*Gasp!* a REALISTIC Hollywood sword fight?

[AlexCSmith]

Yes and they mentioned that the blade isn't the only part of a sword that can kill (rebutting one of the most annoyingly tenacious conceits of movies, books, and rpgs everywhere). The training sequence in KoH got me excited (It's not to hard to tell yourself the term predated the manual) only to have my hopes dashed by the rest of the film.

Not only was the combat from the remainder of the film standard Hollywood stuff but the main character becomes a rampaging bad*** after about 5 minutes of instruction defeating veteran knights from both sides.

(I was also frustrated that the most interesting characters in this movie were whacked very early in the film. I want to know what the story was with that black crusader.)

[Nathan Dexter]

In kingdom of heaven the sword fights are horrible, but I do give them points for fentioning the "posta de falcone" despite the fact that fiore dei liberei was born about 200 years after the movie takes place.

posta de falcone is from Vadi, not Fiore. But, it is nice of them to actually use HEMA language.

Well, Vadi is even later then fiorie, so thats even worse!

[JeremyDillon]

Yes and they mentioned that the blade isn't the only part of a sword that can kill (rebutting one of the most annoyingly tenacious conceits of movies, books, and rpgs everywhere). The training sequence in KoH got me excited (It's not to hard to tell yourself the term predated the manual) only to have my hopes dashed by the rest of the film.

Not only was the combat from the remainder of the film standard Hollywood stuff but the main character becomes a rampaging bad*** after about 5 minutes of instruction defeating veteran knights from both sides.

(I was also frustrated that the most interesting characters in this movie were whacked very early in the film. I want to know what the story was with that black crusader.)

Oh I hated the training sequence, it was such a gross oversimplification of technique. "Never take a low guard." got me particularly riled. I felt that many of the other fights where INTERSTINGLY choreographed, but far from accurate. We are meant, I believe, to assume that Baelian is just an incredibly gifted natural fighter, but as any serious practitioner knows, training and preparation beats out natural affinity any day.

[Nathan Dexter]

I know, the training sequence is the absolute worst part of the movie. from now on, I'm going to skip it every time.

[AlexCSmith]

Oh I hated the training sequence, it was such a gross oversimplification of technique. "Never take a low guard." got me particularly riled. I felt that many of the other fights where INTERSTINGLY choreographed, but far from accurate. We are meant, I believe, to assume that Baelian is just an incredibly gifted natural fighter, but as any serious practitioner knows, training and preparation beats out natural affinity any day.

I suppose my imagination was just filling in the blanks there. I figured that, like a great many instructors, he was teaching based on what had been successful for him. I have an Uncle who is a Vietnam veteran and is adamant that he would rather go into battle armed with a Mossberg shotgun than an M16 regardless of any evidence that M16s have improved since the one he was issued back when. His success in real fights makes him believe that he is right.

I viewed Liam Niesen's character as that same kind of guy. He had some bad experience at some point with a low guard and wanted to make sure none of his students made the same "mistake".

[JeremyDillon]

I suppose my imagination was just filling in the blanks there. I figured that, like a great many instructors, he was teaching based on what had been successful for him. I have an Uncle who is a Vietnam veteran and is adamant that he would rather go into battle armed with a Mossberg shotgun than an M16 regardless of any evidence that M16s have improved since the one he was issued back when. His success in real fights makes him believe that he is right.

I viewed Liam Niesen's character as that same kind of guy. He had some bad experience at some point with a low guard and wanted to make sure none of his students made the same "mistake".

Interesting parallel, although there is a sizable difference between a preference for a particular weapon and a statement that any viable stance or tactic is completely without use, but I can still see your point, and it's certainly possible that Godfrey was simply speaking from experience.

[Jake_Norwood]

I think that's a great way of looking at it. It only takes one bad experience in a life-or-death situation to make a guy say "I"m never doing this *that* way again!"

Jake

[Axel Pettersson]

I read in another discussion about this that the "don't use the low guard" quote is due to a misreading of Vadi from the moviemaker, though I havn't read Vadi myself so I cant valify.

Personally, I rather have the recognition of European Martial Arts, with terms and clear postures/guards in a movie than not at all, KoH wasn't my favourite by far, but I think we are heading in the right direction (perhaps though, this is because even movies in a Europeanesque setting looks cooler with apparently systemized fighting resembling asian movies, as opposed to the hack n' slash we are used to, not necessarily because moviemakers know about HEMA, though I hope this is not the case).

[Jaron Bernstein]

I would actually draw attention to the movie The Hunted. While not WMA, it was the best example of Kali/Escrima style knife work I have seen on screen. I would like to someday see someone do a movie with that quality of WMA sword work.

[JeremyDillon]

Rereading this topic, I noted that someone pointed out the Rob Roy duelling scene. I recently re-watched this one, and enjoyed it quite a bit. I especially liked the brutally effective display of what a basket hilted broadsword can do to an unarmored man.

[Jonathan_Kaplan]

Hi, I was told to post this in this topic...

I first asked about more realistic fight scenes in movies, but this thread already talks about that... so let me move to the other questions I was about to ask...

I also want to know if anyone here has tried to get into the cinematography scene in any sort of way, with the goal of differentiating themselves from most cinematographers out there in their style. I also want to know if there are any writeups of move by move critiques of some well known movie fight scene, something that I can rent the DVD and read and go back and forth second by second. Also, has anyone with the knowledge that you all possess ever "rewritten" a movie fight scene (like in writing or whatnot) in such a way to be more plausible, while maintaining the basic pacing, outcome, and dramatic content? Does anyone here have any interest in trying to do these sorts of things to create something mainstream? It seems to me that if I were a cinematographer wanting to create a fight scene that looks different than other ones, that I would find sites like this fertile ground for cherrypicking ideas. Thanks!