How the hell is this movie rated 7/10?

7 is too high. This movie isn't that good. King Hu made better martial art movies. Even the fight choreography isn't that great compared to Bruce's other films. Unfortunately for Bruce, he was the only thing good about them. This movie's overrated. In fact, all of Bruce's movies are.

The only thing this movie has is better production values, but so what when the rest of the movie ain't that great.

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As a film, it's no great shakes. In fact it's just slightly above average and it's so dated now it's comical. In fact it was probably dated only a few short years after it was released.

Even the fight scenes aren't really that great. Bruce's earlier films like Fist Of Fury showed far more dynamic choreography than what's on display here which is rather slow and clunky looking and of course it's been bettered since.

What does make the film though is partly one of it's flaws. It's a TREMENDOUS slice of the time and it's so gloriously 70s that it has an insane amount of charm. Add to this it's a pretty solid cast with some memorable characters and the tournament plot for a film has been copied so many times in the martial arts world and even the video game world with Mortal Kombat.

Bruce Lee's presence on screen is electric though. He breaks one of the golden Hollywood rules in that he's practically invincible in the film up until his fight with Han but even then he's clearly the better fighter and it's intoxicating to see someone who can't be beaten thrown into this dangerous situation.

I do think that the film gets put on a pedistal by fans as I believe some confuse it's cultural and historical importance with actual quality. It's most certainly not the best martial arts film ever. It's not even close, but it introduced the world to a style of film making and action that had only been native to South East Asia for a few years before and so it was incredibly fresh for it's time.

So if you take in to consideration it's era (all that 70s stuff was completely normal at the time and today will look "corny" to people in 40 years time), it's impact, it's originality on release and the fact it's still incredibly watchable today then a 7/10 sounds pretty accurate.

It doesn't have smart phones so it must be remade... that is the sense I get from younger generations.... Thank God it isn't Black & White... it would be rated 6 of 10.
Reading the Forums on IMDb I swear every movie made before 2006 is in need of a remake and a bunch of young boys fantasize about what hunky guy can take the lead in their remake.

This is THE martial arts movie all others try and imitate. Like the movie Bullit is what all car movies try and be. All Action!
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I have nothing to say... I've been such an arse already.

This movie is rated way too high on IMDb (7.7 currently). This movie would have about a 4 if people rated it based on its actual content rather than on how much they like Bruce Lee. It is full of bad acting, bad dubbing, bad sound effects, and bad music. On top of that, it's boring, and we didn't even get to see Bruce Lee fight Bolo Yeung. For that matter, we didn't get to see any good fights with Bruce Lee or anyone else. At no time did it look like Bruce Lee was up against a worthy opponent. The "big bad" managed to scratch him a few times, but it didn't even slow him down. Having the hero not face any real challenges isn't a hallmark of good movie-making.

I was wondering the same thing. It’s a 5/10 at best.

It's the best PERIOD. And it still holds up as the greatest.

10 years later it is 7.7/10 so if you are still kicking above ground, I hope you are happy.

I watched it last night and gave it an 8/10.