Enter the Dragon aka. The Deadly Three, originally titled Blood and Steel is a 1973 American martial arts film directed by Robert Clouse; starring martial artist Bruce Lee, John Saxon and Jim Kelly. It is the last completed film Bruce Lee appeared in before his death. He died six days before the movie was released.

Trailer



It was the first kung fu film to have been made by a major Hollywood studio and was produced in association with Golden Harvest and Lee's Concord Production Company. The film is largely set in Hong Kong.

Among the stuntmen for the film were members of the Seven Little Fortunes, including Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung. This was arguably instrumental in Chan and Hung's further association with Golden Harvest studios, which later launched their careers. The portly Hung is shown fighting Lee in the opening sequence of the movie.

The finished version of the film was significantly different from the original screenplay drafts as Bruce Lee revised much of the script himself, including having written and directed the film's opening Shaolin Temple fight sequence. Lee wanted to use the film as a vehicle for expressing what he saw as the beauty of his Chinese culture, rather than it being just another action movie.

Highlights



Enter the Dragon was a huge success during its original theatrical release. It grossed an estimated $25,000,000 in North America, and an estimated $90,000,000 worldwide, off a very modest $850,000 budget, making it one of the most profitable films ever made.

In Hong Kong, the film grossed HKD $3,307,536 — huge business for the time, but substantially less than Lee's Fist of Fury and Way of the Dragon

Martial Artists

Bruce Lee, John Saxon, Kien Shih, Ahna Capri, Angela Mao, Jim Kelly, Robert Wall, Bolo Yeung, Betty Chung, Geoffrey Weeks, Peter Archer, Ho Lee Yan, Marlene Clark, Allan Kent, William Keller, Mickey Caruso, Pat E. Johnson, Darnell Garcia, Mike Bissell, Jackie Chan (stuntman, uncredited), Roy Chiao (uncredited), Paul M. Heller (uncredited), Sammo Hung (martial artist, uncredited), Ching Ying Lam (uncredited), Tony Liu (uncredited), Keye Luke (voice, uncredited), Hidy Ochiai (uncredited), Steve Sanders (uncredited), Wei Tung (uncredited), Donnie Williams (uncredited), Tadashi Yamashita (uncredited), Yuen Biao (uncredited), Yuen Wah (uncredited)

Trivia

Bruce was bitten by a cobra during filming of the scene in which he infiltrates Han's underground lair. Fortunately the snake had been de-venomized prior to Bruce handling the snake.

Lee's famous, running thrust kick into Bob Wall's chest at the end of their fight scene broke Wall's sternum, and broke one arm each of two extras, into which Wall was propelled and fell. The rest of the fight (with the glass bottles) was delayed for one month, until Wall had healed well enough to perform the choreography. The kick and fall were scripted and rehearsed, but Lee was unhappy that the kick would not look real on screen. Wall exhorted Lee, "Go for it, man. I'm a professional." The result, on the eighth take, put Wall in the hospital. This incident, as well as others, helped give rise to the rumor of an on-set feud between Wall and Lee, and that this feud prompted Lee to fight him for real.

Sammo Hung appears as Bruce Lee's sparring opponent at the beginning of the movie.

Jackie Chan appears briefly in a couple of scenes, as one of the guards or henchmen with O'Harra. The first is when he is kicked in the groin while coming on to Lee's sister. He is wearing the light blue clothing. He is also the only person to get any serious type of damage on Lee's sister. (Punches, a kick, and pushing her head into the wall) Later on, he gets his neck snapped by Bruce Lee during a battle with several guards, where Bruce Lee uses a number of weapons including the nunchakus.

According to Shannon Lee, who appeared on a Spike TV special, airing the film, she states there was a debate on deciding the title, as the film originally was supposed to be named "Blood and Steel" or "Han's Isle". The film was named "Enter the Dragon", as she states her father was known as "The Dragon".

Kien Shih, who played Han, did not speak English, he just simply mouthed the lines as best as he could. Chinese-American actor Keye Luke overdubbed his dialogue.

To get all the Asian extras for the training and fight scenes, the filmmakers had to literally recruit gang members from Hong Kong. Bruce Lee was reportedly slightly arrogant, and between takes, the gang members (who were obviously just plebs in the film) were always trying to fight Lee. This proved very time-consuming for the filmmakers.

Fight Scene 1



Fight Scene 2



Fight Scene 3



Fight Scene 4

Martial Arts movies, you either love them or you hate them. There is no middle ground. They invoke passion on either side. If you love them you'll probably watch any old rubbish so long as there is some chance of someone getting a kick to the head. What's more you will probably even get a kick (pun totally intended) out of the cheesy badly dubbed dialogue. Classic lines to be found in almost any Chinese movie are, "My uncle sent me" and "My mother told me not to fight". They are uttered by the hero and are brilliant. They usually precede the first big fight in which lifelong friends and enemies are made. Formulas are big in martial arts movies.

The most classic and unchangeable formula is the one for the final fight scene. This is the one on one fight between the ultimate baddie and the ultimate goodie. The hero always starts well, he climbs into the bad guy and gains the upper hand. It looks like it could all be plain sailing and then the bad guy gets in a few well placed kicks and punches. The hero starts to bleed and breathe heavily and they retreat to circle each other and eye each other warily. In the second round the hero gets roughed up quite badly but he still manages to get in a few good licks here and there, mostly it belongs the to the bad guy. The hero usually has a swollen eye or a limp or an old injury has flared up again or something similar. In round three the hero gets the bejeesus beaten out of him. You'd think he'd never learned to fight at all. The size of the can of whippass that gets opened is not to be rivaled. Until round four. When something inspirational happens to the hero. He either catches a glimpse of the girl he loves or he remembers her in a particularly touching moment for he remembers some very sage advice from his mentor or he just gets the absolute hell in with the evil laughing son of a, and he pulls himself towards himself and fights like nobody's business. The bad guys is overwhelmed, and depending on the movie, is either knocked out cold or knocked out dead. The hero bloody and maimed but victorious....