The Archives of My Mind

Bruce Lee

I’ve been a fight fan for as long as I can remember. It stems from connecting with the men in my family who get together to watch boxing, so I’ve naturally made a ritual of watching Showtime’s Friday fight series and last night was MMA night. Magalhaes vs. Zayats was the headliner and I’m so glad to have caught this clean all-strategy, no-nonsense title fight. The defending champ out of Brazil, Vinny Magalhaes struck Zayats with a classic martial arts head kick and the match was as good as over.

Switching gears to looking for movies to watch on the projector, I scored – finding Bruce Lee, The Legend. It’s a 1977 documentary about Bruce Lee’s life on the screen, “The Official Golden Harvest tribute to the Master of the Martial Arts Film.” Did you know that he was a child star? He started acting alongside his father who was an opera singer and comedy actor in the 40s. It’s no wonder he is such a significant screen star, he was raised to be one.

The film could use some edits to speed along certain longer-than-necessary clips, but it’s rich in classic footage from Lee’s long list of epic 1970’s classic fight scenes, even from his first screen fights as a wee little one.

If you’re an MMA fight fan, you owe it to yourself to learn more about the history of this sport. This documentary immortalizes Lee’s contributions to mixed martial arts and classic film, watch it.