The controversial fight scene in Once Upon A Time in Hollywood is loosely based on Bruce Lee's real on-set squabble with a stuntman named Gene.
Fans of Quentin Tarantino’s movies know he sometimes presents historical figures in his own creative light. In Inglourious Basterds, for example, he ends WW2 in one, final, fiery and explosive confrontation between the Nazis and the film’s heroes. Since it’s all in good fun, nobody has a problem with it.
In Tarantino’s most recent film, an arrogant Bruce Lee fistfights a stuntman to a stalemate, and a lot of people are annoyed, if not outraged, by it.
Many familiar with the real Bruce Lee disagree with Tarantino’s arrogant depiction of him. And they roll their eyes at the idea a stuntman could stand toe-to-toe and go blow-for-blow with the Dragon, but what really happened?
Updated on August 7th, 2021, by Michael Chaar: Bruce Lee has paved the way for the rise of martial arts and combat in film. During the filming of The Green Hornet back in 1966, Bruce Lee and stuntman Gene LaBell got into a real fight after LaBell went through with a surprise move. While LaBell claimed he was just kidding, it seems as if the fight was real enough to inspire a scene in Quentin Tarantino's most recent Oscar-winning film, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. Bruce Lee's daughter insisted that the depiction was a "mockery" of her father, and while that ruffled some feathers, it seems as if the fight itself is where the true controversy stands. Following the news, fans began to wonder whether or not LaBell could've beaten Bruce Lee in the fight.
The Reel Fight
In the infamous scene, an arrogant Bruce Lee (Mike Moh) stands on a Hollywood backlot during a break in filming for Lee’s show The Green Hornet. He brags that he would “cripple” the great boxer Muhammad Ali if they ever fought. Stuntman Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) insults Lee for saying such a thing and calls Lee a “dancer.”
Lee challenges Booth to a fight. It’s not a knock-down, drag-out, to-the-death, slobber knocker. It’s a “friendly contest” to see who can put the other guy on his butt twice. Booth accepts.
When they begin, Lee jump kicks Booth to the ground. Then Booth throws a leaping Lee into the door of a nearby car. The score is 1 to 1. They begin again, but they’re stopped by a stunt coordinator, which ends the fight in a draw.
After Lee’s real family and friends saw the portrayal, they came to his defense. They explained that he was never “braggadocious” about who he thought he could beat in a fight. Plus, Lee “worshiped the ground Ali walked on.” Lee has even said that if Ali fought him, “He’d kill me.”
So, which aspects of this scene mirror the real fight? Who was the stuntman? How did it end?
The Real Fight
In 1966, while filming fight scenes for The Green Hornet, Bruce Lee was being a little stiff with the other stuntmen. He wanted the fights to look legit, but stunt coordinator Bennie Dobbins had enough and called a stuntman he knew to come and humble Lee.
The stuntman was Gene LeBell, and he was no ordinary stuntman.
By 1966, LeBell had been performing stunts for only four years, but his life’s passion was real combat sports. He’d trained for over thirty years in several fighting styles, captured several championships, and beat many masters of several martial arts. After winning “over 200 trophies” in real combat, he decided to try fighting for entertainment in pro wrestling and Hollywood.
When LeBell walked onto the set, Dobbins told him to put Lee in a headlock. So LeBell grabbed Lee, who started making the noises he became famous for that usually meant someone was about to get their teeth knocked out. LeBell picked Lee up and ran around the set with him on his shoulders!
Instead of Bruce doing Bruce-Lee-things and taking LeBell’s head off, he screamed “Put me down or I’ll kill you!” LeBell replied, “I can’t put you down or you’ll kill me.” He held Lee on his shoulders a while longer before putting him down and saying he was just kidding.
The Fallout
Many in Lee’s position would view being publicly carried on a man’s shoulders as a confidence-crushing moment. But Lee’s perspective on the incident is one of the things that make him “a world-class martial artist,” as LeBell put it.
Lee realized that Lebell exposed a major flaw in Lee’s personal form of martial art, Jeet Kune Do. Lee hadn’t incorporated any grappling into his techniques. It would be valuable to grab and manipulate a foe as LeBell had. Lee befriended LeBell and learned grappling techniques from him.
LeBell said, “I went and worked out with [Lee] at his school. I taught him judo and wrestling and stuff like that and some finishing holds which he later worked into some movies, and he showed me most of the kicks and striking which even today I use in the movies. A wonderful, wonderful man and a great martial artist.”
LeBell was also hired for stunt work with Lee on The Green Hornet.
Unfortunately, Bruce Lee passed away a few years later in 1973. Most of his notoriety came after the release of his biggest film, Enter the Dragon, that same year.
Gene LeBell (also called “Judo Gene” and “the Godfather of Grappling”) went on to perform stunts in hundreds of movies, train martial artists like Chuck Norris and Ronda Rousey, and once squeezed the literal crap out of Steven Seagal.