Enter the Dragon - Page 2© Steve Honeywell
Page 2
Feb 10, 2001
All of this takes place in the first few moments of the movie, and the rest of the film is simply playing out the events leading up to Lee's final confrontation with Han. He goes to the tournament, a few other guys go to the tournament, and everybody fights everybody else. There's all sorts of cool martial arts styles represented and tons of fights. People die. Others get the snot beaten out of them. People are weeded out of the tournament one by one until only the strongest and best martial artists remain. It's the same pattern followed by about 65 percent of all martial arts movies that followed this one. And here you thought Mortal Kombat was original. In fact, all of the conventions you've come to expect in martial arts movies, like the pretty boy who travels with too much luggage, come from this film. In this case, the pretty boy is played by veteran actor John Saxon, who kicks some significant butt for a polyester-wearing white boy.
Through all of the fighting, we get a few great movie quotes, like: "When there is an opportunity, I do not hit. It hits all by itself." Where Enter the Dragon succeeds is in the fight choreography. These look like real fights. Lee was, and I do not feel I endanger my manhood by saying this, beautiful to watch in action. The guy was flawless, and nowhere do you see this more completely than in this film. Even better, it never really slows down. Any time there would be slow sections, fight scenes are interspersed to keep the film moving. We see the entire fight that leads up to Lee's sister's death, for instance, as well as some fights that lead to the appearance of several other martial artists in the tournament. I won't spoil the movie for you if you've never seen it. But if you've never seen it, do yourself a favor and rent it. And if you needed more reasons to rent it, Jackie Chan is in it, as is Chuck Norris. In fact, don't rent it. Go buy it on DVD. What's Good: Bruce Lee, of course, as well as some of the best choreographed fight scenes ever filmed.
What's Bad: Essentially plotless.
Final Analysis: Perhaps the best fighting scenes ever filmed make up for the complete lack of plot.
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