Quentin Tarantino has retorted, in pointed fashion, to those who have criticised his use of Bruce Lee in his last film.
Spoilers within for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Some fruity (but somewhat redacted) language is also ahead.
Quentin Tarantino is unrepentant when it comes to most of his creative decisions, especially the controversial ones. When it comes to his last film,
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, few moments were more contentious than the portrayal of beloved martial arts icon, Bruce Lee.
In the film, Lee is not only soundly defeated by Brad Pittās alpha-stuntman, Cliff Booth (technically they win a round each, but the battle doesnāt appear to be even at all), but he also comes off like a bullying, arrogant punk, an interpretation that many who worked with Lee have refuted.
Speaking on Joe Roganās podcast, Tarantino acknowledged that whilst Leeās family might have the right to complain, nobody else does, stating āI can understand his daughter having a problem with it. Itās her f*****g father, alright, I get that. Everybody else: Go suck a lemon. ā (We should point out that Tarantino didnāt actually say ālemonā at this point; weāve elected to replace his choice of word with everybodyās favourite yellow fruit.)
Furthermore, Tarantino contends that the scene doesnāt besmirch Leeās skills as a martial artist, rather that it simply shows he was outsmarted by Booth, who allowed Lee the first round so he could adapt to his style and make the martial artist overconfident:
āThe thing about it is, itās obvious that Cliff tricked him. Thatās how he was able to do it. He tricked him. Itās explained more in the book, but the thing is, they do a two falls out of three contest. Cliff loves sh-t like that. And he has a method. And his method is to give the guy the first fallā¦ He just tricked him. And Bruce realised he got tricked, and if he hadnāt been so vicious, he could have even appreciated it.ā
Whilst the argument at least makes sense narratively, should you choose to accept it, Tarantino also claims that the portrayal of Lee as arrogant was also derived from reality, stating that āthe stuntmen hated Bruce on
Green Hornet. Itās in Matthew Pollyās book, and before that, itās always been known. Thatās why Gene LeBell was brought on, to teach Bruce respect for American stuntmen. Bruce had nothing but disrespect for stuntmen, and he was always hitting themā¦ He was always tagging, itās called tagging when you hit a stuntman for realā¦ and it got to the point where they were like, āNo, I refuse to work with him.ā
So it doesnāt look like Tarantino will be asking for forgiveness anytime soon. But what else did we expect?
Movieweb
ā
Thank you for visiting! If youād like to support our attempts to make a non-clickbaity movie website:
Follow Film Stories on Twitter here, and on Facebook here.
Buy our Film Stories and Film Stories Junior print magazines here.
Become a Patron here.