Bruce Lee Deserves Better

Rating: 2/10 (26 July 2019)

Brad Pitt's fantasy take down of Lee manages to combine the signature Tarantino white savior motif (he's defending Cassius Clay!) with an emasculating stereotype of Lee. Lee's function as a character seems to be to showcase Pitt's longing for a bygone era of easy white male violent domination. But there is no hint of a critical lens here. The movie is on Pitt's side! The audience laughed, and is supposed to laugh, at Lee and with Pitt when Pitt mocks Lee's sounds. Because we're supposed to think he sounds so foreign and funny? This scene is not a critique of white mediocre male domination fantasies. It's a celebration. Thankfully the scene is interrupted by another stereotype-the nagging wife. Cool!
While there are plenty of reasons that this movie is a boring solipsistic slog, I guess I would just highlight the Lee thing bc no one seems to be talking about it. Wtf.