[potbelly83]

I never understood the obsession with Bruce Lee as a fighter (not considering his acting/stunt scenes here which deserve to be judged on their own merit), it seems any half decent Judoka or amateur boxer would have probably beaten him in a fight.

[delichon]

Tarantino wanted to prove that his stunt double character was a bad-ass, so he had him fight Bruce Lee on a movie studio back lot, and win. Tarantino said that Bruce Lee fans dragged him through fire, insisting that Lee would have won. Tarantino said, it's my fantasy damn it, my guy can win if I want him to!

That's consistent with your comment getting down votes.

[gweinberg]

In the flick Tarantino made it seem like Lee was all bluff, that he could just talk tough and make some fancy moves and much bigger guys would all back down. The world doesn't work like that.

[nerdsniper]

> he could just talk tough … and much bigger guys would all back down. The world doesn't work like that.

It kind of does though? I was a bartender at a very, very popular college bar. Often I was the only employee working Monday/Tuesday. I was a very scrawny, nerdy child-looking 20-year old.

I had to learn how to kick out championship D1 football stars, even pro NFL (actual) stars, if they happened to become belligerent those nights. We had all types of customers, including ones who specifically came in with intention to fight.

There was always some specific way to interact with them to make them leave of their own volition. Often with the biggest guys, it was to be aggressive and psychically “larger” than them. The smaller “fighty” dudes were usually the toughest, as they often felt they needed to prove themselves and I had to use a different tactic.

But what you describe “talking tough” was by far the most successful with the “much bigger guys”.

[comfysocks]

On the one hand, in interviews, Tarantino always seems to have contrarian opinions about everything. When Kill Bill came out, he’d verbally knock Lee and praise lesser known movie practitioners.

On the other hand, if you watch the movie until the end, it’s obvious that the movie has an unreliable narrator. We all know how the Tate/Labianca murders actually turned out. Not at all like the movie…

[gweinberg]

That's not unreliable narrator, it's alternative history. Like when his heroes kill Hitler and end the war early saving millions of lives.

[kcplate]

That was supposed to be inspired by a supposedly Hollywood legend that claimed that Gene LeBell easily manhandled Bruce Lee on the set of Green Hornet.

There is also another story where Gene supposedly choked out Steven Segal (who claimed his training would prevent it).

I have no idea if either is true, but personally if I was required to place a bet on a contest between a well trained and experienced grappler/shoot wrestler that outweighed his opponent (Kung Fu practitioner) by 75lbs…my money is on the grappler all day long.

[__alexander]

I’m just going to leave this here

https://youtu.be/3aCMTpJx2cs?si=1roXwjjWxsxQb3P1

[Waterluvian]

You not liking the thing that I like negatively impacts me liking the thing.

[BLKNSLVR]

All too true for too many people these days.

Snowflakes.

[IncreasePosts]

Well, that's the thing. He never fought any of those people in a real competition, so the question could remain in someone's mind whether he would have won or not. Combine that with the general mystique of Asian martial arts in the 1960s, and his early death, that has the makings of a legend.

I think people also like the idea that there can be these systems in place for hundreds of years, and an individual can come along and intelligence and hard work, can turn the systems upside down or develop something better.

[layoric]

> I think people also like the idea that there can be these systems in place for hundreds of years, and an individual can come along and intelligence and hard work, can turn the systems upside down or develop something better.

My interest over the years of Bruce Lee was much more from this perspective. Many stories talk about how hard he trained, and other aspects of essentially an underdog story. Combined with his communication[0], he comes across very thoughtful, and very grounded in many ways. Putting anyone on a “legend” status pedestal is always fraught with issues, but definitely a figure that inspired a lot of people.

https://youtu.be/uk1lzkH-e4U?si=Uu44M-UC1tKYv894

[MegaButts]

> I think people also like the idea that there can be these systems in place for hundreds of years, and an individual can come along and intelligence and hard work, can turn the systems upside down or develop something better.

That's what the Gracie family did with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Except they actually proved it worked by dominating the early years of UFC before they even introduced weight classes.

[t-3]

Bruce Lee competed in and won boxing tournaments as a teenager...

[riku_iki]

any reliable record for this?

[dogmatism]

I think there's a story about him beating a white kid from a rival private school in a boxing match

certainly unreliable reports of him doing well in informal rooftop bouts amongst the various Wing Chun students in Hong Kong

there are also stories of him getting his ass kicked by William Chung and Wong Shun Leung (others of Yp Man's students) and being a petty little bitch and getting kicked out of Yp Man's school

Who knows. It's all apocrypha at this point

[fn-mote]

> It's all apocrypha at this point

There are still people alive who witnessed these events first hand. I don't think first-hand accounts should be labeled apocrypha. But... maybe it means you doubt them? Fair enough.

[nerdsniper]

It’s difficult to establish veracity of any of these accounts. Some of them are real, some aren’t, but the two are mostly indistinguishable.

Is apocrypha a reasonable word to use for that?

[kenjackson]

The only thing I'd ever heard of was him beating the defending scholastic champ in Hong Kong. But AFAIK that was the only boxing match where there is any sort of record.

[riku_iki]

I read this in wiki too, but couldn't trace where this came from.

[philipallstar]

A boxer might well have beaten him at boxing

[potbelly83]

Yep, but I thought he touted his martial skills as being able to beat any discipline.

[_0ffh]

In a contest where both were allowed to actually use their own martial arts style.