'Be Water' Review: ESPN's Bruce Lee docu is transparent and has a seamless story, just like the star's motto
It is perhaps accurate to call Bao Nguyen's 'Be Water' a riveting and intriguing affair. When ESPN added 'Be Water' to it's '30 for 30' series roster, a lot of eyebrows were raised considering Lee wasn't a sporting icon. The 120-minute feature, however, brings in a fair bit of boxing legend, Muhammad Ali to better explain the storyline. Lee was and still is a pop-culture icon. Such is his influence that even Tony Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe sported a shirt with a graphic of Lee Dj-ing.
On a personal front, Lee was an ultimate action hero when 'Enter the Dragon' first premiered on TV. The intense moves, the ear-shattering roar and the speed-of-light movement of his arms left the world in awe and asking for more. Nguyen just goes on to say there's more to Lee than being an artist. The fact that he made only a few films before his tragic death just rocketed his fame to the stratosphere.
ESPN captures Lee's life in the form of audio bytes by friends and family coupled with some rare footage, just so there's more of Lee on screen, something the new-gen has seen less of. And it works. Lee chips in with some of his recorded lines, conversations and letters that show a new layer of the man. The main focus though is on the "minority racism" Lee went through while trying to cement a career in Hollywood in the early '60s. Call it sheer timing as it just coincides with the tumult the country is going through right now in the wake of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery's death.
While Nguyen delves into the various aspects of Lee's life— personal and professional, there's this sense of realization of how profound the actor was. Toggling between San Francisco and Hong Kong, Lee was doing more than just acting, he was trying to strike a balance, something that paid off, but he wasn't there to experience it. The good thing about 'Be Water' is there's no additional dramatization, which means Lee's strengths and weaknesses, the curveballs he faced were all explained matter-of-factly.
His stint with Van Williams in the short-lived, but popular series, 'The Green Hornet' was a classic example of how he was a victim of pay disparity. While Williams made $2200, Lloyd Gough made $1100, Lee raked in a paltry $450 and it wasn't until he asked to be a made a more concrete member, his character in the show, Kato, got a few lines. By the end of the film, it becomes clear Nguyen borrowed the title from Lee's maxim— It was transparent and seamless, just like his martial arts moves.
The voices featured in the film are prominent. Wife Linda Lee Cadwell, daughter Shannon Lee, NBA star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Robert Lee, and Dan Inosanto to name a few. Much like 'The Last Dance' and 'Lance,' Lee's documentary gets a strong opening in the form of his screentest that sees the martial arts man switch from an intense combat stance to an eerie calm persona with consummate ease. This sets the tone for an insightful film that picks up the important pieces of his life.
While we wait for 'Long Gone Summer' that promises another scintillating docuseries from ESPN, there's no doubt that certain elements from 'Be Water' will be at the back of our minds. If anything, this was probably a glimpse of the star's life that shows the new generation that he was more than that shredded action-man he's fondly remembered for. It was a feature about a person who fervently attempted to practice what he preached.
'Be Water' is available for streaming on ESPN+.