Bruce Lee, the Legend

This documentary included footage from movies Bruce Lee made as a child. I didn't know he started making movies when he was 6 years old. The movie definately shows him in a very positive way; they only mention some of the rumors in passing. There are film clips throughout which made it more interesting. If you like Bruce or martial arts films, this is a movie worth seeing.

An older documentary but surprisingly watchable. Really dives deep into Bruce's early years. But also inadvertently throws more mystery on his death.

This documentary which looks at the life of Bruce Lee is filled with many clips from his movies. It offers a straightforward chronological view of his life, from his birt in San Francisco, to his young adulthood in Hong Kong, to his attempts to break into Hollywood, followed by his Hong Kong movies; then, having achieved his crossover into mainstream, while filming his first Hollywood co-production, he died.

There is little to stop the legend of Bruce Lee. Cut down just at the point of achieving everything he had striven for, the imagination of his admirers takes over, building castles in the air about what he might have done. In truth, we are left with very little: the four movies made while he was alive, the one cobbled together after his death, the myriad imitators who faded away within a decade, and the respectability of the martial arts movie: respectability in the industry sense, in that you can sell a lot of tickets. In fact, that looks like the subtext of this movie. Lee's movies were still playing worldwide, and this documentary would have appealed to his fans, and perhaps caused them to buy tickets to see again Lee's few movies.

For the hardcore, and even to casual Bruce Lee fans, this documentary might not give much insight into the life of legendary martial artist. The documentary mostly covers the films Bruce made for Golden Harvest (no wonder, the documentary is produced by the same company, and it is called 'The Official Golden Harvest Tribute'), and leaves out many interesting stuff outside these films that made Bruce Lee an international superstar. Most interesting part of the documentary was probably (at least for me) that it concentrated good enough time on Bruce's earlier Hong Kong films that he made before leaving to United States.

There are much more insightful documentaries about Bruce Lee out there, but this one is still worth to see as it is honestly sweet with couple of interesting interviews with Lee's Hong Kong co-stars. The film is well put together, and when this is your first film about Bruce Lee, then you probably learn quite many things about the man.

The film that would make me a life long fan of Bruce Lee, who died two years before my birth. Although my further studies would later prove this documentary to be a little underdeveloped and one-sided, but those who are willing to suspend their disbelief might find this to be an interesting watch. Golden Harvest truly knows how to immortalize its former star.