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16

Not gonna rate this one because I didn’t finish it. My car died at the drive-in and I had to get a jump. Very embarrassing! Anyway, I liked what I saw. Strange to watch a movie that you can fully recognize as having influenced an entire generation of film lovers while also knowing that the movie and most of the movies it has influences have just totally ed you by. Was delighted when the whole drive-in honked at Jim Kelly beating up two racist cops. Also delighted at everyone honking as Jim Kelly was about to have sex. The drive-in loves to honk at a horny moment. Who can blame em! It’s what the bumper stickers want!

John Saxon looks like Zac Efron. Why isn’t the news talking about this?

18

If you put martial arts, blaxploitation, and espionage into a tea pot it becomes the tea pot, boiling over with perfection thanks to an immense Lalo Schifrin score, John Saxon, Jim Kelly, a claw/knife handed Dr. No villain, a shitload of mirrors, and Bruce Lee. 

Incredibly influential and endlessly enjoyable, this is essential 1973 cinema.

4

60s Bond film through the lens of 70s martial arts/blaxploitation. Lee was an unbelievable athlete.

Review by matt lynch ★★★★ Liked

Bruce Lee spends a great deal of this movie looking around, quietly observing everything and throwing off a calculatedly obnoxious bad motherfucker attitude, an attitude he proceeds to back up with his obvious skill as an athletic performer. But it's not the fighting that makes ENTER THE DRAGON great (the fights are fine, shot a little blandly but unobtrusively by Clouse). it's that Lee's less a martial artist here than a vibe, not merely quicker and tougher and stronger but able to assess and recalibrate the frequency of everything around him, like that Looney Tunes gag where someone strikes a tuning fork but it makes them vibrate instead.

6

I'm sure one could criticize any number of stereotypical and otherwise problematic elements of this, but from another and I would argue more productive angle it begins to seem like some kind of blueprint for a utopian popular cinema that never materialized, multiracial, multicultural, international, and antiauthoritarian. Jim Kelly refuses to submit to racist cops, Bruce Lee refuses to wear a uniform, John Saxon refuses to guillotine an innocent kitty cat, and the feds only show up as a closing punchline about their own uselessness.

62

The Dragon Bruce Lee in the film that made him an immortal legend and an international superstar. Sparring with Sammo. Dragon flip. Tea time. Dragon wisdom. The way Jim Kelly's fro looks when he puts on shades. Filmstrip. Oharra's scar. Toe tag. Gun control. Dragon rowboat. Ball buster. Jackie Chan? Fighting like a girl. Harakiri. Dragon vow. High-stakes golf. A cool as fuck doggie. Fro Kung fu. Police harassment. War buddies. Grasshopper gambling. Dragon humility lesson. Bolo's muscles. When your fro is so pimp you must duck to walk through a walkway. Roasted piggy. Welcome party. Han's gloves. Skinny sumo. Awesome as fuck headphones. Real pimp motherfuckers fuck ho's 4 at a time. Dragon training. Fuck you uniforms! Going all…

1

73

"It's like a finger pointing away to the moon. Do not concentrate on the finger, or you will miss all of the heavenly glory."

1

"Now, you must : the enemy has only images and illusions behind which he hides his true motives. Destroy the image and you will break the enemy."

[35mm]

Review by Branson Reese Liked

I know I said I was going to stop reviewing movies on here for a while but guess what it's been a while because this shit rocked.

5

Surely this isn't the same guy that got fucked up by Cliff Booth?!?!

42

“Enter the Dragon” isn’t just the most successful martial arts film of all time. It’s also…. just about the best. 

There is little sense in subtlety when speaking of Bruce Lee’s achievement with the movie. Any humility is unnecessary to the work, and uncharacteristic of the famously, deservedly confident man who stars in it. 

Director Robert Clouse’s “Dragon” has nary a moment when it is not in motion. Every second of the picture is a movement - clear, exact - each action building with precision on those preceding. It’s a feat of total grace in filmmaking. 

And here’s the best part… it knows that it’s just that good. 

Like Lee himself, “Dragon” understands greatness, because seeing it is as easy…

23

Trivia.
1) The movie was made for $850,000 in 1973 & took in over $90 million worldwide at the box office.

2) An extra challenged Bruce Lee to a fight to see if he really was that good. Lee won the fight & sent the extra back to work.

3) Jackie Chan: Appears twice in the film. Towards the end of the movie in the big cave fight scene. Lee grabs his hair for a while before breaking his neck. He is also one of the stuntmen that Lee hits when he wields two sticks (according to Chan).

4) Sammo Hung is Bruce Lee's sparring partner during the fight before the opening credits.

5) John Saxon was cast because he had a…