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Enter the Dragon and adolescent male insecurity
Enter the Dragon (1973) was the first Kung Fu film made by an major American Hollywood Studio and ranks 474 in Empire Magazine’s 2008 list of the 500 greatest films ever (Wikipedia). It has become a staple of Asian films in America (KFC) such that the cable channel G4, the geek channel, shows Enter the Dragon at least once a month on it’s “Movies that Don’t Suck.” (G4). Every adolescent male in the developed world must have seen the movie multiple times. It has all the required action and kung fu film staples; an individual against overwhelming odds, sports competition, revenge, dishonor, evil against good, innocence corrupted, damsels in distress, murder, gambling, sex, drugs trafficking, white women slavery, a spy style setup and, of course, martial arts a.k.a. men fighting each other. The film, because of Bruce Lee’s insistence, even has a conspicuous philosophical stance on human nature. “There is no opponent.” The only opponent that is really there in a fight is yourself. This comment generated a key concept in the 1990’s movie, Matrix, “There is no spoon.” Enter the Dragon plays directly into the universal, adolescent search for self. As Bruce Lee states (In his own words), “All humans are built the same . . . All knowledge in martial arts is self-knowledge.” A pop culture quest for “How can I be me?”
But despite its popularity, Enter the Dragon is not a very good movie (KFC). As the Black America character Williams uses as an insult to the evil Hun, “Man, you come right out of a comic book.” With that sarcastic comment, the movie pokes fun at itself and its target market, adolescent males, the readers of comic books. The characters in this film all bigger than life stereotypes. Roper, the white American male; the degenerate but likeable gambler; the loveable rogue. Williams, the Black American with the Afro hairdo. He is tough. He is angry. He is the comic relief. Braithwaite is the British government bureaucrat, heavy drinker, but competent if little muddled. Hun, the focus of evil, the bad Asian, the Yellow Peril, the tyrant. He is Fu Manchu without the beard. He is corrupt and corrupting. And then there is Lee. Lee is simply the best, the ultimate good, the near perfect human. He is free of Western or Eastern capitalist corruption or motivations. He is a Shaolin Monk. He is incorruptible and undefeatable. He has a flaw, that is revenge but it is justified, it is about his sister’s death. Early in the film, Lee even apologizes at the graves of his dead mother and sister for what he is going to go off and do. He knows how things will end and so does the audience. Le is strong but sheds a tear when finding out about his sisters death. Oharra, Hun’s major white thug was about to rape Lee’s sister but she killed herself first. Before the “fate worse than death” could occur. The plot of the film is just a summation of action film clichés and that is what most comic books are.
Comic books are meant to be simple, fast paced, easy to read and view, light entertainment, very light entertainment. Less words and more pictures, more violence, and no depth. Depth slows up the action. Chan points out in his book, Chinese American Masculinities: From Fu Manchu to Bruce Lee, the similarities between Enter the Dragon and the James Bond films (Chan), specifically the first Bond film, Dr. No (1962). Hun is an evil Asian with his own private island and army. Lee works for the British government, but has his own revenge / restore honor to the Shaolin monks agenda. Bond works for the British government and also has his own personal agenda. In Dr. No, the blonde is on Bond’s side and lives, while the blonde in Enter the Dragon is on Hun’s side and dies in the end. Maybe that is the biggest difference in the films, with Bond, the Blonde, blue eyed Barbie representation lives, while in Enter the Dragon, Barbie dies (Barbie: Doll, Icon or Sex Symbol?) It is almost Un-American?
Both films are made for a male audience. The women are simply object of entertainment and / or service. In Enter the Dragon, the woman is either mother or sister and dead, or a sex object, but always a slave, always at the service of the men. The women can be deadly though, as is the platoon of female bodyguards for Hun, still they are under his immediate command. The women in these films are always subject to male power. Rape is never about sex, only about power, thus one could see these films as innocent (if possible) rape fantasies. Rape is men feeling powerless to affect the woman’s opinion or emotions in any other way than violence. This powerlessness with females is the main issue in male adolescent insecurity, an overwhelming feeling of powerlessness with relationships and the world. It is that powerlessness that is the focus of Enter the Dragon. Lee over comes that powerlessness with just his will and his skill and his fists. The Action film represents hope for all insecure powerless adolescent males.
But Lee refuses any and all sex objects or temptations. He doesn’t even drink alcohol. His power is manifest not in indulgence but in restraint. Bond is the hedonist, wish fulfilling good white guy. Lee is the spiritual good Chinese gentleman. Bond is a representation of the greed oriented, pleasure-based capitalist system, Lee, though, is the pinnacle of Eastern Transcendent philosophy. Kung Fu is not for beating people up. Kung Fu is for self-knowledge (Bruce Lee, In his own words). With Kung Fu you have self-knowledge and no one will pick on you. Just what an adolescent wants. Lee thus becomes a role model for the world’s young powerless males. They love him and he keeps losing his shirt.
The lean, yet muscularly defined, Asian male physique, with Bruce Lee became desired and desirable for young males. Chan states that the homoerotic aspects of the sweaty, shirtless Lee was reduced in Enter the Dragon compared to the earlier Lee films (Chan). In Enter the Dragon, the sweaty, shirtless, bleeding Lee has a concentration and a focused mission that can be seen on the expressions on his face. Lee doesn’t focus on any of the women as does Roper or Williams. Lee focuses on Hun and Hun only. Well, Oharra does gets Lee’s attention as Lee kills him for what he made his sister do. Slow motion Kung Fu killing entered the action film world at that moment. Throughout the film, Lee’s facial expressions upon seeing his future combatant are always determined and confident. There is never, never fear showing in any of those expressions. Lee looks confident and even nonchalant as he handles the cobra. When he puts the cobra in the Radio booth, it is played as comic relief. When Lee is tapping out the Morse code for the British to come to the rescue, Lee has to put his foot on the cobra’s neck to keep it out of mischief. Lee’s face only shows confidences and determination, never fear. Real men don’t feel fear. Real men get the job done. Lee can handle any situation. It is the unobtainable dream of most adolescent males simply to handle their daily routine without pain and embarrassment.
The cliché ending was predictable from the very first ten minutes of the film. Predictability usually means bad movie. Lee defeats Hun. He even impales Hun on the very spear Hun throw through the mirror room wall. How fitting and cliché, but a necessary cliché for the film as was the method Lee used to defeat Hun. Lee has to smash all the mirrors in the mirrored room. Lee had to smash those reflections, those images, destroying vanity, destroying evil. Evil hides in those images, the Monk at the beginning of the film had pointed this out. Evil is thus overcome by the individual. Remember, there is no opponent in a fight only yourself. The individual has to do it for himself. In the film, the British Army arrives after all the fighting is done.
This anti-establishment, anti-government attitude is a major attraction for the film. Adolescents hate authority figures of any kind. Big government and big business are all corrupt, incompetent and dangerous to the individual. In Enter the Dragon, the inner person, the little guy triumphs. The single strong willed person can overcome anything. Revenge is also satisfying. The Bullies that killed Lee’s sister are dead. The evil Hun who dishonored the Shaolin traditions is dead, even bad Barbie is dead. It is as satisfying to the audience as it is predictable or maybe it is predictable and thus satisfying.
That Lee is a Chinese man, that Lee is exotic and unusual adds to the impressions of supernatural Kung Fu skill. Lee is an avenging angel. Angels are not of this world. Because Lee, being Asian, being Chinese, makes him the perfect avenging superhero angel. Such an entity should not look like us. It is meant to be unique. It is required that it be exotic. Of course, it doesn’t look like our images in the mirror. Lee smashed all of the mirrors at the end of the film. The lesson is, “Don’t look into to the mirror to see yourself, look into yourself to see yourself.
References:
Barbie: Doll, Icon Or Sexist Symbol? New York Times December 23, 1987, April 6, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/1987/12/23/garden/barbie-doll-icon-or-sexist-symbol.html?pagewanted=print
Bruce Lee: In His Own Words, 1998, director, John Little
Chan, Jachinson, Chinese American Masculinities: From Fu Manchu to Bruce Lee, Taylor & Francis, 2001, p. 86 – 91.
“Enter the Dragon”, Wikipedia On-line Encyclopedia , April 5, 2009
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enter_the_Dragon
KFC Cinema Film Reviews. April 5, 2009,
http://www.kfccinema.com/reviews/kungfu/enterthedragon/enterthedragon.html
“Movies that Don’t Suck”, G4 TV, April 5, 2009 http://g4tv.com/schedule/index.html
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Just to be perfectly clear!
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