This is probably my favorite Bruce Lee documentary, I can see why it’s on the list.
Unlike most documentaries this one doesn’t just cover the events in Bruce Lee’s life, but closely follows the growth of his philosophy in Martial Arts, and leads up to uncovered footage from Game of Death.
They then show the footage Bruce Lee shot for Game of Death. Following the original notes and intended shots (that Bruce had picked for the final edit), they edit together the footage into the 20 minutes he created for the finale of the film.
In a way, this documentary is closer to the real Game of Death movie than the movie itself. Why?
The footage is about Bruce Lee’s Vision for Game of Death.
When Game of Death was released, it was a chopped up mess of a film in comparison to what Bruce Lee had intended it to be. But at that time his notes were missing, as was some of the footage – so they did what they could.
The footage in A Warrior’s Journey more closely resembles Bruce’s vision for the movie, and also covers the original story line and even touches on the philosophy and messages behind each fight scene. A solid half of this documentary is all about this footage and the original vision of Bruce’s. The ‘official’ Game of Death was someone else’s vision.
In a way, the footage in this documentary is like Bruce Lee’s final gift to the world (despite being shot before Enter the Dragon).
Bruce openly discusses his philosophy in the fight scenes whilst fighting. He symbolically demonstrated certain concepts behind the arts and his outlook on fighting, all while shooting a technical mix of different weapons and styles.
Leading up to the Footage
The story of Bruce’s life is told in a fashion that shows the evolution of his philosophy, martial arts, and how the events of his life shaped those thoughts. They interview mostly his wife Linda and other Martial Artists (guys like Dan Inosanto, Taky Kimura, and Kareem Abdul Jabaar) about his approach.
What they really demonstrated well is Bruce’s unwillingness to accept roles in films that weren’t acceptable to him as a Chinese man – portraying the Chinese and anything less of a race than Caucasians. Despite his tough situation he simply refuses – a truly admirable trait when most people would fold much earlier. They openly discuss the racism he faced when trying to bring his message to the world, and why he ‘took the side door’ to Hollywood by acting in Hong Kong films.
The Martial Arts Philsophy
In the Game of Death footage, a lot of Martial Arts concepts are openly displayed and conveyed through Bruce’s actions – the most noticeable being right at the beginning of the footage. Bruce fight’s Dan Inosanto’s character, who is armed with Kali sticks, by arming himself with a piece of Bamboo. He tells Dan’s character:
“You know baby, this Bamboo is longer, more flexible, and very much alive… and when your flashy routine cannot keep up with the speed and elusiveness of this thing here, all I can say is you’ll be in deep trouble.”
This almost directly parallels his quote on the man being more important than any style or system. You got a dead piece of wood going up against a flexible weapon that is ‘very much alive’. He then continues to ‘school’ his opponent as he fights – which is a tool used to educate the audience, but can also be seen (from a story line point of view) as a way of psyching out an opponent – breaking down his confidence which in turn makes him less aggressive. He also mentions broken rhythm, a powerful way to confuse an opponent by frequently changing the pace or timing of a fight to throw an opponent off guard.
In his fight on the second floor Bruce is faced with a Hapkido stylist. He uses feints and generally feels out his responses before getting comfortable enough to attack regularly. The clash of styles itself is interesting to see with Bruce’s strength being mostly in striking, and Hapkido relying more on throws and grappling.
The tower itself is a symbolic representation (as discussed in the documentary), where the top floor houses the most powerful opponent -Kareem Abdul Jabaar’s character who has no defined style – a direct statement on adaptability and limitless nature of Jeet Kune Do.
Bruce Demonstrates some interesting methods in this last fight – not only through himself, but through Kareem’s actions. Kareem uses some very unconventional ways of keeping his opponent at bay. In one particular sequence Bruce’s characters rushes at Kareem, to which he sits cross-legged on the floor. He simply throws his hands up in front of him, with palms open which essentially prevent’s Bruce’s attack (temporarily) by throwing him off. The two continue to battle both standing, on the ground and using the environment of the room to their advantage.
Overall the sequence is, in my opinion, Bruce’s finest expression of Martial Arts philosophy in cinema. It’s truly made for Bruce Lee fans and really shows the master himself at his very best. A real gift for anyone lookign for more of Bruce Lee’s inspiration.
Recommend it?
A must see for Bruce Lee fans. If you’ve seen Game of Death and not this then you need to see the real thing – this footage. It is essentially a documentary, not an action packed movie. But as far as Bruce Lee goes – I consider this to be the real Game of Death. This flick is quite easy to get a hold of as it comes with most copies of Enter the Dragon (as a special feature). But if you want to get even more out of it, the dvd itself has a commentary that is almost as interesting as the show itself.
On DVD –
Region 1 (US & Canada)
Bruce Lee – A Warrior’s Journey on DVD
Region 2 (UK, Europe, etc)
Bruce Lee – a Warrior’s Journey on DVD
Region 4 (Australia, New Zealand, etc)
Warrior’s Journey DVD (included as an extra feature)
