Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey (2001)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Main Menu Audio Audio Commentary-John Little (Writer/Producer/Director) Featurette-The Story Music Video-Ode To An Artist Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	100:00
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (48:13)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	John Little
Studio Distributor	JJL Enterprises, LLC Warner Home Video	Starring	Bruce Lee Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Dan Inosanto Ji Han Jae
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$34.95	Music	Wayne Hawkins

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Full Screen, not known whether Pan & Scan or Full Frame	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	None
16x9 Enhancement	No
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	Unknown	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    There have been legends about Bruce Lee's death; I suspect that you've heard some of them. The movie Dragon didn't help, suggesting that he was killed by the established martial arts community. This is understandable, because he was critical of all the established martial arts. He insisted on teaching pupils of all races, which offended the Chinese community, who believed that their martial arts should be restricted to their own people.

    Bruce Lee - A Warrior's Journey is a documentary. The motivation for this documentary is the rediscovery of missing footage that Bruce Lee shot for a movie called The Game of Death. Bruce Lee was working on this movie when he was interrupted by the Enter the Dragon project. He returned to it on completing that movie. A movie called The Game of Death was released after his death, but it used only 11 minutes of his footage, and completely ignored his script and carefully choreographed fight sequences. The materials recently rediscovered include reams of handwritten notes and diagrams, in addition to the footage.

    This documentary is 100 minutes long. Just over the last half hour is the missing footage, comprising the climactic fight sequences against exponents of escrima (Philippine stick fighting), hapkido (also known as aikido, I think), and Bruce Lee's own jeet kune do (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar vs Bruce Lee - what a contrast!). All that precedes is introduction, of sorts. The content is very interesting, exploring more than his movie-making and more than his martial arts. 

    While very much admiring Bruce Lee and his accomplishments, this documentary does not cater to the legends. It certainly mentions his death, but it makes no attempt to explain it. It mentions his famous back injury, but attributes it to an improper warm-up before lifting weights (no Shaolin avengers involved). Although less dramatic than Dragon, it is rather more credible.

     If you like martial arts movies, and have some interest in the ideas and philosophy behind them, then I suggest you watch this documentary.

Video

    This documentary was produced in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, not an uncommon choice, given the lack of cinema space for documentaries. The film footage is presented without 16x9 enhancement (I'm not sure that it is possible to mix 4x3 and 16x9 in a single title sequence on DVD), which is understandable, given that it is interleaved with the 1.33:1 material. The footage from The Game of Death is 2.35:1, and could really have benefited from 16x9 enhancement. Perhaps they could have arranged it as a separate title, to give it that benefit, but that's not the choice they made.

    The documentary uses a mixture of footage, ranging from perfect modern interview footage all the way back to dreadful home movie footage taken in 1956. The modern footage is sharp and clear, with no low-level noise and excellent shadow detail. The older footage is generally of poorer quality. The footage from The Game of Death is not in fabulous condition (one wonders where it has been kept for the last nearly 30 years). It is generally fairly sharp, with good shadow detail and little low-level noise, but it has substantial film artefacts. There are moments when it is obvious that they have chosen to use shots that would normally have been discarded (out of focus, for example) to complete the sequence.

    The colours vary immensely. The modern footage is perfect. The oldest footage is black-and-white (almost sepia and white, actually). The footage from The Game of Death is not bad (a little washed out, as normal for early 70s film stocks), but there are some inconsistencies. At around 73:30, there are some very strange discolourations on the right side of the film - I suspect that this footage has been damaged in storage.

    The modern footage displays few, if any artefacts. The oldest footage (home movie, circa 1956) shows pretty much every possible artefact except telecine wobble (the telecine work seems to be rather high quality throughout). The footage from The Game of Death shows lots of film artefacts, mostly flecks and scratches, with the occasional hair. There is limited aliasing, but there is substantial shimmer on the gauze curtain on the hapkido level. I didn't notice any MPEG artefacts.

    There are two subtitle tracks, one English, and one English for the Hearing Impaired. They are well placed, in the black bar below the footage. The font used is clear and easy to read, and the content is quite accurate.

    The disc is single sided, and RSDL formatted. The layer change is located at 48:13, in a silent fade-to-black between sections - invisible.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are two soundtracks, both English. One is the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack to the documentary, while the other is the director's audio commentary, presented in Dolby Digital 2.0, surround encoded. I listened to both.

    Dialogue is clear and mostly easily understood, with the occasional accent making a word or two less comprehensible. There are a few audio sync glitches in The Game of Death footage, understandable given its preliminary nature.

    Wayne Hawkins' score is good stuff - very well-suited to the material. There are many silent passages, but that is appropriate, too.

    The soundtrack is 5.1, but you'd never know it. I noticed nothing from the surrounds. The subwoofer supported a few low notes, but it, too, had little to do. There was little stereo spread to the soundtrack. Another case illustrating the argument that you better spend more money on your centre channel speaker than any of the others, because you will be listening to it more than the others.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The extras are interesting.

Menu

    The menu is static, with the theme tune playing. The selector is a Tao symbol, which shows up clearly on some DVD players, but appeared and disappeared on my Arcam - making it harder to know what is selected.

Audio Commentary - John Little: Writer/Producer/Director

    This is an interesting commentary. I suspect that it is the first commentary John Little has done, because he sounds a little unorganised. Some of his comments go on rather longer than the thing he is commenting on, making it sound like he is trying to catch up. His commentary continues to the point where the footage from The Game of Death begins, then he signs off to allow us to enjoy it - I liked that.

Featurette - The Story (18:05)

    This is a narrated and partly-acted presentation of Bruce Lee's script outline for The Game of Death. I would have preferred to have this in the main feature (a scene or two are included), but it is fine separately.

Music Video - Ode To An Artist (3:46)

    This is a song presented over poor quality home video and stills of Bruce Lee, all in black-and-white. It's a music video. At least it isn't particularly long.

Trailer (1:43)

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, this is the trailer for the video and DVD.

    The Region 1 version of this disc has identical features, and is presented in the same aspect ratio. Looks like we have a tie. 

    This is an interesting documentary, and the recovered footage is well worth seeing if you have an interest in Bruce Lee.

    The video quality is reasonable.

    The audio quality is adequate.

    The extras are a good addition.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall