Game of Death
Steve McQueen, James Coburn, and Muhammad Ali refused roles in the film because they felt it exploited Bruce Lee's death, and because of the low pay Golden Harvest was offering.,In the beginning of the movie, a scene where you can see Lee's face in the mirror of his trailer. It's obviously a cardboard cutout, as the neck below it moves freely about unconnected to the head.,Dr Land: So much for the weather report. I'm not the only one who just arrived. How about your trip to Berlin Stick?
Stick: It went pretty much as you figured. Now that he's the big star, I couldn't reason with him. He said he was pulling out and he threatened me.
Dr Land: Oh my my my my. The rest of it was in the papers. That's when he committed suicide huh? Haha!
Stick: He just got up and jumped out of the window...,New Zealand theatrical and videotape versions were originally cut to remove the entire nunchaku battle between Bruce Lee and Dan Inosanto, although the censors later allowed this sequence to appear intact in the documentaries The Curse of the Dragon (1993) and Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey (2000). In 2005 the cut was also waived for the Region 4 DVD release of "Game of Death".,Edited from The Big Boss (1971),Game of Death
(Hong Kong version only)
Music by Joseph Koo
Lyrics by James Wong
Sung By Roman Tam,Game Of Death is a mess of a film,and that's putting it lightly. Nothing to do with Bruce Lee's original conception for the film in 1973,the filmmakers here took the fight footage {somewhat edited down} that he shot for that proposed film,placed it at the end of the film,and than decided to pretend that the rest of the film also features Bruce Lee. Badly. In fact the sheer ineptitude of this aspect of the film is extraordinary,as well as several doubles,none of whom look like Lee and usually wear sunglasses to try to hide the fact,there are also shots and brief bits from previous Lee films edited in and even a scene with a guy wearing a Lee mask!

Nonetheless,there is a certain fascination to the film. The plot is kind of interesting and even has a scene in which Lee's character,a movie star, fakes his own death by being shot whilst filming a scene,this being disturbingly similar to the way Lee's son Brandon died many years ago. There is loads of fighting,not all of it great,but it's pretty constant and contains at least two good sequences {a fight in a changing room and a battle with some motorcyclists}en route to the 'real' Lee stuff at the end,which is certainly worth the wait. The duel with Kareem Abdul Jabbar is almost as good as the famous one with Chuck Norris. Dean Jagger is a great slimy main villain,and John Barry {an odd film for him} provides great musical backing,even if the main female star Coleen Camp is not really good enough to sing his lovely theme song.

Game Of Death is undeniably a piece of exploitation and sometimes leaves a bad taste in the mouth,as when a funeral scene is interspersed with shots of Lee's real funeral. It's really a bad movie and for the most part a badly made movie too, but it's certainly not dull and is kind of fun, as many bad movies are.,