Best Fight/Battle Scenes
October 25, 2005
Thought of this on the way into work this morning:
Name the three best movie fight/battle scenes.
- The first Colosseum fight from Gladiator. With the chariots. That scene still sends chills down my spine.
- The weapon room fight from The Matrix Reloaded. Come on, that many weapons… how could that not be on here?
- (tie) The blacksmith shop sword duel & the final sword duel from The Pirates of the Caribbean. The first time I saw PotC, my first thought after the blacksmith scene was "That was the coolest sword fight I’ve ever seen." The final duel is awesome, if for no other reason, because of the moonlight CG work on the cursed pirate, Barbossa.
Then to follow that up, name the three coolest fight/battle scenes from the Bible.
- David and Goliath. Seriously, a 12 year old boy kicks the crap out of a man literally twice his size. And then to finish it off the way David does? Yeah, top of my list. 1 Samuel 17.
- Gideon and 300 men ambush the Midianites at night. Sweet tactics. Judges 7.
- When Elisha prays for his servant’s eyes to be opened and then the servant sees the fiery angelic army on the hills surrounding the enemy. Can’t even imagine how cool that army looked beating the tar out of the Arameans. 2 Kings 6.
Your turn…
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Full Circle 
Not bad choices on the movies, but your missing the best epic battle scene of all time. The battle for Gondor at the end of Return of the King. Fabulous. With the Riders of Rohan knowingly and willingly plunging into the battle field with sure death awaiting. Tears, everytime they charge. And then the look on Aragorn’s face as he jumps off the ship (the whole you think your tough, but your going down sucka look). Good stuff.
Alas, I am humbled. How dare I miss such a scene as that. (head bowed). You have spoken the truth Sir Brock.
Braveheart.
“I’m going to pick a fight.”
HOTH! Simply because the “oh crap” factor was so high when you first see those walkers.
“That armor’s too strong for blasters!”
And any of the battles from Saving Private Ryan. Normandy Beach gave me shell-shock.
As is my custom, my comment has ballooned past acceptable comment length. Head on over to my blog for my thoughts.
So, after I posted that comment but before I could update my blog, the internet went down at my house. I’m at school now, but I’ll post the update as soon as I can…
Achilles and Hector duke it out in Troy.
Duvall and Costner clean the town in Open Range.
OK, children, gather ‘round now. Eli’s going old school with movies before 1970. Only some offense meant, but these lists have completely ignored the body of cinema as we know it. I’ll even throw in a foreign film for ya!
1. High Noon (1952), last gunfight. A marshal with no support, 4 trigger happy outlaws, and a wife wrestling with her beliefs. Granted, it required an hour of set up for backstory, but it’s probably the best Western gunfight. Perfect.
2. Red Beard (1965), brothel fight scene. A Japanese doctor single-handedly takes on 40 yakuza, then treats their wounds. Interesting for the use of sound and the brutality of the wounding (bones through skin, etc.) Plus, it’s Toshiro Mifune! Outstanding.
3. Spartacus (1960), final battle between the slave army and the massed legions of Rome under Crassus. Without this scene, there would be no Gladiator, no Braveheart. The measure for all epic film battles. And no CG either, just thousands of extras getting flaming logs rolled over them. Genius.
For Biblical battles, just one. David collecting the brideprice for Michel. No details given.
Do I still have a web page?
First of all, I never thought I’d be corrected on not mentioning great cinema B.J. (Before Jaws). I humbly consider myself bitch-slapped. And you are so right on about High Noon, I feel ashamed that I own the disc. I think Gary Cooper is going to find me and shoot me.
Second, I give it to Spartacus for precedent, but I think Hutch was talking about “movies.” Not “films that make you cry of boredom.” Sorry bro, but you know how I feel about Kubrick (I’ll save the 2001 discussion for another day).
Third, That was great when David and Jonathan kill Saul, try a defribulator, then go back in time to restore the canon of Scripture.
And Finally – I just don’t know if I can philisophically back linking to a blank page for that long on my blog. Consider this a warning! FROM THE FUTURE!!
🙂
Spartacus did not make me cry of boredom. Schindler’s List made me cry of boredom.
Funny how no martial arts movies really made the list, huh? Except for Hutch’s mention of The Matrix Reloaded, but I don’t know if that qualifies as a MA movie or not.
What about the battle of wits from The Princess Bride, huh? Why hasn’t that been mentioned? It’s a battle, isn’t it? Chickens are birds, aren’t they? HUH?
/comment hijack over
The Princess Bride?! Ah yes, I remember where I met you. 🙂
Actually, I’m back here to attack the Schindler’s comment. If you’re gonna give Speilberg a hard time for putting people to sleep, why not talk about Hook or Empire of the Sun? Hook didn’t even have a good soundtrack! (there, I said it)
Can you complain about the lack of flaming ninjas in Lawrence of Arabia? Comon – it’s just not that kind of movie.
More comment hijack:
The story of O. Schlinder and his factory may be well-nigh amazing, and 100% of the reason for that is that said story is grounded in fact. Really, would you care about any of the characters had it been completely fictionalized? Jakob the Liar was flat out boring because no one cared two cents for the characters, and it was a fiction account of a small part of WW2. Saving Private Ryan (again, somewhat grounded in history) at least had compelling characterization. SL does not, and the rest of my argument, Fogey, you’ve heard too many times before to repost here.
Hook, indeed, was bad. I’d blame Dustin “Will Shatner” Hoffman for that one though.
I was watching the Princess Bride long before my fellow alumni. But then what about the Float battle in Animal House? Another classic.
/hijack complete
Hmmm… yeah, I’m sure you could throw some Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan in there… or Zhang Ziyi & Michelle Yeoh’s duel in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Or some of the crazy stuff in some of the old-school wushu films like Once Upon a Time in China, or Storm Riders.
Oh, and Biblical… how about Samson PWNZORING every Philitine within reach with the jawbone of an ass. Yeah.
hee hee. ASS.
Fogey’s top 5 ultimate (non-biblical) sins:
5. Ringing his doorbell on Halloween.
4. Insinuating that any part of The Next Generation wasn’t fully awesome.
3. Badmouthing John Williams.
2. Licking his ear when he doesn’t expect it. (I learned THAT the hard way)
1. Making a movie with no soundtrack.
In my irritating insistence on only mentioning movies that just pop into my head, as opposed to cinematic masterpieces that transcend generations, I have to give big props to the lightsaber duel in The Phantom Menace. That was the greatest part of the prequels.
5. In a dark neighborhood where signs are posted whether there is candy or not and there is none on my door? You betcha.
4. Oh, comon. It ain’t the end all. Remember the one where Picard and Data end up yakkin at each other wearing clay masks while the Enterprise turns into ancient ruins? shudder
3. I just got done pointing out that his Hook score left much to be desired. So there.
2. No comment.
1. All Cast Away needed was that one 7 minute piece. Foley setting musical tone. Genius.
Best choregraphed SW fight: Maul vs. Obi-Wan
Best SW fight: Luke vs. Vader/Emperor