do we really need another documentary about bruce lee? do we? what new insight is this going to offer to the lexicon? will they talk about his marijuana use, or relationship with betty ting pei or is it just another bruce lee is so great he is the best in the whole wide world…movie? if so skip!
whats cool though (i only saw it without sound on work pc) is that they have professional fighters being interviewed it looks like. seems like a new persepective as far as bruce lee docs go. first time ive seen a compilations of well respected pro fighters put in one string of interviews giving their inspirational and motivational bruce lee start up stories and what not.
i think this might cater to the crowd of now grown developed martial artists that did get inspiration to begin from bruce lee. i could be totally wrong, but thats what it looks like.
yea…ill pass…sorry bruce.
Greetings,
If some fine looking chick said that “xyz” put b@lls on men of African ancestry, I would be deeply offended. I was offended seeing this chic say that about Chinese men. That alone, scratches this crap of a doc off of my list. That line was taken from the book “The Legend of Bruce Lee” by Alex Ben Block. It was not nice then. IT IS NOT NICE NOW!!
Here is a forty two second clip of Lo Wei, who directed Bruce Lee in the Big Boss (Fists of Fury). Things got hot between the two of them during filming. Yet, this clip shows a very deep sense of loss and sincere feeling on the part of Lo Wei about Bruce. Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TID5vYclX4A
mickey
[QUOTE=mickey;1153679]Greetings,
If some fine looking chick said that “xyz” put b@lls on men of African ancestry, I would be deeply offended. I was offended seeing this chic say that about Chinese men. That alone, scratches this crap of a doc off of my list. That line was taken from the book “The Legend of Bruce Lee” by Alex Ben Block. It was not nice then. IT IS NOT NICE NOW!!
Here is a forty two second clip of Lo Wei, who directed Bruce Lee in the Big Boss (Fists of Fury). Things got hot between the two of them during filming. Yet, this clip shows a very deep sense of loss and sincere feeling on the part of Lo Wei about Bruce. Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TID5vYclX4A
mickey[/QUOTE]
well one thing ill say about that comment i think you interpreted it wrong…when it was said she meant how people viewed asians in america at the time especially in hollywood never the hero just the “hop sing” no ticky no washy character…wasnt till this suave ass mofo named bruce lee came on the screen kicking ass and taking names that peoples eyes opened up and people were like wow asians can be badasses too…thus the comment.
doug maverick,
She was not the first to make that comment. It was in that book I mentioned, verbatim. Better words could have been chosen. Even your words are better.
mickey
didnt take you for the sensitive type.if it makes you feel any better malcolm Xgave black guys balls.
I’ve also seen that comment more than once. Apparently, it’s pretty popular to use. Whether it was referring to non-Asians’ view of Asians (or more specifically, Chinese) or not, I always found it a bit offensive, and I’m not even Chinese. What other racial group besides east Asians would people not of that group still be able to freely and openly say that about nowadays without any repercussions?
I think I could give another BL doc a miss. Pretty much everything to be said about him has been said. There was even a bad Shaw Bros movie covering his relationship with Betty Ting Pei (starring Betty herself; weird person, BTW).
Lots of people assume everyone during that era and beyond took up MA because of BL. Not me; I’d been training a couple of years before I saw my first BL movie. My reasons for training were a lot more immediate; self-preservation.
doug maverick,
If you read my first post carefully, I wrote that I would find it deeply offensive to be talked about in that way.
mickey
[QUOTE=mickey;1153718]doug maverick,
If you read my first post carefully, I wrote that I would find it deeply offensive to be talked about in that way.
mickey[/QUOTE]
wait youre not even asian?
wait, you’re just finding out?
still to my recollection this is the first documentary with current world class fighters/champs giving their take and telling their inspirational stories. i know a lot of people have butt hurt syndrome with bruce lee, but the guy really did do a lot for modern martial arts, whether anyone wants to admit it or not. im far from a bruce lee nut rider, but at the same time i dont hold anything agains the guy…there really is no reason to be a hater. 
anyone show me how they impacted kungfu in america better ? i for one respect highly any guy who can put kungfu on the map like that. it deserves props whether people think so or not. i like kungfu. i dont let other peoples obsessions skew my own impression of a guy who really did do a lot. i’ll definately watch this.
With BL, there doesn’t seem to be any in-between; most people seem to either worship him or totally criticize/hate on him. I’ve always respected BL, more for his drive and intelligence than for his movies. What I got tired of is people who would tell me, 'If it wasn’t for Bruce Lee, you would never have done martial arts." Which is utter BS. I give full credit where credit is due, but I will not give it where it is not…in my case, my motivations for studying MA.
However, there does seem to be a trend of BL-hating; i.e., “He sucked,” “He wasn’t actually a good MAist,” “He sucked as an actor,” etc. I’ve always said, if becoming a true icon is so easy, why can’t everybody do it? And he did it at a time when doing so was a LOT harder than today. Whether BL was a great actor or not I can’t say; but I will say beyond any doubt that what BL had was charisma. You can’t learn that or buy it; you either have it or you don’t.
I’ll watch any Bruce Lee documentary
I doubt I’ll make it to one of those limited engagement theatrical showings listed on their website, but I’ll see it eventually on DVD or streamed or somewhere.
It is noteworthy that this doc was even able to manage to get a limited theatrical release instead of just being distributed via disc and web. That makes it stand out from the recent cable docs.
spot on jimbo.
Well Gene and I will let you all know how it is
I’ll wait for it to come to me.
It may be a while…
ya no i’ll be waiting too, i dont doo theaters anymore…maybe i’ll pirate it later idk. :eek:
Bruce in WSJ
Maybe I’ll see it in the theaters. If I’m invited to a screener…
January 30, 2012, 12:00 PM ET
Why Bruce Lee Has More Kick Now Than Ever
By Jeff Yang
“From my point of view, the 20th century gave us just two icons who rose above time, space and race: There was Muhammad Ali, and there was Bruce Lee,” says documentary filmmaker Pete McCormack, explaining the rationale behind his two most recent projects, the feature documentary “Facing Ali,” shortlisted for the Academy Award in 2010, and its new followup “I Am Bruce Lee,” which hits 160 theaters across the country for special screenings on February 9 and 11.
It’s an assertion that instantly prompts thoughts of obvious alternatives (was that a muffled cough from Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.?) — but the truth is, it can’t be dismissed as hyperbole either.
Ali and Lee were rare and similar figures: Exceptionally charismatic individuals who thrived in the spotlight, and who earned their permanent place in history by both embodying and overcoming the contradictions of their era. They were unifiers and provocateurs, paramount warriors who preached peace, racial role models whose impact reached far beyond their own communities.
Both were named to Time magazine’s 1999 list of the 100 most important individuals of the past hundred years. And yet, when the list was unveiled, there were those who groused about Lee’s inclusion. A martial arts movie star? Alongside the likes of Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, and, uh, Gandhi and King?
Well…yes. “I Am Bruce Lee” is essentially a 94-minute-long argument that Lee was more than worthy of recognition among the century’s greats, and frankly, it’s a convincing one. The documentary is a cascading chain of reminiscences from friends and family (including wife Linda Lee Cadwell and daughter Shannon, inner-circle member Dan Inosanto and goddaughter Diana Lee Inosanto), tributes from students and fellow fighters of many styles and generations, and vivid celebrations of his legacy from an eclectic mix of celebrities who claim him as a personal inspiration: NBA superstar Kobe Bryant; filmmaker and former BET chief Reginald Hudlin; actors Ed O’Neill (“Modern Family”) and Mickey Rourke (“Iron Man 2); skateboarder Paul Rodriguez, B-boy Jose Ruiz, and Black Eyed Peas member Taboo.
Interspersed with the talking heads and moving bodies — the interviewees prove that it’s impossible to expound on Bruce Lee while standing still — are samples of his life and work, including personal clips and images that have never before been seen on screen.
Together, all of it makes the case that the biggest source of Lee’s impact wasn’t his onscreen performances, but the unique philosophy he formulated and preached, and that has made converts of individuals from an amazing range of backgrounds — what you might call a way of thinking that leads to a way of moving that leads to a way of life.
The belief system behind Lee’s art, Jeet Kune Do, was rooted in resourcefulness: “Use what works, and take it from any place you can find it”; in flexibility: “Don’t get set into one form, adapt, be like water”; in simplicity: “Express the utmost with the minimum”; in action: “Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.”
But most of all, it’s one that was steeped in a defiant antiestablishmentarianism, a rebellion against the status quo that walks in startling lockstep with the sensibilities of today’s cultural and political moment.
Some of what he said sounds like it might appeal to the Tea Party right: “Not a daily increase, but a daily decrease: Hack away at the inessentials”; “To hell with circumstances — I create opportunities”; “A big organization is not necessary….all members will be conditioned according to the prescribed system; many will end up as a prisoner of a systematized drill.”
But though Lee was a firm believer in the power of the individual, he was if anything the inverse of the Ayn Randian self-interested superman, contemptuous of the lesser beings around him. He told his disciples that “the successful warrior is just an average man with laser-like focus”; he stressed to them that he wasn’t their master, but a “student-master,” still constantly learning from them and from the world — “you can consider someone a master when you’re closing their casket”; he reminded them that “real living is living for others.”
Lee abhorred the elitism of the martial arts world, refusing to issue belts or to imbue his lessons with quasi-mystical ritual. He was relentlessly egalitarian, teaching anyone and everyone who wanted to learn and was willing to work, regardless of size, shape, background — or race: Early in his career in the U.S., he came into violent conflict with the incensed heads of other Chinese martial arts schools, who demanded he stop initiating non-Asians into their secrets. Lee thrashed the representative they sent to challenge him, and continued instructing whomever he wanted.
To Lee, boundaries and divisions, whether between styles or between peoples, were nothing more than a tool of oppression — and as Lee’s wife Linda says, “Bruce hated the oppression of the little people, which he saw everywhere: The Japanese occupation, the Boxer Rebellion, the foreign powers going into China. He just thought all of that was wrong.”
continued next post