March 8th, 2011
Retro Review — BRUCE LEE: THE LEGEND (1984)
Since Bruce Lee: The Legend is included as the bonus fifth disc in 20th Century Fox’s now out-of-print “Master Collection” boxset, the film must be worth at least a look, right? Generally speaking, the movie does a good job of tracing Bruce Lee’s life, mainly in the form of career highlights that showcase his early stints on American television shows (in The Green Hornet and Longstreet) on up to his eventual ascension to cross-cultural superstardom through his Hong Kong movies in the early 1970s.
Overall, I found this American version* of the Golden Harvest-produced bio Bruce Lee: The Legend to be a decent, occasionally daring biography of the man nicknamed “Little Dragon.” You can read my LoveHKFilm.com review of this documentary here. Under the cut, check out the opening minutes of the film, which includes footage of Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain with Brigitte Lin!
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*The box art and many online sources list this movie as being released in 1984. However, the Internet Movie Database now lists this movie as being released in 1977, when I’m almost certain it didn’t whenever I first wrote this review. At first, I’m guessing that’s the original Hong Kong release date, but the inclusion of footage from Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain means the movie had to have been made after 1983. perhaps someone with more knowledge about this production can enlighten me about this discrepancy.