The Business
LEE: MARY EVANS/STUDIOCANAL FILMS LTD/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO.HOLLYWOOD: ANDREW COOPER/SONY PICTURES.Analysis40
R
emember that time
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
kidney-punched a waiter
for serving soggy croutons in his
tomato soup? How about the time
the Dalai Lama got wasted and
spray-painted “Karma Is a Beach”
on the Tibetan ambassador’s
limo? Probably not, since they
never happened. But they could
happen if a filmmaker decides to
write those scenes into his or her
movie. And, even though we know
the movie is fiction, those scenes
will live on in our shared cultural
conscience as impressions of
those real people, thereby cor-
rupting our memory of them built
on their real-life actions.
That’s why filmmakers have a
responsibility when playing with
people’s perceptions of admired
historic people to maintain a
basic truth about the content
of their character. Quentin
Tarantino’s portrayal of Bruce Lee
in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
has drawn criticism because it
does not live up to this standard.
Of course, Tarantino has theTarantino Failed Bruce Lee
THR’s columnist, a friend of the late martial arts star, believes the Once Upon a Time
filmmaker was sloppy, somewhat racist and shirked his responsibility to basic truthwas how African American men
and women were generally por-
trayed until the advent of Sidney
Poitier and blaxploitation films.
Bruce was dedicated to changing
the dismissive image of Asians
through his acting, writing and
promotion of Jeet Kune Do, his
interpretation of martial arts.
That’s why it disturbs me
that Tarantino chose to portray
Bruce in such a one-dimensional
way. The John Wayne machismo
attitude of Cliff (Brad Pitt), an
aging stuntman who defeats the
arrogant, uppity Chinese guy,
harks back to the very stereotypes
Bruce was trying to dismantle. Of
course the blond, white beefcake
American can beat your fancy
Asian chopsocky dude because
that foreign crap doesn’t fly here. I
might even go along with the skew-
ered version of Bruce if that wasn’t
the only significant scene with
him, if we’d also seen a glimpse of
his other traits, of his struggle to
be taken seriously in Hollywood.
Alas, he was just another Hey Boy
prop to the scene. The scene is
complicated by being presented as
a flashback, but in a way that could
suggest the stuntman’s memory
is cartoonishly biased in his favor.
Equally disturbing is the unre-
solved shadow that Cliff may have
killed his wife with a spear gun
because she nagged him. Classic
Cliff. Is Cliff more heroic because
he also doesn’t put up with outspo-
ken women?
I was in public with Bruce
several times when some random
jerk would loudly challenge Bruce
to a fight. He always politely
declined and moved on. First rule
of Bruce’s fight club was don’t
fight — unless there is no other
option. He felt no need to prove
himself. He knew who he was
and that the real fight wasn’t on
the mat, it was on the screen in
creating opportunities for Asians
to be seen as more than grinning
stereotypes. Unfortunately, Once
Upon a Time in Hollywood prefers
the good old ways.artistic right to portray Bruce any
way he wants. But to do so in such
a sloppy and somewhat racist way
is a failure both as an artist and
as a human being.
This controversy has left me
torn. Tarantino is one of my
favorite filmmakers because he
is so bold, uncompromising and
unpredictable. There’s a giddy
energy in his movies of someone
who loves movies and wants you
to love them, too. I attend each
Tarantino film as if it were an
event, knowing that his distilla-
tion of the ’60s and ’70s action
movies will be much more enter-
taining than a simple homage.
That’s what makes the Bruce Lee
scenes so disappointing, not so
much on a factual basis, but as a
lapse of cultural awareness.
Bruce Lee was my friend and
teacher. That doesn’t give him a
free pass for how he’s portrayed
in movies. But it does give me
some insight into the man. I first
met Bruce when I was a student
at UCLA looking to continue
my martial arts studies, which
I started in New York City. We
quickly developed a friendship
as well as a student-teacherrelationship. He taught me the
discipline and spirituality of
martial arts, which was greatly
responsible for me being able to
play competitively in the NBA for
20 years with very few injuries.
During our years of friendship,
he spoke passionately about how
frustrated he was with the stereo-
typical representation of Asians
in film and TV. The only roles
were for inscrutable villains or
bowing servants. In Have Gun Will
Tr a v e l, Paladin’s faithful Chinese
servant goes by the insulting
name of “Hey Boy” (Kam Tong).
He was replaced in season four
by a female character referred
to as “Hey Girl” (Lisa Lu). Asian
men were portrayed as sexless
accessories to a scene while the
women were subservient. ThisFILM | K AREEM ABDUL-JABBAR
KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR is a THR
contributor and NBA Hall of Famer.Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (left) and Bruce Lee
during the filming of 1978’s Game of Death.Mike Moh
as Bruce
Lee in
Once Upon
a Time in
Hollywood.