History ArtisticLicenseHistory / DragonTheBruceLeeStory

* In the film, Lee is solely a teacher of kung fu: he neither practises other disciplines nor learns from any training partner, as most of those are portrayed as novices, and he gets his Jeet Kune Do philosophy mostly from self-experimenting. In contrast, the historical Bruce Lee favored cross-training and was constantly seeking knowledge from any source he could find. For example, he was already a boxer, as mentioned above, and later learned judo and wrestling with several grapplers (such as Wrestling/GeneLeBell, whom he taught kung fu in turn). The Jeet Kune Do philosophy was the result of that, an approach (rather than a discrete style) born of a mix of martial arts.

* The movie repeats the pop belief that Lee gained the ire of the San Francisco kung fu community because he was teaching to non-Chinese. This was certainly claimed by Lee in real life, and it has probably a basis of truth given the social conditions of the period, but this thesis, aside from being an exaggeration in any case (most of Lee's students were Chinese anyway), also fails to mention others factors that were much more important for the masters' rage, like Lee's penchant for publicly deriding their traditional styles and making extrovert challenges that he could beat any of them any day.
* It's also notable that the film elects to portray the kung fu masters as TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness, complete with matching dark robes and an impressive underground arena. It goes hopelessly without saying that the San Francisco kung fu community did not have those levels of cohesion, power and theatricality (heck, it doesn't even today).

* As with Sprout, neither Johnny Sun nor his brother ever existed, although Sun was probably based on Wong Jack Man, a martial artist who challenged Bruce to a no-holds-barred match, while his brother is based on reports of extras on the set of films that challenged Bruce insisting that he was only an actor. Bruce indeed injured his back, but it was due to a weighlifting accident, not by a treacherous attack after a fight.

* This Bruce Lee is scared by an evil spirit chasing him in his dreams. The real Lee was certainly influenced by spiritual beliefs like UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}} and UsefulNotes/{{Taoism}}, but he was a self-confessed [[UsefulNotes/{{Atheism}} Atheist]] and was not known to be superstitious or into the occult (rather the opposite, in fact).
* An example of reactionary criticism in cinema is featured in the film. In one scene, the protagonist Bruce Lee, played by Jason Scott Lee, is shown in the cinema not at all amused as he witnesses the gags of Mr. Yunioshi in ''Breakfast at Tiffany's''; his girlfriend Linda, noticing his discomfort, convinces him to leave the room with her. This scene, similarly to the 1999 movie ''The Hurricane'', never happened in real life and was accused of revisionism and forced neo-liberal propaganda, since when the film was released in theaters the Asian American community of the time complimented Mickey Rooney, even through letters, for his performance finding it hilarious (MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales), not to mention the fact that Yunioshi's character is Japanese while Bruce Lee was Chinese. The controversies about the representation of Yunioshi started only in the 1990s, around the time of the release of ''Dragon'' and at least thirty years after that of ''Breakfast at Tiffany's''.

* An example of reactionary criticism in cinema is featured in the film. In one scene, the protagonist Bruce Lee, played by Jason Scott Lee, is shown in the cinema not at all amused as he witnesses the gags of Mr. Yunioshi in ''Breakfast at Tiffany's''; his girlfriend Linda, noticing his discomfort, convinces him to leave the room with her. This scene, similarly to the 1999 movie ''The Hurricane'', never happened in real life and was accused of revisionism and forced neo-liberal propaganda, since when the film was released in theaters the Asian American community of the time complimented Mickey Rooney, even through letters, for his performance finding it hilarious, not to mention the fact that Yunioshi's character is Japanese while Bruce Lee was Chinese. The controversies about the representation of Yunioshi started only in the 1990s, around the time of the release of ''Dragon'' and at least thirty years after that of ''Breakfast at Tiffany's''.

* This Bruce Lee is scared by an evil spirit chasing him in his dreams. The real Lee was certainly influenced by spiritual beliefs like UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}} and UsefulNotes/{{Taoism}}, but he was a self-confessed [[UsefulNotes/{{Atheism}} Atheist]] and was not known to be superstitious or into the occult (rather the opposite, in fact).

* The film portrays Lee as being alone and forced to work for seedy bosses in United States, when in real life he lived with two of his siblings, Agnes and Peter, and worked for Ruby Chow, a wealthy friend of their father.

* In line with the previous point, the filmic Lee gets sent to United States for heroically beating up several racist British sailors, making his parents afraid of retaliations. The real story is much less virtuous, although certainly not any less cinematic: what really transpired was that Lee beat the crap out of a another rich boy in a martial arts challenge, which made Lee's mother send him abroad on the fear of retaliation. It's also said that the boy's family had connections with TheTriadsAndTheTongs Triad and Lee's mother feared a contract had been put on Bruce's head.

* In the film, Lee is solely a teacher of kung fu: he neither practises other disciplines nor learns from any training partner, as most of those are portrayed as novices, and he gets his Jeet Kune Do philosophy mostly from self-experimenting. In contrast, the historical Bruce Lee favored cross-training and was constantly seeking knowledge from any source he could find. For example, he was already a boxer, as mentioned above, and later learned judo and wrestling with Wrestling/GeneLeBell while teaching him kung fu in turn. The Jeet Kune Do philosophy was the result of that, an approach (rather than a discrete style) born of a mix of martial arts.

* The movie repeats the pop belief that Lee gained the ire of the San Francisco kung fu community because he was teaching to non-Chinese. This was certainly claimed by Lee in real life, and it has probably a basis of truth given the social conditions of the period, but this thesis, aside from exaggerating the problem (most of Lee's students were Chinese anyway), also fails to mention others factors that were much more important for the masters' rage, like Lee's penchant for publicly deriding their traditional styles and making extrovert challenges that he could beat any of them any day.
* In the film, the ''Series/KungFu1972'' series is presented as an idea by Lee named ''The Warrior'' that got surreptitiously stolen from him. There is a real life precedent for this, as Linda Lee claims so in her book about him, but most other biographers believe it to be false. Lee did conceive a similar series named ''The Warrior'', but he never went forward with it because he thought no American company would greenlight a series with an Asian lead (something he didn't complain for, believing the same would happen with an Asian series with an American lead).[[note]]The series was nominally produced fifty years later as ''Series/Warrior2019'', with his daughter Shannon serving as a producer, although this ultra-violent show probably had little to do with Lee's original concept.[[/note]] The development of ''Kung Fu'' started a few years earlier and had nothing to do with Lee; the only connection, is that Lee auditioned for the title character's role, but was rejected because, just as he thought, producers didn't think Asians were bankable enough to be lead characters (and especially because Lee's heavy accent and intense acting style weren't fit for the character). Lee spoke openly about ''Kung Fu'', stating he didn't blame them for casting the white Creator/DavidCarradine, and never made any accusation of plagiarism or intellectual theft.

* As with Sprout, neither Johnny Sun nor his brother ever existed, although Sun was probably based on Wong Jack Man, a martial artist who challenged Bruce to a no-holds-barred match, while his brother is based on reports of extras on the set of films that challenged Bruce insisting that he was only an actor. Bruce indeed broke his back, but it was due to a weighlifting accident, not by a treacherous attack after a fight.

* In the film, the ''Series/KungFu'' series is presented as an idea by Lee named ''The Warrior'' that got surreptitiously stolen from him. There is a real life precedent for this, as Linda Lee claims so in her book about him, but most other biographers believe it to be false. Lee did conceive a similar series named ''The Warrior'', but he never went forward with it because he thought no American company would greenlight a series with an Asian lead (something he didn't complain for, believing the same would happen with an Asian series with an American lead).[[note]]The series was nominally produced fifty years later as ''Series/Warrior2019'', with his daughter Shannon serving as a producer, although this ultra-violent show probably had little to do with Lee's original concept.[[/note]] The development of ''Kung Fu'' started a few years earlier and had nothing to do with Lee; the only connection, is that Lee auditioned for the title character's role, but was rejected because, just as he thought, producers didn't think Asians were bankable enough to be lead characters (and especially because Lee's heavy accent and intense acting style weren't fit for the character). Lee spoke openly about ''Kung Fu'', stating he didn't blame them for casting the white Creator/DavidCarradine, and never made any accusation of plagiarism or intellectual theft.

* In line with the previous point, the filmic Lee gets sent to United States for heroically beating up several racist British sailors, making his parents afraid of retaliations. The real story is much less virtuous, although certainly not any less cinematic: whom Lee beat up was the son of an important [[TheTriadsAndTheTongs Triad]] family, which made Lee's parents send him abroad on the fear that a contract had been put on his head.
* The film portrays Lee as being alone and forced to work for seedy bosses in United States, when in real life he lived with two of his siblings and worked for a friend of their father.

* The real Lee was proud of his Chinese background and there is no record of him ever refering to himself as an American.
* In the film, the ''Series/KungFu'' series is presented as an idea by Lee that got surreptitiously stolen from him. There is a real life precedent for this, as Linda Lee claims so in her book about him, but most other biographers believe it to be false. Lee did conceive a similar series named ''The Warrior'', but he never went forward with it because he thought no American company would greenlight a series with an Asian lead (something he didn't blame them for, believing the same would happen with an Asian series with an American lead). The development of ''Kung Fu'' started a few years earlier and had nothing to do with Lee or its pitch; the only connection is that Lee auditioned for the title character's role, but was rejected because, just as he thought, producers didn't think Asians were bankable enough to be lead characters (and especially because Lee's heavy accent and intense acting style weren't fit for the character). Interestingly, some aspects of Lee's idea would supposedly end up being incorporated fifty years later into the series ''Series/Warrior2019'', with his daughter Shannon serving as a producer, but this ultra-violent show probably had little to do with Lee's original concept.

* In the film, Lee is solely a teacher of kung fu: he neither practises other disciplines nor learns from any training partner, as most of those are portrayed as novices, and he gets his Jeet Kune Do philosophy mostly from self-experimenting. In contrast, the historical Bruce Lee favored cross-training and was constantly seeking knowledge from any source he could find. For example, he learned judo and wrestling with Wrestling/GeneLeBell while teaching him kung fu in turn. The Jeet Kune Do philosophy was the result of that, an approach (rather than a discrete style) born of a mix of martial arts.

* The film implies that Bruce was neglecting his family in favor of his movie career, and shows him being violent and psychologically abusive towards them. Not only do many biographies claim otherwise, to the point that Lee was famous for often inviting his family to the set while filming, but one of which shows pictures of them together on the set of ''Film/GameOfDeath''. Similarly, while some of his partners and relatives do note Lee had a fearsome temper, none of them has ever spoken of him as an unstable or abusive person - rather the opposite.

* In the film, Lee is solely a teacher of kung fu: he neither practises other disciplines nor learns from any training partner, as most of those are portrayed as novices, and he gets his Jeet Kune Do philosophy mostly from self-experimenting. In contrast, the historical Bruce Lee favored cross-training and was constantly seeking knowledge from any source he could find (for instance, he learned judo and wrestling with Wrestling/GeneLeBell while teaching him kung fu in turn), and the Jeet Kune Do was the result of that, an effective mix of martial arts.

* In the film, the ''Series/KungFu'' series is presented as an idea by Lee that got surreptitiously stolen from him. There is a real life precedent for this, as Linda Lee claims so in her book about him, but most other biographers believe it to be false. Lee did conceive a similar series named ''The Warrior'', but he never went forward with it because he thought no American company would greenlight a series with an Asian lead (something he didn't blame them for, believing the same would happen with an Asian series with an American lead). The development of ''Kung Fu'' started a few years earlier and had nothing to do with Lee or its pitch; the only connection is that Lee auditioned for the title character's role, but was rejected because, just as he thought, producers didn't think Asians were bankable enough to be lead characters (and especially because Lee's heavy accent and intense acting style weren't fit for the character). Interestingly, Lee's idea would end up being produced fifty years laters as the series ''Series/Warrior2019'', with his daughter Shannon serving as a producer.

* As with Sprout, neither Johnny Sun nor his brother ever existed, although Sun was probably based on Wong Jack Man, a martial artist who challenged Bruce to a no holds barred match, while his brother is based on reports of extras on the set of films that challenged Bruce insisting that he was only an actor. Bruce indeed broke his back, but it was due to a weighlifting accident, not by a treacherous attack after a fight.

* In the film, the ''Series/KungFu'' series is presented as an idea by Lee who got surreptitiously stolen from him. There is a real life precedent for this, as Linda Lee claims so in her book about him, but most other biographers believe it to be false. For what is known, Lee did conceive a similar series named ''The Warrior'', but he never went forward with it because he thought no American company would greenlight a series with an Asian lead. By all accounts, also, the development of ''Kung Fu'' had nothing to do with Lee; the only connection is that Lee apparenly auditioned for the title character's role, but was rejected because producers didn't think Asians were bankable enough to be lead characters (or, according to others, because they thought Lee's accent and acting style weren't fit for the character).
* The film implies that Bruce was neglecting his family in favor of his movie career, and shows him being violent and psychologically abusive towards them. Not only do many biographies claim otherwise, to the point that Lee was famous for often inviting his family to the set while filming, but one of which shows pictures of them together on the set of ''Film/GameOfDeath''. Similarly, while some of his partners and relatives do note Lee had a fearsome temper, none of them has ever spoken of him as an unstable or abusive person.

* In the film, the ''Series/KungFu'' series is presented as an idea by Lee who got surreptitiously stolen from him. There is a real life precedent for this, as Linda Lee claims so in her book about him, but most other biographers believe it to be false. For what is known, Lee did conceive a similar series named ''The Warrior'', but he never went forward with it because he thought no American company would greenlight a series with an Asian lead. By all accounts, the development of ''Kung Fu'' had nothing to do with Lee; the only connection is that Lee apparenly auditioned for the title character's role, but was rejected because producers didn't think Asians were bankable enough to be lead characters (or, according to others, because they thought Lee's accent and acting style weren't fit for the character).

* This Bruce Lee is scared by an evil spirit chasing him in his dreams. The real Lee was certainly influenced by spiritual beliefs like UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}} and UsefulNotes/{{Taoism}}, but he was a self-confessed [[{{Atheism}} Atheist]] and was not known to be superstitious or into the occult (rather the opposite, in fact).

* The character of Jerome Sprout is fictitious, thought it is an obvious replacement for Jesse Glover, a black UsefulNotes/{{Judo}} practitioner who was Lee's first ever student. One wonders why couldn't they keep his real name as they did with several other characters.

* In the film, the ''Series/KungFu'' series is presented as an idea by Lee who got surreptitiously stolen from him. There is a real life precedent for this, as Linda Lee claims so in her book about him, but most other biographers believe it to be false. For what is known, Lee did conceive a similar series named ''The Warrior'', but he never went forward with it because he thought no American company would greenlight a series with an Asian lead. By all accounts, the development of ''Kung Fu'' had nothing to do with Lee; the only connection is that Lee apparenly auditioned for the title character's role, but was rejected because producers didn’t think Asians were bankable enough to be lead characters.

* Ed Parker did invite Bruce to speak at the 1964 Long Beach International Karate Championships, but there was no impromptu challenge match as the film portrays. Lee only demonstrated two-finger push ups and his famed one-inch punch.

* Bruce's father is shown to have died shortly after his daughter Shannon was born, whereas he'd been long dead by that time.

* In the film, the ''Series/KungFu'' series is presented as an idea by Lee who got surreptitiously stolen from him. There is a real life precedent for this, as Linda Lee claims so in her book about him, but most other biographers believe it to be false. For what is known, Lee did conceive a similar series named ''The Warrior'', but he never went forward with it because he thought no American company would greenlight a series with an Asian lead. By all accounts, the development of ''Kung Fu'' had nothing to do with Lee; the only connection is that Lee apparenly auditioned for the title character's role, but was rejected precisely because his Asian accent and personality didn't fit the character.

* As with Sprout, neither Johnny Sun nor his brother ever existed, although Sun was probably based on Wong Jack Man, a martial artist who challenged Bruce to a no holds barred match, while his brother is based on reports of extras on the set of films that challenged Bruce insisting that he was only an actor. Bruce indeed broke his back, but it was due to excessive weighlifting, not by a treacherous attack after a fight.
* Ed Parker did invite Bruce to speak at the 1964 Long Beach International Karate Championships, but there was no impromptu challenge match as the film portrays. Lee only demonstrated two-finger push ups and his famed one-inch punch.
* This Bruce Lee is scared by an evil spirit chasing him in his dreams, while the real one was an atheist.