[io9] 10 of the most awesome sword fight scenes

[Style]

Holy crap! I just realized - Bull from Night Court is the same guy who played the sorcerer/lich Xusia.

My little mind has just been blown.

A good friend of mine is the nephew of the actress who played Talon's mother in the film. Each member of the cast was given a replica of the tri-sword from the film and he got to keep her copy. We played with it all the time back in the day. It was totally awesome. Most of the above is not true, mind you. But Nina van Pallandt really is his aunt.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Heh. I'm still waiting for them to make Tales of the Ancient Empire.

I WANT MY SEQUEL!!

 

[ShinHakkaider]

This may not be the best sword fight, but definitely kudos for use of terrain.

Scaramouche 1952

For my money that IS the best sword fight ever committed to film.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

Wow just took a look at that list and wow.

No mention of The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938).
No mention of Scaramouche.
No mention of Three Musketeers (1973).
No mention of The Mask of Zorro (1998).

If the gal is going to mention BS sword fights like the one in Raiders (which technically wasnt even a sword fight much less a fight) and not mention the Kyuzo / Random Challenger duel near the beginning of Seven Samurai her choices are suspect and cant be taken seriously.

Or maybe she needs to see movies that were made before 1980.

I agree with three of her choices that might belong on this list:

The Matrix Reloaded - the fight scene in the Merovingian's Chateau is my favorite technical fight scene in the entire trilogy. Great use of the environment, the use of multiple and varied weapons, great utilization of space and a fight against multiple and SKILLED foes who might actually be able to HURT the hero. I think the last two Matrix movies get a bit of a bum rap but there's no way that this fight is lame. It's fricking amazing.

2. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon - The fight between Jen and Yu Shu Lien is the centerpiece of this movie. The fights before it and after it pretty much pale in comparison I think. It also helps that there's huge emotional component as this where both of them pretty much stop pretending to be nice to one another. The skill disparity is pretty obvious between the two of them and this scene can be used to point out how someone with a magical weapon can hold their own against a skilled opponent.

1. The Princess Bride - I think this fight is pretty good but at this point highly overrated. For a better fight in this style see the final fight between Stuart Granger and Mel Ferrer in SCARAMOUCHE.

And there are fights that I havent even mentioned here like pretty much any fight in a Zorro movie.

There's a fight between Jackie Chan (using a sword) and Lau Kar-Leung (spear) that takes place under a train near the beginning of Drunken Master II.

I mean if she's a fan of sword fights? She could have done a lot better with her choices.