Enter the Dragon Streaming
Saturday, May 21st, 2011![]() |
Enter the Dragon Streaming.
Movie Title: Enter the Dragon Enter the Dragon is available for streaming or downloading. Click Here to Stream or Download Enter the Dragon |
So here it is… more than 30 years since the unique theatrical release of Enter the Dragon, Warner Brothers releases the definitive 2 DVD Special Edition. It’s a handsome offering, long overdue, and considering the reasonable mark, really offers a lot of nice extras, though most of them have been available elsewhere and have therefore been seen before (at least by rabid fans like me) .
To inaugurate with, there is of course the movie Enter the Dragon (ETD) - Bruce Lee’s magnum opus that was not released until after his sorrowful death in 1973, but sealed his immortality. The situation is simple enough - Bruce is a fresh day Shaolin monk who is somehow enlisted by the British/Hong Kong government to infiltrate the island of Dr. Han (Shieh Kien), a crusty veteran renegade Shaolin gone abominable who holds a yearly martial arts tournament to recruit talent for an international opium and prostitution racket. Roper (John Saxon), or “Loper” as Bruce says his name, is the established Hollywood caucasian star brought in because of reservations about Bruce’s ability to carry the film, while Williams (Jim Kelly) is the token blaxploitation character who, this being the 70’s, is kind of a Shaft/Superfly ass-kicker and, in the spirit of dismay movies, is the first to die at the hand of Han - actually, at his artificial, interchangeable, iron, and oftentimes bladed hand. Even Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung, as young Hong Kong stuntment before they became stars in their have apt, originate corrupt appearances as guys on the receiving raze of Bruce’s wrath. But the proper point, or value, of this movie is that Bruce Lee shines throughout with his fantastic fight sequences - he once again casts Bob Wall as whipping boy, hitting him with lightning rapidly punches, an insane skip side kick, and a grand groin shot that level-headed makes me wince despite hundreds of viewings; he has some improbable weapons sequences with staff, double escrima sticks, and nunchaku; and he more than lives up to his reputation as the “man with three legs” as he demolishes armies of scrawny Asian guys whose gung fu is pitiful in comparison (check out the guy laughing in the background as Bruce connects three successive roundhouse kicks to one sap’s head in the final mob fight) . This was totally innovative and improbable in 1973 as the first ever martial arts movie made in Hollywood and despite all the subsequent copycats and new day wire-fu flicks, no one has ever matched Bruce’s intensity, charisma, and moves. There are some classic dramatic sequences as well with Bruce speaking English in his maintain roar (unlike all of his Hong Kong movies whose English versions are horribly dubbed), such as Bruce teaching a student and rapping him on the head as he expounds some homespun Zen philosophy or Bruce poignantly asking “why doesn’t someone fair pull a .45 and resolve it? ” Incidentally, this is the uncut version of the movie with some extra scenes not included in the theatrical release - basically Bruce talking quasi-philosophy (well, actually, it’s someone else dubbing in Bruce’s scream) with his Shaolin elder that he later recalls in the final fight sequence.
Of course, few people who consume this DVD don’t know all this already, so what’s current? Well, there is a commentary track by producers Paul Heller and Fred Weintraub - there’s some attractive tidbits, but overall it’s disappointingly uninspired. Then there’s “Blood and Steel: The Making of Enter the Dragon” - a newly produced documentary short that includes some rare and original footage - a clip from Bruce’s Hong Kong TV appearance in which he breaks 4 dangling boards; an interview with John Saxon, Lalo Schifrin, and the kid who gets smacked on the head by Bruce in the movie (now apparently a distinguished Hong Kong director) ; and several minutes of on-location footage shot with Ahna Capri’s handheld Well-kept 8 camera that has never been seen before (it’s short of wonderful, but it’s current and therefore gold to diehard fans) . On disc 1 there’s also a soporific Linda Lee (Cadwell) interview, another “making of” featurette with on-location footage shot by the AD, John Little’s short “In His Contain Words” featuring most of the Pierre Burton interview, and some weak shadowy and white movies (with sound) of Bruce kicking his buddies and hitting his heavy bag in his Los Angeles backyard - though these have all been previously available in one space or another (including the 25th Anniversary ETD DVD) .
Buy,Download, Or Stream Enter the Dragon! Click Here
Disc 2 includes all of the TV and theatrical trailers for the movie (somewhat repetitive) and two previously released Warner Brothers documentaries - Warrior’s Promenade, which captures and knits together the lost Game of Death footage (GOD) in its available entirety, and Curse of the Dragon, a George Takei (Sulu of Star Sprint fame) narrated documentary released around the time of Brandon Lee’s death. These are both decent films, with Warrior’s Slide a actual gem with the GOD footage - the definitive draw to observe Bruce in widescreen duel nunchakus with Dan Inosanto and try to deconstruct Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s fighting style while sporting the iconic yellow and dark tracksuit revived by Uma Thurman in End Bill Vol 1. Curse of the Dragon is interview heavy (Kareem, Taky Kimura, Paul Heller, James Coburn, etc.) but also includes clips from Bruce’s childhood movies, his Green Hornet shroud test, his appearance at Ed Parker’s Long Beach Karate touurnament, and some backyard work-out footage with Coburn. But once again, these films have already been released before on their acquire, so while decent, they’re less than revelatory.
And so, what we have here is by far the best available version of ETD that now exists and probably ever will, complete with a lot of nice extras, most of which have been available elsewhere. It’s nice to have it all in one package (there’s no apparent need to sell Warrior’s Meander as a standalone product anymore) at a reasonable note. On the other hand, Lee worshippers will no doubt wish that there was more - why not include the complete Green Hornet cover test, or a Jim Kelly or Jackie Chan interview or commentary track, the complete James Coburn training session footage, all of the Ahna Capri film, more ETD outtakes, or maybe even “Kentucky Fried Movie,” a parody of ETD released many years ago… but what can you do - Bruce died 31 years ago and this is the legacy he left tedious.
I’ve watched the unusual HD DVD version of this movie and found the portray quality beneficial. The colors are richer and the overall quality appears to obtain the recount jump out at times when viewed with the Toshiba A x1 player.
Buy,Download, Or Stream Enter the Dragon! Click Here
I don’t reflect it is delicate to give the movie a vulgar rating, as one reviewer did, based on the fact that it is an older movie. Comparing any older movie to unique day production values is misleading and mistaken. Following this comparisson, one would have to give a rude rating to all movies not done in the past few years.
Enter The Dragon was innovative for its time and utilized production methods that were top quality for its time.
Buy,Download, Or Stream Enter the Dragon! Click Here
Buy,Download, Or Stream Enter the Dragon! Click Here
The transfer itself is the citeria that the review should be judged on, which in this case is done quite well.
As for the comparrison to the 60’s James Bond movies, the HD version of You Only Live Twice is helpful. Yes, the fashion, music, dialogue,… are not novel day; how can a film elope it’s contain time period. However, the Connery Bond movie screenplays far outweigh the childish, funny book portrayals in the curent Bond films with only protracted stunt sequences to amuse a child like mentality.
It is curious that for an “outdated” film like Enter the Dragon, it’s character depictions, region and fight choreography are most often duplicated by today’s style of martial art movies.
Have today’s “highly evolved” movies no new ideas other than replacing Lee’s valid fighting skill, accelerate, gracefulness and charasmatic hide presence with acrobatic clowns whose abilities are enhanced with wire work.
The recount and sound quality of the HD Enter the Dragon is most striking when viewed on the Toshiba player. It is certainly more engaging then witness a highly detailed HD version of the inane Pitch Sunless or novel Jackie Chan, Jet Li films whose humorous status lines and bad acting are to be ingnored fair to label friends coming over to understanding how amazingly life like the report quality is!
Once the novelty of watching films on the righteous HD DVD passes, classic movies will always stand on their occupy merit.

