Summary
- Enter the Dragon, released 50 years ago, remains the definitive martial arts film and a true landmark movie of the early '70s.
- Bruce Lee's popularity was already growing before Enter the Dragon, thanks to his success in Hong Kong and his role in The Green Hornet.
- Enter the Dragon broke down cultural barriers, featuring an Asian hero as the lead in a major Hollywood production, paving the way for future Asian action stars.
The 1973 Bruce Lee movie Enter the Dragon is 50 years old, and it still stands as the definitive martial arts film. Enter the Dragon follows Bruce Lee in the role of the Shaolin monk Lee, who is recruited for an undercover operation into a martial arts tournament hosted by a reclusive Han millionaire (Shih Kien) suspected to be the head of a drug-running and prostitution empire. Lee agrees to take on the assignment, with his real motivation being revenge for the death of his sister Su Lin (Angela Mao) at the hands of Han's bodyguard O'Hara (Robert Wall).
Bruce Lee sadly ed away at the age of 32 less than a month before the release of Enter the Dragon, but the film became a monumental box office smash. Enter the Dragon's 50th anniversary has been commemorated with the movie receiving a 4K home media release for the first time, along with a theatrical re-release. While undeniably a classic, Enter the Dragon's level of popularity goes much deeper, and not only does it remain one of the best movies of its kind, but it's arguably still the definitive martial arts film 50 years after its release.
10 Enter The Dragon's Timing Was Perfect
Enter the Dragon hit theaters at a time when martial arts were first beginning to enter the mainstream of Western culture. Throughout the '50s and '60s, American soldiers either stationed in Japan or serving in the Korean War took up martial arts training in growing numbers, which helped lead to the proliferation of martial arts schools in the U.S. upon their return. Hong Kong's 156 years as a British colony also had a similar effect, with martial arts growing popular in British culture as a side effect.
The debut of Enter the Dragon coincided perfectly with the rise of martial arts in Western countries, allowing the movie to really stand out as something unique and special for its time. Enter the Dragon's trailer even made a point of emphasizing that, describing it as "the first martial arts film produced by a major Hollywood studio." With such a novelty on its side, Enter the Dragon was perfectly positioned to become a true landmark movie of the early '70s, a distinction that became the first pillar of its longevity.
9 Bruce Lee's Popularity Was Growing Before Enter The Dragon
While Enter the Dragon was the movie that made Bruce Lee a household name around the world, he was hardly unknown before the film, especially in Hong Kong. His 1971 movie The Big Boss became the biggest Hong Kong hit of the time, which propelled Lee's subsequent Hong Kong releases, Fist of Fury and his directorial debut The Way of the Dragon, to great success. Lee's popularity in Hong Kong also served as a catalyst for Enter the Dragon's eventual development by Warner Bros.
Bruce Lee had already achieved a fair degree of notoriety in the West with his show-stealing portrayal of Kato on the American TV series The Green Hornet. Despite it only lasting for one season, Lee's screen presence and action scenes gave The Green Hornet an iconography all its own, with the series even re-titled The Kato Show in Hong Kong. With the added success of Lee's Hong Kong martial arts films in the mix, these factors were enough for Warner Bros. to give the go-ahead for Enter the Dragon with Lee as the leading man — though Bruce Lee still fought with Warner Bros. while making Enter the Dragon.
8 Bruce Lee Was Helping To Break Down Cultural Barriers
Fifty years after Enter the Dragon's debut, it is easy to forget just how revolutionary the idea of an Asian actor headlining a Hollywood production really was for the time. In his early attempts to establish a career in Hollywood, Bruce Lee faced a challenging uphill battle against prejudicial roadblocks. Lee's performance as Kato on The Green Hornet was the first real success he had in overcoming this, with the character universally regarded as the real centerpiece of the show. Enter the Dragon helped change that even more.
With Enter the Dragon, an Asian hero anchored a major worldwide hit on a level virtually never seen before. Enter the Dragon's success had a lasting real-world impact, with Lee becoming a pioneer of Asian leading actors in Hollywood martial arts films. While Donnie Yen, Michelle Yeoh, Tony Jaa, and Iko Uwais are now regulars in Western action films — and Jackie Chan and Jet Li's saw earlier Hollywood success before them — Bruce Lee's role in Enter the Dragon stands as arguably the dawn of Asian action stars in Hollywood movies.
7 Bruce Lee's Screen Presence Was One Of A Kind
Enter the Dragon is an undeniably energetic martial arts film, with Bruce Lee being the clear core of the movie with his electrifying performance as Lee. As seen in his Hong Kong movies and his performance as Kato, Lee cultivated a dynamic on-screen image that is still truly all his own. In each of his movies, Lee also shows a very unmistakable talent for making himself inseparable from whichever character he is playing, truly bringing the heroes he embodies to life with his own distinct body language, mannerisms, and martial arts skill.
Bruce Lee brought all these attributes to his performance as Lee in Enter the Dragon, carrying himself with indomitable confidence from the movie's opening scene all the way to the end. With the energy he brings to the film, Lee's captivating screen presence in Enter the Dragon is absolutely indispensable to the movie's consistent popularity since 1973. And nowhere is that more evident than in Enter the Dragon's martial arts fights.
6 The Fight Scenes Were WAY Ahead Of Their Time
Bruce Lee is ed as an innovator in martial arts training with his creation of Jeet Kune Do, but he also applied the same skill set to his on-screen fight choreography. In addition to being the star of the film, Bruce Lee also served as Enter the Dragon's fight choreographer. While it goes without saying that the movie's martial arts fight scenes are incredible, they were also one-of-a-kind in Hollywood movies at the time of the film's release, with virtually no Western action movies of the time showcasing martial arts on such a grand scale, or with such a harmony of power, speed, and precision.
Enter the Dragon's fight scenes are even more impactful for their sound effects of strikes landing, created by snapping chicken bones up close to a microphone. Additionally, Enter the Dragon also predicted the future of martial arts in Lee's opening fight scene with Sammo Hung, blending striking and grappling techniques in a battle that foretold contemporary MMA. As Hollywood's first martial arts blockbuster, Enter the Dragon was and still is one of the benchmarks of delivering outstanding martial arts movie fights.
5 Enter The Dragon Is Steeped In Martial Arts Philosophy & Lore
On the flip side of the physical aspects of Enter the Dragon, the movie also made the mental and spiritual side of martial arts integral to its story. Bruce Lee portraying a Shaolin monk brought the legend of China's famed monastery of kung fu and Buddhism into Enter the Dragon's story, and this is just one aspect of how the deeper aspects of martial arts are integral to the film. From Lee's scene teaching a student proper kicking to Lee drawing from a real-world martial arts legend in the "art of fighting without fighting" scene, Enter the Dragon makes the internal side of martial arts as important as the external.
The movie also accomplishes that in another way with former Shaolin monk-turned-crime boss Han acting as a dark mirror to Lee. More than just portraying him as a drug lord who needs to be stopped, Enter the Dragon frames Han as an outright corruption of the teachings of martial arts, hosting his tournament as a recruiting tool for his criminal empire. Lee is the opposite, harnessing the power he has gained from his training to make himself into a warrior ing his knowledge on to others to improve their lives and the world.
4 Enter The Dragon Is Extremely Quotable
A hallmark of any timeless classic tends to be its quotability, and Enter the Dragon might be the most quotable — and quoted — martial arts film ever made. In Enter the Dragon, Bruce Lee delivers such timeless quotes as "Don't think, feel! It is like a finger pointing a way to the moon. Don't concentrate on the finger, or you will miss all that heavenly glory." Other quotable Bruce Lee lines in Enter the Dragon include "Boards don't hit back" and "You have offended my family, and you have offended the Shaolin Temple.
Bruce Lee is not the only member of the cast to utter Enter the Dragon's best quotes either, with Han proving his villain bona fides with lines like "It is defeat that you must learn to prepare for," while Jim Kelly's Williams backhandedly commends his villainy with "Man, you come right out of a comic book." With such a treasure trove of quotable dialogue, Enter the Dragon carried yet another attribute to add to its legacy. That Enter the Dragon remains so quotable 50 years later is simply testimony to the movie's enduring strength.
3 Enter The Dragon's Cast Includes Many Other Martial Arts Icons
Bruce Lee may be the face of Enter the Dragon, but he is hardly the only martial arts movie legend to appear in the film. John Saxon and Jim Kelly, along with Lee's The Way of the Dragon co-star Bob Wall, all brought their real-life skills as martial artists to their respective roles as Roper, Williams, and O'Hara. Kelly went on to become a '70s Blaxploitation star in movies like Black Belt Jones and Death Connection. Lee's sister in Enter the Dragon, Sun Li, is played by Angela Mao, the legendary star of such martial arts films as Hapkido and Lady Whirlwind.
Some future martial arts movie icons also landed their first notable break with Enter the Dragon, including Sammo Hung, who became a massive Hong Kong action hero after his fight with Lee in this film. Hung's Hong Kong contemporary Yuen Biao also served as Lee's stuntman, while Enter the Dragon features Jackie Chan getting his neck broken by Lee in the movie's cave fight. 50 years after its debut, Enter the Dragon retrospectively plays as a who's who of martial arts movie titans.
2 Enter The Dragon's James Bond Similarities Set It Up For Success
One characteristic of Enter the Dragon that has often been commented upon is the film's curious resemblance to a James Bond movie. That indeed becomes swiftly apparent in the film's opening credits when Enter the Dragon's decidedly Bond-esque theme kicks in. Lee's infiltration mission to Han's island and Han as a villain also fit right into the feel of the 007 franchise, and with Enter the Dragon releasing in 1973, comparisons to the Bond movies of its day worked in its favor.
With Sean Connery and Roger Moore bringing the debonair James Bond to life in the '60s and '70s with gentlemanly charm and reserve, Bruce Lee showed a whole other side of their formula as a commanding warrior with a Zen mindset in Enter the Dragon. That made Enter the Dragon even more unique for its time, with the movie combining the trappings of a Bond movie with the martial arts of Lee's Hong Kong career. Fifty years later, that combination is still a standout, and standalone, element of Enter the Dragon's identity.
1 Enter The Dragon Has Been Homaged & Parodied Endlessly
What ultimately seals the deal on Enter the Dragon as the definitive martial arts movie classic is the influence it has maintained on popular culture. Enter the Dragon's most iconic moments and quoted lines have been lovingly and endlessly spoofed in countless comedies. The Kentucky Fried Movie is the biggest example, with its segment "A Fistful of Yen" being a silly and enjoyable Enter the Dragon parody, and many other comedies and internet shorts have similarly drawn humor from the film. Other franchises have been more straightforward tributes to Enter the Dragon, with the hall of mirrors in John Wick: Chapter 2 paying homage to Lee's climactic showdown with Han.
One of the most prominent examples of Enter the Dragon's pop culture legacy is the Mortal Kombat franchise, which more or less gives a supernatural makeover to the plot of Lee's film. Mortal Kombat's Shaolin monk protagonist Liu Kang is directly modeled on Lee in Enter the Dragon, while other video game characters like Street Fighter's Fei Long and Tekken's Marshall Law have also been clear Bruce Lee analogs. Even the simple act of a character getting three cuts across the torso or imitating Bruce Lee's signature "Waaaah" on-screen is instantly recognizable as a tribute to Enter the Dragon, with innumerable other examples seen in all forms of popular media.
With Enter the Dragon turning 50, the impact it has had upon the world will forever be linked with everything Bruce Lee brought to the film. Through its lightning-in-a-bottle success, Enter the Dragon set the template for the entire martial arts movie genre to live up to. There is no greater measurement for calling a movie a classic than that, which forever cements Bruce Lee's seminal movie Enter the Dragon as the definitive martial arts film.
