Paul Gulacy’s Bruce Lee and Quentin Tarantino’s Bruce Lee
The art above is a rarely seen, vintage Bruce Lee painting by Paul Gulacy. I wanted to post this today for two reasons:
- It’s a cool piece of art that I think many of you will dig.
- Bruce Lee has been in the news quite a bit lately due to his portrayal in Quentin Tarintino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.
Many people have gotten upset because in OUATIH, they believe that Bruce Lee comes off as arrogant and it appears that Brad Pitt’s character gets the best of Lee in a fight. Initially, I felt that the scene was disrespectful to Bruce Lee, but as I thought about it a bit more I came to the following conclusions:
- In the movie the scene in question unfolds as a memory by Brad Pitt’s character. Of course Pitt’s character is going to remember things that put him in a better light than the Bruce Lee character. That’s human nature.
- The movie isn’t a documentary — think about how the movie ended. Obviously Tarantino took a lot of liberties and his portrayal of Lee was one of them.
- The fact that so many people have objected to Tarantino’s portrayal of Lee shows that this film isn’t going to harm Bruce Lee’s legacy in the least.
- I liked Tarantino’s OUATIH. I am a huge fan of Bruce Lee. Nothing has changed that. Not even Brad Pitt’s character’s memory of his fight with a fictionalization of Bruce Lee.
This Councelor says: (and i echo his families and friends responses as well) many other characters that were non fiction were portrayed how they are/were in real life. So as should Bruce. Even with Cliff Booth’s/Brad Pitt’s memory. tho most of Lee’s family and friends would disagree with me…i say “leave the scene in where he’s thrown to the car”, but not where he does way waaaayy too much howling, then mocked the way Pitt returned it (tho if audience loves it, and they all laughed and did when i seen it as well as bruce’s daughter shannon’s feedback, i guess that’she what matters) and more importantly , an argument more confident and less arrogant (tho can be closely related) with Lee over Ali. QT’s recent defense over this, taught me some things…1. he says he read that Linda Lee, bruce’s widow, said it herself. 2. then an eagle eye critique critic clearly stated “she was quoting in her book what other people were saying”. 3 . years and years ago on director of enter the dragon’s bio, he clearly said he seen John Saxon ask Bruce if he could beat Ali, and Bruce replied “not with these little chinese hands”. I’ve learned more than ever…i loved Once Upon with all these guys and girls and will see it again…but QT i feel should have been lil more careful. Even Pitt and the chereographer admitted orginal script had Pitt winning….which they all evidently talked QT out of…
Even the howling doesn’t bother me because it is a memory and Bruce’s howling has been mocked in so many kung-fu movies that it is almost to be expected. I think that Tarantino was wise to listen to Pitt and others to pull back on Pitt winning.
Tarantino is of the mindset that Lee would beat Pitt’s character in a fight with rules, but would lose in a fight with no rules. My response is that the writer decides who gets to win in every situation involving fictional characters. That’s why I never understood folks arguing over who would win, Superman or the Hulk, etc. Whoever the writer wants to win will win.
After my post went up another thought occurred to me. Over the years I’ve seen lots of drawings and paintings of Bruce Lee. The bad one’s didn’t hurt his image or reputation one bit. Neither should the artistic representation of a fictional version of him.
Thanks for commenting!