okay so its safe to say I’m long over due for one of my long rants, its been an eternity and a half. Topic: American fight scenes. Now I know what your thinking, Kale shut the fuck up about the godamn american style vs. asian style of filming action, if i hear you so much as mention wide angle shots or martial artist again I will stab you through the ocipital lope with my pen and twist it till your brain seeps out your nose like a slurpy machine (was that a bit much? I do tend to get carried away with that shit…I have issues). Now I literally have this conversation like three times a week, and when I mentioned my disdain for the lightsaber battles in the new star wars (Salt did not look to kindly on me when I uttered such “blasphemy”), I couldnt quiet explain my reasons for hating these scenes however because in reality the mechanics behind the technique are not all that bad. These actors (though not true martial artist) train hard to do the fight scenese. I beleive I have finally put my finger on what it is that bothers me….. there is no understanding, no feeling. Untrained actors rehearse their scenes over and over until it is technically proficeint. So yes, to the average person the scene looks good. But I just dont buy it, they are so robatic in their movements, they show no knowledge of what they are performing. They dont know what it would be like to actually perform said technique on an opponent. Or what its like to land a solid fist on anothers jawline (or recieve one for that matter). They dont feel the move as they should. To them its just a move they are copying from a stunt coordinator. Now how would people react if untrained actors didnt feel what they were saying or understand the emotions they were tryign to convey. People would call that movie total horseshit and I agree. To me that is how bad fight scenes affect me, I just cant handle my art being raped in front of my eyes. And that (in an abbreviated nutshell….i could go on forever about this) is why I have issues with american fight flicks.
There is no safety in denial.
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