Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story

A 1993 bio-pic of Bruce Lee, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story tells of the legendary martial artist and movie star as he deals with his duality as continuing a strong Chinese heritage while embracing his identity as an American. Jason Scott Lee (no relation) plays Bruce, Lauren Holly plays his American wife Linda and Robert Wagner plays Hollywood producer Bill Krieger.

The movie opts for a slightly fantastical subplot of a demon haunting his family in their nightmares and their efforts to fight back. As expected, there are liberties taken with the actual history and timeline of Bruce Lee (his book on Jeet Kune Do was never published in his lifetime), but the film pays an honest tribute to how revolutionary a man he was and his influence in both the East and West.


 * The Cameo: Van Williams (Britt Reid from the Green Hornet series) appears in the Green Hornet scene.
 * Defeat Means Friendship: When a group of students (fueled by anti-Asian sentiment regarding a Dad being killed in the Korean War) attack Bruce at a gym he proceeded to wipe the floor with them. When it was over Bruce's empathy to his attacker ("I'm sorry about your Dad. But I'm American.") and fighting prowess impressed the group and they asked to be trained, starting Bruce on the path as an instructor.
 * Flanderization: The version of Green Hornet they show. Yes, Cato was the Ensemble Darkhorse of the show, but the Hornet definitely did more than sit around uselessly, blurting "Good job, Cato!"
 * Genius Bruiser: It is acknowledged that Bruce did study some philosophy while in college. He is also shown writing his book and combining the philosophical styles of many different martial arts.
 * Homage: The fights in this movie are in the exact same style as Lee's films.
 * Small Name, Big Ego: The portrayal of Van Williams in the brief Green Hornet scene. Evidently this was for comedy and emphasizing Kato's Breakout Character nature, but Bruce and Van actually became good friends on the show and remained that way afterwards.
 * Training from Hell: Bruce inflicted it upon himself, and the movie did reference the fact that he was willing to try any and all possible training methods.
 * Yellow Peril: Referenced by Linda's mother when she objects to her marrying Bruce. She even refers to possible mixed-race grandchildren as "yellow babies"