I don't know if I'd watch this film again, but it was definitely worth my watching. Although it wasn't my favourite, some aspects of the film were definitely worth watching. The fight scenes were intense, and the imaginative scenes like the mirror scene made for really good suspense and creative shots. I think this film has aged well, despite the mediocre ADR and quality. The plot was very good and the camera angles were engaging throughout. I think Williams was killed instead of Roper because Williams was the 'clown' character in the movie, and killing him off created a more serious tone afterwards for the remaining part of the movie. A couple movies that played homage to this film are Kill Bill, and even Austin Powers (even though this was more of a parody, took elements from the film). This movie took from the James Bond movies in order to appeal to larger audiences using elements like the classic "spy-movie" music. All in all, pretty dang good movie.

Enter The Dragon is a martial arts action film, released in 1973. It is a joint American-Chinese production and it is set both in USA and Hong Kong. Bruce Lee acts as a martial artist expert who is infiltrated in a private island governed by the suspected criminal lord Han (Shin Kien). He attends a martial arts tournament, also joined by gambler Roper (John Saxon) and Vietnam war veteran Williams (Jim Kelly). It is soon clear that Han is a brutal dictator, who among other crimes beats Williams to death because he didn't want to cooperate. If not willing to cooperate, all the other competitors, now almost prisoners, have to fear the same destiny. Thanks to Lee strength, ability and cleverness, they are all saved by the military, called to take control of the island. Because I don't like Kung-Fu movies, I didn't really like this movie, and i found it repetitive and boring. However, I think it was worth my time watching because it is considered to be one of the most famous martial movie of all times. Moreover, Bruce Lee became an icon within movies of his genre. Even if Enter The Dragon is now more than 40 years old, it is still fascinating. Kung-Fu scenes have some grace in them (especially the ones played by Bruce Lee) and the fighting is realistic. Nevertheless, the audio quality is not that good. Audio doesn't match to lip movements or to actions, and some sounds are not realistic. I guess we could say that the movie did not age well from a cinematic point of view, but it is still a great movie because of acting and contents. Enter The Dragon clearly "steal" some ingredients from James Bond, as the music and the quantity of action. However, it is does represent an inspiration for newer martial arts movies, as Karate Kid or Rocky. Both the movie and Bruce Lee's performance also influenced recent films as Kill Bill or Fight Club.

I haven't seen a lot of kung-fu movies but I think that's part of the beauty in Enter the Dragon. You don't need a deep understanding of the genre to appreciate it. I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes action movies. I think it was certainly worth my time mainly because of the acting and the not paper-thin plot that a lot of movies like this seem to have. Williams died instead of roper, in my personal opinion because he was the more disrespectful of the two and the fact that Han saw him less as a business partner like roper but as someone who flaunts the rules. This is because Williams is seen outside during the curfew and refuses to "rat" out Lee after seeing him outside. While Roper is a betting business man. Later movies like Karate kid pay homage with the tournament setting for the movie with the evil martial artist who disgraced the main character's martial art establishment or the art itself. This movie does almost shameless homage to earlier spy movies like James Bond with the music in some segments and the evil villain vibe Han gives off. In addition there is the master he has and underground lair that is very much like an old bond movie.

So strange for me to finally watch this epochal film after only knowing it through posters! I remember watching the Kung Fu TV series starring David Carradine but was too young to get into the cinema to see any of Bruce Lee's films. This of course was the biggest and most successful of them all, the sadness being of course that Lee didn't live to see the worldwide success that the movie became.To be fair, the film plays like a martial-arts James Bond caper with Lee as the secret agent hired by a plummy-voiced English spymaster to bring down the Blofeld-like cat-stroking master-villain Han in his Hong Kong back-yard as well as avenging the death of his sister, driven to hari-kiri by a pursuing gang of local hoodlums and their Western boss. His cover is attending a sort of last-man-standing martial arts tournament set up by Han whose real motive in so doing is to recruit more members to his criminal sect. Also in it to win it are John Saxon and Jim Kelly, both martial arts experts themselves, the former a white devil-may-care shyster-gambler on the run from the mob and the latter a stereotypical jive-talking, sex-machine black guy on the run from racist cops he's had the temerity to answer back to.Sure the story is clichéd, right down to the mirrored conclusion lifted straight from "The Lady From Shanghai", the movie is far from perfectly dubbed, the acting is a bit wooden in places and Han is hardly the most dastardly villain you'll ever meet, but it's all about Lee, as nimble as a cat but as sharp as a cobra in set-piece after set-piece of high-kicking karate-chopping action. At what must have been the height of his physical condition one can only imagine the greater success which would have surely awaited him following this film's huge success which I'm positive it would have achieved even without the commercial boost, if that's the right word, from the unexpected death on release of its main star. In particular, his mastery of the nanchukkas has to be seen to be believed.Throw in another scintillating Lalo Schifrin soundtrack and you have a terrific action movie built around an exciting and charismatic star who sadly didn't get to see its great success which would surely have taken him into the superstar bracket.