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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Favorite Movie Fight Scenes

visceralpsyche said:
Actually, that's one of the things I loved about "Equilibrium" - the gun kata and other fights were fantastic, but that last one....I thought it was perfect and totally in keeping with the character arc of the story, whereas lots of people felt let down by its brevity. What they didn't get was that it was the perfect sword fight - no posturing whatsoever, just superior skill and the will to finish the job with the minimum of effort.

Paul
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No ,I agree brevity can be the most powerful. When Kevin Costner shot the gunhand in Open Range, it was fantastic. I don't think I'd call that last scene in Equilibrium brief though... I guess you mean bwtn Bale and Taye Diggs? No, I thought it was great... still wanted to see Bill the Butcher and Amersterdam fight. I think I liked the character of Bill the Butcher so much, I just wanted to see Daniel Day Lewis on the screen more. ;)
 
I can name probably a few here and there best fights scenes in my opinion but at this moment i can only think of one.... RODDY PIPPER in THEY LIVE!!!..I MEAN COME ON NOW!!!.. the intensity, anger, and regular american style fight between two men... i don't think anyone can disagree, as much as i love asian cinema i just can't get this scene out of my head. It was so good i laughed so hard imagining watching this live.

The length
The camera angles
convincing makeup effect/ and moves

all made it intense, believable and a great fight scene in my opinion. My roomate and I always love that scene and watch it over and over sometimes.

What do you guys think?

Crystal
 
Dean Bull said:
The best action scenes in film do not live in a bubble -- they are supported by the surrounding movie and provide a visceral release that is echoed in the emotion and intellectual layers of the film.
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True. The lightsaber fight with Darth Maul in Phantom Menace was technically more impressive than Luke vs Vader in Empire Strikes Back, but Empire is much better, because there is more at stake. There is some story behind it and leading up to it.

This is a problem I had with a bunch of the battle scenes from Attack of the Clones, Phantom Menace, and Sith - the battles seem to take place just to show off the FX, and nothing is really at stake. The space battle in Return of the Jedi, or the attack on the Death Star in A New Hope, have everything at stake, and therefore are a far superior battle scenes.
 
Almost all of the fights mentioned in here are highly stylized.

How about realism:

1)Sword fight between Liam Neeson and Tim Roth in "Rob Roy."
Tim Roth is this foppish little dandy that conceals his deadly sword skills.

2) Final shoot "One False Move." No exciting music. Over in a flash but so intense.

3) There's a great fight with John Cusack in "Grosse Point Bank"

These fights play out in real time, no quick cuts.

Good Stuff
 
I think it was Seven Samurai and I don't know if you'd typically describe it as a 'fight scene' but there is a bit in it where two ninja's are duelling to the death but they aren't slashing and hacking. They're just stood there waiting, and whoever moves even slightly loses the fight, eventually one of them flinches and is killed. It was really very simple, but drove home exactly how good these guys were - very memorable for me.

Paul
 
I would have to say the fight scene in "The Fifth Element" where they inter-cut the opera performance with the fight scene in the diva's suite. Two different types of performance intertwined. I just thought it was great, I can watch it over and over.

Last night I watch the Third installment of the "Lord of the Rings" the whole scene with the uber elephants was pretty amazing.
 
Joe Taylor said:
1)Sword fight between Liam Neeson and Tim Roth in "Rob Roy."Tim Roth is this foppish little dandy that conceals his deadly sword skills.
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Best sword fight ever, no endless jumping about with the energy of super heros! Neeson with the big heavy broad sword against the sneeky cunning of the whip thin rapier. Neeson wearing down during the fight, actually dragging the sword behind him at one point as he pursues Roth... this is real, and it's hard work.

I'd also add a "fight" scene in The Conversation as a realistic fight... watching Hackman against a couple of guys... no heroics here... just a guy without skills struggling against opponents.

As to over the top fight scenes... the many minutes long single shot fight in Old Boy comes to mind. What great staging.

Oh, and I completely agree to a camp favorite... the endless man to man brawl with Roddy Piper in "They Live!". They keep going and going and going...

edit... dang, that's what I get for reading threads backwards... these have been discussed already... sorry...
 
PaulClements said:
I think it was Seven Samurai and I don't know if you'd typically describe it as a 'fight scene' but there is a bit in it where two ninja's are duelling to the death but they aren't slashing and hacking. They're just stood there waiting, and whoever moves even slightly loses the fight, eventually one of them flinches and is killed. It was really very simple, but drove home exactly how good these guys were - very memorable for me.

Paul
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Yeah, that is a badass scene.
 
Just about anything the late Bruce Lee was in. Enter the Dragon, Game of Death...
 
I've read them all and have thought about it much. I'm still going with the sword fight in Rob Roy. It is so realistic. Tim Roth looks like he couldn't fight his way out a crowded booth at Denny's but he carves Rob Roy. About a minute into the fight both are so exhausted that they can hardly lift their swords. None of this Three Musketeers non-sense with dandies hopping around and being a smart ass. Realism impresses me much more than quick edits and exciting music and dick head one-liners.
 
David Mullen ASC said:
The recent naked knife fight in "Eastern Promises" was memorable.
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that was pretty awesome, unexpected style for a fight scene.

I like the fight scene in Minnie and Moskowitz when Moskowitz fights Zelmo outside the restaurant after Zelmo is insane to Minnie. Its just unexpected enough and realistic enough and the situation is funny and serious.
 
Grosse Pointe Blank - The scrap between Cusack and that crazy looking spoon in the hallway -

it had a wonderful kind of visceral realism that looked like two guys really trying to kill each other - like a nasty mill outside a bar - which Cusack does (with the biro in the jugular) - resulting in his existential crisis.

I just love that flick.
 
quick quote from Spielberg regarding the new Indiana Jones movie, which makes me very happy indeed :)

He also adds that we shouldn't expect tricky editing either - "I go for geography. I want the audience to know not only which side the good guy’s on and the bad guy’s on, but which side of the screen they’re in...Quick-cutting is very effective in some movies, like the Bourne pictures, but you sacrifice geography when you go for quick-cutting."
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zeke said:
Just about anything the late Bruce Lee was in. Enter the Dragon, Game of Death...
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(rolls eyes to the heavens fervently) Amen to that!

What about the final fight in Zatoichi between Ichi and the ill samurai?
 
...and as for gun fights, the climactic showdown in Unforgiven is great.
 
1. Anything in which the great Bruce Lee gets to demonstrate his Jeet Kune Do
2. The fight scene between Jason Bourne and Desh in Bourne Ultimatum. Absolutely 'Proper', as we like to say down here in London.
 
Little Known Film - Great Fight Scene

Little Known Film - Great Fight Scene

Hi all - Just wanted to chime in - Its been awhile since I saw it but there is a gem of a fight scene in the Roy Rowland film "The Girl Hunters" from 1963. Mickey Spillane (the author of the novels) plays the lead as Mike Hammer. There is, if my memory serves, a close to 10 min fight scene that is remarkable in my opinion for both its extreme graphical nature and realism. Realism in the sense that both participants get tired as the fight goes on - is that excalibur with a similar scene ? - realism in the sense that a blow to the head really hurts etc. It has a great ending to the scene as well with mike hammer driving a spike through the guys hand so that he won't escape. Been at least 10 years havn't seen the movie but it has always stuck with me. I recommend the film in general although its definitely not high brow work - it has a great end scene as well.
 
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