Happening across the book THE TAO OF BRUCE LEE by Davis Miller brought back some fond memories: memories of seeing THE GREEN HORNET teleseries when it first aired, and being amazed by The Hornet's sidekick, Kato, as he took out villain after villain with what seemed to be almost supernatural abilities (but which clearly were NOT: the punches and kicks had a BELIEVABILITY about them, a verisimilitude lacking in most television and motion picture slugfests); memories of the hot summer days, not very many years later, spent slouched down in my seat watching this same Human Dynamo dispatch an assortment of villains up on The Big Screen, punctuating each kick and punch with an ear-splitting scream or his trademark howl. "Soon I was lost in the thunder," writes Miller. "I'd bathe in dreams and in lightning." Much has been made of Bruce Lee's alleged fighting ability; even Miller seems to climb atop the fence by the end of his book. (He recounts discussions with another martial artist, full contact heavyweight karate champion Joe Lewis, that would suggest another book might be a good idea: if anyone's been overlooked long enough, it's Joe Lewis- and of Lewis's ring skills there's little doubt: I saw him fight twice, and he was MOST impressive, even against much bigger opponents. I read somewhere that Bruce Lee himself once referred to Lewis as "the greatest fighter on the face of the Earth." How's THAT for an endorsement?) This movie, however, is about as true to life as any of the other exploitation movies that literally followed in his wake. Lee was all too human (as his death attests) and had his flaws (unlike the rest of us): in the book HONG KONG BABYLON, it's revealed that the woman in whose bed his body was found was the girlfriend of a Triad boss. But the fact remains that Bruce Lee was- and IS- an inspiration to millions- myself included. This movie does him a great disservice.
Review of Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story
