Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is directed by Rob Cohen who also co-adapts the screenplay with John Raffo and Edward Khmara. It stars Jason Scott Lee, Lauren Holly, Robert Wagner and Michael Learned. Music is by Randy Edelman and cinematography by David Eggby.
Based on Bruce Lee: The Man I Only Knew by Linda Lee Caldwell (Bruce Lee's widow), "Dragon" is more tribute movie than biography. A big success on release, it's a film that still causes some consternation with a number of Bruce Lee fans. The reasoning is because in true Hollywood style it tinkers with facts, misses out other notable points and has some time line issues. Yet if you can accept it as a "painted always in a positive light" homage piece more than a definitive biography? Then you find the essence of the man and his short life is there in glorious splendour.
In many ways it's an inspiring tale of a complex man, while it also plays out as a wonderful love story between two people of a different race making it work at a time when such a thing was frowned upon by the ignorant. Lee's skills as an artist and a human being are firmly portrayed, with Jason Scott Lee (no relation) proving to be admirable in his depiction of such. The fights are very well choreographed and perfectly OTT, but crucially they do not come at a cost to the story, it's the narrative that shines through even as the action appeases the action hungry hoards. While rightly there's iconography unbound, naturally.
The production value is high as regards quality of colour photography, set and costume design and recreations of famous moments. Edelman's score is a heart swelling and heroic scorcher that avoids over dosing on Oriental strains, Cohen moves it along at a nice clip and Holly is fabulous in her sympathetic portrayal of Bruce's wife. It's not all perfect, though. Away from the issues the hard core Lee fans have, the Demon that haunts the Lee family dreams is more funny than scary and the finale feels rushed and not dramatically fulfilling. It's fair that Lee's wife voices over the end and tells us it's about celebrating his life, but his death remains a key issue and skipping over it is a mistake.
In the year of the film's release, the Lee's first child, Brandon, would be killed whilst filming The Crow, aged 28. Thus as Linda Lee Caldwell helped craft a film about a husband who died aged just 32, she lost her son. There is added poignancy in that, it's something that undeniably makes Dragon even more of a moving experience, but rest assured, as a film tribute to Bruce Lee, it earns every one of its emotional and thoughtful beats. 8/10
