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Caliber Winfield's Top 5 Greatest Fight Scenes

Hey, guys.

I know that a lot of wrestling fans are also big into film, TV, and other facets of pop-culture. So, my every-so-often column will always be a random choice, to keep things interesting. I hope you guys dig each effort. 

This time around, I thought I'd post what I believe are the Top 5 Greatest Fight Scenes of all time. I've been into martial arts and such since I was a kid, and have always been obsessed with fight scenes, and the beauty that can come with the choreography. Serious, some of the fight scenes you see these days are just gorgeous. 

So, here's my Top 5, and I'd really like to hear which scenes you guys dig. And yes, before anyone posts the video of Captain Kirk fighting the Green Lizard Thing, it is a funny fight scene. 

 from….
Ong Bak: Thai Warrior
 
People might think I’m off my rocker for including this, but as always, I’m a genius who often goes away from the curve. Ong Bak: Thai Warrior is one of those movies that was first passed around from friend to friend who were fans of martial arts. It was like the stuff of legend, you had to see it. You had to see this new kid, Tony Jaa. He was Jackie Chan times 10. So, you pop it in,  all is well and rocking,  it comes to the first fight, and you’re expecting one hell of a bout, then BAM. It’s one awesome knee to the face and it's over. It’s far more impactful than any actual fight could have been. It showed you right then that Ong Bak, and Tony Jaa, truly were something fresh.




from….
Enter The Dragon
 
This one film caused a massive influx of people taking up martial arts in the 1970′s. Seriously, I bet that not only did local dojo’s see their attendance rise by probably 200%, but probably 2-3 new dojos opened up per city. Hell, the song Kung-Fu Fighting wouldn’t have been written if not for Lee. Bruce is such an awesome guy that he needs…nay, deserves his own article. The guy has influenced so many fields from film, martial arts, to writing and exercise. His best known work is one of the greatest martial arts films of all time, Enter The Dragon. The scene in question is also one of the most iconic. Lee and Han doing battle in the hall of mirrors, Bruce with his slashed up torso, Han rocking that bad-ass claw hand. It is such an awesome scene, that any director or writer who ever plans on creating a movie, no matter the genre, need to see this scene. If you don’t, then you have offended my family, and the Shaolin Temple.


from….
Revenge of the Ninja
 
If you’re a fan of martial arts films, then chances are you have been since you were a kid. If you were a kid, then you loved ninjas. One of the major stars of that era was the man, Sho Kosugi. They say some people are born to play a part, and he was damn well born to play a ninja. In this classic, a man named Cho has his family slaughtered by ninja, and decides to move to America to start a business with his best friend, Braden. Well, we come to find out it was all a ruse so Braden could sell coke, smuggling it through Cho's dolls, and he is in fact, a ninja. Basically, there’s only one thing you can do in a situation like this. No, you don’t call the cops, sissies do that, you go back to the ninja ways you swore off forever, and do battle.

I’ve always loved the hell out of this scene. It’s a pretty long fight scene that involves some hand to hand, the acrobatics one expects with ninjas, an array of weapons, and a few surprises too. It’s just a bad-ass brawl that is the pinnacle of on screen ninja fights.


 from….
The Protector aka Tom-Yum-Goong

If you’re looking for a martial arts movie with awesome fight scenes, honest to God, look no further than this film. It’s hands down the greatest, most ambitious martial arts film ever. It has some of the most innovative, incredible fight scenes and moves ever caught on film. From Tony taking on about 40 kids on bikes and roller blades who have light bulb tubes, to, what I believe is an homage to Bruce Lee’s Game of Death by fighting 3 separate fighters who have 3 different, and distinct styles. I wanted to include that scene as well, but then this whole list would have been the Tony Jaa Show. Search out that scene, it’s incredible. Now, this scene…

The only reason this scene isn’t number one is simply because the first place fight is longer. This is probably the most ambitious and creative scene in all of cinema. It’s a 4 minute long, non-stop, no edits, no camera tricks fight scene. Tony walks up 4 flights of a tower, fighting people the entire time. He’s throwing people over railings, through walls and tables, executing flying knees through drinking fountains and people. This shot took about 6 weeks to set up. After 6 different attempts, they finally got it. It truly has to be seen to be believed.


 from….
Drunken Master II

Roger Ebert once said, regarding this film: “it may not be possible to film a better fight scene”
He’s spot on.

This fight scene is absolutely non-stop, and truly has to be seen to be believed. Honestly, I’m not even going to describe it, I’m just going to let you watch it all and see it for yourself. So fast, so brutal, so f'ning incredible.

The guy who’s doing all the fancy foot work is Ken Lo, one of Jackie Chan’s Stunt Team members, and at one point in time, his personal body guard. How hard do you think this guy can kick? He could probably cave in your chest. Or kick you so hard in the face it'd break your toes. 



Hope you guys enjoyed the list. I know some of you guys like to talk film & television, so, since Scott's mailbag is usually for wrestling, anyone who wants to ask a question regarding movies or TV, or just get a topic going, send one my way and we can start a mailbag. email: faucetofslfame@hotmail.com

If you're digging the article, you can find more at these lovely websites:
Str8 Gangster, No Chaser - more lists, Man Movie Encyclopedia, reviews, pro-wrestling
WCW In The Year 2000 - A review of the worst year in pro-wrestling history.

Comments

  1. Pretty good. Can't argue with #1 or #2 (although I prefer the Protector -- the entire scene was done in one take!). 

    I personally would have thrown in a pick or two that was not asian martial arts, just for variety's sake. The ridiculously awesome THEY LIVE fight scene with Roddy Piper comes to mind...  

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  2. In your first line, I'm pretty sure you mean "facets" but a top 5 fascists of pop culture might make a good future list?

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  3.  Dammit! I use word perfect to type up my stuff, and sometimes they like to auto correct things for me for some damn reason. Thus, people think I'm gonna come up with a list involving Hitler and Stalin...

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  4. What's your take on Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer?

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  5. Fight scene from They Live not on the list? Invalid.

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  6. Anyone here seen The Raid: Redemption?  Holy moly there were some brutal fight scenes in that but sadly none really stood out as a top 5 candidate.  The fight at the end was good but dragged on a bit too long.

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  7. I agree with cultstatus. Wait, what?

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  8. I LOVE Shaolin Soccer.  That movie had me laughing so fucking hard.  It's brilliant.

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  9.  "Worlds are colliding!"

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  10. While I don't disagree with your picks, they're all from Martial Arts films.  Fair enough.  How about...



    Roddy Piper vs Keith David from "They Live"
    Hi McDonagh vs Gail and Ethel Snoats from "Raising Arizona"Indiana Jones and a plane vs Really Big German guy "Raiders of the Lost Ark"
    Mr. Incredible vs Syndrome's Doomsday Device "The Incredibles"
    Freddy Vs Jason "Freddy Vs Jason"

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  11. When I saw the Jackie Chan vs. Ken Lo fight for the first time, I was a first-year university student. Since we were all broke, we went to a cheap $3 cinema where Drunken Master was playing. The movie started out as a pretty funny Hong Kong film but this amazing fight scene had me breathless for the entire sequence.

    Just an awesome, awesome, awesome fight scene but I think Ken Lo doesn't get enough props for his participation. The speed of his kicks was absolutely breathtaking.

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  12. This is the single greatest thing ever committed to film.

    Seriously though, I'm kind of getting bored with martial arts fight scenes.  Don't get me wrong.  A good martial arts fight scene is still awesome, but I miss stuff like They Live where it's just a bunch of dudes punching the shit out of each other's faces.  We don't get enough surly American fist fights anymore.

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  13. I don't mean to be a douche, but is this the proper blog for this list? Caliber, I do enjoy your writing and was glad you came back, but I come here to read about wrestling. 

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  14. Good article, though sucks that The Protector is the only movie I've seen from that list. But my favorite fight scenes:

    Achilles vs Hector - Troy
    Tim Roth vs Liam Neeson - Rob Roy
    Anakin vs Obi Wan - Revenge of the Sith
    Darth Maul final scene in Phantom Menace
    Daniel vs Johnny in Karate Kid 1
    Rocky vs Drago - I love all Rocky fight scenes in fact even the one with Tommy Gunn
    James Bond vs Sean Bean - GoldeneyeThe Warriors vs. The Baseball Furies - not the greatest fight scene I know, but I was addicted to this movie as a kid and this was the scene I constantly rewound and played over again

    And with tv show fight scenes, I marked out big time for Green Ranger vs Red Ranger from first season of Power Rangers and Spartacus has a lot of spectacular fight scenes too but the Battle Royale at the end of the prequel season was probably my favorite.

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  15.  I just remembered Biff fighting Marty's dad in the first Back to the Future. Not much of a fight scene, but that knockout punch was the biggest markout moment ever.

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  16. In defense, Scott used to talk about his TV shows all the time, also would post random thoughts on the latest movie he saw in the theater.  There's also comic book posts, so I don't think the occasional post off-wrestling is not such a bad thing unless you want to talk Invasion some more? :-)

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  17.  Yeah, I know. I kind of think Scott gets a free pass b/c it's his blog. I recognize that I'm being a bit uptight so I tried to word it politely. If nobody agrees with me then it doesn't matter, obviously.

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  18. Just saw it this week. The climactic fight was definitely elevated by the bad guy continuing to fight while no-selling florescent light tube in his neck!

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  19. Can't dispute "Drunken Master II" at all as the #1 choice.

    Some other unmentioned favourites include:
    -James Bond vs. Red Grant: "From Russia With Love"
    -Bruce Lee vs. Chuck Norris in "Way of the Dragon"
    -Ryback (not to be confused with Skip Sheffield) vs. Penn: "Under Siege 2"
    -Jean Claude Van Damme vs. The Pittsburgh Penguin Mascot in "Sudden Death"
    -Dalton vs. Jimmy: "Road House" (simply for Jimmy's "I used to fuck guys like you in prison" line)
    -Riggs vs. Joshua: "Lethal Weapon" (I bet Mel Gibson and Gary Busey fight each other like that on the lawn for real these days!)

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  20. What second Matrix movie?

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  21.  Haha, I knew I'd get flack for not including it on this list.

    But let's be honest, for the most part, that fight scene only got notice because of South Park. I've seen the fight many times, and it's only cool because of the fact it just goes on, and on, and on. It's really not that great, technically. Although I will admit it's very entertaining.

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  22. Yeah, I've been seeing previews for that, and it looks great. Sorta of like B13. Luc Besson is a God in the action genre...

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  23.  Excellent choices. Especially Freddy vs Jason. Anytime someone kills someone with their own arm, that's pretty sweet.

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  24. Thanks, Eric. I really do appreciate the kind words, honestly.

    I just thought that a lot of people here like to read and discuss things other than wrestling. I figured, if someone doesn't like my stuff, they don't have to read it, and Blog of Doom updates every day with wrestling stuff. But, don't worry, BOD will never become a shit-site like 411mania....

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  25. Honestly, I almost had Daniel vs Chozen from Karate Kid II in at number 5. It's a great fight scene, where Daniel's life is on the line, and it's an honest, well built scene.

    Daniel vs Johnny from KK1 is my biggest mark out moment from being a kid. When he wins with the crane kick, my eyes still well up. God, I love that movie.

    Yeah, the Green Ranger v Red Ranger shit was epic. I actually had a karate instructional tape from the Green Ranger as a kid. It was the jam.

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  26. Ryback vs Tommy lee Jones was better, I think. Because the fight scene in Siege 2 was so unbeliveably one-sided. But at least we had "nobody beats me in the kitchen"....

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  27.  Personally I prefer Daniel vs Johnny. Sure there were higher stakes in the Chozen fight, and while it was a pretty entertaining fight, I just found the Johnny fight more realistic. I mean, you knew a kid like Daniel couldn't take on Johnny in a streetfight and he was only able to win via the rules of the karate match, plus I loved the whole leg psychology with Daniel selling the pain like his leg was going to be ripped off.

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  28. the left to right fight scene from "Old Boy" would at least make my top ten. I love the camera angle and the overall look of it.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRBwvIX7Sao

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  29. Any of the fight scenes in the Bourne movies kick all kinds of ass -- The fight at the end of Cinderella Man was super believable -- Steven Seagal just dismantling William Forsythe at the end of Out For Justice rules; perfect squash after a long build up -- Loo whipping like 100 dudes, dropping a transmission on Bubkus and then pouring water on Dr. Claw in "A Fistful of Yen" in Kentucky Fried Movie deserves recognition for its awesomeness -- Chuck Norris fucking the deranged psycho up at the end of Silent Rage is pretty gratifying

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  30. It was popular way before South Park hence why South Park parodied it.

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  31. Major major major points for Kentucky Fried Movie. I really need to see that again.

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  32. I just watched the Incredible Hulk for the first time in a while, and I forgot how cool the fight scene between the Hulk and Blonsky on the college campus was. Mainly because it's right after they inject him with some form of the Super Soldier serum, so seeing Blonsky just zip past the other soldiers is pretty cool, then watching this older guy just jumping around the Hulk and shooting at him while the Hulk can't even touch him is even better.

    Makes me more excited for the Avengers.

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  33.  I've never seen either, since I thought they were parodies, and I hate parodies. I assume I'm wrong about them?

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  34. You just keep digging yourself into a bigger hole.

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  35.  Yeah, one of my all time favorites -- Not the easiest to find but definitely worth owning...

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