Last night I caught a bit of the first Prates of the Caribbean movie; the scene when Will and Captain Jack buckle their swashes in the blacksmith’s… er… store(?), barn(?), house(?), smithy(?)… I forget the proper term. Anyhoo, I really like that particular sword fight. Maybe it’s not the best in movie history, but it is well done.
I love a good sword fight in a movie. A few of my favorites:
Inigo vs. Wesley: The Princess Bride
Qui Gon and Obi Wan vs. Darth Maul: The Phantom Menace (especially good when Obi Wan and Maul fight each other at the end).
Obi Wan vs. Anakin: Rise of the Sith (until they’re floating over the lava).
That’s all that comes to mind right now, but I know there are plenty of others. What are some of your favorites?
I actually prefer the Luke/Vader fight in Empire over any of the prequel fights. The prequel fights were too showy. I like that in Empire Vader basically fights Luke one handed for most of it.
Any in Richard Lester’s The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers. Of particular fun are the one in the palace laundry and the one at the convent at the end of the second movie.
Inigo/Rugen in “Princess Bride” is also worthy of a mention - not quite as fun and showy as Inigo/Westley, but it’s the end of the movie, and you can tell that the stakes are higher!
“My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father! Prepare to die!!”
I enjoyed the swordfights in *Rob Roy *and Dangerous Liasons. Not that I’ve ever seen any actual swordfights, but these were close to what I actually imagine a duel between two well-trained swordfighters would be, especially with how good a shape you’re in being a factor in the fight.
But for “fantasy” swordfights, the Wesley/Inigo fight is my all-time favorite.
All of the vader/luke fights are excellent, but the one in return of the jedi is my favorite. They weren’t jumping around like ninjas, just hammering at each other in a fit of fury. It was raw and real(ish) and very cool.
That’s a fun movie for swordfights although I’m sure people who know how to do it cringe at Flynn. Basil Rathbone on the other hand was evidently an excellent fencer; he’s also good in “The Mark Of Zorro” with Tyrone Power.
Definite seconding on the 3 & 4 Musketeers (the Michael York movies, not all the other crappy ones).
One of my favorites is the great big duel at the end of “Scaramouche” with Stewart Granger and Mel Ferrer (looking astonishingly like a young Sean Connery) fighting it out at an opera house, leaping off balconies, fighting in the seats, etc.
IMHO what makes a fight scene look great is the same stuff that makes a dance scene look great:
-Properly lit.
-Wide shots so you can see everything happening.
-Minimal number of cuts.
-No special effects. Do you hear me George Lucas?
-Actual actors actually physically doing the moves themselves.
-Proper choreography (not “I hold sword steady and you beat on it, then we switch, then repeat”).
Otherwise you get these horrible sequences of quick cuts between closeups of an actors face followed by long shots of a stunt double doing something in the dark so you can’t really make it out anyhow.
Swashbucklers don’t buckle swashes; that’s nonsensical. They swash* their bucklers.** Well, most so-called swashbucklers don’t actually carry bucklers, but if they did, they’d swash them.
Vader fights one-handed until Luke gets in a hit, after which he decides that this kid shouldn’t be dismissed out of - ahem - hand, and gets more serious about beating on him instead of poncing about.
Not swords, but since we’ve got light sabres in here…
Last of the Mohicans - the Daniel Day-Lewis version - I loved how quickly the individual fights went down. The seasoned fighters dispatched their adversaries quickly and brutally. The only long exchanges happened between the guys already shown to be very evenly matched.
