on Bruce's earlier Hong Kong films that he made before leaving to United States.

There are much more insightful documentaries about Bruce Lee out there, but this one is still worth to see as it is honestly sweet with couple of interesting interviews with Lee's Hong Kong co-stars. The film is well put together, and when this is your first film about Bruce Lee, then you probably learn quite many things about the man.

An interesting movie for Bruce Lee fans and others

[kenneymljken · 13 December 2000]

The film that would make me a life long fan of Bruce Lee, who died two years before my birth. Although my further studies would later prove this documentary to be a little underdeveloped and one-sided, but those who are willing to suspend their disbelief might find this to be an interesting watch. Golden Harvest truly knows how to immortalize its former star.

Worth a watch.

[TheOneThatYouWanted · 7/10 · 25 July 2019]

An older documentary but surprisingly watchable. Really dives deep into Bruce's early years. But also inadvertently throws more mystery on his death.

Golden Harvest Bruce Lee doc

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 5 November 2023]

This is Golden Harvest doing their tribute to the legendary martial arts movie star from Hong Kong. There are some interviews, some film stock, and many old photos.

Of course, Golden Harvest is heavily favored and that's well deserved although Raymond Chow is the executive producer. It's a lot of old footage and that's its main strength. I love his Hong Kong films as a child actor. It shows the amateur energy and Bruce's innate charisma. Mostly, this is a filmography of Bruce Lee. It's a lot of film clips like a greatest hits album. It does try to address the contraversy around his death. My main suggestion is to get one of Bruce's famous Hollywood star friends to do the narrations. The actual narrator sounds like all those old style documentary voices.

Interesting background, both hidden and shown

[dfloro · 6/10 · 5 November 2023]

While this is Raymond Chow's official "Golden Harvest" tribute movie about the great Bruce Lee, it makes some interesting, and to me, odd choices of things to include and/or exclude. For example, it mentions his disappointment in not being cast in the lead of the American TV series "Kung Fu," but not the key point that he created the whole idea for the show. Continuing through to his untimely death in Hong Kong in 1973, we get to hear several of the rumors about it, most notably that he was in the midst of an affair with a popular Asian "femme fatale" of the time. But the far more popular theory that traditional Chinese martial-arts extremists loathed Bruce's U. S. schools' equal opportunity education of all sorts of "western" (non-Asian) peoples, and had some sort of deadly poison introduced to kill him. Not a word about the non-salacious story that doesn't insult his and wife Linda's memory! So, I grant it 6/10 stars for a lot of fight footage, some never before seen BTS, but it gave pretty short shrift to his ethical and philosophical POV, both of which were the true essence of the man.

Bruce Lee is the Legend

[Payback1016 · 10/10 · 8 January 2010]

I come to think of this film as "the first 48" of Bruce lee documentaries, because although it was released 4 years after his death it was still fresh in the viewers mind at the time, and that most documentaries sometimes, not lie, but dilute the truth depending on the year it was done while others give us insight on stuff we haven't heard of. this one was the latter because it was the most recent of the decade it told us about a lot of his movies before leaving for the states as well as interviews from one of his instructors, pictures of costume tests for future films and to top it off, demonstrations of his Gung fu book. I even found it surprising that it only has been four years since his action films and death, that people already called him a legend when most historical figures would take more than 10 - 1000 years. Between those times it used to be person to rumour, rumour to myth, myth to legend. Bruce lee skipped rumour and myth and was in the legend category earlier than Heracles completed his first deed. Good documentary

Admiring Biography

[boblipton · 6/10 · 6 November 2023]

This documentary which looks at the life of Bruce Lee is filled with many clips from his movies. It offers a straightforward chronological view of his life, from his birt in San Francisco, to his young adulthood in Hong Kong, to his attempts to break into Hollywood, followed by his Hong Kong movies; then, having achieved his crossover into mainstream, while filming his first Hollywood co-production, he died.

There is little to stop the legend of Bruce Lee. Cut down just at the point of achieving everything he had striven for, the imagination of his admirers takes over, building castles in the air about what he might have done. In truth, we are left with very little: the four movies made while he was alive, the one cobbled together after his death, the myriad imitators who faded away within a decade, and the respectability of the martial arts movie: respectability in the industry sense, in that you can sell a lot of tickets. In fact, that looks like the subtext of this movie. Lee's movies were still playing worldwide, and this documentary would have appealed to his fans, and perhaps caused them to buy tickets to see again Lee's few movies.

Bruce Lee - People's favorite real fighter!

[anandrose · 10/10 · 12 March 2021]

Bruce Lee - No comparison at all. He is Invincible !!! Bruce Lee - No comparison at all. He is Invincible !!!

interesting, but very incomplete

[rdoyle29 · 5/10 · 19 September 2003]

A tribute to the incomparable kung-fu master. It includes rare footage of his athletic capabilities and interviews with some of the people who knew him. Produced by Golden Harvest, it is light on details of Lee's early life and heavy on the details of his films for Golden Harvest. As such, it leaves out several interesting and important incidents from Lee's life, and gives short shrift to what is arguably Lee's most important film "Enter the Dragon". It also focuses heavily on some of his co-stars from his early Hong King films, and makes no mention of his most prominent co-stars, Chuck Norris and John Savage. It's difficult to say just who its intended audience is since dedicated Lee fans will find it uninformative, yet casual fans may find the immense amount of detail about his early films tedious.

Good If Not Definitive

[Michael_Elliott · 12 January 2015]

Bruce Lee, the Legend (1984)

*** (out of 4)

Good, 90-minute documentary taking a look at the life, career of death of martial arts legend Bruce lee.

BRUCE LEE, THE LEGEND is without question a good documentary that features some wonderful stuff but there's no question that it falls well short of being the definitive film out there. I will be the first to admit that I don't know too much about Lee and while this documentary answered many questions, it still left me wonderful a lot more. I think the strengths of the film include some of the wonderful footage we get of various movies from Lee's childhood. We learn that his father was a professional actor and we get to see some terrific clips from some early Hong Kong movies. Even better is that we get to see a lot of behind-the-scenes footage to his films including THE BIG BOSS, THE Chinese CONNECTION and THE WAY OF THE DRAGON.

There's a lot of good information given about the actor's personal life, his rise to fame and why even Steve McQueen was amazed by his talents. The documentary does have some very weak spots including the direction, which is just all over the place. While the stories being told are entertaining, there's no doubt that the way they're told is a bit off and the overall film just doesn't have a very good pace to it. Still, thanks to the footage, fans of Lee will still want to check this out.

bruce lee: the film clips

[mossgrymk · 4/10 · 18 November 2023]

I started this show biz bio doc knowing very little of Bruce Lee the person or his films. When it was finished I knew very little of Bruce Lee the person and way too much about his films, the latter courtesy of the copious use of scenes from the guy's movies. Easily 50% of this thing is film clips. The rest is pretty much filler (or, as the previous reviewer aptly puts it, "garbage") consisting of planes taking off and landing at Hong Kong airport, Seatac airport, and San Fran International, Raymond Chow walking in his garden (or some garden) Linda Lee walking through an airport terminal, plus some of the dullest talking heads this side of a Treasury Department presser. Throw in poor print quality and a narrator who sounds like he's doing a 1950s travelogue of Oslo and you can see why this thing merits a C minus.

Truly a terrible cash grab

[jellopuke · 4/10 · 12 November 2023]

A look at Bruce Lee focused entirely on his movies full of stock footage, a few behind the scenes clips, and lots of completely unrelated footage from other movies! A few talking heads with hong kong actresses that come across staged, tasteless footage from the funeral, including of the corpse! And a narrator that almost ruins it.

It's a thinly veiled cash grab from Golden Harvest, even going so far as to hype up Game of Death as the ultimate Bruce Lee movie that they saved.

Overall this is a waste of time for any Lee scholars or fans BUT at the time it would have been one of the only ways to still see the clips since home video was still so new. Apart from that, it's garbage. Like Water was better.