What's your favourite movie knife fight?

[Spada e Pugnale]

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.

LOL, that's great--"Hollywooded or Hong Konged to absurdity". May I use that expression?

 

[PlaceKnives]

It's a pretty one sided knife fight, but I love Tom Savini in "Dawn of the Dead". His character "Blades" buries a machete in a zombie's head, stabs another in the throat and uses a sword to chop anothers hand off. While standing up in a motorcycle side car he zooms past a zombie and whacks it's head off with his machete.

Classic.

 

[J.Davey]

PlaceKnives,
Great call on the Savini scenes in "Dawn..."! When I was in my teens, and heavily into make-up effects, I used to use the 'machete in the head (or side, or leg, or...)' bit to great effect in my neighborhood! It's odd, but if your a kid that falls off your bike, everyone stops to help; but, if you're laying on the side of a road with a machete through your head, nobody stops to help. People are weird.

 

[TOB9595]

OK several mentioned EXPOSURE
I rented exposure with Ron Silver. I forgot the Coyote part
Lamest movie ever.:barf:
Is there more to the title than "Exposure"?
Tom

 

[dayuhan13]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned The Gangs of New York or The Last of the Mohicans. The Gangs of New York has some great content though the one-on one fight at the end gets rudely interrupted by artillery. The Last of the Mohicans showcases some fine 'Hawk and blade techniques and the fight between Magua and Chingachgook is most memorable.

I also just realized both films starred Daniel-Day Lewis. . .

D13

 

[fruitbat]

I like the knife Val Kilmer had in "The Saint". That's got to be the perfect EDC!!!

 

[glennbad]

I was just thinking of "Last of the Mohicans' while reading all the posts. Great hand-to-hand stuff. Nobody mentioned Mel Gibson's character in 'The Patriot'. That had some pretty brutal looking tomahawk action as well.

 

[El Lobo]

Hi Glenn, are you lost?

I agree about the Patriot.....some tremendous edged "Toolwork" throughout the movie.

And, for me, the look on his children's faces when they realize that Father is not a "Coward".....Priceless.

Bill

 

[FullerH]

My problem with The Patriot is the same as it is with Braveheart, their utter anti-historicity dives me absolutely crazy. The British, even "Bloody Ban" Tarleton, burning churches full of people is such a bunch of crap! There is only one notable occurrance of that within the last 300-250 years and that was at Ouradour-sur-Glane, in Normandy, on 6/10/44. It was the work of the Waffen SS Regiment Das Reich and was the subject of a warcrimes persecution in Bordeaux in 1953.

As far as knife fights go, I have read that the "Iron Mistress" bowie knife is heavy and unwieldy as all Hell, but I still love it and the fights from the movie.

 

[Kohai999]

Good postings, but you guys missed a few, and I have a small anecdote.

The bad guy in the beginning uses a Spyderco Police to "off" the prostitute.

When they were selecting the knives(amazing scene, for me!) a Joe Kious subhilt was also presented. I think Coyote took the Randall, and Hermes took the Kious, which Coyote paid for.

I was watching the movie in my knife shop, and called Kious to order some of the "Exposure Subhilt". This was in 1995, and he was making fixed blades then. We sold them, in ATS-34 and assorted wood handles, for $750.00. I have no idea what they are worth now. The workmanship was exceptional.

Exposure as a movie, is kind of , well, marginal. BUT, the knife stuff was very exciting.

Lots of movies have some knife work in them, 8 mm, Gladiator, Gangs of New York, Road House, The Crow, which no one mentioned yet, had the great scene towards the beginning when Tin and Eric go at it, here's a trivia question, and I'll make it easy. What was the brand of knife that Tin Tin seemed to prefer, extra points for the model? no cheating!

Just having knives in and of themselves, does not a knife movie make. Like The Fan, which no one mentioned either.

Have fun, this was an interesting thread!

 

[dayuhan13]

What was the brand of knife that Tin Tin seemed to prefer, extra points for the model? no cheating!

Just having knives in and of themselves, does not a knife movie make. Like The Fan, which no one mentioned either.

Have fun, this was an interesting thread!

SOG, Governments IIRC. But it might have been Desert Daggers . . .


D13

 

[Planterz]

I want to say SOG Pentagon (maybe Desert Dagger). I seem to remember them being double-edged...but it's been a while since I've seen the movie.

 

[Spada e Pugnale]

My problem with The Patriot is the same as it is with Braveheart, their utter anti-historicity dives me absolutely crazy. The British, even "Bloody Ban" Tarleton, burning churches full of people is such a bunch of crap! There is only one notable occurrance of that within the last 300-250 years and that was at Ouradour-sur-Glane, in Normandy, on 6/10/44. It was the work of the Waffen SS Regiment Das Reich and was the subject of a warcrimes persecution in Bordeaux in 1953.

As far as knife fights go, I have read that the "Iron Mistress" bowie knife is heavy and unwieldy as all Hell, but I still love it and the fights from the movie.

Fuller,

The Patriot was pretty typical of "historical" movies with Mel Gibson--undeniably entertaining, but often grossly inaccurate (not to mention deliberately Anglo-phobic).

Also, the thing about The Patriot that most irked me is that, had Tavington had any decent skill with his saber, he should have taken out Mel in short order, during that end fight scene (IMO).

Peace,

S e P

 

[qborchert]

SOG, Governments IIRC. But it might have been Desert Daggers . . .


D13

I remember them being SOG Governments too, but it happens that in my "magazine library" i have an issue of FIGHTING KNIVES magazine with an interview with Randall king stating that he made the blades for tin-tin's character, and someone else handling them in rubber. Is this cheating?

 

[Sun Helmet]

David,

I figured that was you just from the content of your posts! The WH kudos cemented it. I think Sword of Doom is excellent and I believe it is the samurai version of Unforgiven. The build up and berserker scene in the end is classic.Twilight Samurai is closer to this pace than the over the top Azumi. Another good film is Kudo's 13 Assassins, an oldie but goodie.

Looking forward to reading your thoughts on when you do see the HUNTED (just the knife stuff..heh). Hey it's on sale at Best Buy!!!

Erin,

There was three endings for the HUNTED. We never got to discussing the short fight since the conversation went like this, "...but a knife fight would last less than ten seconds...", in which the director's response was, "We need more than that." So it was fun going that route, he just didn't want much back and forth footwork stuff, or long range fighting which we had in the earlier versions- more of the near the edge of the cliff CQ fight.

So the rest of the film was in support of how a fight could be extended (as astutely observed by Bryan in following posts) and we did show others not as skilled dying without much resistance. We even had two more sentry kills in the Kosovo sequence as Hallam made his way into the place... all fast.
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As per Saving Private Ryan... that was frustrating for me, since the whole time I was saying "femorals, cut the femorals!". He was in the mount with perfect access, and allowed himself to be flipped.
But the scene was effective!
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On Exposure and Kious- funny- I contacted Mr. Kious back when the sub hilt was just 600 dollars!...heh.

best,
--Rafael--
Sayoc Kali
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[Recce]

I most realistic one is the knife fight in Long Riders with David Carradine against someone else. They used Western bowies and the loser had one stuck in their leg - very realistic.

 

[ERINT]

Ah man, now you have me wishing they had shot the scenes in kosovo and the alternate endings and included them in the DVD. I feel so deprived...

Honestly I was trying to airsoft as BDT. It didn't work at first. I guess I was trying to hard to get within range. I made a lot of noise and stumbled a lot. Paintball masks give really poor vision. It wouldn't have bothered me so mush if I had been shot by the vets. but when i was getting owned by the 1st timers. I felt really dumb. But when I tried going much much slower and doing a lot of waiting in the shade, just watching I finally got their paterns down and was able to get 2 confirmed knife kills and grabbed the bomb(flag) and was able to get it to our runner.

I can't even imagine what I could do if I had some training in stealth. But In all honesty the movie really made me a better player. So thanks for helping to make it such a fun movie.

 

[Spada e Pugnale]

Rafael,

David,

I figured that was you just from the content of your posts!

I thought maybe my Italian-based username might have been a giveaway too

The WH kudos cemented it.

Guilty as charged--it's me.

I think Sword of Doom is excellent and I believe it is the samurai version of Unforgiven. The build up and berserker scene in the end is classic.

Definitely classic.

Twilight Samurai is closer to this pace than the over the top Azumi. Another good film is Kudo's 13 Assassins, an oldie but goodie.

I'll have to check those out too.

Looking forward to reading your thoughts on when you do see the HUNTED (just the knife stuff..heh). Hey it's on sale at Best Buy!!!

I saw it for sale at Pathmark, and now it's GONE!!! :grumpy:

Nonetheless, I will obtain it (from Best Buy, probably), and then I'll post my thoughts here.

Peace,

David

 

[Benjamin Liu]

If you only count knives, IMO "The Hunted" was the best. "Gung Ho" had a very realistic knife fight. The Marine took the Japanese soldier to the ground, stabbed him, and got up to continue the battle. That's REAL groundfighting. Counting other types of blades, I like movies like "The Patriot" and "Gladiator" and others already listed as well as the LOTR series and Japanese ninja/samurai movies like "Shinobi No Mono." "The Wild Geese" had knife fighting and It's been a while since I've seen it so I'm not sure how realistic it was, but is a great movie even without the knives.




There is only one notable occurrance of that within the last 300-250 years and that was at Ouradour-sur-Glane, in Normandy, on 6/10/44. It was the work of the Waffen SS Regiment Das Reich and was the subject of a warcrimes persecution in Bordeaux in 1953.

Another happened on April 19, 1993. Only the survivors were prosecuted.

 

[Spada e Pugnale]

If you only count knives, IMO "The Hunted" was the best. "Gung Ho" had a very realistic knife fight. The Marine took the Japanese soldier to the ground, stabbed him, and got up to continue the battle. That's REAL groundfighting.

...as opposed to "fake" groundfighting?