It’s hard to believe that 2010 marks the 70th anniversary of Bruce Lee’s birth. Now the name Bruce Lee might not mean much to some people these days but in the 70’s he was like a God!

Maybe it also has something to do with the fact that his life was tragically cut short before his time. He was only 32. Like James Dean in the 50’s and Che Guevara in the 60’s they have all become immortalised as their images adorned kid’s bedroom walls throughout the World.

This authorised biography of Bruce Lee’s life tells the extraordinary story of a man who broke boundaries and had to endure racism and personal tragedy to fulfil his dream of being a movie star and at the top of his game as a martial artist.

Lee was born in San Francisco on 27th November 1940 but at the age of 5 he moved back to Hong Kong with his parents. To keep him out of trouble he was sent to martial arts classes to learn self defence. He eventually moved back to America and enrolled in university in Seattle, Washington where he met Linda Emery the woman that he was to fall in love with and eventually marry. To earn extra money he held martial arts classes for American students which upset other Chinese kung foo masters as they did not think he should be teaching non Chinese the ways of their ancestral art.

He was still determined to break into the entertainment business and after various TV auditions he won the part of Kato the kung fu fighting companion to The Green Hornet, the show that rivalled the Batman TV series in the mid-sixties. This lead to a couple of small parts in main stream movies such as Marlowe starring James Garner but the roles were still stereotype kung fu experts. However, the celebrity brought him to the attention of some of the biggest action stars of the time such as Steve McQueen and James Coburn who were quick to enrol as martial arts students of Lee’s.

With his new found success he returned to Hong Kong where he teamed up with local film producer Raymond Chow. The young Chinese fans loved him, mostly due to his appearance in the Green Hornet which was a big hit in Hong Kong and they went in their droves to see him star in ‘Fist of Fury’ and The Big Boss’.

Back in the US Warner Brothers jumped on the Bruce Lee band wagon as his popularity grew in China and a script was quickly developed which became ‘Enter the Dragon’. The film was released in1973 and was the first major martial arts movie made in English and was a massive hit all over the world. Lee was by no means a great actor but he got by with his charisma and he was just so mesmerising to watch as he performed his own form of kung foo called Jeet Kune Do. Unfortunately, Bruce Lee was to die in the same year of the films release as well.

This documentary is a must see for every Bruce Lee fan and also for all those people who have heard of the legend but would like to know his story and why he deserved the position of cult status.

I can definitely recommend this biography.

Four stars.