KUALA LUMPUR: Director Quentin Tarantino has responded to criticisms of his depiction of the late Bruce Lee in his new action-comedy Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.
The film, set in the late 1960s, stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a has-been television actor, with Brad Pitt as his best friend and stunt double.
Bruce Lee, portrayed by Mike Moh, makes an appearance in the film as a rival to Brad Pitt’s character, Cliff Booth.
Lee’s daughter Shannon recently expressed her disappointment with the film, saying that it had disrespected her father.
She felt uncomfortable with the depiction of Lee, and said that Tarantino portrayed him as “an arrogant man full of hot air.”
She also said that it was against his philosophy to pick up a fight with others.
Hong Kong entertainment portal Jayne Stars reported last Friday that Shannon was not the only person who criticised the portrayal of Lee.
Retired American basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a friend of Lee, also called the film disrespectful.
However, Tarantino defended Lee’s depiction in the film.
While promoting the film in Moscow recently, the director said: “I didn’t just make a lot of that up. I heard him say things like that, to that effect. If people are saying, ‘Well he never said he could beat up Muhammad Ali.’ Well, yeah, he did. Not only did he say that, but his wife, Linda Lee, said that in her first biography I read. She absolutely said that.”
Matthew Polly, who authored the biography Bruce Lee: A Life, refuted Tarantino’s statement.
He said: “Linda was quoting a TV critic. Even the most scathing critics admitted that Bruce’s kung-fu was sensational. One critic said, those who watched him would bet on Bruce to render Cassius Clay senseless if they were put in a room and told that anything goes.”
Polly also said that Lee was obsessed with Ali, having studied all of his fights in detail. “He frequently imagined fighting Ali, but when asked directly by John Saxon if he could beat Ali, he replied, look at my hand. That’s a little Chinese hand. He’d kill me."