The stunt man who manhandled Bruce Lee
If you haven't seen the new Tarantino film, "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood," I'll start out with my one-word review.
Don't.
After the first 70 minutes I was wondering when (or if) the film was going to start. It's more than two hours long, all the 'action' is in the final 10 minutes and the only entertaining parts are when Brad Pitt does comedy. Pitt is one of the greatest comedic actors who ever drew breath (his Howie-Mandell-on-acid inmate in a looney-bin in "12 Monkeys" was proof of that) but he's usually hired for his chiseled good looks and six-pack abs so he rarely gets to exercise his comedic chops.
Anyway, in the film he's a movie stunt man hanging out on a TV film lot who snickers reflexively when hears Bruce Lee bragging that he could kick Cassius Clay's ass. Offended, the former Cha-Cha instructor challenges the stunt man to a friendly 3-fall match. And he loses. Badly.
Back in the real world, this scene puts the panties of Bruce Lee's real-life daughter, Shannon Lee, in a bunch because it insulted the memory of her father. First because it portrayed Lee as a short-tempered braggart, plus it implied that a "mere stunt man" could kick her father's 140-lb ass. So she goes to the press and insists that Tarantino apologize.
Except there is a historical precedent for what Shannon claims never happened.
Quote:
...There was trouble on the set of The Green Hornet. Bruce Lee kept hurting the stuntmen. Wanting to make the fight scenes look as real as possible, Lee wasn’t exactly pulling his punches. And the stuntmen were complaining. Bennie Dobbins, the stunt coordinator for the show, decided Lee needed a lesson. He called in ‘Judo’ Gene LeBell, the toughest stuntman Dobbins knew, to teach it.
LeBell had come by the reputation honestly. He was the son of Aileen Eaton, a boxing and wrestling promoter in Los Angeles. From a young age, LeBell learned how to fight from the best. He’d gone on to become a two-time national judo champion, and had trained in Tokyo at Kōdōkan. He’d even competed in a true mixed martial arts contest, taking on ranked light heavyweight boxer Milo Savage in 1963.
When LeBell showed up on set, he did exactly what Dobbins hoped he’d do—he got the better of Bruce Lee. LeBell simply picked Lee up, threw him over his shoulder, and carried him around. Lee didn’t take it very well, screaming out death threats all throughout...
More's the pity they didn't have the cameras rolling.
Background on Gene Lebell:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=n9mER2BmNRA
