Like, I suspect, 99.9% of my readers, I love a good film combat scene. Some non-fantasy favourites include the big gun battle towards the end of Heat, the final shoot-out in The Way of the Gun, the knife fight in Eastern Promises (A History of Violence has other good Cronenberg fight scenes) and the (criminally underrated) showdown in the (criminally underrated) David Mamet cult classic Heist.
My preference for combat scenes is that they look realistic. This is not to say that any combat scene in a film is ever really 'realistic' (real life fights are mostly defined by none of the combatants having much of a clue what is going on). But I like the aesthetic of gritty, relatively unshowy, relatively low-key, but still exciting, encounters.
Here is a brief list of some favourites. You are encouraged to add your own in the comments:
The 'forest battle scene' from towards the start of Kingdom of Heaven. This receives negative points for heavily featuring Orloondo Bland, but bonus points for including the rarely-seen but laudable trope of combatants getting injured but still fighting on. Also notable for featuring David Thewlis, cast against type, as a wily knight templar.
Without wishing to go full Ridley Scott-fanboy, one would have to have a heart of stone not to appreciate the opening battle from Gladiator. When this film first came out, I saw it in the cinema one Saturday afternoon and then immediately went back into the cinema for the early evening showing. And this initial sequence remains a highlight in cinematic history, if you ask me.
The final fight in Roman Polanski's Macbeth. 'But bearlike I must fight the COURSE!' I just love the combination of brutality, bravura and bombast in this scene, shown in long, carefully placed shots, without a score to speak of. Note how quick they are with their weapons and dancing about in their armour (I have been told this is actually more realistic than the more laboured movements one sees in modern cinematic sword fights).
The 2003 Beat Takeshi version of Zatoichi is my favourite. Japanese jidaigeki of this type always contain a scene in which a single samurai swordsman vaporises a collection of yakuza mooks. This one is executed with particular aplomb.
One of the boons of the internet age is of course that you get the chance to imbibe material shared by friends or acquaintances that would have simply been inaccessible (often literally) in times past. This scene from the 1974 Polish film The Deluge is a classic example.
Not exactly a fight scene, perhaps, but a scene of typical Mel Gibsonian extravagance and balls-to-the-wall film-making. Apocalypto is deeply flawed, but that it was made at all is impressive. And the spectacle is superb.
The fight between Glass and Fitzgerland at the end of The Revenant is interesting for its focus on the knife. The fighters can tolerate any injury provided they are in control of the weapon, or at least so long as the other does not control it.
Feel free to add your own!
