Matt Connarton Unleashed: Erich Pilcher reviews Enter the Dragon (1973)

Roper, Williams and Lee. The Deadly Three penetrate the secret chambers of an

evil island empire. When you know abou Haa, he lives like a king

on that island, totally so sufficient, a fortress without walls, protected by

an invincible army that needs no ordinary weapons. This is Enter the Dragon,

the first martial arts film produced by a major Hollywood studio. John Saxon is

Roper. He was in it for the money. US Karate champion Jim Kelly.

As Williams, he was there because he had no choice. Black Belt

Hall of Fame, undisputed martial arts champion and international film star Bruce Lee,

his job was to get them out alive. I'm hoping you'll join us,

represent us in the United States. You want me to join this Wilper,

Williams and Lee. Just when they think they've broken the secret of the island,

they find there is no escape from the inscrutable Han. Warner Brothers presents

Enter the Dragon, where the world's greatest martial arts athletes meet the ultimate challenge

with the most patient and deadly of weapons, the human body. Enter the

Dragon from Warner Brothers Bruce Lee. Even over fifty years after his death,

his name hearkens to martial arts. His contributions to worldwide cinema cannot be understated,

and with one film, he brought martial arts films to the popular consciousness

of America, a country at once shunned him. Sadly, he was never

alive to see its enduring legacy that lasts to this day. Released in nineteen

seventy three and directed by Robert klaus Enter, The Dragon gives us the tale

of Lee played by Bruce Lee, a martial arts master tasked with entering a

martial arts tournament hosted by the deadly Han, a renegade monk that has become

a crime lord, and Lee is tasked with uncovering his criminal empire. Joining

Lee in the tournament is the gambling addicted businessman Roper played by screen legend John

saxon In Williams played by American martial arts master Jim Kelly. Our first clip

is Lee being presented with the mission. I chose this scene because it presents

the dark and mysterious nature of Han, a man that lives in a fortress

like men Chin, and it's only opened up for this martial arts tournament.

This is a trope regarding villains now commonly seen in martial arts films that began

with this very film. What do you know about Hahn? He lives like

a king on that island, totally self sufficient. All of his efforts seemingly

are directed towards supporting what he calls his school of martial arts. Han's only

contact with the outside world is this tournament, which he holds every three years.

This was a stewardess, Mary King fun floating in the harbor. Nothing

unusual about a body in the harbor, but this girl was last seen at

a party aboard hans private junk. They'd reported a lost at sea before the

body was found. We believe he selects attractive girls and methodically builds their dependence

on drugs, then sells them to an elite cleon tern around the world.

What did the autopsy review as the cause of death? She did not drown,

She odeed. H Yes, cause of death was a heroin overdose.

I gather you still don't have enough to bust up his operation. We know

everything, we can prove nothing. We want you to go in there as

our agent, get us our evidence, and come out in one piece to

give it to you. We'll give you anything you need, electronic equipment,

weapons, anything, drink? No thanks, guns now, why doesn't somebody

pull off forty five and bang settle it? No? No guns. Look

at this map here. As you know, the possession of a weapon is

a serious offense. Here. Han's island rests partly within our territorial waters.

If we were given the slightest reason to believe that he has any kind of

arsenal, we'd move in on him. Besides, Hahn would never allow guns

on the island anyway. He had a bad experience with them once and he's

fearful of assassination. Can't really blame him. Any bloody fool can pull a

trigger. I guess I won't need anything. There's a radio on the island.

We'll be monitoring it on the chance that you can get to it,

and then you come someone will. We aren't an agency of enforcement. We

function as gatherers of information evidence upon which interested governments can act. I see

if there's any trouble, you make a phone call. Oh, by the

way, two months ago we managed to place a female operative on the island.

Since then we've lost her. If she's still there, she might have

something names a Melee, Sure you want to have one? No thanks.

Martial arts films have a very distinct way of showing us, the viewer,

the difference between heroes and villains. The heroes or good guys look at martial

arts as a way of life, a way of living that one should not

fight, and use it unless provoked as a means of defense. Villains look

at it as a way of force, a way to intimidate and consolidate power.

Our next two clips show this. First, in a brief clip,

we hear Han show off his treasures to Roper that he has acquired through criminal

activity. Then, in an early clip from the film, we will hear

Lee speak to his martial arts master. Of note here is the piece in

ease that Lee's master carries compared to Hot in the way that he explains Lee's

martial arts skills as being a part of him and not a skill. Learn

this is my museum. It is difficult to associate these horrors with the proud

civilizations that created them. Spata Rome, the Knights of Europe, the Samurai.

They worship strength because it is strength that makes all other values possible.

Nothing survives without it. Who knows what delicate wonders have died out of the

world for want of the strength to survive? What's this, oh, a

souvenir, And now Lee and his master. I see your talents have gone

beyond the mere physical level. Your skills are now at the point of spiritual

insight. I have several questions. What is the highest technique you hope to

achieve? We have no technique? Very good? What are your thoughts when

facing an opponent? There is no opponent? Then? Why is that?

Because the word I does not exist? So continue? A good fight should

be like a small play, but played seriously. A good martial artist does

not become tense but ready, not thinking yet not dreaming, ready for whatever

might come. When the opponent expand, I contract. When it contracts,

I expand. And when there is an opportunity, I do not hit.

It hits all by itself. No, you must remember the enemy has only

images and illusions behind which he hides his true motives. Destroy the image and

he will break the enemy. The hit that you refer to is a powerful

weapon, easily misused by the martial artists who deserts his thoughts. For centuries

now, the covide of the Shanin Temple has been preserved. Remember the honor

of our brotherhood has been held true. Tell me now, I'm the sheld

Income Endment number thirteen. Hey, Mashwatis has to take responsibility for himself and

accept the consequences of his own doing. Prior to the release of this film,

Bruce Lee was known in America. This was through his films from Golden

Harvest over in Hong Kong that had found their way to the States in his

time playing Cato in the short lived American television series The Green Hornet. But

this film made him a global legend that endears to this day. Our final

clip will be Lee's daughter Shannon Saxon and actor Bob Wall not just talking about

Lee in this film, but his long lasting, ever reaching legacy. Everywhere

they know who my father is, and they've been touched in some way,

inspired in some way, or just excited in some way, and it's such

a blessing. I now work doing things for the legacy through my foundation and

through our licensing business and that sort of thing. But I'm just so amazed

and so inspired on a daily basis, and it's really why I want to

do what I do. In keeping the legacy alive because I'm inspired by it.

If you know, there hadn't been that depth of philosophy behind it,

if there hadn't been so much more to it and so much authenticity to it,

then I don't know that i'd be doing what I'm doing today. I

had been doing things like judo and Japanese karate and stuff like that, and

eventually I began to be seeing other kinds of things. Bruce obviously helped me

a good bit, and I would ask him, what do you think i'd

try to do this kind of thing? He said, that's pretty good.

Tried that, and we were working like that all the time. You know,

you know, it probably didn't mean it. But when I got to

Hong Kong, I was there with my wife and my son, who was

not yet two years old. And the next day I went to see Bruce

and he brought me into his house. He was waiting to see me,

and then I saw he had a gem and I looked at it and reminded

me of what I had a little bit of at my home, you know.

And we began to talk this and that, and he was telling me

things what he could do with kettlebells, and stuff and things that I had

little contact with at that time. And we kept going on and on and

on, and then all of a sudden he began to tell me, show

me, show me how you do your side kick. And I said,

okay, But I had done a scene at the park about two or three

weeks or four weeks prior, where I had sprained my ankle, and I

said, oh, well, all right, he's wanting to do this with

me, I'll do it, you know. So all of a sudden I

threw a kick and then he said, let me show how I do mine,

and he did. He moved around with a chair and I didn't know

what he was doing, you know, I was looking over his shoulder like

that, and all of a sudden he stood in front of me for about

fifteen feet or something like that, and he did a hot skip and a

jump and hit had a bag, you know, and he knocked me clear

across on my heels like there's going into a chair like that, and the

chair fell down and broke, and I got up Linn and I saw he

was very kind of quiet and anxious about this, and I said, listen,

it's okay. I mean, I didn't get hurt. I didn't get

hurt. He says, I know, but that's my best chair. And

it was the same chair that he had everybody else do the same thing with

me that I discovered later sit behind the stand behind it, and then he'd

kick and you'd go back and boom, you'd hit this chair. But I

had broken it. I was the only one that had broken it. Okay.

I loved Bruce Lee and we were really close friends for many, many

many years, over ten and training partners, and I got five hundred a

week when I was making ten to twelve thousand a week my real estate business.

My wife of forty four years now said why are you doing this?

And said, I just love Bruce. He's my first close Chinese friend.

And I can take these hits and everybody's afraid of them, and I've been

training with him. I can take the hits. And Bruce wanted to do

everything real. He really Freddie and Paul can tell you they Bruce got hurt

a lot in this film. He got bit by the snake, he got

hurt by the windows, he got cut with a glass scene with me,

we're using real bottles. So my pardon it was, I was really enjoying

it. You don't see yourself as a bad guy all, and my wife

does. He thought it was type casting. And I've had so many people

over the years say I hated you, I wanted you dead. Even Freddy

said I wanted him to kill you, and he did't even want to hire

me for the part in the beginning. But I really enjoyed doing it.

I loved Bruce and it was It's like my partner for forty years is Chuck

Norris, and they're both the saying Chuck and Bruce. And people say,

you've never missed a workout with either one of them, and I said,

no, why would you miss a painting lesson from Picasso? In the world

the cinema words groundbreaking, landmark, in trend setting are used ad nauseum.

I will admit I'm guilty of overusing them, even on these reviews. If

there ever was a film deserving of those words, though, it is this

film here. It is an understatement to say this film brought martial arts films

to America. It affected many other film genres. This film led to blaxploitation

films and other action films using martial arts as a way of fighting and not

just using guns, knives, and explosives. This film has generated an American

gross box office of one hundred and twenty million dollars upon its release, and

to this day it has generated two billion dollars in worldwide box office gross through

its original release and countless re release pie. For Lee, it finally made

his dream come true to have jee Kundo his version of martial arts brought to

the American mainstream. Sadly and tragically, he never had a chance to see

it come to fruition. Lee suddenly passed away July twentieth, nineteen seventy three,

almost two months before the film's American release. However, its influence carries

on, and that is due to Lee, who would have celebrated his eighty

third birthday this past November twenty seventh. To know what American martial arts films

are, one must see where they began, and that is with this action

masterpiece. I hope you join me next week when we will look at the

directorial dating of screen legend Robert de Niro. Next week's film is a Bronx

Tale starring de Niro in Chaz commentary for W M n H and Matt Connorton

unleashed. This has been a classic film with Eric Pilcher

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