Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Brewer
For empty hand fighting, I agree it's one of the best. I also like a lot of the weapon scenes in 300 are aesthetically wonderful. I am not a fan of the hand-held camera in fight scenes, because, frankly, it makes it hard to see what's actually going on. I'd rather see actors train to do it right than mask ineptitude with a shaky camera. A good example (though not an unarmed one) is the battle scene in "Heat." We discussed this once before here, but that's a great example because it was shot steady, and it was highly, highly realistic. The tactics are actually those used in the real world by elite forces in SWAT and the military, and it was a scene worked out by Andy McNab, former SAS operator of Bravo-Two-Zero fame. These are tactics that are difficult to master, even for professional soldiers, and the actors did it convincingly. If they can learn that stuff as well as they did, so should other actors learn the tools and tactics of their characters' fighting styles.
As for other great scenes, I have to go with the fight at the end of the first Lethal Weapon movie as well. It was probably the first time I saw anyone use BJJ (Mel finished Gary Busey with a triangle, remember?) in the movies, and it pioneered that damned shaky-cam technique as well.
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Thanks for your thoughts Mike. I agree that the shaky-cam can spoil things a little, certainly I felt it was a big detractor in the "Supremacy" scene. I think in this scene it walks the line between distorting the action but also adding to the chaos. I do know that Mr Caro was very impressed with Matt Damon's physical ability, so it would be nice to have cleaner camera work, perhaps in the way that the first scene in "Identity" was filmed. 300 was also great, and it was that man Damon Caro again with Chad.
HEAT is actually my favourite movie of all time, and I still remember when I watched the shoot-out scene at the cinema: it was a real jawdropper. I agree that this is the perfect example of cinema coming as close as possible to reality, great planning from Mr McNab (I also know Mick Gould former SAS helped to train the actors), and of course all shot under the masterful eye of Michael Mann. Lethal Weapon, another of my all time favourites, and that end scene was way ahead of it's time. I believe it was Rorion who developed it and trained the actors.
Another fight scene I always admired was the end ruck between Pierce Brosnan and Sean Bean in Goldeneye. It was very close quarter, very frantic, lots of clinch and HKE and it really looked like those guys (or at least their stunt doubles) were going all out.
OK, I'm off to get a life!
