Brandon Lee Essay Research Paper Brandon Lee

Brandon Lee Essay, Research Paper

Brandon Lee was born on February 1, 1965 to Bruce Lee (Martial Arts idol) and Linda

Lee, and brother to Shannon Lee. In 1965 Brandon and his family lived in Hong Kong

where Brandon became fluent in Cantonese by the age of 8. He attended Boston’s

Art-Oriented Emerson College in NY. Growing up as the son of a mythologized movie

legend Bruce Lee, who died at 32 of a brain edema, when Brandon was 8. Brandon

studied Martial Arts and drama, like his father. When his mother took him for martial

arts lessons when Brandon was 9, he saw a picture of Bruce Lee on the wall, started to

cry and ran from the room. For a long time, his attitude was that he didn’t need school,

and he thumbed his nose at the rules. In 1983 Brandon was expelled from school

because of misbehavior, but received his diploma at Miraleste High school.

Shortly before Bruce Lee died in 1973, whose Chinese name Lee Shao-lung,

which means Little Dragon, had bought a house in a Hong Kong suburb called Kowloon

tong (Pond of the Nine Dragons). The Lee family was believed to be cursed with the

jealous wrath of the neighborhood’s resident demons. The curse lasts, it is said, three

generations.

Brandon was in the movies, “Rapid Fire”, “Showdown Little Tokyo”, and a few

more films, including “The Crow”. He turned down offers to be in “Dragon: The Bruce

Lee story”. Bruce Lee died while filming a movie at the age of 32, of what is to be

believed, a brain edema. Brandon died at the age of 28 on the set of “The Crow”.

Brandon Lee died during a mishap on the set of ?The Crow?. On March 30, the

cast and crew of The Crow had allegedly come to work after having had just eight hours

off. It was shortly after midnight on March 31 when Brandon went in front of the

camera. The scene was a flashback intended to explain how his character Eric Draven

had been killed in the first place. The scene required a gun to be loaded, cocked, and

then pointed at the camera. But because of the close range of the shot, the bullets that

were loaded had real brass caps, but no powder. After the cut, the propsmaster dry fired

the gun to get the gun ready for the scene, knocking an empty cartridge into the barrel of

the gun. The armsmaster was supposed to handle the scene, but had left the set early for

the day. The gun was loaded with blanks. Lee entered the set carrying a bag of groceries

containing an explosive blood pack. The script called for Funboy (Michael Massey) to

shoot Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) as he entered the room, setting off the blood pack. The

cartridge that was stuck in the barrel was shot at Brandon through the bag he was

carrying, killing him. The cap of a blank accidentally got lodged in his spine after

penetrating his abdomen. The doctors worked desperately for five hours, but it was no

use. He was pronounced dead at 1:04 P.M. the next day.

According to the weapons expert, the metal tip of one of the dummy bullets,

which had been loaded into the gun for the close-up, had somehow pulled loose from its

brass casing. When the dummies were unloaded and replaced with blanks, the metal tip

remained behind in the gun’s cylinder. As soon as the blank went off, its explosive force

launched the dummy tip through the gun barrel and into Lee’s body.

Brandon was supposed to marry Eliza Hutton on April 17. His body was flown to

Seattle to be buried beside his father in Lake View Cemetery. On April 3rd, there was a

funeral. There were around 400 people there, including Steven Seagal, David Carradine,

and Brandon’s best friend and Stunt coordinator, Jeff Imada. Jeff was so shaken he

couldn’t even speak. Linda (Brandon?s mother) kept everyone spirits up by saying,

“Brandon would have wanted this to be a joyful occasion. We’re here to be happy and to

celebrate the life of Brandon Lee.”