Your favourite melee/swordfighting scenes in movies and tv?

[BAYLOR]

Conan The Barbarian 1982 the battle in the graveyard.

 

[Guttersnipe]

Troy: Hector vs. Achilles
Gladiator: Maximus vs. Commodus
300: the fight with the Uber Immortal
The Count of Monte Cristo: Edmond beating Fernand

 

[Mon0Zer0]

Jackie Chan vs Benny the Jet - the best fight scene ever committed to celluloid. Just incredible work from two martial artists at the top of their game. The bit when Jackie Chan says "pretty good" was a genuine reaction to an accidental hit that Benny landed on him. at the time Benny was the number one martial arts champion in the world.

Old boy (original) - corridor fight scene - pure visceral fight scene. Won't share this here as it's a bit too violent.


Harakiri - one of the most beautiful sword fight scenes in cinema history. Highly influential on anime (along with the accidental high pressure blood spurt from Sanjuro).

Yojimbo - not the best sword play, but possibly more realistic. I love the way it's not glamorous, but almost kind of pathetic with one of the henchmen cowering and crying for his mommy. "Children shouldn't play with swords". Still Kurosawa works his magic.

 

[Valtharius]

WARNING: I'm about to say something nice about the Star Wars prequels. If such heretical thoughts offend you, look away now.
The final act of Episode III features what I consider a masterpiece of cinema. The duel between Yoda and the Emperor, interspersed with the duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan. The emotional tension of the whole series is encapsulated in those moments. The death of liberty, personal duty vs desire, friendship, struggling against hopeless odds, and betrayal. It's all there.

 

[thaddeus6th]

I only saw Revenge of the Sith very recently and was pleasantly surprised by how good the Anakin/Vader versus Obi-wan fight was. Probably the best duel in Star Wars (Vader/Luke has more emotional weight due to the context and aftermath, I would say).

 

[Foxbat]

My favourite is the fight in the chess house in Hero. I probably like it more for the way it‘s composed on screen than the actual fight.

 

[Toby Frost]

I think it depends what you want. There are the very balletic, almost magical fights you get in martial arts films (I particularly enjoyed Once Upon A Time In China), which have influenced the literally magical fights in the more recent Star Wars films. Then there are more feasible-looking fights in films like Excalibur or shows like A Game of Thrones, where people look clumsy and worn-out. Then you get more modern fights, where real-life people are supposed to be trying to kill each other. These often end up ridiculously, with some tough-guy being able to function after being kicked in the head fifty times, but the Bourne films do this style very well, as does the old film Marathon Man.

But I have a soft spot for this utterly wacky fight from David Lynch's Dune. I still have no idea how, pre-CGI, it was done:

Oh, and The Duellists, of course.

 

[The Big Peat]

How was the Duelists only mentioned at the end of this thread?!

Fan of these two

 

[HareBrain]

Then there are more feasible-looking fights in films like Excalibur or shows like A Game of Thrones, where people look clumsy and worn-out.

That's my preference (and I was thinking of Excalibur when I read the question). I much prefer fights to be realistic and, ideally, short. The more spectacular and lengthy a fight, the less I care, because the lack of realism means I don't feel it.

 

[alexvss]

(along with the accidental high pressure blood spurt from Sanjuro).

Was it accidental?

I'll name my two favorite fight scenes: a realistic one, and a fantasy one.

The best "realistic" (without magic) fight scene is from the Chinese movie Flashpoint (2007), starring Donnie Yen. You can clearly see that they keep switching martial arts. From Brazilian Jiu-jitsu armbars to Muay Thai knees and clinches to Judo throws to Wresling takedowns. As a martial artist, I liked that scene back in the day. It's a horrible movie overall though .

And honorable mentions to the video-game-like fight scene from OldBoy (2003), and the first-person opening scene of The Villainess (2017).

Now, for the fantasy fight scene, I'll name The Witch Part 1: The Subversion (2018). Teenagers who have been experimented on to develop superpowers get their revenge:

And I just realized I've been watching too many Asian movies.

 

[Mon0Zer0]

Was it accidental?

A coupling on the blood hose broke and the spray came out at a much higher pressure than intended. The look of shock on Nadakai's face was genuine.

 

[alexvss]

A coupling on the blood hose broke and the spray came out at a much higher pressure than intended. The look of shock on Nadakai's face was genuine.

I didn't know that. I really thought the blood spurt was intended.

And I've watched the movie, posting the scene here just spoiled it for everyone else

 

[Foxbat]

But I have a soft spot for this utterly wacky fight from David Lynch's Dune. I still have no idea how, pre-CGI, it was done:

It’s my understanding it was done with rotoscope animation..ie. tracing frame by frame over images. Very painstaking and labour intensive work.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Not a film but a game; Monkey Island came up with a brilliant alternative to the usual sword fighting.

 

[svalbard]

Ubbe v King Frodo in Vikings.

 

[CupofJoe]

Sir Robin of Locksley [Errol Flynn] vs Guy of Gisbourne [Basil Rathbone] in the Adventures of Robin Hood

Bent swords and all...

 

[Rodders]

With the exception of the Kenobi/Qui-Gon/Maul lightsabre duel in TPM i really struggled with the lightsabre combat in the PT as there was too much nonsense showboating. I have soft spot for ESB as it was a key set up for the big reveal.

I remember watching a movie called Drive a few years ago (with the late Brittany Murphy and Marc Dacascos). It was quite funny actually, but there was a really well choreographed fight scene where our hero has to face off with several combatants all armed with cattle prods.

The fight scene with between Kirk and Spock in Amok Time comes to mind when thinking of melee weapons.

 

[paranoid marvin]

With the exception of the Kenobi/Qui-Gon/Maul lightsabre duel in TPM i really struggled with the lightsabre combat in the PT as there was too much nonsense showboating. I have soft spot for ESB as it was a key set up for the big reveal.

I remember watching a movie called Drive a few years ago (with the late Brittany Murphy and Marc Dacascos). It was quite funny actually, but there was a really well choreographed fight scene where our hero has to face off with several combatants all armed with cattle prods.

The fight scene with between Kirk and Spock in Amok Time comes to mind when thinking of melee weapons.

Tbh I disliked the 3 way fight in TPM, mainly because I didn't like the idea of 2 good guys taking down one bad guy. It didn't seem very honourable or Jedi-like.

 

[Rodders]

To be fair, Maul whittled it down to one pretty quickly.

 

[paranoid marvin]

To be fair, Maul whittled it down to one pretty quickly.

He seemed a great character to be used for only one movie. He could have been a great antagonist pursuing the good guys through the first couple of movies. Probably the best thing to come out of the first 3 and (to a large extent) thrown away too easily.