Impressive Saber Duel

HFinn said:
"Duellists" is still one of the best fencing movies. I especially liked the short smallsword duel. Showed how fast things happen in a real fight, the winner first did not realise he had made a hit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2KWTEhyVX8
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'The Duellists' is a great movie....pretty much like all Ridley Scott movies (even his 'worst movie' -Black Rain- has beautiful colors in some scenes scenes and dare I say ambience:cool:)

How ever The Duellists is not period true/correct in regards to how the duels are performed/technique/stance etc, as I understand it.

That is to be expected of course, as Ridley Scott has to make allowances in order to make the movie work.
 
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Unspecified accusations of inaccuracies. That is to be expected of course, as Ridley Scott wasn't making a documentary.
 
gadunz said:
Unspecified accusations of inaccuracies. That is to be expected of course, as Ridley Scott wasn't making a documentary.
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Im sorry, but your post doesnt make a lot of sense. Please try again.

Accusations are to be expected because RS was not making a documentary?
 
The thing that creeped me out with the smallsword duel was the aftermath, desperately attempting not to sneeze with a hole in his torso. Guess he never learned the pressure point trick with the upper lip.
 
Reclaiming_The_Blade_poster.jpg
 
BladeScout said:
'The Duellists' is a great movie....pretty much like all Ridley Scott movies (even his 'worst movie' -Black Rain- has beautiful colors in some scenes scenes and dare I say ambience:cool:)

How ever The Duellists is not period true/correct in regards to how the duels are performed/technique/stance etc, as I understand it.

That is to be expected of course, as Ridley Scott has to make allowances in order to make the movie work.
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Of course. Still, just for the sake of discussion, for example there were multiple styles of smallsword fencing. The gentlemen in question, as french officers, would have been exposed to current french style, but there were others that were different. Germans, Spanish and Italians had their own styles, the starting position with left hand poised front for parry was common. I have fenced smallsword that way and prefer it to french quard with left hand in the back. :) Of course there were also many masters and lot's of manuals with different preferences.
 
If you (were forced to) read the current event essays and social commentary that were written proximate to that era, the duel was the scourge of the time. The smallsword was particularly notorious for not killing immediately, often incapacitating and leading to a lingering death by sepsis and 19th century medical "treatment." Ironically, it was the French nobleman who usually prevailed in duels against professional soldiers, as the nobility had the money and time to train much more effectively than a working man. There was a tremendous amount of lively dissemination of ideas that really muddy the waters when we try and determine what is genuine to the period. I remember an account of a Cuirassier taken prisoner by Prussians and given parole while they sorted out prisoner exchange. He supported himself until his return to France by teaching French fencing to Prussians. It's all very confusing.
 
The french style was most succesfull, leading ultimately to modern fencing. One of the fencing teachers of the era was Sir William Hope, a scotch nobleman, who made an effort to simplify the art to it's minimum. His logic was that french style is too complex which leads to fencers trying to make too difficult things that do not work in real combat. His style consists ultimately of one guard (the so called hanging guard) and fighting with the weak hand forward.
 
BlackKnight86 said:
That's from "The Deluge", a Polish movie.
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"Deluge" is the second part of a 19th Century litterary trilogy, the first being "with fire and sword", the third being "Fire in the Steppe".

This is the most popular and legendary trilogy in all of Polish literature, and most movies adaptations would be very seriously done indeed, as this one appears to be...

The trilogy depicts one of the most desperate periods in Poland's history. The author was somewhat of a stickler for accuracy, if on the nationalistic side... This is basically the history-based equivalent of "Star Wars" for Poles (except that the Rebels here are the bad guys)..., so any detail that goes on in here is a very, very big deal to all Poles of a certain age...

Gaston
 
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Gaston444 said:
"Deluge" is the second part of a 19th Century litterary trilogy, the first being "with fire and sword", the third being "Fire in the Steppe".

This is the most popular and legendary trilogy in all of Polish literature, and most movies adaptations would be very seriously done indeed, as this one appears to be...

The trilogy depicts one of the most desperate periods in Poland's history. The author was somewhat of a stickler for accuracy, if on the nationalistic side... This is basically the history-based equivalent of "Star Wars" for Poles, so any detail that goes on in here is a very, very big deal to all Poles of a certain age (except that the Rebels here are the bad guys)...

Gaston
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Thank you for that info! I didn't know it was part of a trilogy....I might have to track down the books. I thought the movie was very well done.
 
You're welcome.

The trilogy was so popular, when it was initially published as a serial, that many priests of the time would comment weekly on plot developments during their sermons... They would start right off with "Bar has fallen!" And everyone would know what he was talking about... That gives you a idea...

Gaston
 
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