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Actually, the Yoda fight were cool the very first time I saw Ep. II, but since the novelty wore off, it just seems silly go me--in either movie.
I will agree that nothing matches the Darth Maul vs. Obiwan/Qui-Gon duel, though.
Do Neo's fights w/ Agent Smith in the first Matrix count? I think there was some awesome stuff there, especially at the end of the movie. In the later movies it just got kind of silly, again.
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The most intense duel ever was the one in A New Hope between Darth Vader and Obi Wan. It was like watching two old guys race. I kind of liked the sword fight between Hector and Achilles in Troy. Does that count as a duel?
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Luke vs. Darth Vader in both Empire and Jedi. Unlike most of the duels in the new Star Wars movies, these two duels actually had some meaning and emotion to them rather than just being an excuse to show a little green guy jumping all over the place.
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I would have to agree with The Princess Bride. That's an amazing duel. I can't think of any others right now, but I'm sure they'll come to me.
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The end of the recent Count of Monte Cristo movie.
Princess Bride - cliffs of insanity duel.
Spider-man and Doc-Ock on the subway.
There's an old French movie with a 10-minute duel that was supposedly filmed in one take (cuts between three camera views) that's really good, but I can't remember its name.
Something from the Matrix deserves to be on this list, too, but I won't pick which one.
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon - hard to pick one scene.
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For Crouching Tiger, I'd go with the faceoff between the two women near the end (I can't remember their character names) with the zillion different showcased weapons.
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I'd put Anakin/Obi-Wan a very close second to Darth Maul/Jedi, though I'm not sure if the latter constitutes a true "duel." There were three of them.
Yes, Hector vs. Achilles counts - and their flesh counts more Talk about a hot duel...
As for an original contribution to this discussion... I'm not sure. Perhaps the Maximus/Commodus battle in Gladiator? I'll have to noodle this for a while.
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There were some good duels in Kung Fu Hustle as well, even if large amounts of their goodness were due to their comical nature. I guess it depends what the basis of this top ten list is -- skill, ingenuity, most fun to watch, etc.
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Inconcievable that you wouldn't put The Princess Bride duel on there! Even just Wesley standing up and saying "Drop. Your. Sword." Beats most movies hands down. Inconcievable!
EDIT: And the duel of wits with Vizzini! Absolutely priceless.
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Ha! Good call, maui babe. Man, I love that movie. The opening is priceless, and then it just gets better... Posts: 624 | Registered: Mar 2005
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I like some of the older Star Wars duels, and would agree to take off the Yoda duels for it. But I wouldn't agree that all the new duels are lacking in emotion and are Yoda laden. Yoda only fights twice in real duels, and the Obiwan/Anakin fight is heavily charged with emotion, as is the latter half of the Darth Maul duel after (spoiler I guess) Qui-Gon is killed.
For sure the Inigo/Wesley fight in Princess Bride.
I can't believe I forgot it, but of course the Achilles vs. Hector fight in Troy. That was a great fight, and despite how cheesy much of the movie was, that fight had me on the edge of my seat, and I knew no matter the outcome I was going to be sad.
And don't forget the best duel of all:
The Black Knight vs. King Arthur.
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Oh, I like the duel between Jack and Will. Might not necessarily win an award for choreography, but it's well rounded and for sure funny.
I'm sure if I watched the Highlander movies I'd find some duels in there to be had, since they make up the basis for the series.
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"Supreme executive power is given by the masses, not by some farsical aquatic ceremony where a watery tart throws a sword at you" --I know, I edited it a bit
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The thing that makes the Darth Maul vs. Qui-Gon/Obi Wan fight for me is the emotion behind it. Specifically, I am thinking of when they get stopped by those laser curtain things. Yeah, it was kind of a cheap plot device, but I loved seeing the differences in how each of the characters handled it. Darth Maul paced, Obi-Wan was chomping at the bit, and Qui-Gon slid into meditation. So very cool.
And you can also see the emotion when Obi Wan battled Darth Maul after Qui-Gon died. He's full of passion and is just charging ahead without any care in the world. Plus you've got the amazing "Duel of the Fates" backing it all up.
Too many of the other prequel fights appeared to be "Isn't this COOL?", which frankly bores me. Also, I like to be able to SEE what's going on. If it's too fast for my eyes to follow, I can't really appreciate the skill involved, or the differences in the fighting styles between the characters.
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quote:Also, I like to be able to SEE what's going on. If it's too fast for my eyes to follow, I can't really appreciate the skill involved, or the differences in the fighting styles between the characters.
That's one thing I loved about the way they did Spider-man's fights. It's fast - very fast - but it's also smooth and represents a fighting style that makes sense given the particular abilities involved.
Too many fights are cut up too much - the Matrix tended to go that way. One reason I like Jackie Chan is that he goes for longer shots that let you see how the moves connect, not just a bunch of cool indivdual moves strung together.
The fight at the end of the Transporter was good largely because the camera work didn't ruin it.
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Cliffs of Insanity Hector/Achilles Darth Maul/Qui Gon/Obi Wan Luke/Vader in episode VI Count of Monte Cristo Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (the one in the trees) Hero (with cloud) Tombstone (in the river) Heat (final scene) Mask of Zorro (either Zorro vs Elena, or vs capt. love and montero)
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I completely agree. If you cant tell whats going on or if there are obvious problems in what you saw that really takes away from the experience for me
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Many of the great sword duels captured on film occured in older movies, before the innovation of quick-cutting and rapid-fire editing. So I would be remiss if I didn't mention some of them:
Adventures of Robin Hood (1938-Errol Flynn definitive edition of the classical story) Captain Blood The Three Musketeers (with Douglas Faribanks) and many more...
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The Yoda fights do not deserve to be on the list. Duels are about artistry, lines, physical prowess, etc. One man flailing and a computer-generated image added afterwards does not a good duel made. I'll be honest, I laughed at the Yoda duel in episode II. It was ridiculous, and I'd rather we kept cartoon fights off the lists for simplicity's sake.
Dooku v. Obi/Ani also should be stricken from the last. Shot in the dark with many cuts and flashing lights is annoying enough, but the tease of Anikan with 2 light sabres only to have a hand cut off not 5 seconds later added salt to the wound. I was pumped to see it and felt completely cheated.
Lastly, again, for ease of making the list, I'd say that only fights that are primarily fought with weapons should count. There's a very different feel between a fist fight and a few people going at each other with weapons.
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I think the final Obi Wan/Vader duel in RotS is full of emotion. It was for me. I felt like they both understood the meaning of master vs. apprentice in the duel. It was rather tragic. I really though Hayden Christiansen did a wonderful job of showing us the rage and 'out of control' state that Vader was in by the time the duel began.
And I've had the argument about prequel vs. original trilogy duels before somewhere on this forum. I hold that the prequel duels are gorgeous AND that they tell us something about the Jedi. I loved how lightsaber dueling was so fast in the prequels that the skill went beyond human ability and into what a jedi can do when he/she has the force. It's kind of like the way the elves fight in LotR. They know who's behind them, they kind of know what their opponent will try next...and it's fast. I like that aspect of the prequel duels.
My favorite 'duel' in the Matrix was the one in the weapon room during "Reloaded." So fun and the absence of an agent was what made it even cooler.
I cast my vote for the duel in the Princess Bride and I also love the duel between Kirgan and Sean Connery in the original Highlander, not necessarily because it was well choreographed or fought. Just the characters and the setting. Pretty awesome.
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My favorite 'duel' in the Matrix was the one in the weapon room during "Reloaded." So fun and the absence of an agent was what made it even cooler.
That scene has one of my favorite lines ever.
The Merovingian's line after Neo blocks the guy's sword with his hand is just classic for its stupidity. "You see, he is just a man."
Now, that guy just hit Neo full force with a sword, and for his efforts he managed to draw a drop or two. If that were me, I would not be saying "he's just a man." I'd be saying something more along the lines of "well, it's been fun and all, but I'm outa here."
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The very end of the RotS Obi/Ani-Vader duel ruined it for me. They've established that Vader is considerably more powerful than Obi. Obi needs to use his experience to win. Fine, I like that. But, "Don't try it; I've got the high ground"? Give me a break.
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I cast my vote for the duel between the Kurgan and Ramirez, as well. Clancy Brown and Sean Connery are awesome with their banter. Count me in for Westley vs. Inigo just for the ambidextrousness alone.
starLisa, do you mean the final mental duel in Scanners? Scanners is one of my fave SciFi B-movies. Trancers, Doll-man, Troma movies. Well, those kinda lean toward the C-movies.... hahaha, but much fun.
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Obiwan didn't really want to kill him, even at that point, and tried to warn him, but Anakin was foolish and believed too much in his own abilities, and that was his downfall. It was believable, in the sense that it was a teacher still trying to impart a lesson on his pupil, which only egged the impetuous youth on even more.
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quote:Obiwan didn't really want to kill him, even at that point, and tried to warn him, but Anakin was foolish and believed too much in his own abilities, and that was his downfall. It was believable, in the sense that it was a teacher still trying to impart a lesson on his pupil, which only egged the impetuous youth on even more.
It wasn't that I found the warning unbelievable - it's that I found the supposed advantage unbelievable compared to what we've seen. Vader has flown by floating his little chunk of rock, not 3 minutes earlier, and now he can't jump over Obi?
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I think that scene would've been better if Obiwan had allowed Anakin to make the jump, but use the force to punch out a lava-filled crater at the place where Anakin would land. Now that's a recipe for hilarity.
The Anakin-Obiwan scene would've made sense if Obiwan actually waved his hand to show that he used the force to pull Anakin down. Without that, I agree with Dags that it just didn't make sense.
Someone on sw.com wrote that the scene is very powerful because Obiwan pulled the same move on Darth Maul and that Anakin, who probably knew that story well, was eager to try the same move himself.
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OK I rarely play the gender card but here it is....
Where are all the chick fights? Where are the Charlie's Angels? The fight Drew Barrymore starts while tied to the chair is wonderful. What about Lara Croft and the flying fight scene. I mean light sabers are cool and all, don't get me wrong but you gotta love a good cat fight too!
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quote:The fight Drew Barrymore starts while tied to the chair is wonderful.
That is the only fight in both movies that I though was exceptional. See my comments above on quick cuts with not context within the fight. The chair scene avoided it. None of the others did.
Plus I am so sick of artful slo-mo. Again, the chair scene didn't go overboard with that.
The coreography was very good, and Drew was awesome.
But for chick fights, I take the fight in the training room toward the end of Crouching Tiger.
The sai fight in Mummy Returns was OK, but the context and the rest of the movie was so bad I can't bear to give it a compliment.
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It was like watching two old guys race. I kind of liked the sword fight between Hector and Achilles in Troy. Does that count as a duel?
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