8 Favourite Fight Scenes
I wanted to follow up my last list of 8 with another one. This time I’m going out on a limb and putting forth my 8 favourite fight scenes. There is no objective criteria for this pick, these are just scenes that I think are awesome. It is not a comment on the movie as a whole, I’m just talking about these specific minutes. In no particular order (except for #1, which is really #1).
- Hard Boiled, John Woo
The opening fight scene is the greatest ever to grace our screens. It’s a real cornucopia of mayhem and perfectly choreographed violence. Like the rest of the movie, this scene goes over the top, well over the top and is visually stunning. The highlights for me including Chow leaning backwards over the stairway rail and two gunning it down and later sliding through a pile of flour coming out looking like a ghost. Really, if you haven’t seen the movie, go and rent it now.
- Enter the Dragon, Robert Clouse
How do you pick a favourite Bruce Lee moment? I’m sure I don’t know, I just picked one. Picked one of extra ordinary magnitude. The closing battle in the mirror house is what I’ve picked. It’s a pretty amazing scene, what with the mirrors and the guy with the furry claws. It really is quite amazing to watch.
- Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Peter Jackson
Here’s the movie that got epic battles right. And the Battle of Helm’s Deep had everything, elves, human, uruk-hai and it had lots of everything. It gave you a little emotional involvement with the refugees huddling under the city, dwarf throwing and a great last ride, that fortunately for humanity turned out not to be the last one. It’s hard to do epic battles, they become either too epic and cold or else to involved and confusing to care. Peter hit just the right balance in his movies and Helm’s Deep was, in my opinion, the best of them.
- 300, Zack Snyder
Here’s another move that I think did epic battles extremely well. It gave a perspective that was personal while still maintaining a sense of the epic. I know some folks thought the playing with the speed was played out, but personally I thought it was well used and did a really good job of keeping the pace moving. The scene that stands out in my mind though was the first scene where you see the Spartan phalanx standing against the rushing hordes and how it works as a single machine, withstanding the initial crush (all ranks leaning into it) and then the shield shove and stepping forward. I don’t know that I’ve seen a mass battle quite like it. Super cool.
- The Matrix, Andy & Larry Wachowski
Ok, even though the Wachowski’s screwed up the whole franchise, you can’t deny they got the first one right. I think they took a lot of what was happening in Hong Kong and some high tech wizardry (but not too high tech - the mistake they made in the sequels to terrible effect) and did some really good work. This was a tough pick for me because I like the big battle a lot, you know Keanu running sideways along the wall and all that. In the end though, I have to go with the opener and Trinity escaping. It just was so good and really sets the tone for the movie.
- Charlie’s Angels, McG
It is strangely not surprising that McG is executive producing the search for the next pussycat doll, but his work on the first Charlie’s Angels is enough cred for me. The first fight scene featuring Crispin and the Angels to the soothing sounds of Smack My Bitch Up was awesome. His work as a video director was really in full effect in that scene. It’s hard to have a 3-on-1 fight where all 4 players are main characters and this one does the job perfectly. And Crispin Glover was a move of sheer genius for that role.
- Ong Bak, Prachya Pinkaew
Watching this movie with the understanding that there were no CG or wires was an eye opener. One scene was more amazing than the next. It’s super hard to pick my favourite, but I’m going with the scene were he jumps off the second floor, grabs his ankles behind his butt and lands knee first on the bad guy. Do I need to say anything more than that?
- Serenity, Joss Whedon
Browncoats, unite! Ahem. The scene where River gets her trigger word in the bar and proceeds to bust a cap in everyone’s ass. is. awesome. You can tell that the actress was a trained dancer because the movements are so smooth and precise. It’s not rare anymore to see women kicking much butt on screen, but there was something to this one that brought it above the pack. The choreography was great, her movements were awesome and maybe it was the lack of emotion on River that pushes it over the edge. There’s something really captivating about it a, how do you say… je ne sais quois. Sorry.
So that’s my 8. But let me cheat a little and give honorable mention. I’m sure there are scenes better than these that lie between the 8 and the following two, but I just really like them and it’s my blog.
- Big Trouble in Little China, John Carpenter
There’s any number of fight scenes here that combine campiness with well.. kitchy-ness. But come on, you have to give full props to a movie that has a scene with Jeff Imada busting out his balisong moves in an airport.
- District B13, Pierre Morel
This movie featured Parkour a lot and I really can’t get enough of that. Since I first parkour on screen however long ago with that Nike commercial with the chicken, I’ve watched parkour and free running videos at every opportunity. This movie takes that and does a great job of putting it on screen. I couldn’t get enough of it. (I know, I know.. I still have seen Casino Royale, yet)
