Conan the Barbarian gets a hearty second from me. The end titles have a credit for “Master of the Sword”. Judging from the fight choreography, I’d say they listened to his advice.
There was a direct-to-video thing a few years ago called Ring of Steel or somesuch…concerning an illegal sword duelling competition. Stupid, stupid movie, but some great sword fighting scenes, particularly the main character and his partner/opponent in “buccaneer” mode, dueling, flirting with women in the audience, and slinging brilliant insults at each other with each breath. Anyone else remember this one well enough to give the correct title, or to verify my memory?
I can’t evaluate such things from a practitioner’s perspective, but I’ve long been kind of partial to the climactic “Ash vs. Evil Ash” fight from Evil Dead III: Army of Darkness
Raimi was obviously watching Hong Kong action movies well before they caught on in the U.S.
Kilt-wearin’ man – it was indeed called Ring of Steel; had my favorite redneck, Joe Don Baker. Silly movie, but enjoyable.
Now, Ring of Steel was basically a toned-down version of American Samurai, which had terrible acting but some terrific brutal fight scenes between various maniacs armed with a variety of lethal bladed weapons.
And all kidding aside, in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the Black Knight’s first fight, against the Green Knight, is actually pretty realistic.
Both of the first two movie versions of Prisoner of Zenda have great swordfights (between Ronald Coleman and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in the black-and-white movie, and between Stewart Granger and James Mason in the color remake).
Some of the fight scenes in Highlander were pretty good. In the series as well as the movie. Some were really bad and obvious, but there was some excellent swordplay there as well.
Even The Great Race’s parody of Prisoner of Zenda had a pretty good swordfight between Tony Curtis and Ross Martin. Technically quite accurate in depicting the distinction between foil and rapier.
OTOH, Highlander, much as I love that movie…:rolleyes: OK, I can see a katana against a Toledo salamanca but against a two-handed broadsword? (Alright, hand-and-a-half, but still…) I got two words for ya, babe: “Broken katana.”
May I nominate By the Sword, one of my guilty pleasure films? The climactic duel between Eric Roberts and F. Murray Abraham is a pretty solid example of believable swordplay. Plus, you get a look at Mia Sara’s taters.
As I mentioned in the last thread on classic movie swordfighting, the best example of real technique can be found in Romeo and Juliet and The Mark of Zorro, both of which have already been mentioned. The Court Jester also deserves a special mention, as my fencing master’s master trained Danny Kaye personally for that role. All of his cane work is 19th century Italian sabre technique.
Rob Roy and The Princess Bride were the first and only two movies that came to mind when I saw this thread title. Glad to see that they have already been mentioned, and I’m adding my own vote towards those movies.
I don’t know anything about realistic sword fighting, but Ladyhawke (Rutger Hauer, Michelle Pfeiffer, Matthew Broderick) has a convincing looking fight between Navarre and the new Captain of the Guard in the cathedral at Avignon.
Also, if we can include made-for-TV movies, all of the Sharpe movies starring Sean Bean (e.g. Sharpe’s Rifles, Sharpe’s Gold) seem to have fairly realistic sword fights and musket/rifle battles.
IANAF, but any of the Zatoichi movies can be seen as an excellent example of Kendo, especially Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold.
I must admit to being shocked that El Elvis Rojo didn’t mention Six String Samurai. Just for the record, though it was a cool movie the fencing was not that good.
I second Ladyhawke, for the final scene with Rutger Hauer using his big body to bully his way past the guards rather than out-fancy-finesse them, in order to go after the cleric. Cinematically it does look dull and probably gave the film bad reviews, but it did look more realistic.
I’ll second *By The Sword for fencing geeks. Robin & Marion with Sean Connery had a great final scene that felt very realistic (grunting men slowly swinging huge hunks of steel).
For pure realism, get a Kurosawa movie, e.g. The Seven Samurai
The best one is of course MP and The Holy Grail. “It’s just a flesh wound!”
I agree with this. During the Middle Ages, the larger swords that were intended to be carried with two hands could be quite heavy; I’ve heard figures as high as thrity pounds. Needless to say, you can’t just swing a weapon like that around the way that they do in some movies.
any of Toshiro Mifune’s movies directed by Kurosawa such as Sanjiro, Yojimbo, 7 Samurai, Hidden Fortress, etc. The final fight scene one-on-one in Sanjiro is fantastic with the left handed draw.
also there is the blind Japanese series called Zatoichi.
Either of the above will blow away practially any other sword fight scene.
That figure for Medieval swords is bunk. That theory is derived from folks looking at Ceremonial swords that have been saved from the Medieval period.
Much like a rifle, you would want your primary weapon to be as light as possible, and still get the job done.
Ewart Oakeshott has done some rather extensive studies of medieval swords. Most of them are lighter than I would have originally thought… as my book is at home, and I’m at work, I have to pass on actually coming up with a number here, but the 30 lb. figure is just ludicrous.
Princess Bride. No question.
Also, from what I’ve been able to figure out, I need to watch some old movies fairly soon… heheheh
For those who’ve suggested Star Wars, and a few others movies, let me explain the difference between movie fencing and real fencing since my esteemed teacher, Con Harp And Sword hasn’t graced this thread with his presence. In movies, people are usually fighting the sword, rather than the person, so you get blades making nice theatrical noises far from the actual target.
In other words,
Sword
Here Body
Here
Fencer lives.
Sword Here
Body Here
Fencer dies or Harp And Sword kicks CJ’s butt, as usual.
That said, the version of The Three Musketeers with Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland, Oliver Platt, and Tim Curry got me into fencing despite them fighting the weapon.
