Best Sword (Or any weapon type) Fights ever?

[John Crichton]

If we are talking pure visuals here are the ones I can think of (please note that I started this post late last night, fell asleep and am finishing it now. Sorry for the duplicates).

One-on-One

Swords
- Inigo Montoya vs. the Man in Black (The Princess Bride)
- Grégoire de Fronsac vs. Jean-François de Morangias (Brotherhood of the Wolf)
- Rob Roy vs. Archibald Cunningham (Rob Roy)
- Buffy vs. Angel (Buffy - Season 2, "Becoming, Part 2) - Not the best visuals but it was a powerful fight with much on the line.
- Maximus vs. 6 gladiators (Gladiator)

Lightsabers
- Qui-Gon & Obi-wan vs. Darth Maul (The Phantom Menace)
- Yoda vs. Count Dooku (Attack of the Clones)

Misc
- Hulk vs the US Army (The Hulk)
- Wolverine vs. Lady Deathstrike (X-men 2)
- Obi-wan vs. General Grievous (Revenge of the Sith)
- Spider-man vs Doctor Octopus on the Skyscraper/Train (Spider-man 2)
- Mani vs. the Brigands in the rain (Brotherhood of the Wolf)
- Neo vs. Agent Smith on the subway platform (The Matrix)


Skirmishes

- The Jedi & Clone Troopers arrive to rescue Obi-wan, Anakin & Padme at the arena on Geonosis (Attack of the Clones)
- John and Jane Smith vs. their former employers (Mr. & Mrs. Smith)
- Vampires & Reapers battle in the sewers (Blade II)
- The Incredibles vs. Syndrome's Hi-Tech Goons on Syndrome's Island (The Incredibles)
- Samonoske vs. the Army of the Dead (Opening sequence of videogame Omnimusha 3)
- Fellowship of the Ring vs. the Orcs/Cave Troll (Fellowship of the Ring)
- Jen Yu vs. the patrons of the Tea House (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon)
- Tequila vs. the assassins at the Tea House (Hard Boiled)


Battle Scenes

Medieval/Fantasy
- Army of William Walace vs. Longshanks English Forces at the Battle of Sterling (Braveheart)
- Battle of Pelennor Fields (Return of the King)
- Roman Army vs. Germanic Tribes (Gladiator)
- The defenders of Zion vs. the Squiddies (The Matrix: Revolutions)
- The combined Starfleet/Klingon Fleet vs. The Cardassian/Dominion Fleet takes back DS9 (Deep Space Nine - Season 6, "Sacrifice of Angels")

Modern
- The Bank Robbery (Heat)

 

[ShinHakkaider]

1. Favourite One-on-one Fight.

I see alot of people mentioning the Indigo v. Wesley fight in the Princess Bride but only one other person mentioning Stewart Granger v. Mel Ferrer in Scaramouche? That's a bloody shame.

2. Favourite Skirmish.

I don't even know if this counts as a Skirmish shince it's one guy against many but again a largely overlooked effort becasue alot of people didint care for the movie as a whole is the chateau fight in MATRIX RELOADED. Neo vs. a bunch of other programs who actually PRESS Neo during the course of the fight. Multiple weaopns, fighting from the bottom of the grand staricase, on the staircase itself, the top of the staircase and back down to the bottom again. For my money it's the best fight in the movie style wise easily outclassing the much lauded Burly Brawl (Neo vs. 100 Smiths).


3. Favourite Battle Scene.

Large Scale battles really don't do it for me, BUT the Battle of Pelanor Fields in RETURN OF THE KING was really rousing.

 

[John Crichton]

1. Favourite One-on-one Fight.

I see alot of people mentioning the Indigo v. Wesley fight in the Princess Bride but only one other person mentioning Stewart Granger v. Mel Ferrer in Scaramouche? That's a bloody shame.

Never seen the film. I'll have to remedy that.

 

[comrade raoul]

It's not as famous, but the single best fight scene in any movie I've ever seen was the extended spear duel between Toshiro Mifune and (I think) Susumu Fujita in The Hidden Fortress, the movie Lucas famously ripped off for Star Wars. Watch it; you'll be on the edge of your seat the whole time.

 

[iwatt]

I'll have to think about the best battle and skirmish, but the duel at the end of Rob Roy is my all time favorite one-on-one.

I really like this fight as well, because of the cool ending. Talk about winning by shear stubborness

But it really isn't that great of a fight scene (talking about the coreography here).

Same thing with Iñigo and Wesley's duel. Great lines, but not really a great sword fight (once agian talking about the battle coreography).

The two swordfights mentioned are among my favorite sword fight scenes, but I think the OP was talking about the fight itself. I'd have to agree with him that the Achilles/Hector duel was very well done.

 

[Arnwyn]

1. Favourite One-on-one Fight.
2. Favourite Skirmish.
3. Favourite Battle Scene.

For me:

1. House of Flying Daggers
2. House of Flying Daggers
3. Return of the King

 

[Zander]

1. Favourite One-on-one Fight.
2. Favourite Skirmish.
3. Favourite Battle Scene.

Hello, Krusty!

1. The two women (I don't know their names: Yu Shu Lien & Jen Yu?) in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
2. Maximus and his men vs the charioteers in Gladiator
3. Battle of Sterling in Braveheart

 

[Quasqueton]

This may sound like I'm kidding, but I love this scene:

Indiana Jones vs. the black-clad, tulwar-wielding thug.

[look of impatience, draw pistol] BLAM! [holster pistol, continue looking for Miriam]


"Scaramouche" -- any relationship at all between this movie title and the strange word Queen sings in Bohemian Rhapsody?


I once saw a short (maybe 10 minutes) film showing the "greatest" gunfights of Hollywood Westerns. It was several scenes edited together, with just a couple seconds before the draw - the exchange of fire - the bodies falling. That was pretty cool. It was also about 15 years ago.

It would be amazingly cool to see something like that again -- greatest gunfights, greatest swordfights, etc. Just a couple hours of straight fight action scenes. I've thought of doing such a thing for my own viewing, but I really don't have an editing system for doing it.

Quasqueton

 

[Black Omega]

Now this is a tough one. For one on ones:

The sword fight at the end of House of Flying Daggers, if only because alot of wire fu is about being graceful and beautiful. This duel was about two guys trying very hard to cut each other to ribbons with little thought to self preservation. Without Mei getting involved I doubt either character would have lived through it.

Rokurota Makabe (Toshiro Mifune) against General Tadokoro (Susumu Fujita) in Hidden Fortress. Not only a great duel but the only I've seen with Japanese spear against spear. Add in use of surroundings for seaoning. Very good.

Tyrone Powers v. Basil Rathbone in the Mark of Zorro. The first time I watched a sword fight on screen and thought "Hey, that guy (Rathbone) really knows how to use a sword."

There are plenty of others I'll give honorary mention to.

Just for Misc: Favorite unarmed fight scene, Jackie Chan v. Benny Urquidez in Dragons Forever.

 

[arnon]

For one on one I have to say both Westly and Inigo (Princess Bride) and the Forge fight in Pirates of the Carribean.

As for Large battles... can't go wrong with Two Towers and Rotk.