If you brought a sword to a gun fight....

[Flangepart]

What would it be. I caught the end of The Errol Flynn Robin Hood (Da best!), and the sword fight at the end, with the Master swordsman B. Rathbone haveing to lose to the star, and  i began thinking of the diffrence between a good movie Sword fight, and a good Movie gunfight. Robin hood, and Princess Bride make my list of great bladework, and the modern Zorro of a few years back. Gunfights?....well, Dirty Harry Callahan always has good ones (Remember, 6 shots, then reload!), and the Duke did it right in the Shootest, among others (Fill your hand, you son of a b***h!). A realistic use of wepons is essencial to some storys....what do you guys think of when you think of the masters of the blade and the gun?

[Chadzilla]

My favorite gunfight of all time is the climatic battle in The Wild Bunch.  You just can't beat Warren Oates screeching bloody murder as he fires off a machine gun.  Come to think of it, the one at the beginning is pretty great as well.

Most sadistic "gunfight" is the one between John Wayne and Bruce Dern in The Outlaws.  It always hurts when I watch it.

I liked the graveyard showdown in The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly as well.

I remember the knife fight in Under Siege as being pretty impressive, but I would have to check it again to make sure.  Same with the gun battles in the first Die Hard.

Don't know about swords though...mmmm

[Apostic]

Before we get hit with the avalance of katanas and light saber kendo, I would like to note Gene Kelly as D'Artagnon in The Three Musketeers.  OK, that doesn't sound like much.  I mean, it's Gene Kelly.  Who'd expect sword fighting out a friggin' dancer?  

Those who aren't familiar with the backgrounds of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, that's who.  Kelly's style, by the way, is more like the latter, incorporating several smooth, fast moves with some acrobatic comedy.  This works well with the foil.

regards,

Apostic

BTW, was there EVER a movie where Basil Rathbone was allowed to win a sword fight at the end?

[Chadzilla]

I just want to mention how pathetic the gunfight that unleashed the infamous quote line "Go ahead, make my day" is.  Robert Townsend was justified in lampooning the ludicrous conversation the crook has with Callahan just before being effortlessly ventilated by the most powerful handgun in the world.  Making matters worse is the mob hit a little later, where Harry hides in an itty bitty trash can, then pops out and shoots the slowest reacting mafia hitmen on the planet.  Eastwood is a fine director who has made some excellent films, but Sudden Impact is just horrendous.

[Chadzilla]

It isn't The Outlaws...it's The Cowboys.  D'oh!

Somebody spank me.

[Sakerson]

As for gunfights, I'd go with just about any John Woo film.  Hard Boiled has my favorite gun fight (in the hospital at the end, whole bunch of incredible gun fights here).  Some of the Old West gunfights in The Quick and the Dead weren't too bad.  Gotta love the Spaghetti Westerns, too.  The swordfights in Crouching Tiger were pretty good (it was almost like a ballet instead of a swordfight, but, hey, it's all fantasy anyway).  I actually find the swordfights in Highlander a bit fake.  McCloud's sword has a useless ornamental grip (God help you if your hands get sweaty), and he tends to do blocks as opposed to parries, which is what the katana was designed for (I guess you can't get as cool of a sword clang from a parry as you can from a block).

[N. E. Moses]

Thanks for the question, Flange.  I got two entries for the best gunfight:

Every scene that involve a gun in Antonio Banderas' Desprado(since when do you see a guitar case that's also a rocket launcher or a M60 sub machine gun).  My favorite is when "El Mariachi" is in the second bar, the guys in the bar got guns, then he says "No, not yet" and has two glocks popping out of his sleeves.

The other is THE MATRIX .  The scene in the office building.  One word: Damn

As for the best swordfight all I can think of is Michelle Yoeh and that nice Asian chick (help me with the name) in the dojo fighting with swords and bo's and anything they get they're hands on

But that's my opinion

[Jim Hepler]

Someone mentioned Woo...  You gotta see A Better Tommorrow 2 sometime man.  The ending is unbelievable.  It even has a sword fight in it!  Bullet in the Head is not often mentioned by Woo (though he thinks it is his best ever), but it has it's fair share of great gunfights - though only one very brief sequence with two pistols.  

For a sword fight, I'm suprised no one has mentioned Kurosawa.  He had the best action sequences I've ever seen in a black and white film (well, OLD black and white film anyway).  Sanjuro has the best of Kurosawa that I have seen.  Like the middle fight, the early one where he is protecting students - even the shockingly bloody (almost to the point of ridiculous - think the hick guy being pulled into the cellar in Evil Dead 2) final swordfight were all great.  

Oh yeah, the Princess Bride's duel is great of course.  Point in fact, my fencing instructor mentioned it was the ONLY film he'd ever seen that was realistic.  He said the forms they mentioned are basically injokes to fencing gurus.

[Flangepart]

Desperado!...thats the title. Yeah, Antonio does it as well as he and A. Hopkins did up Zorro. The Wild Bunch sure has the MEANEST gunfights i can remember. And Woo's Hard Boiled...did you notice the scene in the gunvault, and the one badguy uses...a Single Shot Thompson/center contender? Guy had balls! Oh, yeah, any Spiegetti western ...And the Second SABATA with Van Cleef....such a weird beginning. Sabata rules for weird gunfights,man. Hummmm...any Military Gunfights come to mind? Maby Ringneck or Andrew could think of one. And, finaly, it is indeed sad how B. Rathbone had to lose all his swordfights...and he likely taught the star how to use the sword in the first place!

[Steve.]

Wild Bunch - Chad, you took the words right out of my mouth. The opening and closing massacres have never been bettered - that oh so wicked machine gun! Walter Hill's Long Riders is an almost exact copy (gunfight-wise) of Sam's classic, although he does employ a novel twist - as well as seeing the hits in slo- mo, you hear them winging towards the target. There's a pretty nifty multi-implement  fight at the end of Ravenous.

[Vermin Boy]

How about Vincent Price's "Romeo & Juliet" swordfight reenactment from Theatre of Blood? I don't care if it is a double, seeing Vincent do a backflip off a trampoline in fencing garb while reciting Shakespeare in a Swedish accent is enough reason to watch any movie.

[Ringneck]

Flange, Just off the top of my head, I like the town fighting scene in "The Story of GI Joe", specifically the part where Sgt. Warnicki and Mitchum's character Tommy gun thier way to the church and blast the Germans in it.  Very porfessional gun handling but still super cool, far better than the spray and pray from most movies.  The origional Thin Red Line has that cool cave fighting scen where Pvt Doll has that sub gun(actually a Kraut gun, not correct but there must not have been no Tommy guns laying around)and he handles it like its part of his body just blasting the Japs all over the place.  Watch how close the extra playing the Jap is when he greases him with his .45 pistol, OUCH!!!!!!!  Blanks have almost as much blast out front as a live round would and can kill.  That extra must have padded the front of his shirt.  

Not a gun, but check out the flame throwers vs. 88 scene in When Trumpets Fade.  Super cool.  Most military actions, even in movies are so distant that its hard to see two protaganists actually "duel" so thats why good scenes are sparse.  Palance's tank stalking scene with his bazooka was pretty slick in "Attack!" but it was kind of bland.  

Not quite a gun fight, but in "The Eagle Has Landed" Larry Hagman's character gets shot and grenaded.  With that kind of luck he probably fell out of his coffin and was carried off by stray dogs on the way to the cemetery!!

Now most people dont like it, but "A Dollar for the Dead" has some cool, but wholly unbelieveable gunfights.  I really like the shot where the whiskey shot was dropped while he drew his gun, shot two guys, re holstered the piece, then caught it before it hit the floor.  

BradLaGrange

[Flangepart]

Ah, knew you'd come through. Haven't seen Story of G.I. Joe yet, hope to soon. That Dollar for the Dead scene was way cool! I thought the shootouts in Kelly's Heros were good too. When i hear "I;ve been workin' on the railroad," i think of Oddball. Vermin boy, ...nice mp3! and , Vincent price doin' what you described...ain't that what this site is all about. Ah...what memories.

[Stefan Robak]

I think the gunfights in Trigun just rule!  The main character (Vash the Stampede) is really a total badass, but he prefers to be a total spazz.  The cool things about his character are that: 1) he doesn't use the gun until 5 episodes into the show, and the first gunfight alone ruled (he took down a giant 3 story cyborg with only 6 bullets), 2) his aim is simply incredible, 3) you'll never expect where his other guns are hidden and 4) despite being a gunman, he refuses to kill.  Big problem considering his foe wants to kill everyone on Earth.  The gunfights rock and watching Vash beat enemies without a gun makes it cooler (plus he spends a hostage situation looking up a girl's skirt).  Yeah, it could never work in real life but the show is extremely innovative with it's gunfights (Vash ensures a dueling tournament has no fatalities by secretly deflecting the bullets with his own bullets) and keeps things moving until the incredible grand finale!

[Ringneck]

Flange, off topic but stil lrelated, my least favorite gunfight scene is any wher the pistol is canted sidewise, or a pump shotgun is pumped by holding it vertically and shucked up and down.  

Kelly's Heroes, I still love to watch Oddball blast those Kraut railroaders.  Note, he would be greasing beaucoup Frenchie civillans as well.  Also like when he stalks the Tigers in town.  Things to watch for.......  That dark skinned dude with the bandanna is not shooting a real BAR, but an FN-D, a European made BAR with a pistol grip and a bi pod built into the foregrip permenatley rather than the American way of a detachable one on the barrel end.  Also watch Babra/Barbra fire teh Thompson left handed along that stone wall, he acts purely terrified of it!  Also, when the Kraut officer who comes down that first road leaves camp, you can see a halftrack, a US M3 in the background.  It has been painted gray and had applique armor added on to resemble a German Skd track.  Something my buddy noticed is that Savalas's grenades are actually pre WWII French ones.  Lastly, you notice that its Hank Williams Jr. that sings "All for the Love of Sunshine" in the movie?  

I really liked Dollar for the Dead as far as TV westerns go.  Not as wild as the origonal "pasta oddicedentals", but cool to see it in action.  No real gunfights, but Quigly Down Under shows why its better to have a rifle than a hogleg.  

The Wild Bunch's gunfight was just insane.  It was so ridiculous, but still so worth watching.   I especially liek how Bill Holden is just sitting there in the middle of it, and all of a sudden the woman behind him pulls out oa pistol and blasts him for no reason other than 5 seconds had passed and Peckinpaw must have been irate no blood had been spilled.  "Wait, give that extra behind bill a gun" I cna here him yelling.