What's your favourite movie knife fight?

It's not my favorite, but it is the one that I remember the most. The scene in "Saving Private Ryan" where the German soldier and the Jewish-American soldier are wrestling over a bayonet. The german wins, telling his pleading victim to just "Lay there and take it". This was enough to give me nightmares. :(
 
Wunderbar said:
It's not my favorite, but it is the one that I remember the most. The scene in "Saving Private Ryan" where the German soldier and the Jewish-American soldier are wrestling over a bayonet. The german wins, telling his pleading victim to just "Lay there and take it". This was enough to give me nightmares. :(
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Yeah, that's a rough one.

The worst part, IMO, was when the Jewish-American soldier sees (and feels) the tip of the blade really dig in his flesh, and he says something like, "Aw, come on, don't do this." Then the blade slowly sinks in...

"Hoch" Hocheim shows that technique in his military knife combat book--he calls it "Killing Private Ryan".
 
This is probably the last discussion I thought I'd be posting in but oh, well... Exposure has been one of my favorite movies since I first saw it, though not really for the knife fighting. I did find that somewhat interesting the first time I saw it, though.

*a bit of a spoiler follows*
A movie I saw more recently with some blade fighting in it is a French film called Brotherhood of the Wolf, with Mark Dacascos fighting with a tomahawk towards the late-middle/early-end of the movie. He loses the fight, though not because his skills are lacking. Never let yourself get distracted...

That movie has the added bonus, for any female forum members who might stumble across this thread, of Dacascos running around in little more than a loincloth at that point in the movie. :D
 
Saving Private Ryan had the most awful knife scene I can remember. After that movie, that scene kept playing through my mind over and over. Just an awful way to go. Slow, painful and being shhhhed by your enemy. Ugh.

This thread sparked me to rent "The Hunted". What a let down. Those knife fights were "cool" I guess, but hardly what I would expect from a real knife fight. They seemed to last WAY too long and the people didn't seem affected by the devastaing wounds they were receiving. Did anybody else notice that the knives and spikes that were thrown had no rotation on them? Is there some physics lesson I have yet to learn about throwing knives? They flew like spears... :confused:
 
Ya, I was let down also. The critics were saying things that made the movie sound like a really disturbing tale that was shocking and amazing. Well, apparently the hollywood critics need to get out more cause The Hunted was rather tame I thought. Now I'm not saying show the sheeple what really happens but don't hype it up if you're not going to deliver.

Not that it wasn't fun. I bought the dvd when it came out. hell i even got bored and tried to read the newspaper the delta operator help up to show BDT in the transport van. Sure it gave me a mind numbing headache... But I really did get more out of the movie knowing how the ambush that he was in trouble for. I'll take some asperin and read it again and type it up if anyone want me too.

As for the SPR scene. If somoen was pushing a blade into your chest would you just lay there on your back and let them? Or would you be rolling from side to side digging his eyes out? Wouldn't his adrenaline surge and give him that insane power the those moms lifting cars get? Sure it bugged me but it confused me too. It was a great scene for the movie though. It did just what it was meant to do. Bother the sheeple.

My favorite scene would also have to be from Brotherhood of the Wolf. The scene where Mani's brother was going through the house looking for the dungeon.Talk about a one tracked mind lol! Don't want to spoil it for anyone so I'll leave it at that.
 
hardheart said:
I really wish I could get a copy of Exposure
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I, too vote for Exposure. I have an old copy on VHS that you can also buy at www.amazon.com for about 10 bucks.

I understand that it was released on DVD on the 1st of June (according to videoeta.com), yet I can't find anyone who has it yet. I'm dying to get it on DVD. It's also called A Grande Arte, High Art or just Knife Fighter. I've searched 'em all and can't find the DVD yet.

I'll keep looking, though...

Ed
 
One that keeps popping into my head is Under Siege 2- Dark Territory. Segal and the bad guy ( Penn) with the very nice black leather M65 jacket mix it up in the dinning car of the train with two fixed blades. Penn also cut one of his merc's throat in a prior scene (shown in slow motion). 'Course Under Siege with Tommy Lee Jones ended with Mr. Jones getting a blade thru his skull after their knife fight.
 
zeus36 said:
One that keeps popping into my head is Under Siege 2- Dark Territory. Segal and the bad guy ( Penn) with the very nice black leather M65 jacket mix it up in the dinning car of the train with two fixed blades.
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Yeah...I liked that one too.....Seagal was armed with a Mad Dog ATAK and the BG had a Gerber MKII. The scene comes to an end with the BG swinging a kitchen cleaver at Seagal...who promptly executes an outstanding variation of "shihonage" on the BG. For some reason they sped up the scene just a bit.....nonethess still cool.
 
Last scene from the hunted, no questions asked. Although it is very unrealistic how many times Tommy Lee Jones is cut on without being bled dry, I like the part where Benicio Del Toro, throws his own blood in The other guys face. I also like the sub clavian blood dump in the underground construction scene. Man I love that movie!
hunted.jpg
 
Not a knife fight, but a knife scene that always sends a shiver down my spine was the scene in Reservoir Dogs - the part the police hostage has his ear removed by a razor. Tarantino has an unmatched talent in this movie at portraying realism.
 
Reservoir Dogs forever ruined "Stuck in the Middle With You" for me. When I hear " Ride of the Valkyries" I think of helicopters. When I hear Bethoven I think of grown men wearing diapers and fake eyelashes. And when I hear "Stuck in the Middle With You", I think of razor blades and ears. :barf:
 
Still love the song, but like you, the imagery of the flick sticks every time I "ear it.
 
the end scene of Rob Roy is number one, and in conan the barbarian where arnold uses the broken sword of his fathers to cleave the head off of james earl jones.
 
Ditto that scene in Saving Private Ryan........aaaaaaarrrrrghhh.

On same lines (but much shorter duration) the bayonet in the back in "Siege of Firebase Gloria." Really depicts the horrors of war. Kinda thing I could visualize in basic training. Eeeeech!

:eek:
 
<<They seemed to last WAY too long and the people didn't seem affected by the devastaing wounds they were receiving.>>

If you're talking about the final fight scene, the script called for a long knife fight. We said the fight would end in a few seconds.
With that said, there's a whole segment in the film that we got added to explain somewhat how TLJ's character could live long enough to get a kill shot on BDT/Hallam. It pertains to vital targets and how they determine how quickly you bleed out.

There's numerous stabbing reports in REAL life of how a victim survives way more cuts and stabs than TLJ's character does... it all depended on how their vital targets were not severed and mostly flesh was hit.

As per reactions, both these great actors know how to do reactions, and they took into account the adrenalin and mental/physical tests/training their characters would have already done prior to this fight. They met with folks who are as close to these characters as possible and came to the conclusion that they weren't going to do overt motions that emote 'pain' in the middle of a knife duel on the ice cold slippery cliffs. That could allow an opening for the other guy. They did enough vocal cues and grimaces that should suffice for 'pain'.

In contrast we put in the sub clavian kill in the earlier scene to show a kill that was done with one well placed thrust.

The challenge of mapping out all these knife scenarios was fun.

I enjoyed EXPOSURE as well, although if we're talking about a lame story in other films... you better have your finger on the fast forward button on this one to get to the knife segments. I felt that better than the fight themselves, the segment involving the choice of blade was entertaining.

ROB ROY was excellent, because it showed different rhythms of a duel which is usually ignored by most films.

There's many chanbara films that have been ignored as well. For sheer flashy blade work and body count. A recent film called TWILIGHT SAMURAI has a good exchange between a long sword and short sword in a confined space.

--Rafael Kayanan--
Sayoc Kali
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Thanks for the lowdown Tuhon Rafael. Cool to hear from the guys that really made the movie what it was. Just out of curiousity who was supposed to win the really short fight?

Rob Roy was a fun film. The costumes and period acting was very enjoyable. And the fight scenes were very brutal and quick. And the scenrery was beautiful. I just wish there were more trees left standing in Scotland and that area. :(
 
I liked "Rob Roy" so much that I bought it on DVD. Tim Roth is great. I'd never realized that the swordplay was done by the same guy who did "The Duelists", another movie that impressed me with the realistic fencing. Good to see movies where the sword fighting isn't Hollywooded or Hong Konged to absurdity.

If we're talking sword fights, I'd have to also nominate "Princess Bride". Not necessarily the most realistic, but definitely one of the most enjoyable. Also "Ravenous". Who would have thought that a movie about cannibalism could be so humourous?
 
I thought The Hunted was a very well done movie in regards to the knife fighting scenes.

The whole point of the movie is that the two characters are professional knife fighters and know where to strike and where to defend. If Tommy Lee Jones's character hadn't known what to defend the fight would have been over in a second. He knew what cuts he could let by and what cuts would really do damage on him, it was all about that one big cut or thrust to finish the other person, if a cut wasn't in a severe location it was allowed, taken, or ignored. The philosophy (I think) was maybe allowing your opponent to get a cut or two in so they opened themselves up for a finishing blow. Give and take, give and take.

Saving Private Ryan Oh man, oooohhhh man. That is by far the most dramatic and emotional scene I have ever seen in film. Hands down. Just how the Jewish American solider trys to use his last bit to strength to push the knife away at the end. And how he is trying to talk to him like "come on, let's talk about this." Then as the tip goes in the pain takes over and he loses the will and ability to fight..... The sweat dripping off the german solider's hairy chin as he shushes him... Oh man.

Such a powerful part. I'm not ashamed to say that I cried at that part and that to this day if I think about it I feel sick and sad. Maybe I'm just a wimp, but I don't care :)

editted to add: The scene in saving private ryan is made even worse due to the fact that the solider is killed with his own knife. He originally pulled it out in the battle. Guess that hits closer to home for us knife knuts, huh?

-Bryan
 
Climber said:
:cool:
Ya wanta knife fight in a movie?
Go see The Chronicles of Riddick, opening night was last night, i was there.
Vin Diesel stars, and his character's weapon of choice is most definitely "the knife."
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Apparently Vin Diesel collect knives. When he was in Vancouver for the opening of Sky Bar, also filming a movie but I can't remember which one, he sent one of his go to guys to buy a Ontario Land/Air/Sea Bowie.

The guy said he collects them but didn't say what else he had. If in fact it really was for him...
 
Hello Rafael!

Sun Helmet said:
<<They seemed to last WAY too long and the people didn't seem affected by the devastaing wounds they were receiving.>>

If you're talking about the final fight scene, the script called for a long knife fight. We said the fight would end in a few seconds.
With that said, there's a whole segment in the film that we got added to explain somewhat how TLJ's character could live long enough to get a kill shot on BDT/Hallam. It pertains to vital targets and how they determine how quickly you bleed out.

There's numerous stabbing reports in REAL life of how a victim survives way more cuts and stabs than TLJ's character does... it all depended on how their vital targets were not severed and mostly flesh was hit.

As per reactions, both these great actors know how to do reactions, and they took into account the adrenalin and mental/physical tests/training their characters would have already done prior to this fight. They met with folks who are as close to these characters as possible and came to the conclusion that they weren't going to do overt motions that emote 'pain' in the middle of a knife duel on the ice cold slippery cliffs. That could allow an opening for the other guy. They did enough vocal cues and grimaces that should suffice for 'pain'.

In contrast we put in the sub clavian kill in the earlier scene to show a kill that was done with one well placed thrust.

The challenge of mapping out all these knife scenarios was fun.
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I'm ashamed to confess that I haven't even seen The Hunted yet. :( :grumpy:

I'll be sure to check it out soon, though.


I enjoyed EXPOSURE as well, although if we're talking about a lame story in other films... you better have your finger on the fast forward button on this one to get to the knife segments. I felt that better than the fight themselves, the segment involving the choice of blade was entertaining.
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Agreed.

The fighting/training sequences, the choice of knives, and Peter Coyote's hot girlfriend were the only parts of Exposure I really liked. :)

ROB ROY was excellent, because it showed different rhythms of a duel which is usually ignored by most films.
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Definitely.

There's many chanbara films that have been ignored as well. For sheer flashy blade work and body count. A recent film called TWILIGHT SAMURAI has a good exchange between a long sword and short sword in a confined space.
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What's your opinion of Sword of Doom? I always enjoyed that one.

Peace,

David/TFS/Spad/S e P
 
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