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Quentin TarantinosOnce Upon a Time in Hollywoodis filled withcharacters from American mythology.
And theres the murderedSharon Tate, a venerated symbol of innocence lost during the decade.
These figures are more than human, and in many ways, less than human, too.
The side effect of elevating people to archetype, after all, is that they lose their humanity.
Such was the case for another mythological figure of the sixties who appears in Tarantinos film: Bruce Lee.
The portrayal has been met with mixed reviews.
Shannons mother, Linda Lee Caldwell, dubbed the performance a caricature made to be insultingly Chinesey.
My reverence for him grew as I got older, following him in movies likeThe Big BossandFist of Fury.
By that time, Lees status in popular consciousness was iconic.
There were dozens of imitators, but only one little dragon.
He appears on the set ofThe Green Hornet, which in Tarantinos universe features protagonist-cowboy Rick Dalton, too.
Lee would cripple Clay, he cockily tells his onlookers, should the two fighters ever find themselves opponents.
Yet despite the historical inaccuracy, Moh nails Lee his voice, his look, his mannerisms.
Lee responds by challenging Booth to a fight, and the stuntman agrees.
At this point, Moh assumes the martial artists trademark fighting stance and begins firing off his familiar vocalizations.
This is the Bruce Lee we remember.
The reaction to Mohs performance the chuckles that followed his impression of Lee felt like a similarly racist gesture.
Lees legacy, far from insulating him from a white audiences mocking, actually focuses it.
Here, Lee understands that his status depends on a carefully constructed reputation for supernatural indestructibility.
Who else, after all, could kill four people with his bare hands?
Already, and in his lifetime, the sanctification of Lees legend was doing Lee no favors.
Lee could have quit, but he fought.
His legend is amplified by his imperfections, not diminished.
