Movie: Enter the Dragon (1973)

This is probably the best matial arts movie ever from the best martial atrist who ever lived.
This was Bruce Lee's last movie, his first in Hollywood and would well have been a stepping stone to a great Hollywood legacy.

Han (Shih Kien) is a Shaolin monk gone bad and heads a criminal organization. He is the lord of a secluded island heavily guarded by martial artists. He is responsible for the murder of the protagonist(Lee)'s sister. The only contact that his island has with the outside world is through an annual Martial arts tournament.

Seeking revenge Lee's character infiltrates the island through enrollment in the tournament. At the time the movie was made, it was a big risk to cast an actor of any other race other than a Caucasian. Blaxploitation movies were in their infancy. How could one trust a big budget movie to a lone Chinese unknown?

It was for this reason that director robert Clause cast a white man(John Saxon) and a black man (Jim Kelly) in this movie as Lee's fellow competitors who also travel into the enigmatic island.

Intertnational stars Jackie Chan and Samo young, then mere stuntmen make small appearances as Han's henchaman and Lee's victims. The fights are spectacular, all choreographed by Lee.

As a young boy I was fascinated by Lee's athletism, his lightninglike speed and his mastery of the 'Nan Chaco' (An oriental weapon with two strps of wood, fastened to the ends of a chain.) The finale, in a room of mirrors when Lee takes on Han will always stay ingrained in my memory.

It is said that Bruce had to slow down his moves because he was too quick for the cameras to catch all he was doing.
While he was known as an actor and as a matial artist, he was an intellectual well beyond his years in maturity. Some of his quotations are used in the movie. One of them is when he tutors a young boy on concentration:
'It's like a finger pointing to the moon. Concentrate on that finger and you'll miss out on all that heaveny glory.'
Another is when a bad guy breaks a board on his head.
'Boards do not hit back.'

Unfortunately, Bruce Lee fell into a mysterious comma after the movie was made. He never saw the phenomenon it became. People like Bruce Lee show up probably once in a millenium. Whether or not you like martial arts movies this movie is a must see!

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