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Cinematic fight choreography orstaged fights incinema include performances ofarchery,classical fencing,historical fencing,martial arts,close combat, andduels in general, as well as choreography of full-scalebattles with hundreds of combatants.
The1970s in Hong Kong saw the rise and sudden death of international martial arts and film superstarBruce Lee, who is known for popularizingHong Kong action cinema. He was succeeded in the1980s byJackie Chan, who popularized the use of comedy and dangerousstunts in action films.
Hong Kong-based fight choreographerYuen Wo-ping is famed for his work onCrouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and theMatrix trilogy, in which the often unrealistic fighting techniques are complemented by directorial techniques such asbullet time.Ching Siu-tung is particularly noted in the field ofHong Kong action cinema for his use of gracefulwire fu techniques.
Notable Asian martial arts choreographers:
Notable Asian martial arts actors:
With the introduction of advanced editing techniques and of filming outdoors, modern films have a much wider palette of possibilities for depicting violence, including single combat, brawls, and melees as well as large-scale battles. From the 2000s,computer animation has come to play an important part in cinematic visualization of battle scenes, chiefly through the use of computer-generated imagery to simulate very large battles appearing to involve thousands of individual combatants and coordinated activities, which would otherwise be logistically difficult or prohibitively expensive to depict (seeMASSIVE andcrowd simulation). Many battlefield CGI techniques were pioneered from 2001 byThe Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
Films with notable large battle scenes and the historical battles/wars they depict:
Cinema inherited the concept of choreographed fights directly from the theatrical fight. Films 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 withErrol Flynn from 1935.Also notable in the early period wereRamon Novarro,Rudolph Valentino, andJohn Barrymore. Fencing masters (fight arrangers) from the time includeHenry Uttenhove,Fred Cavens,Ralph Faulkner,Jean Heremans,Bob Anderson,William Hobbs, andClaude Carliez.
Renewed interest in swashbuckling films arose in the 1970s, in the wake ofThe Three Musketeers (1973). Directors at this stage aimed for a certain amount of historical accuracy, although, as the 2007Encyclopædia Britannica puts it, "movie fencing remains a poor representation of actual fencing technique". A notable fight arranger of this period isWilliam Hobbs.
Knife fights, as well as knife-throwing stunts, are staged for dramatic effect in action films. InUnder Siege,Commando,Gangs of New York,Machete, andMachete Kills, knife fights are shown as climactic battles. A common theme in such films is for the hero to discard a gun or similarly superior weapon, in order to engage the otherwise unarmed villain in "fair" knife-to-knife combat. In the 2002 film version ofThe Count of Monte Cristo, the main character, Dantes, agrees to engage in a knife fight against Jacopo, a member of a smuggler's crew (the captain of which calls Jacopo "the best knife fighter I have ever seen"). Dantes defeats Jacopo but spares his life, gaining a pivotal ally in his future endeavors.
One of the most famous cinematic knife fights occurs inFrom Here to Eternity. The scene—occurring in a back alley—is stark and realistic, lacks background music and uses pitch black shadow.
In the movieForce 10 from Navarone, a knife fight appeared between Sgt. Weaver, an African-American medic Soldier, played byCarl Weathers, and Capt. Drazak, an officer of theChetniks, allies toNazi Germany, played byRichard Kiel. The fight ended with Drazak's death.
In the filmCommando, starringArnold Schwarzenegger, there is a knife fight at the end of the movie between John Matrix (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Bennett played byVernon Wells. They begin with the knife, and then end up in a No-holds-barred CQC.
In the filmCobra, starringSylvester Stallone as a city cop who must stop a knife using serial killer and cult member the Night Slasher played byBrian Thompson. There is a fight scene at the end involving a knife fight between Stallone's character Cobra and the Night Slasher. The menacing looking knife used by the Night Slasher is abrass knuckles or more like a spiked knuckles, modern version of atrench knife.
The filmEastern Promises has a rather intense knife fight that rivals that of the also psychologically disturbing knife fight scene fromSaving Private Ryan.
InThe Bourne Identity (2002 film), Jason Bourne (played byMatt Damon) had a knife-fight encounter with Castel, an assassin sent to kill him. In the struggle, Jason Bourne equalizes his unarmed position against the assassin's knife by arming himself with a pen.
InKill Bill, a knife-fight occurs between theBride andVernita Green, during which the pair severely damage Green's living room, only to abruptly halt when Green's daughter is dropped off by the school bus and seen walking towards the house. Shortly thereafter, Green sneakily pulls a gun, and the Bride responds by throwing her knife, to deadly effect.
The Hunted (2003, William Friedkin) was a unique film that put an emphasis on showing knife combat. StarringBenicio del Toro andTommy Lee Jones, each character has a special affinity for knives, due to participating in various special operations missions under military service, which required use of a knife as a primary weapon. The knife combat portrayed in the film is based on the Filipino weapons-based martial art calledSayoc Kali. Also Friedkin'sBug (2007) features a knife-fight.
A Grande Arte (1991) along with the above-mentionedThe Hunted, is one of the rare films to focus on knife combat and features training scenes as well.
Dune (1984, David Lynch) and the2000Dune miniseries, based onFrank Herbert´s bestselling science fiction novelDune, show a world where a corporeal shield (aforce-field projector) makes laser and projectile weapons useless. Because of that, wars and duels are settled by knife-fighting, which is altered by the presence of the shield: a fast-moving knife bounces off the shield; a slow-moving knife can penetrate the shield to reach a vital organ. The climactic duel, betweenPaul Muad´dib andFeyd-Rautha, used only knives (no shields) and martial-arts abilities.
Michael Jackson's music videoBeat it features a highly stylized depiction of two men knife-fighting usingswitchblade knives, with their wrists tied. This is reminiscent of a similar depiction inWest Side Story.
InQuantum of Solace (2008) James Bond (Daniel Craig) enters the apartment of Edmund Slate, the man he was sent to investigate. Slate comes out of nowhere and tries to kill him with a switchblade. They struggle, Bond arms himself with scissors, disarms Slate by bending his wrist forward, and stabs him in the neck and femoral artery, causing Slate to bleed to death.
InThe Expendables, Lee Christmas (played byJason Statham) frequently makes use of combat knives when he is not in possession of a firearm and uses them both as projectiles and in hand-to-hand combat. Gunner (Dolph Lundgren) also uses a largebowie knife but gives it to Lee at the beginning of the film.
InThe Expendables 2, Lee Christmas again makes use of combat knives. He is shown to be skillful enough to defeat a squad of enemies on his own, as well as challenge the villain Hector (played byScott Adkins), himself a formidable knife-fighter. Hector pulls his knife on Christmas when the latter runs out of blades; he arms himself with a pair ofbrass knuckles, with which he fights and defeats Hector.
InThe Man From Nowhere, Cha Tae-Shik (played byWon Bin) makes use of a switchblade and the art form kali to combat gangsters in a large condominium towards the finale of the film. After defeating the gangsters, he fights their hired assassin who also wields a karambit. Both fighters fight close quarters until Cha Tae-Shik gains the upper hand and stabs the hired assassin in the heart.
InThe Avengers,Hawkeye (played byJeremy Renner) fightsBlack Widow (played byScarlett Johansson) while under the influence of Loki. When deprived of his bow, Hawkeye draws his knife and continues the fight until he is disarmed and incapacitated.
InCaptain America: The Winter Soldier, during the first encounter betweenSteve Rogers (played byChris Evans and the titular antagonist (played bySebastian Stan), the Winter Soldier uses multiple knives against Rogers in their melee along with various firearms.
InThe Birth of a Nation (2016 film), the film provided varioushand-to-handclose combat andknife combat techniques in a climactic “last stand” battle scene, showingNat Turner (played byNate Parker) and his group of slave rebels facing the militia and plantation defenders at an armory.
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 wereExcalibur (1981) andHighlander (1986).Lightsaber combat in theStar Wars films takes some elements fromkendo, andThe Lord of the Rings employs some elements of historical fencing.
Historical drama films that feature combat based on historical swordsmanship includeRob Roy (1995),Gladiator (2000),Troy (2004),Kingdom of Heaven (2005),Alatriste (2006).
A Knight's Tale is an example of a movie that includesjousting performances (2001) and unrealistic clashing of swords on armor, despite the Fechtbücher who show armoured combat (Harnischfechten).
Films such asThe Duellists, fight directed by William Hobbs,Once Were Warriors, fight directed by Robert Bruce andTroy, fight directed by Richard Ryan are widely famed for including gritty, realistic combat scenes.
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