The (Totally) Phantom Menace

It's a good clip, but you could do this for almost any sword-fighting movie or TV show. I don't know if they're still out and about, but a team that went to a lot of comicons and did work for film & TV went by the name "Crossed Swords" and they had a whole reel of stuff like this.

The sad fact is that unless you get some people trained in swordfighting that have worked with each other for a lot longer than most films will allow, your fights aren't going to look authentic at all. A lot of what goes on is for dramatic purposes as well, like a hero cocking their fist way back before hitting someone, which never happens in real life (unless the punch-thrower is a moron).

They did a lot of weapon-related stuff for the more recent Star Trek shows, including the bat'leth fights, and they did some demos where they wound up with one bat'leth vertical, the other horizontal, clashed against each other so they could growl about honor in the middle of their fight. It's here they pointed out that no Klingon ever seems to think about just pivoting their blade so one of the pointy ends mortally wounds their opponent, because of Drama Armor or something.

Pompoulus

- 2012-03-20

I was thinking the same thing, it is not real fighting, it is stage fighting. Poring over a make-believe laser sword movie fight like it's the Zapruder film is kind of sad. Still, four for sad.

Robin Kestrel

- 2012-03-20

See "The Princess Bride" for competent sword-fighting choreography. Seriously.

chumbucket

- 2012-03-20

Back when Star Wars was originally released in the 70's we all appreciated stupid art for art's sake. These days, good luck with that. Grandpa's going back down for his nap now...

SteamPoweredKleenex - 2012-03-20

@Robin: It's entertaining, fast-paced, etc., but it's the same thing as the video above. All "attacks" are aimed at the opponent's sword, not the opponent. If you took away the "block," the blades wouldn't even come close to striking their supposed target. It's pretty much a dance with some contact juggling involved.

badideasinaction - 2012-03-20

@SteamPoweredKleenex - bring that up at a Star Trek convention and I'm sure you'd either be on the receiving end of a bearded lecture about that technique bringing dishonor to the family name, or a lecture on how there's some super-counter to that move that's of course instantly deadly and no they can't show you what it would be.

Movie combat is often bad, but they mask it with camera movement or perspective tricks. This is made painfully clear by lazy camerawork and overly whiz-bang-but-lame choreography practically lifted from power rangers done by actors without much of the training to sell it.

Robin Kestrel - 2012-03-24

@SteamPoweredKleenex: Considering in The Princess Bride it was the actual actors, and they were using real swords, I'm not sure what you'd want? For them to accidentally actually cut/stab each other if a block goes wrong? I think SAG frowns upon that.

Screwtape

- 2012-03-27

That argument may hold water if there were any stage danger, but there wasn't. Look at some of the behind-the-scenes footage--in some shots the actors are deliberately many yards apart and they use CGI to bring them closer together. Too stupid for words.

Juice Eggs McKenna

- 2012-03-20

Remember how awesome this fight seemed when the movie came out?

garcet71283

- 2012-03-20

Yes and I was 12

Squeamish

- 2012-03-20

No, because I was 21 and just sat through two hours of blonde midget darth vader being "adorable."

SteamPoweredKleenex - 2012-03-20

It's still awesome compared to the rest of the Phantom Menace. By that I mean this duel doesn't involve any dialog, attempts at romance or humor, Jar-Jar, Jake Lloyd, or direction by George Lucas (I'm assuming he's not the fight choreographer).

sosage - 2012-03-20

I'll give it this, it was the one scene where the two sword swinging dolts of the movie were put in a tense situation. Only because it was Super Invincible Space Samurai Wizards vs. the story's other Super Invincible Space Samurai Wizard.

Riskbreaker - 2012-03-20

Problem is, Obi Wan and Quin Gonwhatever are such boring characters i couldn't care one bit about this fight. I was 16 at the time.

Old_Zircon

- 2012-03-20

No because it sucked.

CIWB - 2012-03-20

All I thought was "why are they jumping and flailing so much?"

Like everything else about the prequels, Lucas took a good thing from the prequels (lightsaber duels) and completely went over-the-top with it and made it ridiculous.

CIWB - 2012-03-20

Meant to be a reply.

Meant to say "from the original trilogy", not from the prequels.

/dumb

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