Bruce Lee - A Warrior's Journey

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Summary: He was ungodly fast...
Review: ....and deadly accurate. Every inch of his lithe, beautifully muscled, incredibly balanced frame had been perfected to an almost superhuman degree. "Having No Way as The Way" was Lee's martial philosophy. He called it Jeet Kune Do, translated as The Way of the Intercepting Fist. I found it fascinating that Jeet Kune Do was completely offensive. He didn't include defensive techniques because he thought this reduced the fighter to a "plan", eliminating the spontaneity of combat. The film describes Lee's awakening to the realization that traditional martial arts training was inadequate at best. The last 30 minutes shows why Lee remains the one martial artist everyone else is compared to, and comes us short when compared to him.

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Summary: FINALLY,MASTER LEE GETS THE RESPECT HE DESERVES
Review: ...I'm always glad to see lost footage of Master Lee and this one is a gem! There's plenty of extra footage,as we get to see his wisdom,power,speed,and personality.The lost Game Of Death footage at the end is well worth the 5 stars and the price.

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Summary: THE WAY GAME OF DEATH SHOULD HAVE BEEN
Review: After 29 years,the lost footage for Game Of Death was found.It's a shame Lee couldn't have stayed around to complete the film from beginning to end because it would have been a masterpiece, unlike the garbage they produced in 1978 by changing the entire storyline from what Lee intended it to be.The first 60 minutes is a documentary with insights from his former students and comments from his wife,the last 30 minutes is non-stop fighting action,much of which has never been seen before. 5 stars all the way!!

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Summary: This documentary made me a Bruce Lee fan.
Review: After having watched one documentary, all I knew of Bruce Lee was that, through his unbreakable will, he proved to the american film industry that a non-American can be accepted by a western audience, and that he created his own "style" of fighting: jeet kune do.
When I first inserted A Warrior's Journey in the DVD player, I wasn't much excited. But, as I passed through the bits of Bruce's first interview, my curiosity was awakened. After some interesting biographical information, commentaries by family and friends and the pleasure of seeing the master displaying his physical skills, I arrived at carefully selected scenes from T.V. series he played in and parts of another interview. In these few minutes is summarized the truth found by Bruce Lee. The truth about martial arts known as Jeet Kune Do: human beings cannot know the truth (their own accomplishment, attain perfection) if they follow definite rules prescribed by a system. Why? Because life is dynamic, in constant change, it is flowing water. Therefore, it is logical to say that a limited and definite set of rules are not an answer to reach the truth. No system or book can contain the limitless situations that human beings can encounter in a lifetime.
Men and women must use their intelligence, will, flexibility of mind, sense of creativity and ability to learn in order to successfully jump over the obstacles of life.
Finally, I witnessed this truth taking shape in The Game of Death 's footage as Bruce intended it to be shown accompanied by Wayne Hawkins' inspired score. A true masterpiece.
(a non-dubbed one compared to the footage found in the 30th anniversary box set).
I believe that this documentary is, so far, the best expression of Bruce's message to the world.

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Summary: It is worth purchasing but --
Review: as stated by other reviewers it is missing a few things listed on the back of the DVD case. The re-inactment footage and the audio commentary by John Little. If you have an all region player or a DVD Rom that is region free I suggest getting the Region 2 PAL version.

There is also two other options that are worth purchasing if you have a region free player: A Japanese version of the footage on DVD entitled "Bruce Lee in G.o.D" The footage on that DVD is almost pristine. They took the time to clean up the footage and it is anamorphic. The only drawback is that they took a bit of liberty with the dialogue; unlike WJ which used Bruce's actual notes to edit the existing footage. The other is the Hong Hong Legends "Game of Death" Platinum Edition. It is a two disc set that makes a real (bad) movie very interesting. It has several documentaries on the making of the '78 version and it also includes the same footage that appears in "Bruce Lee in G.o.D".

Personally, I'm glad that justice has finally been done for the remaining footage that Bruce filmed. If your a real Bruce Lee fan these 3 titles should be in your collection. The only drawback as I stated earlier is that you must have a region free player that converts PAL to NTSC. I believe these discs can be found on Amazon's international sites. By the way if you decide to check out the "Game of Death" edition I suggest looking up HKL's DVDs of Bruce's other films. They are remastered and looks 100 times better than any Region 1 release. They also have a lot of extra features and great audio commentaries by Bey Logan. If you haven't heard any of his commentaries you will be in for a real treat.

Rating:
Summary: Insight to the brilliance of Bruce Lee
Review: At last since many years of searching and Buying many version of game of death to see even a 1 minut of different between all version i can see the real fight without cutting in the orginal real of game of death film realsed in 1973 .after you see Bruce Lee - A Warrior's Journey you will not watch again the orginal film of game of death fight that has many cutting of fight and dialoge between bruce lee and the fighters during the fight,but i think there are fight befor bruce lee fight Dan Inosanto beacuse bruce lee and others fighter with bruce meet dan inosanto in the 3rd floor so what about 1st and 2nd floors and what happen when bruce lee finish fight with kareem abdul-jabbar and goes down?
i will be waiting and searching for it...many thanks to producer of Bruce Lee - A Warrior's Journey.

Rating:
Summary: i love it
Review: At last since many years of searching and Buying many version of game of death to see even a 1 minut of different between all version i can see the real fight without cutting in the orginal real of game of death film realsed in 1973 .after you see Bruce Lee - A Warrior's Journey you will not watch again the orginal film of game of death fight that has many cutting of fight and dialoge between bruce lee and the fighters during the fight,but i think there are fight befor bruce lee fight Dan Inosanto beacuse bruce lee and others fighter with bruce meet dan inosanto in the 3rd floor so what about 1st and 2nd floors and what happen when bruce lee finish fight with kareem abdul-jabbar and goes down?
i will be waiting and searching for it...many thanks to producer of Bruce Lee - A Warrior's Journey.

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Documentary
Review: Before I talk about my view on this documentary movie, it is necessary for me to comment on the movie "The Game of Death" made in 1978. There are two editions of it - International and Asian. I have watched both, though more of the Asian one in different occasions. I have minor difference in opinion on the 1978 movie with John Little. The movie has a well-rounded storyline to begin with. Yes, it is exploitative especially in the Asian edition, which contains indecent Cantonese dialogue. However, the nine minutes scene of the original film included in the movie captures the best if not all the best in the original.

Now, let me now talk about the 2002 documentary directed by John Little. I have watched it. It is a good movie. The intention, the martial art philosophy that Bruce Lee intended to present to the audience is fully and well delivered. The only shortcoming that I can find in it is the not so good acting and fight choreography done by Bruce Lee in some scenes. Perhaps that was one reason why much of the original film footage was not edited into the 1978 movie.

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Summary: This Gem of a Film is a Must Own DVD!
Review: Bruce Lee - A Warrior's Journey is just fantastic. Here's a quick rundown of what is on this DVD:

The first half of the film explores Bruce Lee's background and evolution in martial arts, from his beginnings in traditional kung fu to the development of Jeet Kune Do. Included in this half of the film is some never before seen footage of Bruce Lee in training and in demonstrations, excerpts of an interview with the master, along with some interviews with some of the important people in his life. Along with this is a brief chronicling of his journey into superstardom, culminating in an explanation of how Bruce Lee intended Game of Death to be seen through the reviews of Bruce Lee's very own notes on the film. From his notes, the lost footage of Game of Death was skillfully put together for the conclusion of this DVD.

The second half of this film, the conclusion, is where the never before seen footage of Bruce Lee's Game of Death is shown. Needless to say, the master's original vision of this film was fantastic, and had he completed this movie, it definitely would've been his best. And although Hong Kong martial arts films today have evolved so much since the time Bruce Lee came on the scene, the fight scenes choreagraphed and filmed by Bruce Lee still stand up as being some of the best fight sequences ever filmed.

Also, for those of you who are film buffs, you'll be delighted to know that although the majority of the dvd is shown in full screen, the original Game of Death footage on this DVD has been presented in the original widescreen format. So although the disc jacket says this film is in full screen, only the documentary portion is. The Game of Death footage, which I bought the DVD for (and what I know most of you will be buying this dvd for), is preserved and shown the way it was meant to be seen.

So what are you waiting for? All you Bruce Lee fans, get this DVD!!! And all of you martial arts fans, buy this DVD!!! You won't be disappointed!!! Long live the master! Long live the Dragon! Long live Bruce Lee!

(On a final note, thanks must be given to all those who made this dvd possible. Being a big fan of Bruce Lee, finally seeing some new footage of him was just incredible, and very special. Thank you John Little, for putting this treasure of a film together for all of us Bruce Lee fans. You are the man!)

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Summary: There are several good Bruce Lee documentaries out there...
Review: But what makes this documentary different is that the second part of it brings us close to seeing what the movie Game of Death would have been like had Bruce lived to complete it.

When I first saw the movie Game of Death I was sorely disappointed to discover that Bruce was only a small portion of the actual film. For the rest of the movie the main character was played by a double or scenes were stolen from previous Bruce Lee movie footage and outtakes. In one scene Bruce Lee's face pasted over that of his double's while in front of a mirror. They even took footage from Bruce's actual funeral to use in the film. It was horrible, and made me sick to see. I just assumed that maybe Bruce had only shot ten minutes of usable footage and that they released it only to get a last movie out there with Bruce lee's name on it to make money off of it.

It turns out that's only partially true. The part about making money off of Bruce Lee's name is true enough, but it turns out there was actually over an hour and a half of footage from Game of Death that is very usable, and more than that essential to the Bruce Lee fan. This 'lost' footage is shown in this documentary for the first time, and in order as though we where actually watching Bruce Lee's movie as he envisioned it. Most of the action parts of this lost movie are here. In my opinion there is some of the best fight choreography ever put on film in this documentary.

Although I've mostly focused on the Game of Death footage, the rest of this documentary isn't anything to skip over. We are treated to rare home videos, screen tests, and television appearances of Bruce Lee, many I had never seen or heard of before viewing this movie. In a TV appearance as himself Bruce Lee explains 'the way of no way', his personal philosophy of martial arts. We are also treated to a rare home video of an actual challenge match between Bruce Lee and another martial artist on a Hong Kong roof top.

Even if you think you've seen enough documentaries on Bruce Lee to last you a life time and a half, you need to see this one too. It's worth it if only for the lost Game of Death footage. Even as an unfinished movie I would say this is one of Bruce's best, and I think that had he the chance to finish it, it would have been his best.