ENTER
THE DRAGON ($27) is the granddaddy of American co-produced martial
arts films, and back in 1973, the movie that took the genre mainstream in
this country. With Warner Bros. backing the production, ENTER THE
DRAGON is certainly an upscale martial arts movie from the early
1970s, which also greatly benefits from a series of terrific fight scenes
choreographed by Bruce Lee himself. Of course, ENTER THE DRAGON is
also notable as the last film that Bruce Lee completed before his untimely
death, not to mention that this movie helped cement his legendary stature
in martial arts cinema and as a pop culture icon.
The
plot of ENTER THE DRAGON is stylistically reminiscent of a James
Bond adventure, although it does remain a bit on the thin side, providing
the bare necessities to move from one action sequence to the next. In ENTER
THE DRAGON, Bruce Lee portrays a Shaolin monk named Lee, who is
invited to participate in a martial arts tournament sponsored by Han (Kien
Shih), a former member of the Shaolin and present day crime lord. At the
behest of the authorities, Lee agrees to participate in the tournament at
Han’s island fortress, which will allow him to gather evidence of
criminal’s drug trafficking and white slavery rackets. The cast of ENTER
THE DRAGON also features John Saxon as an American martial arts expert
named Roper and Jim Kelly’s as Williams; both choices obviously designed
to broaden the film’s appeal to the middle America and blaxploitation
audiences.
Warner
Home Video has made ENTER THE DRAGON available on DVD in an
approximately 2.35:1 widescreen presentation that has been enhanced for
playback on 16:9 displays. This release offers improvements on previous
DVD incarnations, and in general, looks great for a martial arts film from
the early 1970s. The image appears sharp and provides a solid level of
detail, although there is the odd shot that looks a bit softer. Colors are
nicely saturated and pretty stable, with only a couple of minor instances
where a warmer hue appears fuzzy. Blacks are solid, whites are clean, plus
the contrast and shadow detail are good for their era. The film element
used for the transfer displays some minor blemishes and some grain, but
both are easy to overlook. Digital compression artifacts never really make
their presence known.
ENTER
THE DRAGON comes with a pretty good Dolby Digital 5.1 channel
soundtrack. The remix of the older sound element gives the track a more
spacious quality and certainly helps to open up Lalo Schifrin’s
jazzy/Asian flavored score. Most of the background hiss and other audible
anomalies have been cleaned up in the mastering process, leaving the sound
with a relatively smooth quality. Sure, the sound is still somewhat dated
and the dubbing of some of the Asian actors is a bit laughable, but the
5.1 remix enhances the action sequences and actually makes some of the
exaggerated sound effects, work a whole lot better than they do in plain
monaural. Voices are crisply rendered and dialogue always completely
understandable. As for the bottom end of the track, it is solid enough for
the material. A French language track has also been encoded onto the DVD,
as have English, French and Spanish subtitles.
Music
underscores the basic interactive menus, which allow one access to the
standard scene selection and set up features, as well as the supplemental
materials, which have been spread across both discs of this set. Disc one
features producer Paul Heller and writer Michael Allin, which has been
carried over from the previous DVD release of ENTER THE DRAGON. Blood
And Steel: The Making Of Enter The Dragon is a thirty-minute
program featuring James Coburn, Paul Heller, Fred Weintraub and John Saxon
that looks at the film’s production, plus it allows the participants to
share their reminiscences of working with Bruce. Bruce Lee In His
Own Words runs nineteen minutes and consists of footage of Lee
combined with various recorded comments on his life and philosophy. The Linda
Lee Cadwell Interview Gallery is a series of short interview
segments with Bruce Lee’s widow, which run approximately sixteen minutes
in total. An original "Making-of" featurette from 1973 and
backyard workout footage of Bruce Lee closes out disc one.
Moving
on to disc two, one will find the remainder of the supplemental
programming. Curse Of The Dragon clocks in at eighty-seven
minutes and offers a feature length look the unexpected death of Bruce Lee
in 1973 and the equally unexpected death of his son Brandon some twenty
years later. Bruce Lee: A Warrior’s Journey runs
ninety-nine minutes and provides a detailed look at Lee’s career, plus
it provides one with an extensive look at footage from his final and
uncompleted film- GAME OF DEATH. Four theatrical trailers and seven
TV spots close out the supplemental materials.
ENTER
THE DRAGON is highly entertaining and a truly classic martial arts
film starring the legendary Bruce Lee. Warner has done a great job with
their two disc special edition, offering the finest looking presentation
of the film yet, in addition to some really great supplements. If you are
a Bruce Lee fan, this is the edition of ENTER THE DRAGON to own.
Highly recommended.
ENTER
THE DRAGON ($27) is the granddaddy of American co-produced martial
arts films, and back in 1973, the movie that took the genre mainstream in
this country. With Warner Bros. backing the production, ENTER THE
DRAGON is certainly an upscale martial arts movie from the early
1970s, which also greatly benefits from a series of terrific fight scenes
choreographed by Bruce Lee himself. Of course, ENTER THE DRAGON is
also notable as the last film that Bruce Lee completed before his untimely
death, not to mention that this movie helped cement his legendary stature
in martial arts cinema and as a pop culture icon.
The
plot of ENTER THE DRAGON is stylistically reminiscent of a James
Bond adventure, although it does remain a bit on the thin side, providing
the bare necessities to move from one action sequence to the next. In ENTER
THE DRAGON, Bruce Lee portrays a Shaolin monk named Lee, who is
invited to participate in a martial arts tournament sponsored by Han (Kien
Shih), a former member of the Shaolin and present day crime lord. At the
behest of the authorities, Lee agrees to participate in the tournament at
Han’s island fortress, which will allow him to gather evidence of
criminal’s drug trafficking and white slavery rackets. The cast of ENTER
THE DRAGON also features John Saxon as an American martial arts expert
named Roper and Jim Kelly’s as Williams; both choices obviously designed
to broaden the film’s appeal to the middle America and blaxploitation
audiences.
Warner
Home Video has made ENTER THE DRAGON available on DVD in an
approximately 2.35:1 widescreen presentation that has been enhanced for
playback on 16:9 displays. This release offers improvements on previous
DVD incarnations, and in general, looks great for a martial arts film from
the early 1970s. The image appears sharp and provides a solid level of
detail, although there is the odd shot that looks a bit softer. Colors are
nicely saturated and pretty stable, with only a couple of minor instances
where a warmer hue appears fuzzy. Blacks are solid, whites are clean, plus
the contrast and shadow detail are good for their era. The film element
used for the transfer displays some minor blemishes and some grain, but
both are easy to overlook. Digital compression artifacts never really make
their presence known.
ENTER
THE DRAGON comes with a pretty good Dolby Digital 5.1 channel
soundtrack. The remix of the older sound element gives the track a more
spacious quality and certainly helps to open up Lalo Schifrin’s
jazzy/Asian flavored score. Most of the background hiss and other audible
anomalies have been cleaned up in the mastering process, leaving the sound
with a relatively smooth quality. Sure, the sound is still somewhat dated
and the dubbing of some of the Asian actors is a bit laughable, but the
5.1 remix enhances the action sequences and actually makes some of the
exaggerated sound effects, work a whole lot better than they do in plain
monaural. Voices are crisply rendered and dialogue always completely
understandable. As for the bottom end of the track, it is solid enough for
the material. A French language track has also been encoded onto the DVD,
as have English, French and Spanish subtitles.
Music
underscores the basic interactive menus, which allow one access to the
standard scene selection and set up features, as well as the supplemental
materials, which have been spread across both discs of this set. Disc one
features producer Paul Heller and writer Michael Allin, which has been
carried over from the previous DVD release of ENTER THE DRAGON. Blood
And Steel: The Making Of Enter The Dragon is a thirty-minute
program featuring James Coburn, Paul Heller, Fred Weintraub and John Saxon
that looks at the film’s production, plus it allows the participants to
share their reminiscences of working with Bruce. Bruce Lee In His
Own Words runs nineteen minutes and consists of footage of Lee
combined with various recorded comments on his life and philosophy. The Linda
Lee Cadwell Interview Gallery is a series of short interview
segments with Bruce Lee’s widow, which run approximately sixteen minutes
in total. An original "Making-of" featurette from 1973 and
backyard workout footage of Bruce Lee closes out disc one.
Moving
on to disc two, one will find the remainder of the supplemental
programming. Curse Of The Dragon clocks in at eighty-seven
minutes and offers a feature length look the unexpected death of Bruce Lee
in 1973 and the equally unexpected death of his son Brandon some twenty
years later. Bruce Lee: A Warrior’s Journey runs
ninety-nine minutes and provides a detailed look at Lee’s career, plus
it provides one with an extensive look at footage from his final and
uncompleted film- GAME OF DEATH. Four theatrical trailers and seven
TV spots close out the supplemental materials.
ENTER
THE DRAGON is highly entertaining and a truly classic martial arts
film starring the legendary Bruce Lee. Warner has done a great job with
their two disc special edition, offering the finest looking presentation
of the film yet, in addition to some really great supplements. If you are
a Bruce Lee fan, this is the edition of ENTER THE DRAGON to own.
Highly recommended.
