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Enter the Dragon

(1973, Rated R, Action/adventure, Starring John Saxon, Bruce Lee, Jim Kelly)

  • Is it age appropriate?

    About our ratings

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    Not age appropriate for kids under 14, age appropriate for kids over 16; suggested age 14.

  • Is it any good?

    3.0

  • Common Sense says

    Legendary Bruce Lee actioner has some raw elements.

Why We Rated This iffy for Ages 14–16

What to watch out for

  • Messages:

    Some racial stereotyping. Bruce Lee's character is stoic, upstanding, righteous -- but murderous in avenging his late sister. Producers thought U.S. audiences wouldn't accept an Asian lead alone. To appeal to the most racially diverse audience they back him up with two supporting good-guy fighters (said to be Vietnam War comrades), a white and a black American, who are a little more roguish (running from gambling debts, for example). Uniformed American police portrayed as racist thugs, the Asian villain as a white slaver (a movie stereotype going back to silent days).

  • Violence:

    Countless martial-arts poundings, many ending in death. Bloodshed as the villain utilizes a variety of slashing/edged weapons on his missing hand. A death via impaling. A female character, threatened with rape, kills herself with a jagged piece of glass (not shown explicitly).

  • Sex:

    Brief nudity -- bare breasts and backsides -- in a harem of girls supplied to martial-arts athletes like goodie bags (implicit in this scene is a stereotype about a black man's awesome sexual prowess; he selects several concubines, while a white hero settles for one).

  • Language:

    Not an issue.

  • Consumerism:

    Not an issue.

  • Drinking, drugs, & smoking:

    The villain is a heroin dealer, and we see the results in both corpses with needle-marks in the arms of addicts and in a rather silly psychedelic drug-party full of face-painted girls.
 

What Parents Need to Know

About Enter the Dragon

Parents need to know that the villain's nefarious activities include peddling heroin and turning drug-addicted women into international sex slaves. The girls are offered to the heroes, and there is brief female nudity in the bedroom, as well as imagery of a drugged-up, hippie-style party. Rampant martial-arts violence ranges from non-lethal bouts to kung-fu fatalities, with snapped necks, crushed bodies, and speared corpses. Watching it on a cropped, full-screen version loses the composition of the action setpieces; try to get a "letterboxed" edition instead.

Did this review help you decide?

Families Can Talk About

  • Families can talk about the appeal of Bruce Lee. What makes him special among the big screen's action heroes? How about his philosophy of martial arts briefly expounded in the pre-credit sequence (the distinction of fighting with emotion but avoiding anger)? You can watch documentaries about Lee and kung-fu cinema (two examples: Bruce Lee, the Legend and Chop Socky) and ask why it took so long for such movies to become "respectable" in the West. Was it critical racism, or were kung-fu films just low quality? What kinds of roles do you think Lee would have played had he not died so tragically young?
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Most Recent Reviews

  1. Teen Reviewer Age 17
    october1985
    I rate this title on for age 8 and give it 4.0

    Very tame for an R-rated movie. There is martial arts violence involving some blood, but it's not too bad. There is also some brief nudity. Anyone over 8 should be fine

    This review...

    Helped me decide | Had useful details | Read my mind
    Flag as inappropriate
  2. Teen Reviewer Age 15
    SAWROCKS
    Lives in Virginia
    I rate this title iffy for age 13 and give it 4.0

    Kung fu Awesome !

    Fun fast paced martial arts action movie. Some bloody deaths and some sexual content but overall a good movie for teens not tweens.

    This review...

    Helped me decide | Had useful details | Read my mind
    Flag as inappropriate

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