Bruce Lee's daughter is none too pleased with
Quentin Tarantino's newest movie.
Shannon Lee, the 50-year-old daughter of the
late martial arts master, recently opened
up to say how disheartening it was to see
what she described as the "mockery" Tarantino's
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood made of her
father.
An actor, director, martial artist and philosopher,
Bruce Lee was one of many real-life icons
featured in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,
a film that explores Los Angeles in 1969 around
the time of the gruesome Manson Family murders.
Within the flick, Street Fighter: Assassin's
Fist actor Mike Moh portrays Lee, seen opposite
Brad Pitt's fictional stuntman character Cliff
Booth on the set of the real action-adventure
television series The Green Hornet.
The two men battle backstage as others look
on.
Lee wins the first round of the fight, while
Booth shoves Lee against a car in the second.
The third round is interrupted before a victor
can be crowned.
Shannon Lee told The Wrap that:
“I can understand all the reasoning behind
what is portrayed in the movie.
I understand that the two characters are antiheroes
and this is sort of like a rage fantasy of
what would happen…I understand they want
to make the Brad Pitt character this super
bad-ass who could beat up Bruce Lee.
But they didn’t need to treat him in the
way that white Hollywood did when he was alive."
She later speculated that perhaps Once Upon
a Time in Hollywood was trying to offer commentary
on the ways in which Hollywood falsely stereotyped
Lee, but Tarantino failed on that front.
Shannon added that Lee wasn't interested in
fighting outside of martial arts, and actively
avoided conflict:
“He comes across as an arrogant a--hole
who was full of hot air, and not someone who
had to fight triple as hard as any of those
people did to accomplish what was naturally
given to so many others…It was really uncomfortable
to sit in the theater and listen to people
laugh at my father."
She also pointed out an inaccuracy in Lee's
physical appearance in the film: he was shown
with a haircut and sunglasses characteristic
of the 1970s, while The Green Hornet aired
during 1967 and 1968.
Shannon, who was just four years old when
her father passed away in 1973, has kept Lee's
legacy alive through the website BruceLee.com,
a podcast, and the Bruce Lee Foundation.
She continued to say that:
"What I’m interested in is raising the consciousness
of who Bruce Lee was as a human being and
how he lived his life...All of that was flushed
down the toilet in this portrayal."
However, Shannon Lee added that she didn't
find fault in Moh's performance as her late
father.
She stated that she believes he was quote,
"directed to be a caricature," but still praised
him for capturing Lee's mannerisms and voice.
For Shannon, it was especially difficult seeing
the way her father was portrayed in Once Upon
a Time in Hollywood given that other real-life
celebrities in the film were characterized
but not mocked.
Shannon wasn't the only person who took issue
with Lee's portrayal in the Tarantino-directed
film.
Matthew Polly, author of Bruce Lee: A Life
told The Wrap that he had his own issues with
Lee's depiction:
“Bruce revered Muhammad Ali; he never trash-talked
him in real life.
Bruce never used jumping kicks in an actual
fight.
And even if he did, there wasn’t a stuntman
in Hollywood fast enough to catch his leg
and throw him into a car."
Tarantino has a penchant for revising history
and clearly kept that passion burning in Once
Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Though his decisions clearly didn't sit well
with Shannon Lee or Matthew Polly, with any
luck, Tarantino will hear the criticism and
bear it in mind for his tenth, and potentially
final, film.
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