For , we're watching classic martial arts action flick/James Bond knock-off Enter The Dragon .
Join us on at 8pm.
But how did🅠 the film's star, Bruce Lee, become such a universally recognised icon, despite completing only four movies and dying at the age of 32?
1. He was the first action hero.
Before Lee, on-scree𒉰n combat was stiff, polite and unconvincing.
His train💦ing in multiple martial arts and background in dance (he was a champion cha cha dancer) inspired a more fluid, realistic approach.
He wanted on-screen fights to look both brutal and elegant - a theme that's fuelled action movies ever since (see Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon , The Matrix ...)
American filmmakers also laꦐpped up the concept of a lone figu♓re who at first seems like a regular guy but, when pushed, transforms into a one-man army.
No Bruce Lee, no Bruce Willis.
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2. He made martial arts open to all.
Lee's peers and tutors back in his native China frowned upon marti✤🙈al arts techniques being taught to outsiders.
But when he lived in Seattle in the '𒊎60s, Lee opened a kung fu school and openly taught his own system, Jeet Kune Do ('The Wa🌟y Of The Intercepting Fist'). Pupils included Steve McQueen and James Coburn.
Lee rejected the rigid, classical styles of individual martial arts and conceived Jeet Kune Do as a system that would work in a real fight - a blend of the best bits o🥃f boxing, fencing, judo and kung fu.
He called it "scientific street fighting" - see it demonstrated below (and, if you must, in the free-for-alꦓl brawls of Ultimate Fighting Championship).
Before Lee, these tech♋niques were arcane and esoteric. Today, you co⛄uld be enrolled in a class within minutes of finishing this article.
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3. He was the first self-help guru.
Lee was more than just a fighter - he🅺 was a thinker who encouraged students to adopt mental discipline as well as physical excellence.
Mu𒅌ch of his philosophy relates to the simplicity and directness of Jeet Kune Do ("Be like water - adjust to the object") but a lot of his thinking can be applied more generally and haಞs been adopted - and distorted - by the self-help industry...
"Simplify.🔜 Hack away at the unessential. Spend too much time thinking about a thing and you'll never get it ꧂done."
"To hell with circu🌼mstances. Create opportunities."
"Do not look for a successful personality and seek to duplica🌊te it. Have faith in yourself."
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4. He kicked down racial barriers - literally.
There's a fantastic moment in Lee's 1972 film Fist Of Fury , where he's stopped from𝓀 entering a public park by a guard who points to a sign above the gate...
'No Dogs And Chinese Allowed.'
Lee duffs up a few mocking Japanese fellas before leaᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚping up, dislodging the sign and shattering it with an almighty flying kick.
Later, Lee marches into a rival Ja♚panese dojo and retu𓂃rns a provocative 'gift' - a sign which reads 'Sick Man Of Asia' (a lingering Second World War slur).
He smashes that sign, too, ripping out the paper a෴nd forcing a couple of ౠstudents to eat it.
Back in the '60s/'70s, when cross-cultural attitudes weren't so enlightened, Lee's supers🐷tardom packed far-reaching power behind an uncompromising message: regarding one race as 'inferior' to another is stupid.
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5. He's the grandaddy of free running.
Lee'ꦓs Jeet Kune Do philosophy - fluid expression paired with efficiency of movement - is pretty much the guiding principal behind free running/Parkour.
A lot of Lee's philosophy was inspir🌱ed by Zen Buddhist ideas around transcending conscious thought ("The self is the greatest hindrance to the execution of all physical action").
Parkour/free running practitioners aim to travel from one point to another in the smoothes༺t, most efficient way possible - to achieve a kind o🀅f physical flow.
Visit any Parkour gym/school and you're guaranteed to see a poster of Lee, who would have surely applaudꦚed the style's grace and dynamism.
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6. He invented working out.
Before Lee, work-out gyms were all about Arnie-like bodybuilders - a competi🍷tive, fetish-like obsession with beefcake bulk.
With typical focus on practicality, Lee realised that the ideal male body would be strong and muscular, but also sleek and streamlined - built for power and speed.
The now-universal idea of going to the gym to look and𝕴 feel good - and maybe build a bit of muscle tone - is pure Bruce.
Thing is, he also drank liquidised steak to b𝔉oℱost his protein levels.
Best stick to the pec-deck.
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7. He's the spiritual father of hip-hop.
The base elements of hip-hop all have roots in Lee's free-flowing, fluid philosophy🔥 (freestyle rap, scratching) and legs-flailing physicality (breakda🎶ncing).
But he was also a huge inspiration as an ethnic icon - an 'o�🤪�utsider' whose presence and potency offered a startling image of non-white empowerment. (Wu Tang Clan's RZA: "I believe that Bruce Lee was a minor prophet").
Lee has been referenced, riffedꦆ on and sampled in countless hip-hop/hip-hop inspired tracks.
Most recently, his yellow-jumpsuited Game Of Death image (also nicked by Tarantino for Kill Bill ) has been directly lifted for Gorillaz' Game Of Death video...
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8. He shaped superhero culture.
For Marvel Comics founder Stan Leeꦉ, "Bruce Lee was a superhero without a costume. He was the first to make westerners aware of that type of fighting and way of life."
Marvel produced plenty of Lee-inspired comic series (The Hands Of Kung Fu, Iron Fiꦏst...) and Lee's instantly recognisable, superhuman-like qualities have seeped into many other areas of pop culture (try finding a fighting videogame without a Lee-like character).
And, inevitably, his bankablℱe, iconic allure hasn't gone unexploited by adveꩵrtising...
Don't forget to join us for where we'll be watching Enter The Dragon from 8pm.
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