Way of the Dragon

Way of the Dragon is the third Bruce Lee movie and the one that prepared the road towards Enter the Dragon. It was released in 1972 and it was the debut of Chuck Norris on the screen. Compared to the previous 2 movies this one is a step towards traditional US action movies in terms of story telling and acting. It plays in Rome and with Chuck Norris, Bob Wall and a few others has a more global cast compared to the all Asian ones from the first 2 movies. This probably makes it a bit easier to enjoy for a broader public. It is more balanced in overall quality such that you don’t have to suppress the urge to fast forward through the non fight sequences, something I always feel like doing when watching The Big Boss again. The humor is also less silly and less exaggerated and works better for me. When watching some of the humanistic scenes in the first 2 movies I often get the feeling that I am watching a Peter Sellers movie without Peter Sellers, it doesn’t work for me. Non of these complaints here. There is a story with relatively OK acting and the fighting choreography is again excellent. All the typical Bruce Lee grimaces and noises are present as well. Some scenes from this movie have become iconic and have been copied countless times in other movies. The final fight scene between Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris in the Colosseum is legendary as well. Anyone wanting to understand references to Bruce Lee in other movies simply has to watch this movie. Having watched many old and modern day martial arts movies it actually amazes me how well this movie still works. The acting doesn’t live up to todays standards but most of the fight sequences have a timeless quality. The only ones that don’t work well anymore in my opinion are the ones that have a melodramatic or moralising component in them. But these are few and are limited to a few moments in a fight sequence, not the total sequence. So it is easy to literally look the other way for a few seconds or simply ignore them when watching the movie again. A true classic.