I HAVE POINTS TO MAKE: FAVORITE MOVIE SWORD FIGHTS

Yes a movie list that will NOT include any westerns. Of course, with me, you never know, so pay attention

What are my criteria for a memorable movie sword fight?

Choreography & stunt work: You have to have both. You have to have stunt people/actors who are nimble, athletic and look like they've at least spent a few hours in a fencing salle. The choreography is key. As a rule, two guys facing each other in rigid fencing postures, foils at the ready and barely moving their wrists is hardly entertaining. I want to see some thought put into the scene, some creativity, but at the same time, something that isn't totally out of character or beyond the internal logic of the movie. For that reason, the Chinese costume sword epics that depend on wire work, will be ignored, with one notable exception.

Context. The sword fight has to mean something to the movie. It just can't spring out of nowhere, it has to related to the characters and mean something. They have to help advance the plot, and advance the realization of the characters. The best movie sword fights are conflict resolution. Why discuss the issue when you can pick up a piece of steel and carve your opponent a new perspective . Hmm, suddenly I feel a need for raw meat.

Historical accuracy. OK, I can give a lot of leeway on this but it's still important, at least to me. Recently I've seen a lot of "historical" movies based in the European middle ages where everyone is using samurai-like sword techniques ... a fantasy film can get away with this, but let's not get silly. I can be forgiving but if the weapons and fighting style seems representative of the time period, it gains points. Again, there are exceptions. One of the movies on this list has two guys with broadswords handling them like epees ... but everything else in the scene works.

OK, on to the list. I'm not numbering it. Entries are pretty much random. There will, however, be honorable mentions.

THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD:

Errol Flynn vs Basil Rathbone. For me, this the archetypal sword fight scene. First you get a conflict set up deep in the movie's core, you know this duel is coming, you understand its significance, and you hold your breath, waiting for it.

You also have two of the best fencers in the movies. . My understanding is, that Rathbone had an actual fencing background. I'm not sure if this is true and I didn't want to research it. Some myths I don't want shattered

OK, the weakness of this scene is how these two guys wield their broadswords like fencing foils but it's forgivable. There's a lot of action here. The duel itself occurs during a larger battle, so the two duellists are moving through a lot of chaos. Both men stay in character for the duel and their athletic ability is evident.

Great directing here as well. I'll never forget, as the two men move around this giant pillar, we see their shadows on it before they move into frame. Dashing indeed.

ROBIN AND MARIAN:

Sean Connery vs Robert Ryan. Well, since we're talking Robin Hood .. this is the sequel to the story, 20 years after Rob goes off Crusading and returns to home to find Marian now a nun and the Sheriff (Ryan) still a bad guy, sort of.

This sword fight pretty much meets all my criteria. The stunt work and choreography are excellent. I'm sure stunt men were used, but the transitions are seamless. And you have two really strong actors here in their prime.

This duel is deeply entrenched within the story; we know these two are going to meet, on one hand they're reluctant to do it but on the other hand they both acknowledge that it's something that must be down.

It feels extremely realistic. Director Richard Lester was one of the best at staging accurate fights, from the weapons, to the armour, to the fact the duellists weren't all flourish and flash, they were fighting for their lives and they kicked and spit and cheated. And they got tired. Until his version of The Musketeers, I never saw a cinematic fencer get tired.

THE PRINCESS BRIDE:

Mandy Pantinkin vs Cary Ewles. "My name is Indgio Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die" This duel could very well be a number one as far as I'm concerned. Certainly in terms of choreography and stunt work, it is way, way up there. The world's greatest swordsman (Pantinkin) vs the world's greatest hero (Ewles)

The staging is stunning. It may lose points on realism, but this is a fairy tale. Still, the leaping, spinning, changing of hands, it's pretty breathtaking. All the while these two talented actors firing off some very snappy patter. A sort of traditional fencing with flourishes from another dimension.

STEEL DAWN:

Patrick Swayze vs Christopher Neame. Are some of you saying "Huh?" OK, this may be a tad obscure. It's a post apocalyptic sword and sandals epic, and I use epic in the sense of mildly entertaining cliche riddle B movie. But we all love B movies don't we? If you don't, brother, are you reading the wrong blog.

So the future: bleak, barren, technology smashed, the poor good folks scratching a living out of the desert, terrorized by evil land barons seeking to control the only viable wealth, that being water. Until a mysterious stranger strides out of the wasteland, his sword across his back, his past semi hidden, ready to right all wrongs ... It looks like Mad Max but it plays like Shane.

Swayze is, of course, the hero. And so effective is he at thwarting the bad guys they bring in a hired gun, not Jack Palance but British actor Neames. Their duel to the death meets a lot of the criteria: It is essential to the plot. Swayze must best the slinger in order to beat down tyranny. It is also a test of his resolve, which is questioned in the movie. The choreography is good; this is essentially a fantasy movie but the fight looks gritty, the duellists get hurt, they get tired, they resort to street fighting when need be. And you have two athletically gifted actors, who manage to stay in their lightly sketched characters and bring a touch of gravity to the whole silly thing

ROB ROY:

Liam Neeson vs Tim Roth. OK, back to the good old bloody past. This is a good movie, well made, with some bucks behind it and it shows. Leeson is great, he is so big and graceful and quiet you just know you shouldn't fuck with this guy. But Roth does. His performance is one of my favorite villains in any movie. On the surface his nobleman is a total fop, but on the inside he is a stone cold killer, one of the deadliest fencers in England, apparently based on a real character.

It's an important event in the movie. On one hand, this duel is integral to the advancement of Rob Roy. On the other, Roth is the scum bag who raped his wife. Oh yeh, he's going down.

One of the things that brings it to another level, is an historical point; Roth is a fencer who fancies the rapier and he has a balletic skill with the weapon, quick and nimble and cunning. Rob Roy is, like, 9 feet of chiselled muscle and uses this behemoth claymore, what is referred to as a "Scottish tool" It's a match of weapons of styles

We see both men in action before the fight, we understand what each brings to it. Roth literally runs circles around Neeson, his nimble weapon striking him with pin point accuracy. But what Roy lakes in agility, he makes up in tenacity; yeh, he's freaking John Wayne (see, Westerns will always make an appearance) and he wins the day with his courage, his heart and his just plain toughness.

CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON:

Michelle Yeo vs Zhang Ziyi. OK, here is the exception to the "no wire work" rule but let's face it, this is just an exceptional movie. Even with the obvious wire work, both actors here display an exceptional level of athletic ability and the wire work itself is deeply embedded in the construction of the film.

This is another scene that easily could be another number one. Athletic, beautiful, powerful, suspenseful, the fight, like all the fights in the movie, is used to help tell the story. We learn about the characters as they battle each other, the fight is a kind of a dialogue, much like the scene from Princess Bride. Both these women are powerful actors as well as stunt people and they do as much with their expressions and body postures as they do with their dialogue.

This is also the only female vs female on the list. I love watching women do fight scenes but quite frankly, I can't recall many of this quality. Zhang Ziyi has done other sword fights, like in House of Daggers, but this one is truly the stand out

I'll give Honorable Mention to the fight in the bamboo forest between Ziyi and Chow Yun Fat. A lovely, fluid, fantasy sequence, it's as much chase scene as sword fight. For me it lacks the emotional impact of the the two women, but it takes your breath away.

THE VIKINGS:

Kirk Douglas vs Tony Curtis. I mean, do you need much more info than that? Douglas, Curtis, Vikings, done deal.

This scene is on here for two reasons: Staging and context. The context is what makes it. This is another scene that the entire movie builds up to. The relationship between the two characters is established throughout the entire movie and we see the fight as inevitable. The fight will be a mistake, if one of these one men dies it will be a tragedy for the other yet it's going to happen, their own personalities and the circumstance make it inevitable.

The staging is breath taking. The fight takes place on the steep steps at the top of a Norman style tower; not only could each man die from the sword, the environment itself could kill them. Lots of emotion here and two physically gifted actors holding nothing back.

Each of these actors have movies that deserve honorable mention here: Curtis in The Great Race, and Douglas in Spartacus.

GLADIATOR:

Russel Crowe vs Jaquim Phoenis. Lots of great sword fighting in this movie of course, and most of it emotionally correct for the story. This is another big show down and it's good vs evil with little equivocation, unlike The Vikings.

The context and the acting carries it but the fight choreography throughout this movie is of a very high quality. It's a movie where fighting is central to the plot but it's more about one man bashing each other; be it gladiator or soldier, Crowe's character is fighting for something, and often fighting the system. Yup, Caesar is the man. The Spaniard sticks it to the man. Literally.

RICHARD LESTER'S MUSKETEERS:

Michael York vs Christopher Lee. The Three and Four Muskeeters were released as two movies but I'm considering them as one, as that was how they were created. Picking a single fight from them is difficult, these two movies contain some of the most entertaining and dazzling fight sequences ever filmed

A couple of my favorites are the courtyard sequence where York agrees to fight each of the musketeers separately then they all face off against the king's guard, and the laundry room scene. But these are fights between groups and for the purpose of this list I wanted to stick to mano et mano

So, here we have a man to man duel that, like many on the list, is set up throughout the story. York and Lee are going to fight, they're going to fight to the death. It's good vs evil but it's also naivete vs cynicism, it's youth vs experience. As noted before, Lester was the master of staging chaotic, comical, realistic fight scenes. While both characters display grace and skill with their weapons they are human; they pant, they slip on the floor, they throw stuff at each other. It's funny (the movie is essentially a comedy) but it also helps us to relate to them

That's it for the list at this point. I'm sure I've forgotten some entries, perhaps there are some you disagree with, let me know on either count, but here a few honorable mentions

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK: Luke vs Darth. Pretty well staged, Mark Hamill can't act his way out of a sack but you can't deny the significance of the duel to the movie "Luke, I'm your father, en guarde"

TOSHIRO MIFUNE: One of my favorite actors of all time and he had many many noteworthy duels in his movies. Magnificent Seven, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, The Samurai Trilogy, The Hidden Fortress. A powerful actor who knew how to use stunt work to give us insight into his character.

HIGHLANDER: One of my favorite B movies. Some of the actual choreography and stunt work is, to be honest, a bit dodgy but it's the staging that deserves note. The sight of two men in contemporary clothing duelling in an underground parking lot does send a little shiver up my spine.

CAPTAIN BLOOD: A great pirate movie with great duelling, featuring another plot-stabilizing duel between Errol Flyn and Basil Rathbone

BUCANEER: A contemporary pirate movie featuring another good duel starring Robert Ryan, this time against evil-oozing Peter Boyle

At the risk of making this post a Gone With the Wind of thrust & parry, I'll end it here. What duels have I missed? Which ones don't belong on the list? Don't be shy, speak your mind. I'll put down my katanna and back away slowly.