Enter the Dragon (1973)
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Enter the Dragon Movie Review
Enter the Dragon is a 1973 Hong Kong-American martial arts film directed by Robert Clouse and starring Bruce Lee, John Saxon and Jim Kelly. It is the quintessential, but far from great genre flick.
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“Now, you must remember:
the enemy has only images and illusions behind which he hides his true motives.
Destroy the image and you will break the enemy“
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I liked the plot here and most of all because it involved a martial arts tournament which I love. The story here isn’t particularly original and I’ve seen this countless times before, but it serves its purpose and the execution is quite good. The action is also memorable, the philosophy is solid and the entire third act is a rather great conclusion.
Bruce Lee is of course great here delivering such phenomenal action sequences. His character isn’t particularly likable, but he is the most memorable actor here. As for Roper, he is solid, but rather forgettable. And Williams is an archetypal blaxploitation character. I found the movie’s racism to be very funny, but still extremely ignorant and troublesome. But it is still admirable for having a diverse cast with the main three characters being white, Asian and black and that is certainly commendable for its time.
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Let’s talk about the action. Enter the Dragon benefits from an awesome fight at the end and that entire mirror sequence is excellent and I loved that he had to use the advice obtained at the beginning of the film in order to beat Han. However, everything that came before it is not that great. There wasn’t enough action before that last fight and all of the previous fights were forgettable. That is one of the reasons why I prefer more contemporary martial arts films to this one and why I find Enter the Dragon to be good, but frankly a bit overrated as it is far from great and it is just influential, but never perfect.
The film is very well filmed and the cinematography and scenery are both great. I loved the structure of the film and the characters are fine, but definitely forgettable and not particularly likable. The script is good, but not at all sophisticated which was a problem to me.
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The editing is really good and the film moves at a brisk, but not abrupt pace. It is entertaining and it is definitely engaging to watch. But it is rarely as exciting as I wished for it to have been. Again, that ending is great, but everything that came before was a bit forgettable. The score is solid as are the sound effects and the acting is serviceable. The dialogue is solid, but the tone is somewhat problematic as the film seems to be light at times, but rarely humorous. It should have either gone full light or full serious tone and it would have been much better. I liked the island imagery and I liked the fight choreography, but the film lacked in terms of the sophistication and detail as it is way too simplistic. And it is too much a product of its time with its drug/crime elements being overly abundant and sometimes the film reminded me too much of James Bond. All in all, Enter the Dragon is definitely a good film, but far from a truly great one and its impact is understandable, but overly exaggerated nonetheless.
Enter the Dragon has good action sequences with the last fight being excellent, that entire ending sequence is superb, the plot is solid and the film is very well made and quite entertaining, but it is still a bit overrated as the characters are rather forgettable, the film is too simplistic and some of its parts are very problematic. It’s a good film, but far from a great one.
My Rating – 4
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