Good day fellow sword fans,

I thought it would be fun to open a topic that deals with the way Hollywood approaches sword fights. After having seen several topics about duels and armed combat in movies, I decided to tackle this subject from a different angle: what are the martial artist doing nowadays? And how can Hollywood learn from them?

I know fight choreography in movies serves the purpose of progressing the story, so different rules apply, but that doesn't mean we cannot see historical techniques, right?

So I would like to see links to your favorite video's. They can be demo's, sparring competitions, promo's, demonstrations and really anything that contains elements or techniques that you think Hollywood should be looking at in order to make fight scenes exciting AND realistic.

I will start with this one from Anton Kohutovic. This video pushes all the right buttons for me. Its is a longsword promo featuring beautiful cinematography, great music and above all, fantastic swordplay. The level of technique these guys display is truly amazing. Their intensity and dedication even more so.

Enjoy and please post a link to your video!

Ps other weapons are welcome too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WzAHNdvWDU

There was a video made by an italian group I think, all in period gear, depicting a scene with a couple of mercenaries/soldiers/ne'er-do-wells playing dice.
It all got a bit out of hand and in the end - after a very well done and very short fight - two or three of them ended up dead.

Maybe someone knows the one I mean because I can't find a link to that video right now.

Looks like it's from Slovakia.

Come on guys... still waitting for some awesome swordfighting video's. I know you have them!

To keep things going; have a look at these fellas and their polish sabre art.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yegd3YpjmWY

I don't think we should look to Hollywood for better swordfighting on the screen. Instead, it's better to lay our hopes in smaller and/or independent producers, often ones residing in countries outside the US and Western Europe. Look at what Merantau and The Raid have done to movie fight choreography -- both were Indonesian productions, albeit with a Welsh director. Without these pioneering moves from outside the old-fashioned cinematic elite, it'd be hard to imagine things like Joe Taslim kicking butt in Fast & Furious 6 or the trio from The Raid being hired in some as-yet-undisclosed capacity for Disney's upcoming Star Wars movie.