Brucesploitation
From The Deuce
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Overview
After Bruce Lee's tragic death in 1973 something strange happened. Many film studios began to look at Bruce as a cash cow who had gone too early = from the film business. He did leave too early, but these studios only cared about the money they could make off his good name. Their only option was to look for Bruce Lee clones and use them for their own kung fu action films to fill the void he left. This wave of film genre became known as "Brucesploitation". From approx 1974-1981, many films were made starring guys like "Bruce Li", "Bruce Leong", "Bruce Le", "Bruce K.L. Lea", "Bruce Ree", "Bruce Thai", "Bruce Lai" and "Dragon Lee". Most of the films were low budget Grindhouse films to be shown on double bills with more popular action/kung fu hits playing at the time. Although the Bruce Lee wannabes couldnt completely replicate Bruce's natural charisma and extraordinary martial arts talents, the films they made actually were entertaining in an outrageous Exploitation-ized way. These films are some of the purest "Grindhouse" genre films that came out in the 1970s and they are one reason why this site was started. Many people would look down on these kinds of films, but here at The Deuce, we not only appreciate these films, we downright love em!!
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