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Ricochet Movie Fight Club: Question 20
Two-time champion, Brian Watt, learned exactly how hard it is to win three in a row. Teaching that lesson (with a little help from a blind Audrey Hepburn) was J D Fitzpatrick, who earned the right to ask: What movie has the best duel? All movies should be pre-CGI. For this question, a duel is defined as a single moment of combat between two characters, with a clear resolution. Duels can be short or long, but they should display unity of time, place, and action, meaning that the contest is restricted to a particular moment in the film, not drawn out over its course.
The Rules:
- Post your answer as a comment. Make it clear that this is your official answer, one per member.
- Defend your answer in the comments and fight it out with other Ricochet member answers for the rest of the week.
- Whoever gets the most likes on their official answer comment (and only that comment) by Friday night wins the fight.
- The winner gets the honor of posting the next question on Saturday.
- In the case of a tie, the member who posted the question will decide the winner.
Notes:
- Only movies will qualify (no TV shows) however films that air on television (BBC films, a stand-alone mini-series) will qualify.
- Your answer can be as off-the-wall or controversial as you’d like. It will be up to you to defend it and win people to your side.
- Fight it out.
Movie Fight Club Questions by Week:
- What is the best film portrayal of a book character? Winner: Charlotte with 18 likes for Alan Rickman’s portrayal of Professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies.
- What is the best motion picture comedy of the 21st century? Winner: split decision. In an exemplary display of genuine sportsmanship, Randy Webster conceded the fight to Marjorie Reynolds’ pick Team America: World Police.
- What film provides the most evocative use of location? Winner: Taras with 21 likes for Lawrence of Arabia. Wasn’t even close.
- What is the best film that utilizes or is inspired by a work of William Shakespeare? Winner: Dr. Bastiat with five likes for The Lion King, a film inspired by Hamlet.
- Which movie has the best surprise ending, or unexpected plot twist? Winner: Repmodad with 18 likes for The Sixth Sense.
- What pre-1970s black-and-white movie would be most enjoyed by a modern 18- to 25-year-old audience? Winner: E J Hill with 9 likes for a Casablanca. (He didn’t exactly designate it his official answer, and most of the likes may have been for the modern Casablanca trailer rather than for it as an answer to the question, but nobody seemed to dispute it on those grounds, so that’s how the cookie crumbles.)
- What movie did you go to based on the trailer, only to have felt cheated? (i.e., the trailer was 10x better than the movie?) Winner: Back to back wins by E J Hill with 9 likes for Something to Talk About.
- Name the worst movie portrayal of your profession (where applicable.) Winner: LC with 8 likes for Denise Richards’ Dr. Christmas Jones in The World is Not Enough.
- What is the worst movie that claims to be based or inspired by a true story? Winner: Tex929rr with 16 likes for the, “…terrible acting, and countless deviations from history,” in Pearl Harbor.
- What is your favorite little known movie? Winner: A last-minute rally for Tremors made the difference as Songwriter took the week 10 win!
- What is the best movie that you never want to watch again? Winner:
HitlerCharlotte with 15 likes for Schindler’s List. Sorry, Richard Oshea but Jesus won the real fight.
Week 11.5 Exhibition Match (as a make-up of sorts, since Songwriter didn’t get the week 11 question submitted in time) Name the best movie theme song ever? No winner declared but I’m pretty sure it was I.M. Fine with “Moon River.” - Name the best animated feature-length movie of all time. Winner: I.M. Fine with 10 likes for Pinocchio, and justice for I.M. Fine prevailed.
- What is the worst acting performance in an otherwise good film? Winner: In one of the most brutal fights we’ve seen yet Repmodad fended off a furious 12th-round onslaught by Gary McVey to give Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves the win with 20 likes.
- What is the quintessential American movie? Winner: Miffed White Male pulled off the comeback with 20 likes for The Right Stuff. There was a two-way tie at 19 for second place as well.
- What’s the most entertaining movie set during WWII? Winner: Arahant clearly won with Casablanca’s walloping 30 likes despite the withering onslaught by Sisyphus on the final day.
- What is the best movie love story? Winner: Songwriter with 20 likes for The Princess Bride with 20 likes. Up managed to make a strong showing and Dr. Bastiat is still conducting recounts trying to “find” some uncounted votes.
- What’s the best’ buddy’ movie? Winner: Brian Watt wins with 12 likes for The Man Who Would be King.
- What is the worst movie (not a made-for-TV movie) ever made? Brian Watt joins E.J. Hill as the only other back-to-back winner with 16 likes for Barbarella. Brian will get another crack at it by choosing the week 19 question. Can he make it three?
- What is the most frightening non-bloody film you’ve ever seen? The winner: J D Fitzpatrick with Wait Until Dark, starring the lovely Audrey Hepburn getting terrorized over a doll, sort of.
Runner up: Roxanne
and:
Recommended Runner Up (two of two): James Cagney was a judo aficionado. In 1945’s Blood on the Sun, he brought his A game. Every throw, joint lock, choke and counter is technically crisp and could come right out of the Kodokan.
Starsky and Hutch
https://youtu.be/47gahDuOff8
The question was which movie has the best duel, with stipulations on what constitutes a duel. By that, I believe The Princess Bride qualifies without needing to specify which duel, although I suspect it’s generally acknowledged that only the Cliffs of Insanity duel stands in the same league as these other entries.
Since animation wasn’t ruled out (only cgi)…
I guess the coyote and road runner wouldn’t count, because it’s not a movie, right?
Ooooh, animation.
The Final Fight from Kung Fu Panda. Official answer.
“I’m not a big fat panda. I’m the big fat panda.”
I’m a Muay Thai fighter (so some pretty substantive differences from judo), but dang, that’s impressive. What happened to him at the beginning of the fight (being repeatedly flipped onto his back) happened to me the first time I did a round with an experienced fighter, and it was quite literally a breathtaking experience, although I had the benefit of a mat on the floor to somewhat cushion the blow. His use of clinch positions to maneuver the enemy, and his right hook, are fabulous.
Yeah, it was driving me crazy by the end of the show. Forsake him already! It was almost as bad as the background music for “The Third Man.”
I also thought of nominating this movie. It is one of the most impressive, choreographed movies I have ever seen. It is non-stop and definitely one of the best action movies in recent times. It is such an exemplar showcase of Indonesian martial arts. The scene against Mad Dog is a great duel scene. Not a duel, but the fight across the hallway is jaw-droppingly insane.
I think the book is Gone to Texas.
You mean better than this? Official answer
Dueling Banjos
In the Mad Magazine parody, every panel had a little guy in the corner singing “Dew not forsake me, oh my darlin'”
I knew there was a reason I love you so much, LC.
I like the scene in the Shooter with Mark Wahlberg when as a sniper he is in a shootout on a mountain in the snow. I think it was against three different snipers. The last one gives himself away with a reflection from his scope and Wahlberg shoots him through the scope into his eye. Then a villain is holding his girl with a shotgun taped to her and his trigger finger. Wahlberg shoots off his trigger finger and then his entire arm. That is my final answer.
Shooter is based off a novel by Stephen Hunter, AKA the Dostoevsky Of The Sniper Rifle. If you liked Shooter, read his stuff. Can’t go wrong.
Someone posted a video on Ricochet before explaining why Jackie Chan fight scenes are so good. One reason is that he’s a perfectionist and Chinese cinema budgeting allows him to take as long as he needs to get it right.
But the more applicable lesson, as I recall, is that both sides of the fight are always in frame and they don’t rely on camera tricks to hide breaks. The fighters really have to know what they are doing and have the stamina to perform the whole scene.
Hey @bossmongo — In your experience, does every fighter tend to show more proficiency in a particular range or aspect of fighting / grappling? Or are some fighters simply good all around in hand-to-hand combat?
Excellent! It’s hard to make a sword fight look fresh, but this does a great job.
Official answer:
Open Range
This is the best western gunfight ever . . .
Update:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxYPkRTP_QI
I particularly like the opening shot.
Best of the live-action duels because the off-saber action is well executed and believable (Obi Wan vs Anakin was not quite as well done). This ended up being only the first of the duels between Obi Wan and Darth Maul. Official answer.
https://youtu.be/0FyJe7mW_To
“People are going to get killed today, and I’m going to kill ’em.”
A freebie: Silverado
And for that matter, the final shot.
I thought about picking the finale to Drunken Master 2, but after rewatching it, I decided it didn’t seem serious enough.
Naturally Indiana Jones and Monty Python are competing for the lead …
But here’s DM2, since it belongs with the others here:
Runner up? I could see myself casting my vote for the bar duel as number one. The bully gets his weapon of choice, the chief gets his weapon in response, and then wins a second time mano a mano. I’d totally forgotten about it. (I love that C.D. gets to 19 and then they tell him he’s on 14.)
I’m sure @bossmongo knows much more about this than I do, but from what I’ve seen it’s dependent upon the person, though generally everyone is better at some aspects of hand-to-hand than others. Using myself as an example; overall I’m a stronger and more flexible fighter with my legs than with my arms (both are used in Muay, and that difference makes sense because I’ve danced since I was 2), but of all aspects of hand-to-hand my hook and clinch/ability to break a clinch are the strongest. The clinch in particular is odd with me, my coach is a former professional fighter and he finds it almost impossible to break my clinch, even though he has a few inches and at least 50 lbs of mostly muscle on me. Best we can theorize, it has something to do with my arm length and the specific positioning of muscles/strength.
Long story short, genetics, other athletic training, and training focus make every fighter different, and although most show a general consistent level of skill in hand-to-hand, those factors will make the individual components of combat more and less easy, and more and less easy to execute effectively, for everyone.
Not related but this is my favorite scene of the movie:
That’s what came to my mind immediately.