Is Enter the Dragon the most influential martial arts film?

Is Enter the Dragon the most influential martial arts film?

  • Total voters
    76
shorinryu86 said:
I find Bruce Lee movies overrated, most fans elevate him like he's somekind of mystical mythical entity. (even calling him the GOAT martial artist)
Click to expand...
It's easy to use hindsight and call them overrated compared to movies made decades later. They were way ahead of their time, especially Enter The Dragon.
 
mkess101 said:
Bloodsport was a niche action film when it was made. It grew into a cultural mini phenomenon. Absolutely within only a target demo but for young males it became a massive influence. Again, it was sold as a true story with "stats" at the end about Dux and not knowing any better (because we were...teenage boys) we were like "Holy shit this happened! They do a secret full contact tournament and people die and...holy shit!"

The influence carried on to where one of the most iconic video game franchises ever (Mortal Kombat) maybe never gets made without it. Johnny Cage is given the splits-into-nut-punch move that Van Damme does in the movie to pay homage to it.

Does all this mean it was more influential than Enter the Dragon? Not necessarily but calling it a "niche action film" isn't accurate either. It grew into a lot more than that.
Click to expand...
There would've been no Bloodsport without Enter the Dragon. Bloodsport basically stole the plot, but Frank Dux claimed it was based on his real life experiences.

I liked both movies, BTW.
 
mkess101 said:
Bloodsport was a niche action film when it was made. It grew into a cultural mini phenomenon. Absolutely within only a target demo but for young males it became a massive influence. Again, it was sold as a true story with "stats" at the end about Dux and not knowing any better (because we were...teenage boys) we were like "Holy shit this happened! They do a secret full contact tournament and people die and...holy shit!"

The influence carried on to where one of the most iconic video game franchises ever (Mortal Kombat) maybe never gets made without it. Johnny Cage is given the splits-into-nut-punch move that Van Damme does in the movie to pay homage to it.

Does all this mean it was more influential than Enter the Dragon? Not necessarily but calling it a "niche action film" isn't accurate either. It grew into a lot more than that.
Click to expand...

The cultural impact of Enter the Dragon dwarfs Bloodsport. It isnt even debatable. All you're saying by arguing otherwise is that you have no clue what you're talking about. I love Bloodsport, but it's a cliche action film and that's about it.
 
For professional fighting, Rocky was probably much more so.

Fist of Fury is Bruce’s best though. Great flick all over and maybe the first time an armbar is shown in a film.
 
Mortal Kombat


I never heard nobody walk out to the Enter the Dragon theme
 
In the grand scheme of things - Enter the Dragon.
Personally? Due to generational experience etc. Bloodsport, which I saw first as a wee lad.

Love them both to bits, depending on the day which I think is cooler. But at least Enter the Dragon is not based on a True Lie, so it might win on being more grounded in reality :D
 
CerebralKnievel said:
The cultural impact of Enter the Dragon dwarfs Bloodsport. It isnt even debatable. All you're saying by arguing otherwise is that you have no clue what you're talking about. I love Bloodsport, but it's a cliche action film and that's about it.
Click to expand...

Again, my claim wasn’t that it eclipsed Enter the Dragon culturally. Because I dont think it did. What I'm saying is that your dismissal of it as a niche action movie isn’t accurate.

Again, the impact on teenage boys of selling it as a REAL thing resonated. Prior to it, there was never the implication that there was anything in actual life like this (including Enter the Dragon). Underselling that aspect is why you're wrong. Not about which film had a bigger impact but about Bloodsport itself.

By the time people started finding out that "Hey...this shit may well be exaggerated or even fabricated altogether" the impact had already been made.
 
We got to watch these movies later than in US, with the iron courtain and all. I remember Bruce Lee as very influential for the chinese McDojo business, some of my friends lost a few years trying to learn one inch punch, sticky hands and all that shit. They wised up and moved to fighting sports after a few street beatings.

Steven Segal was also influential in the mcdojo business, but mostly for nerds that were more into japanese culture than fighting anyway, so it wasn't as harmful. It was a lot more niche.

JCV was big also, people had posters in their rooms growing up and t-shirts with" double impact". It got people into KB I guess, though I suspect those who were made for contact sports would've trained in them anyway.
 
mkess101 said:
Bloodsport was a niche action film when it was made. It grew into a cultural mini phenomenon. Absolutely within only a target demo but for young males it became a massive influence. Again, it was sold as a true story with "stats" at the end about Dux and not knowing any better (because we were...teenage boys) we were like "Holy shit this happened! They do a secret full contact tournament and people die and...holy shit!"

The influence carried on to where one of the most iconic video game franchises ever (Mortal Kombat) maybe never gets made without it. Johnny Cage is given the splits-into-nut-punch move that Van Damme does in the movie to pay homage to it.

Does all this mean it was more influential than Enter the Dragon? Not necessarily but calling it a "niche action film" isn't accurate either. It grew into a lot more than that.
Click to expand...
Both movies are equally influential to Mortal Kombat. The 95 movie is basically a remake with magic.
 
BigGucciSosa said:
Both movies are equally influential to Mortal Kombat. The 95 movie is basically a remake with magic.
Click to expand...

Sure. But I'm talking about the original video game.

To be fair though, you're right now that I think about it. Liu Kang's character is obviously Bruce Lee. So fair point that both were influential with it.
 
Last edited:
I don't give a damn what anyone says. As a young teen this arrived and blew me away.

the-last-dragon-the-glow.gif
 
MigitAs said:
Honestly surprised they didn’t do more movies that one was so much fun
Click to expand...
Check out Yamakasi


There was "district 13: ultimatum" as well, I haven't seen it.


Davey Grant said:
I’m 50 now, started at 14 because of Bloodsport and still training….

Click to expand...

What I find awesome about Bloodsport, is that it's based on the fake life of a real person who no one knew at the time he was a complete fraud.
 
spinup said:
Check out Yamakasi


There was "district 13: ultimatum" as well, I haven't seen it.



What I find awesome about Bloodsport, is that it's based on the fake life of a real person who no one knew at the time he was a complete fraud.
Click to expand...

That yamakasi movie looks fun af, thanks
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,268,502
Messages
57,535,815
Members
175,741
Latest member
darealearth

Share this page

Back
Top