Actual Footage Of Bruce Lee’s Funeral, Including His Casket, Was Used In His Last Film
Wikimedia CommonsRobert Clouse used archival footage of Bruce Lee for the actor’s final film, including footage from his real funeral.
Bruce Lee’s death was another one of those unfortunate and untimely Hollywood deaths that sent ripples across the world, made all the more heartbreaking when his son, Brandon Lee, died in an equally tragic manner.
Bruce Lee had been one of the biggest action movie stars in the world, and for years, movie studios continued to use archival footage of his fights in productions even after his death. Numerous “Bruce Lee” clones also came onto the scene, including Bruce Li, Bruce Le, Dragon Lee, and Bruce Lai.
But one posthumous Bruce Lee film stands out among the rest for its use of actual footage from Bruce Lee’s funeral.
According to Far Out, Lee had filmed around 100 minutes of footage for a Hong Kong martial arts film called Game of Death prior to his death.
In America, Robert Clouse was brought on to direct a localized version of the film. Rather than stick to the original plot, however, Clouse took a different direction, reworking the script into a revenge story about the mafia.
Released in 1978, the film only used roughly 11 minutes of Lee’s scenes from the original Game of Death. It also featured archival footage from Lee’s fights in other films — and footage of Bruce Lee’s open casket, for a scene in which the main character fakes his own death in order to escape the mafia.
It was certainly an odd choice, but evidently, it paid off. Although critics panned the film, it ended up being a commercial success. Perhaps audiences were just happy to see Bruce Lee in one final film.
