OK time for some post revisiting as I'm going to expand on one of my older posts on this blog, which is of Bruce Lee's last film, Enter the Dragon. So let's bust those kung-fu moves and give this one a closer look.....
And as usual PLOT SPOILERS WILL BE AHEAD!!
STORY
Soooo the film begins with martial artist Lee (Bruce Lee funnily enough!) who is based in Hong Kong at the Shaolin temple, is approached by Mr Braithwaite (Geoffrey Weeks) a member of British intelligence. Braithwaite tells Lee about a tournament that is coming up that is run by a man named Han (Shih Kien) and that Han is rumoured to be involved in drug trafficking and prostitution, Han himself was a former Shaolin student. Braithwaite asks that Lee attend the tournament undercover in order to try and gain evidence of Han's illegal activities, which Lee agrees to. However before Lee goes, his teacher tells him that Han's bodyguard O'Hara (Bob Wall) was involved in the death of his sister Su Lin (Angela Mao). Lee decides to go to the island with the intent of exacting a measure of revenge for his sister's death.
At the island Lee meets up with other martial artists who have been invited which includes Roper (John Saxon) a playboy gambler, and Williams (Jim Kelly) an African American who is on the run after assaulting two white racist policemen. Both Roper and Williams are good friends and get a scam going on taking bets on their fights. Lee at the island finds a Chinese girl Mei Ling (Betty Chung) who is an undercover agent sent by Braithwaite, although Mei tells Lee that she has been unable to leave the island due to Han's tight security. Later that night Lee starts to investigate around the island and finds a passage that takes him to an underground base where drugs are being manufactured and tested on prisoners. Lee however runs into some guards but he takes them down with ease.
The next day however Han has the guards that Lee incapacitated, killed by his sadistic chief bodyguard, Bolo (Bolo Yeung). Lee takes on O'Hara in his first tournament match, who Lee totally outclasses, and O'Hara out of anger tries to attack Lee with some smashed wine bottles, but Lee kills O'Hara by jumping on him, snapping his neck. After the matches have been played, Han asks to see Williams (as Williams was seen outside at night as well, although he was out just for some fresh air) and asks him who else was outside with him. Williams angrily refuses to tell him and say he wishes to leave the island, at that point Han's henchmen arrive, who Williams takes down with ease, but then Han and Williams engage in hand to hand combat, and Han ends up gaining the upper hand and mercilessly beats Williams to death with his iron prosthetic hand. Later that night Lee makes a second attempt to go down to the underground base where he investigates and finds further evidence and he sends a message to Braithwaite, but an alarm is set off, where Lee fights off many of Han's guards, after this he is lured into a trap and captured. After this Lee has to face the consequences of his actions as he must try and find a way to take Han down and escape the island.
THOUGHTS
There is no doubt that Enter the dragon was not only Bruce Lee's last film, but it was also his best, and it was a great pity that his untimely death, at the age of 32 (having suffered a cerebral edema on 20 July 1973), occurred just shortly before the film was released on 26 July, which would have propelled him into super stardom. The film also features some terrific fight sequences and Lee's fitness and flexibility are just incredible (although Lee did use a stunt double for some of the sequences, such as the backflip he uses on O'Hara) and it was often said that Lee's moves were so fast the camera couldn't capture them at full speed. Lee also partially directed a sequence of the film, namely the opening sequence at the Shaolin temple and took a big hand in the writing of the story and the script. The film also featured several real life martial artists such as Bob Wall, who played O'Hara, Jim Kelly who played the cocky Williams, and Bolo Yeung who was the sadistic muscle bound Bolo. Enter the dragon also features an early onscreen appearance from Jackie Chan who also performed various stunts in the film, and is one of Lee's victims as he has his neck snapped by Lee in the fight scene with the guards in the underground base. In fact during the filming of that scene Lee apparently accidentally hit Chan in the face with a stick!
PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES
Performance wise Enter the dragon isn't really about top notch acting, its more about the action, and you could say that the acting takes a bit of a back seat to that. But despite that there is no question that this is Bruce Lee's film, and while he wasn't a great actor, he was a great film star, and his presence and charisma are to be found throughout the film.
And just to highlight the actors names for a change, Bruce Lee has various highlights in the film especially in his action sequences where he fights off Han's guards in the underground base, probably being the main one.
Lee also get's some good lines of dialogue, such as when Lee teaches a lesson to one of his young students, Lao, at the start of the film, and he Lao performs a move, which Lee says to him "Yes! How did that feel to you?" and Lao replies "Let me think..." and Lee smacks him on the head and says "don't think think! Feel! It is like a finger pointing away to the moon!" and Lao looks at Lee's finger, who smacks him on the head again "don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory!". Then there is the scene where Lee travels on the ship towards Han's island and he is confronted by an arrogant Australian martial artist, Parsons (Peter Archer). And in the scene Parsons asks Lee "What's your style?" and Lee responds "My style? I suppose you could call it the art of fighting without fighting" and Parsons says "Show me some" and Lee says "Later" and he steps away but Parsons stop him. And Lee says "Alright but don't you think we need more room?" and Parsons says "Well where else?" and Lee points to a far off island "That island on a beach. We can take this boat!" but as Parsons boards a small boat off the side of the ship, Lee pushes out the boat to sea a little holding onto the rope to tease an annoyed Parsons.
Another classic scene comes when Lee is about to fight against O'Hara who takes a wooden board and chops it in half with his fist, to which Lee says "boards don't hit back!". Although amusingly in this scene Lee, who previously instructed Lao to never take his eyes off his opponent even when you bow to them, didn't heed his own advice as he took his eyes off O'Hara when he bowed to him! The scene itself is remarkable for showing off Lee's fighting skills and sheer speed with one moment in the scene where he appears to deliver one hit to O'Hara's face but apparently he hit him twice but again because of Lee's speed its not noticable unless really slowed down!
There is of course also the classic fight scene where Lee takes on Han's guards and beats them all (killing a few in the process) and he also shows off his nun-chuka skills before he is captured by Han. And lastly there is Lee's fight scene with Han in the hall of mirrors where they square off each other and at the start of the scene Lee says to Han "You have offended me family and you have offended the Shaolin temple!".
The supporting performances are not bad at all either, and John Saxon is pretty good as the American playboy, Roper, and he has quite a few amusing moments in the film, one such scene is where he has a liaison with Tania (Anna Caphri) one of Han's ladies, and Tania gives him a massage in bed and he says "boy am I finding out about myself!". Roper also has a good scene with Han just before he shows him around his underground base, he asks him to place his head on a guillotine as an act of faith, but he refuses, and instead Han places his cat on it, which Roper takes off, and Han pulls a chain which reveals the guillotine to be a lift the takes the down, and Roper replies "faked out, again!".
Another good scene from Saxon is when Tania arrives in Roper's room on Han's island with some lovely Chinese girls and Saxon says "Well, well. One lovelier than the next!" and Tania says to him "Pick one" and he looks right at her and says "I already have!" leaving Tania impressed saying "Wise choice". Then there is the scene where Han shows Roper around his underground operation and finally comes to showing him Williams's dead body hanging from a rope much to Roper's horror. And Roper says to Han "And you want me to join THIS?!" and Han says "I want there to be no misunderstanding between us". And Roper shocked looks at Han and takes a moment to consider his words and says "No. There is no misunderstanding between us". And later there is the scene where Han has captured Lee and he wants Roper to fight him but Roper turns to Han and says "Like you said, there's a point I won't go beyond" which leads into Roper fighting Bolo.
Jim Kelly is also pretty good in his role as Williams, the cocky American martial artist, and he has a few good scenes, the main probably is his last where he confronts Han in his office and he says "Mr Han, suddenly I would like to leave your island!" and Han replies "that is not possible" and Williams says that infamous line "bullshit Mr Han, man!!". And when Han's security guards walk into the room and surround Williams, Williams says "Man, you come right out of a comic book!". Williams is certainly the most vain character in the film as Han asks how will he deal with defeat when it comes and he replies "I don't waste my time with it, because I'll be too busy looking good!" (which is ironic because he doesn't in the end after Han is done with him!). Another good scene from Kelly comes when Williams watches Bolo killing the incompetent guards that Lee knocked out the night before and Han looks to Williams and asks him "Are you shocked, Mr Williams?" and Williams says "Only at how sloppy your man works!" leaving Han grinning.
And finally Shih Kien is excellent in his role as the villainous Han, although it is not his own voice that appears on the soundtrack, but it was in fact the voice of Keye Luke, who played Kato in the original Green Hornet films and later on played Mr Wing in the two Gremlins films among many other roles. Luke also delivers some good lines in the film on Kien's behalf such as the scene where he addresses all the contestants and his guards on the island after Lee sneaked around and knocked a few of them the other night. And in the scene Han says "Gentlemen, it seems last night that one of you was not content with the hospitality of the palace. And sought diversion elsewhere. On the island. Who it was is not important at this time. What is important is that my guards performed their duties incompetently. And they must now proves themselves to remain worthy among us!".
Then there is the scene where Han talks with Roper and he places his cat on what appears to be a guillotine and he readies himself to press a chain as if to kill the cat. And Han says "Very few people can be totally ruthless. It isn't easy; it takes more strength than you might believe!" but Roper removes the cat and says "Now you have eight more!". And Han says "So! There is a point you will not go beyond!" and he pulls the chain which activates a lift! And lastly there is the scene when Han brings Roper out to fight Lee who has been captured and Roper says of Lee "What are you going to do with him?". And Han says "Not "we", Mr Roper, you!". And as Roper says there is a point he won't go beyond Han says "I was right about you. We will strive to be worthy of your sense of grandeur. I will find someone with whom you can fight. Bolo!" which leads into Roper's fight with Han's most fearsome bodyguard.
DIRECTOR AND MUSIC
Direction wise Robert Clouse does a fine job with the Enter the dragon, although his job is primarily a perfunctory one in which he keeps the action and the flow of the film going more than anything else. But Clouse still manages to keep the film moving along at a brisk pace and the film could never be accused of lagging at any time. It was also interesting to note that when the film was shot it was shot completely without sound as the sound was added in purely during post production.
As for the music its features a memorable and very funky score by Lalo Schifrin which is excellent and it mixes both funky and traditional musical themes, that fit the films Asian and American styles nicely. So the film's score has a good mix of orchestration as well as bass, guitar and drums, which is pretty much the staple of Schifrin's music and he uses to it fine effect here in this score.
FLAWS
As for Enter the dragon's flaws....well OK you could really nitpick this one to an extent but I won't go too far into it, but yes ETD is not quite perfect. For starters I think the plot of the film itself is pretty bland and offers nothing new and its yet again another tale of revenge which we've seen time and time again. But the action in the film is so good its pretty easy to overlook its rather unexceptional plot.
I also found it a bit incredible how Bruce Lee could carry on fighting in the film with Han after he received the slashes to his stomach from Han's sharp prosthetic knife hand, as surely that would severely weaken him, although I'm no doctor of course it just appears a bit strange how Lee could have such a level of superhuman strength withstand his injuries. But if it was anyone else I'm sure a slash to the chest would pretty much put anyone out or even kill them!
It also seems a bit daft that Roper could also survive his fight with Han's cheif bodyguard, Bolo, given his immense physical strength and his ability to snap the neck of the guards earlier on. But nope here Roper has no such problem and he simply uses his street fighting skills to kick Bolo's ass and put him out for the count with a few kicks to his happy sack! Again its a bit like brain over brawn as Roper outmanouvers the big ass Bolo with great ease.
You could also potentially argue its a bit daft how Roper managed to evade the mob as he owes them money as seen in his flashback scene and heads straight to Han's island although he is hardly concerned about the possibility of the Mafia catching up with Roper. Although you could argue its not like the mob would find easy getting onto Han's island with guns given all the guards he has there, but again he has no guns of his own on the island.
However when you think about it, it seems daft that no one really thought sneaking a gun onto Han's island as you never really see anyone get bodysearched when they arrive there despite Han's rule of "no guns". And Lee himself could easily have done that too maybe sneaked in there with a gun and shot Han when he got the moment. But then again when you are one of the greatest martial artists in the land you'd be better using your fists! ;-)
Anyway that's it for the flaws for another post.
SUM UP
Right soooooo to sum up Enter the dragon to this day is still a classic must see action film and it was easily the peak of Bruce Lee's short lived career as it is filled with great action scenes, a catchy music score and it moves along at a great pace. It was just a great pity that Lee himself died just six days before the film's premiere in Hong Kong on July 26 1973 as Lee suffered a cerebral edema (swelling of the brain) on the day of his death (and also three months prior to that he had another one).
So this film remains Lee's best onscreen legacy and as such its one of the most memorable martial arts films of all time and still worth watching to this day.
And with that I shall say goodnight or the Chinese way:
晚安
No comments:
Post a Comment