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Bruce Lee vs. Quentin Tarantino

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Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is a technicolor re-imagining of 1969.  As such, it is fun to watch but one scene should have been left on the cutting room floor.  The fight between Cliff and Bruce Lee was totally unnecessary and has drawn a lot of unwanted attention to the film.

What has pissed off the surviving Lee family and Lee fans in general is Quentin's assertion that Bruce Lee said he could win a fight with Muhammad Ali.  He bases this view on a biography by Linda Lee, Bruce's wife, in which she offered a second-hand account from critics of Lee.  Nevertheless, Quentin is unrepentant in his view, citing Bruce's presumed arrogance.

I suppose these kinds of controversy sell tickets, but the film already had so much buzz it would have done just fine without this useless foray.  Like everything else in Quentin's movies, his portrayal of Bruce Lee is drawn from other movies, because when you listen to Bruce in interviews he is anything but arrogant.  He was a wonderfully articulate man with a great sense of humor.

The scene serves no purpose other than to further show Cliff as a quiet tough guy.  Quentin's hero is a former Green Beret who doesn't take any sass from anyone.  Bruce is shown on a movie set, offering his impressions of Muhammad Ali, who was at the peak of his career at the time, among a bunch of extras including Cliff.

One assumes the movie was Marlowe, with James Garner, as that was the only Hollywood film Bruce was working on in 1969.  He had briefly appeared in The Wrecking Crew the year before, which Sharon Tate also played in.  Mostly, Bruce choreographed the fight scenes.  He would not gain fame until the following decade with Fists of Fury.  For a director, who was so careful to give us a unique inside look at the Manson family, there are a number of gross oversights here.

Bruce's admiration for Muhammad Ali is well documented.  Lee not only thought Ali was the greatest fighter at the time, but modeled many of his techniques after the World Champion boxer.  At one point, Lee had set up a full length mirror to reflect clips from Ali's most memorable fights so that he could replicate the boxer's every move.  According to Bolo Yeung, a close friend at the time, Bruce said himself he was no match for Ali, noting his tiny hands compared to a man of that size, speed and strength. 

If such a fight were to have occurred, Bruce's only chance would have been to spend most of his time on the ground as Antonio Inoki did in this less than memorable fight, kicking at Ali's legs.  Hardly the kind of fight that would have increased either man's stature.

Ironically, Quentin could have worked Bruce Lee into the script if he had a better imagination.  Roman Polanski was apparently convinced at one point that Bruce Lee, and not Charles Manson, orchestrated the grisly murder of his wife and friends.  This all came about because Bruce had said he lost a pair of glasses, similar to the pair found at the crime scene.

Lee had been teaching Sharon Tate karate, and Roman wanted lessons as well.  Lee was making quite a bit of money on the side, as much as $1000 an hour, training celebrities in the art of self-defense.  He was also giving Jay Sebring lessons at the Polanski-Tate house the day the horrific murders took place.  If Tarantino really had a grudge to bear with Bruce Lee, this would have made an even better plot twist than the one he offers up at the end of the movie.


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