Bruce Lee: A Life Hardcover – June 5, 2018

I've been a Bruce Lee scholar as far back as I can remember. At various points in my life, he's played different roles: Childhood Hero, Martial Guru, Zen Mystic, Punk Rock Non Conformist, American Icon. As a child of the 70's/80's whose sole interests were Comic Books, Star Wars, Rocky Balboa and Bruce Lee, I have a deep reverence for mythology. As a martial practitioner of 33 years who's studied a fair amount of combative sciences, I have an equal need to rationalize and demythologize. These two approaches have governed my philosophy and views on nearly everything that grabs my attention.My initial introduction to Lee at the tender age of 6, was through a movie still. Captivated by his image, I sought out as many photos and stories as I could, getting my fix mostly through magazines and campfire lore. I would not actually see him in action til' a year later, in Game of Death 1978 (the opening 4 minutes and final 11 minutes of this film's effect on me is comparable to Saul's conversion to Paul). My lack of access to his movies at that time ( this was pre home cinema and smart phones), to me, reinforced his mythical status. Looking back, I'm inclined to believe that this was the genesis of my obsessive life long search for him. In the ensuing years, in addition to viewing his adult filmography repeatedly (with near religious fervor), I read every biography, watched every documentary and meticulously dissected whatever I could find on the man. Initially, I took pride in the 'facts' I'd gleaned, content in the basic beats of his story as well as what I discovered 'off script'. But following the honeymoon period(admittedly, a long one), stagnation set in, and I grew a bit disillusioned. What bothered me in particular was this: Bruce Lee's story, to me, had become, to quote Tarantino, "a game of show and tell. You're showing me everything, but telling me nothing". Paradoxically, the more I discovered, the less I felt I knew.One of the residual benefits of being a seeker, is the compulsive need to fill in gaps. To that end, I made the beat between the beats the focus of my Lee studies. Who was the man? What kept him up at night? What drove his insatiable need to be regarded as the best? Who were his heroes? How did he handle embarrassing moments in his life? Etc., etc. Some of those questions I found answers to. Some I'll never know. Upon reflection though, this quest to understand my idol was equally driven by the need to understand aspects of myself and, ultimately, liberate me from the grips of hero worship. Essentially, it was a gateway for me to come into my own. In my heart of hearts, my need to understand Bruce Lee was transformative. That's how much of an impact he had on me. I often mused about writing and producing a 'definitive' bio that presented him as a three dimensional human being - not the superhuman comic book character resurrected from the ashes, ipso facto. To be fair, I had spent a helluva lot of time with that dude, and, while I was grateful for his inspiration and indebted to him for starting me on my martial path, I needed time with the other guy (or the dude pretending to be the other dude). Enter Matthew Polly.Full disclosure: I had reached out to Matt a couple of years prior to the release of his book. My intent, at the time, was to qualify him as a biographer. What was his focus going to be? What was the tone was he going for? How granular was he going to get? Was it going to be a regurgitation of the same ol', same ol'? Ever the gentleman, he replied back and stated his intention in no unclear terms: his goal was to write the most complete biography on Bruce Lee, and hoped to present the man, as is, warts and all. I had heard this kind o' stuff before. And I was skeptical.Two years and 650 pages (actually 2,000+ which he whittled down) later, I'm thrilled to say that Matthew Polly has done the impossible. That is, he's chronicled and captured the intricacies of a complex man who's been deified in all things martial and worshipped by many as a superhuman force that's beyond understanding. It's difficult to overstate how difficult Matt's journey must have been wading through 45 years of mist and mire to reach the man behind the curtain. In doing so, he doesn't just write the definitive Bruce Lee biography, rather, he creates a work of intimate beauty truly worthy of it's subject matter. Equal parts character study, adventure story and forensic dissection, Polly's tome is a meditation on our very own 20th century Dorian Gray. With that, he succeeds in demythologizing the god, and celebrating the legend.Where to begin? The sheer wealth of information this opus has to offer (most of which I'm completely comfortable saying will be unknown to even the most die hard of fans) is only half of what truly makes it the monumental achievement it is. Equally as important are the revelations gleaned from the connective tissue that Polly seamlessly weaves into stories and anecdotes that most fans are familiar with, providing a broader perspective to those tales and giving them their proper context. Indeed, many folks will be surprised by the pieces missing from the stories they thought they knew. Additionally, the first 80 pages spend a significant amount of time tracing Lee's lineage and exploring his adolescent film career and life in Hong Kong (the first piece of writing to accurately do so) prior to coming back to the US in 1959. Moreover, we're given a historical overview of Hong Kong itself and the social environment that the young Bruce Lee came up in (the information here is paramount to understanding his 'origin'). For those who've heard the Frank Sinatra/Vic Damone rumor of Lee's impromptu Gung Fu demonstration on their bodyguards --the true story is finally revealed. Later, Polly gives us the first real information on Lee's little known "Northern Leg, Southern Fist" script treatment. Most fans know that Lee was a pretty good pencil artist, but are they aware of what specific art he admired and may have harbored a desire to pursue himself? Yet another: what was the timeline of July 20th, 1973 and what were the contributing factors that led to Lee's death? The answers are all laid out, hour by hour, and supported by those involved in distinctly quantifiable ways. All this and much more is relayed to the reader in a deeply resonant and visceral way that defies category. Indeed, the emotional connection is so riveting that, when reading each page, one feels they are there, alongside Lee, in his head, experiencing his very thoughts and emotions. It's a level of intimacy rarely achieved in writing, let alone a bio.There's a distinct difference between a subject matter expert and a substance matter expert. Subject matter experts memorize other people's information, while substance matter experts understand the skeleton and mechanics of the subject and impart what they learned, not what they memorized. With this work of art, Matt Polly proves himself to be a true substance matter expert whose keen attention to detail reveals exactly how much of a labor of love this project was to him. Like many of us, Matt's life was forever changed by Bruce Lee. On more than one occasion, he's intimated that writing this book was his way of paying back that debt to his childhood idol.He succeeded. Boy, did he.Thank you Matt, for giving us this much needed, long overdue gift. In a very real way, you've produced the book I wish I'd written.

I first read it and thought it was made up. Being a first generation reader on his life and death, what more was there to say? Well , it was said. The pages turned. Never mind if it contains quotes or article selection from mostly everything written about Lee. At least the author has no dog in the race other than to keep the information chronological and objective with plenty of texture. This version of Lee's life includes finally the real frailties at the risk of imposed frailties created by insecure readers who don't want their hero tarnished. Its natural to protect mythology. The movie public really didn't know him that well in 1973 when he passed so those responsible for presenting his image were on damage control to maximize profits for his four finished films. That alone was worth the read.

This is a phenomenal "no holds barred" biography in which the author gives us an in-depth look at a remarkable young man who was taken from us far too early in his life. The author strips away the luster and speaks both of Bruce Lee's strengths and attributes as well as his failings and foibles, both in his personal as well as in his professional life. In doing so, he gives us a truly open look at the man so many of us have admired throughout most of our lives.For myself, I came away with what I feel is a better understanding of Bruce Lee - how he lived and how he looked at life. Having watched the first two seasons of "The Warrior" I was intrigued to learn more about Bruce Lee, having seen him on TV as Kato when I was a kid, and then, seeing him in his movies when I was a teenager. I was struck by Bruce Lee's devotion to martial arts as well as to his acting and writing career. Likewise, I was amazed to learn so many of the behind-the-scenes stories about his early acting set-backs, his attempts at script writing, his audition for the part of Caine on Kung Fu, and his incredible work on his own films. I was particularly enthralled by the story of how "Enter the Dragon" came to be made. And, although I was well aware of how young Bruce Lee was when he died, I still found his death heartbreaking as the author describes Lee's final days and his after-life memorials.At the risk of ending this review on a low note (still giving it 6 stars), I came away from the book wondering why so much time is devoted to Bruce Lee's efforts to have his script for "The Magic Flute" made into a movie, yet not a word is mentioned about the 1978 film "Circle of Iron" which was directly adapted from Bruce Lee's script. At the same time, I now look at that film (one of my favorites) and can't help but consider how much better it would have been with Bruce Lee playing the roles that were meant for him.

This is a really well-written, well-researched and referenced book that gives it a sense of academic credibility. As mentioned, it’s a long book, but I really couldn’t put it down and looked forward to my bedtime meeting with it’s pages.I bought this try and understand the huge hype that surrounds the man, his films and his writings. After reading this account, I personally didn’t find him a likeable character being rather childish and on referring to my copy of DSM-5, possibly suffering from narcissistic personality disorder since he displayed many of the symptoms which can easily be looked up online. Working down that list, he was dismissive of other arts (the classical Kung fu master, Karate etc) thus aggrandising his own abilities, his open conversational gambit was often, “Feel my muscles” or “Attack me in any way” trying to garner admiration, he suggested his art was the best without really proving it except in a few exchanges with carefully chosen opponents, he would have ideas beyond normal motivations such as his written ‘Aims’, he was obsessed with achieving more than is seniors like McQueen and Coburn just to better them rather than to achieve something and push the acting profession to new heights. Hen belittled other martial artists, actors, writers, directors who he felt were a challenge to his ‘superior’ ideas, he had numerous affairs even telling his wife that if she ever found out he was sleeping with other women, it was only for the sex so it was acceptable because he loved her and the kids! I could go on, but you get the idea. What we’re left with as a legacy are four pretty awful films: ‘Enter the Dragon’ is passable, with his terrible over-acting and cringe-worthy dialogues about things like ‘fingers pointing at the moon’ levered awkwardly into narrative (remember, in the same year we had American Graffiti, The Day of the Jackal, The Exorcist, Papillion, Serpico, The Sting, The Wickerman etc so Lee’s films can’t be said to be ‘of their time’), derivative philosophy books with nothing new or innovative at all and a martial art that nobody else appears to be able to be anywhere near as proficient in as the founder was, suggesting it wasn’t a ‘system’ but a personal, albeit extraordinary, ability on the part of Lee. Reading about the sleazy circumstances surrounding his death made me feel unclean: he had been having sex with his mistress all afternoon, unprofessionally cancelling the meeting with a potential famous acting collaborator who had flown into Hong Kong specially to meet Lee, he’d taken recreational drugs and then, rather childishly exhausted himself by showing off (recreating all fight scenes from Game of Death) to his mistress. The author suggests this exercise, on the hottest day of that year, may have been the major contributory factor in his death.In the light of this, it is a credit to his family, the PR companies and film studios that they have managed to create and perpetuate this wholesome, deeply spiritual image of the man that was Bruce Lee, attributes doesn’t seem to have possessed.This is a fantastic book, buy and read it now!

I found this to be underwhelming to be honest...I suppose that comes with plenty of written word already out there....what can a new bio really come up with? More interviews with the same people saying the same things? I found some of the perceived conversations that took place between Bruce and others that Polly practically quotes to be rather strange...how did he know they said THAT? ........I found Bruce Thomas’ bio far superior to this (Mr Polly rather churlishly mentions a bio written by “the bass player in Fleetwood Mac”) so if you haven’t read Fighting Spirit I’d go with that instead....

The first 120 pages of this book made me feel ripped off as it’s just a rehash of other books & interviews,but it did introduce some new info but it was mainly Bruce’s womanizing & that’s it ..still it’s intersting but as a biography it’s nothing new & nothing ground breaking . Lee is a facinsting subject & he had so much to offer but this book offers very little new to any fans...I found Bruce Thomas “fighting spirit” to be better & I feel Polly probably feels the same as he quotes “ a bassist from Elvis Costello wrote a book “ hmmmm beat you to it Mr Polly many moons ago.

I must say I really enjoyed this book. It is a lot like the Bruce Thomas book Fighting Spirit but with a bit more added detail. It has a few mistakes throughout like a pic of Bruce vs Bob Baker from Fist of Fury but the caption says that it’s Bob Wall which is a mistake. Also a few annoying spelling mistakes but I can live with that as the book is filled with lots of new info about Bruce’s life. All in all an enjoyable read so I give it a solid 9.5 out of 10. 👍. If your read this book & The Beice Thomas book called Fighting Spirit then that’s all you’ll ever need to read about the life of the great Bruce Lee.

Over the years I have read many books and articles about Bruce Lee and in my younger days was a massive fan and have many happy memories of watching all of his movies at late night viewings at the local cinema!This book is extremely well researched and well written and covers from his birth to his death and beyond. It contains many interesting facts about his life and his struggle to become an actor in the USA. It gives an insight into the man and not just the martial artist and shows his human imperfections which we all have as well as his strength of character and belief in himself to ultimately become a martial arts superstar and actor / choreographer and instructor!The book also gives a very thorough account of his death and a very scientifically plausible reason for how this could have happened to a super fit athlete!There is a lot of input from close family, friends and early students as well as film producers and writers.I enjoyed reading it and would definitely recommend it.