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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.
I’ll also add this, because I think it’s one of those rare truly touching moments from an awards show. Comedy duos that are also friends in real life (Benny and Burns or Fred Allen, Matthau and Lemon, Tim Conway and Harvey Korman, Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner, Bob Newhart and Don Rickles, etc.) seem to be able to consistently produce lasting work.
Sometimes duels are fought without weapons.
Mitch Robbins (Billy Crystal) vs. Barry Shalowitz (Josh Mostel) in City Slickers. (official answer)
“Go ahead. Challenge me.” “Sea bass.” “Grilled?” “Sautéed.” “Potatoes au gratin. Asparagus.” “Rum Raisin.” “Woof.”
Remember when we could link to that Chris Rock clip without fear?
Just doing my part to make 2020 great again.
Because somebody ought to: Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris, Way of the Dragon.
If tv were an option, Captain Kirk vs. The Gorn would have to be pretty high up. I don’t think there’s any hand to hand combat for Shatner in the TOS movies, so no opportunity to practice the mystical and ancient art of Kirk-Fu.
This is the one that came immediately to my mind.
Vince,
Official Answer: This scene from The Seven Samurai.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF5U83UIX1o
Takashi Shimura is looking for samurai to defend a poor village from bandits and finds this fellow, Seiji Miyaguchi, whom he invites to join them after he handily dispatches the unfortunate fellow he is fighting. The scene is simply staged – austere and quick, with a certain elegance about it. James Coburn played the role in a similar scene in The Magnificent Seven.
Bonus Fact: Takashi Shimura also played the head scientist in the original Godzilla.
My second choice is this classic fight scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPR3RYP0Pbg
Sincerely,
Tim
I second that. I’m pretty busy, and Ricochet Movie Fight Club™ is something that I look forward to all week.
Regards,
Jim
How about the epic fight scene at the end of The Quuet Man? There’s little fight choreography, but it’s an enjoyable ride nonetheless.
This was my top scene as well. But I thought it was too brief — actually too simple — to be considered.
Did anybody mention Barry Lyndon? I love the opening but the duel at the end, between the titular “common opportunist” Barry and Lord Bullingdon, would probably be my final nominee.
I have no idea what that was about, but the fight was great. :)
Great stuff from everyone!
There are still a couple of movies that I’m surprised haven’t been nominated yet, but maybe @brianwatt is just keeping his powder dry for a page 6 spectacular.
Official answer: The sword fight between Jamie Warring and Billy Leech in The Black Swan (Tyrone Power, Maureen O’Hara, 1942). https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=wM7wVYritIM&feature=emb_logo
Joel Edgerton & Tom Hardy “Warrior”
Well, The Princess Bride has already been put forward, so this is a runner-up (at least for me): the fight between Sean Thornton and Will Danaher in the Quiet Man.
“Squire, your in laws are coming to visit.”
Bar towel!
Clearly the Quiet Man DVD will be coming out tonight. Maybe followed by McClintock, with possibly the greatest comic slug fest in film. Or maybe that’s the fight at the end of Blazing Saddles with cowboys versus boy dancers. Hey, I sense a future question!
The denouement was pluperfect.
There are many great answers here and I am a fan of Toshiro Mifune and Errol Flynn…and am curious why no one has mentioned Gene Kelly as D’Artagnan in his version of The Three Musketeers. The opening duel scene in that film is quite amazing given Kelly’s gymnastic ability to leap through the air and land on the ground without breaking his damn ankles. This trailer gives you a taste of Kelly’s amazing skills.
But here’s my Official Answer: I think the best duels are between two equally skilled opponents because you’re not certain of the outcome. It seems to me then that Master and Commander, The Far Side of the World is a quintessential example of a duel where each opponent, the British commander Jack Aubrey and the elusive French captain are engaged in a duel that begins on the Atlantic coast of South America, around Cape Horn and then up to the Galapagos Islands and in the end is not resolved. Each commander must use his knowledge of the sea, his knowledge of his opponent’s vessel, and his ability to keep his crew engaged and encouraged in a cat and mouse game where even masquerade and deception are employed by both men. The entire movie is a duel that transcends physicality and calls on the wit, wisdom, leadership, and daring of both men.
I seriously considered it. The man was amazing. But The Princess Bride is far better as a movie and for the duels.
And as a book.
BIG SPOILERS, SEE THE MOVIE, IT IS A GREAT MOVIE:
The whole point of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance was that a man who thought himself civilized beyond such things was provoked into facing the gunman despite his ineptitude for the sake of the woman he loved, knowing he was facing certain death. And that the man who had first claim on that woman saved the over civilized fool for love because the fool could give her a life in the coming age of civil order and rule of law that John Wayne’s rancher could not match.
Because the rancher fired from cover, the fool was left thinking he had delivered the unlikely fatal shot after the duel, unaware of of the rancher’s rule. And so it stands until the lawyer fool declines nomination to serve as a political delegate because he has blood on his hand from the duel. Did I mention he is a fool?
The rancher takes him aside and explains how Liberty Valance actually died. So the fool gets the girl and becomes a legendary politician.
The movie takes on the code duello, the bully gunslinger, the precious purity of fake pietists, and the myth that love means winning the girl rather than doing what is best for the girl.
The code duello because the fool was buffaloed into the fight on the bully’s terms by the bully and the civil disorder he enforces. Sounds topical to me.
The bully gunslinger myth lives on screen where the code duello is the enforced way of resolving conflict. In the real West, bully gunslingers were often shot by snipers with a grievance. Not much dramatic tension there. Also topical as the civil disorder propagated by faithless office holders leads to soaring gun sales and rising vigilanteism.
The fool breaks with his piety when he embraces the code duello resolution of his conflict because it is both extra-legal and violates the commandments of God, regardless of whether one counts it as murder or suicide. The fool is a lawyer and participating in a duel is a felony. Then, after Valance dies rather than seek confession and absolution and again take up his burden, the fool declines the role he is best qualified to perform.
The rancher has played the redeemer. He has taken the sin of the murder of Valance on himself, saved the fool from certain harm, then saved the fool from his own ill-formed conscience, while letting his best girl form a match that he believes will serve her better, and sets the stage for civil order to eventually prevail.
It is the best single treatment of the topic of dueling I have found. The real duel in Liberty Valance is the duel against the iniquities of the code duello.
No.
Hint: “Are you gonna pull those pistols or whistle Dixie?”
“Get ready, little lady. Hell is coming to breakfast.”
So Vince, what was the movie title that tied for second place, in the category of Most American Film, after “The Right Stuff.” ??
I couldn’t find a good clip but I want to give a shout out to Streets of Fire for having probably the only sledgehammer duel in film history. It’s much better without the misplaced music:
Also, due to the CGI restrictions Obi-Wan vs. Anakin part 1 doesn’t qualify, but I watched it this morning again just because: