Michael Wright

OK. Setting myself up for some serious debate:

I think the recent scene in the Bourne Ultimatum has got to be the strongest fight scene I can remember for many years. The reason I post this thread in the FMA section is the content is primarily Inosanto/Lacoste FMA, with Matt Damon being trained by Damon Caro, and the scene choreographed by the legendary Jeff Imada.

Rough, brutal, uncompromising. Superb choreography, hand held camera work, no music. Excellent use of improvised weapons: blunt, edged, flexible, projectile. Kicks, punches, knees, elbows, standing grappling, limb destructions, trapping (yes, trapping). Finally, a quiet and sombre end as opposed to kick ass with a smile. I think it is superb.

### IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FILM, AND INTEND TO, DON'T WATCH! ###

I would be really interested to know people's thoughts, and also to hear views on their favourite movie fight scene. Any vids are welcome.

Bring it on....

YouTube - Bourne Fighting With Asset #2

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.

Tee Sok

I was also impressed by the fights scenes in Bourne Ultimatum, really well done. Matt Damon said in an inteview in Empire that he trained boxing really hard and that it helped him a lot also for his general physical condition.

I think the fight scene in Old Boy is very good, some nice boxing too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2ZDwOUftHQ

Tee Sok

I was also impressed by the fights scenes in Bourne Ultimatum, really well done. Matt Damon said in an inteview in Empire that he trained boxing really hard and that it helped him a lot also for his general physical condition.

I think the fight scene in Old Boy is very good, some nice boxing too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2ZDwOUftHQ

Michael Wright

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!

Mike Brewer

Good points, all. Damon Caro was at the Inosanto Academy while I was training there regularly, and Chad Stahelski beat on me more than once in sparring, so I can attest to their ability and range. Both are capable of doing some of the things other people seem to think we just train for show. It's no small wonder that the fight scenes they're involved with end up looking great, and looking pretty "real" in Hollywood terms.

Michael Wright

You've had some awesome training experiences Mike. Thanks for sharing.

akatrk

The village fight scene at the end where the American and German soldiers were fighting for their lives upstairs. Man, the scene where the German soldier slowly plunged the bassinet into the American soldier’s chest and the American soldier was saying, "You don't want to do this." Man, that was a fight for life.

treelizard

Damn good movie, too.

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Mike Brewer

In Saving Private Ryan, I like the scene where Tom Sizemore and the German both run out of ammo, and Sizemore just rips his helmet at the guy. That was such a genuine moment that I laughed out loud in the theater the first time I saw it. They almost threw me out because the movie had been so touching to most people, they all thought I was a cretin for laughing at anything.

Ghost

Very nice to watch, more realistic than alot of other fight scenes i guess but some stuff in there i just wouldnt use personally because i dont beleive it works ( note the unrealistically long pauses to allow technique to be executed), you can work out what those things are but very nicely choreographed.
i enjoy the fight scenes in the tony jaa films but are miles away from being realistic.

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Tee Sok

What I like in Ong Bak is that Ja is showing thai MA at full force, and they also look really good on a movie.

I think the knife fighting in Hunted is also well done, I read it was choreographed by a Philipino teacher. I think there was a thread on it.

It was the second time Tommy Lee Jones shot knife fighting scenes after
Under Siege with Seagal, remember?

Britt

I thought the fight scenes in the new "Casino Royale" were pretty well done. In the books, James Bond is supposed to be a Judo expert, presumably a black belt, and Daniel Craig pulls off some subtle Judo stuff in the fights. In the opening sequence when he's dragging the guy towards the sink to drown him, he has him by the collar and appears to be doing either a sliding collar choke or a variation of a thrusting choke. Later on, he kills the assassin in the stairwell with a rear naked choke. I think he even had his hooks in.

There's also a scene where he kills a guy with a knife to the lower back that some people complained to me looked unrealistic (i.e., guy immediately dies from one stab wound to the back), but from what I've read the scene might have been pretty well spot-on. Lt. Col. Dave Grossman writes about the method of killing a sentry with a knife in his book On Killing, and says that the preferred method isn't sneaking up behind the person, clamping your hand over his mouth, and slitting his throat like you see in the movies (although that works); rather, it's stabbing him in the kidney. The excruciating pain and shock leaves the sentry unable to even scream or move, which looked like what was happening in the movie. Gruesome and a little hard to watch with that in mind.

Another one someone was mentioning to me the other day: the fight scene between John Cusack and Benny "The Jet" Urquidez in Grosse Pointe Blank. I haven't seen it in years and didn't even realize Urquidez was in it, so now I want to go rent it and watch it again.

Britt

Yeah, two Sayoc Kali instructors, Tuhon Tom Kier and Tuhon Rafael Kayanan. I wanted to see it for the Kali but I heard the rest of the movie was pretty bad, so I never got around to it.

tigrtclaw

Very good fight scene. You'll be sure to see more and more of this type of fight scenes in new films