Combat in film

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Staged fights in Cinema include performances of classical fencing, historical fencing, martial arts, close combat and duels in general, as well as choreography of full-scale battles.

Contents

[edit] Classical fencing

Cinema inherited the concept of choreographed fights directly from the theatrical fight. Movies that feature notable classical fencing scenes include:

Douglas Fairbanks in 1920 was the first film director to ask a fencing master to assist the production of a fencing scene in cinema[1] . A second wave of swashbuckling films was triggered with Erol Flynn from 1935. Also notable in the early period were Ramon Novarro, Rudolph Valentino and John Barrymore

Fencing masters (fight arrangers): Henry Uttenhove, Fred Cavens, Ralph Faulkner, Jean Heremans.

Renewed interest in swashbuckling films arose in the 1970s, in the wake of The Three Musketeers (1973). Directors at this stage aimed for a certain amount of historical accuracy, although, as the 2007 Encyclopedia Britannica puts it, "movie fencing remains a poor representation of actual fencing technique". A notable fight arranger of this period is William Hobbs.

[edit] Historical martial arts

Historical martial arts reconstruction developed in the later 20th century and became influential in cinema only from ca. the 1990s. Earlier sequences of combat with pre-Renaissance weaponry were typically based on classical fencing techniques, or choreographed as ad-hoc "blade whacking".[2]

Influential movie heralding renewed interest in pre-modern swordsmanship were Excalibur (1981) and Highlander (1986). Lightsaber combat in the Star Wars films takes some elements from kendo, and The Lord of the Rings film trilogy employs some elements of historical fencing.

Historical drama films that feature combat based on historical swordsmanship include Rob Roy (1995), The 13th Warrior (1999), Gladiator (2000), Troy (2004), Kingdom of Heaven (2005), Alatriste (2006).

Movies that show jousting performances include A Knight's Tale (2001).

[edit] Asian martial arts

Main articles: martial arts movies and Hong Kong action cinema

Hong Kong based fight choreographer Yuen Wo-ping is famed for his work on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the Matrix trilogy, in which the often unrealistic fighting techniques are complemented by directorial techniques such as bullet time. Ching Siu-tung is particularly noted in the field of Hong Kong action cinema for his use of graceful wire fu techniques.

[edit] Boxing

Category:Boxing films

[edit] Unarmed or improvised combat

Films such as The Duellists, fight directed by William Hobbs, Once Were Warriors, fight directed by Robert Bruce and Troy, fight directed by Richard Ryan are widely famed for including gritty, realistic combat scenes.

[edit] Firearms

Further information: western movie,  gangster movie, and Gun fu

[edit] Battles

Further information: war movies

With the possibilities of cutting and of filming outdoors, films have a much wider palette of possibilities to depict violence, including single combat, brawls and melees as well as full-blown battles. From the 2000s, computer animation has come to play an important part in cinematic visualisation of battle scenes, pioneered from 2001 by The Lord of the Ring trilogy (c.f. Massive (software), crowd simulation).

Movies with notable battle scenes:

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