Which movies do you feel host the finest battle scenes?
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ucme (
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August 29th, 2010
Whether they are based on actual events in history or conversely, a purely fictional account. Maybe epic sprawling battles are your idea of an exciting portrayal. Or perhaps more intimate affairs conducted on a one on one basis. More of a prolonged fight scene essentially, but no less beautifully crafted. It is as they say, entirely up to you. So let battle commence….charge!!!
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The Matrix Trilogy.
Ip Man (1 and 2).
Ninja Assassin.
300.
All else is rubbish.
I love the shoot outs in Shoot ‘Em Up. I really liked the hand to hand (well sword to sword and some hand to hand) combat scenes in Lord of the Rings.
Holy galloping porkchops, @ragingloli, there’s a second Ip Man movie?
Okay okay…
Ip Man (the first one, as I haven’t seen the second)
Oldboy. Particularly the mob scene in the alley.
Gladiator.
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – the Battle of Helm’s Deep, and the March of the Trees.
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – the Battle of Pellinor Fields.
Apocalypse Now – I love the smell of Napalm in the morning. Where’s my surfboard?
And of course, Braveheart. It’s my island.
Equilibrium, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, anything involving Jacky Chan.
Oh! and for all the Chuck Norris worshippers,
how about where Bruce Lee kicks his hairy arse to death in “Way of the Dragon”?
Or the fight with the Japanese school in ” The Chinese Connection”?
Real battles depicted accurately? The Longest Day, Tora,Tora,Tora, Braveheart, Glory.
Return of the Kingg and the first Matrix are all that leap immediately to mind. Also, I have to admit, watching Underworld leaves me in the mood to kick ass.
@MacBean I agree about Underworld. I didn’t even think about it at first!
I second Braveheart and LOTR the Matrix Revolutions. However, are collapsing fight scenes into the definition of battle scenes? I feel like they emphasize different things (to get whoa overly serious about it. :-)). Battle scenes are generally more epic and about the event rather than the participants, whereas fight scenes are generally the reverse (intimate and character-driven).
If we ARE collapsing the fight scenes in, I second the Matrix (1 and 2) and throw in Fight Club.
Just to interject at this point. I concur with the Bastard up there ^ Particularly the opening scenes ram the horrors of warfare down your throat. Also I never got the whole Chuck Norris thing. I mean to me he looks like an old dude in a fat suit attempting unsuccessfully, to impress his dowager aunt.
@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard and @ucme got there first, I would also say Saving Private Ryan and yes, the opening scenes. Also Gallipoli would be somewhere near the top of my list too.
@lillycoyote Your impeccable taste shall not go unnoticed…..manifested in lurve for you :¬)
@iamthemob if your throwing in The Fight Club I want to nominate The Book of Eli. Kick ass fight scenes but no battle.
@Akua As stated in my details, fights are absolutely on the menu.
The 300. LOTR, Matrix, Band of Brothers…
When i was a young rebbel, i regularly went to the cinema with my brother to see Bud Spencer and Terence Hill movies.
Their fist fight were hilarious although when you re-view them now, they seem pretty ‘amateuristic’.
@Akua
Crap. I may have convinced myself, apparently, that “skimming” is “reading.”
@ucme Flattery will get you everywhere. :-) A couple more offerings. I don’t know if you know this one, When Trumpets Fade, about the Battle of Hurtgen Forest (U.S. vs. the Germans, Belgium, WWII), but it’s excellent. I pretty much just about the battle it’s one long battle scene. I was produced by HBO, around the same time as Saving Private Ryan and I don’t know if it ever got a theatrical release but I would put it’s quality up any of the rest of them. And though I’m generally about battles that actually happened rather than space battles and fist fights, and you asked about movies, I think the battle scene that opens the first episode of Firefly would be somewhere on the top of my list.
@lillycoyote
Revealing myself to be an utterly ridiculous fanboy…are you talking about the originally aired first episode of Firefly or the intended pilot of Firefly (which I believe was aired later in the season). I believe it’s the pilot and not first aired, but correct me if I’m wrong and feel free to dispense the ridicule.
You know… Star Wars and Starship Troopers had some pretty epic battle scenes.
Hard boiled, especially the Hospital shoot out scene
@iamthemob I am, of course, referring to whichever one the Firefly purists; whichever one the smartest, most knowledgeable fans of the show would be referring to. :-) No, I’m referring to whichever one is the one on the series DVD boxed set that I own. That’s the only one I’m familiar with.
@lillycoyote
Was that to my question. If so, then you mean the pilot – how Joss Whedon would have wanted it friggin fox network execschanging his vision.
@iamthemob Yes, sorry, I do that sometimes, address things to the wrong person; I fixed the salutation. I didn’t discover the show until it was already off the air, when I picked up the boxed set because why? I thought I just picked it up, but now I’m thinking that I heard about the show when the buzz about the movie? I don’t remember. I was just happy I found it.
I’d say Excalibur, from 1981. That the special effects back then were much more modest than today gives the fight scenes in there a touch of realism which is actually frightening, and highlights the power of Excalibur when they do use special effects.
I imagine that knights bashing one another around in real life more or less looked like it did in the movie.
But if we want flash value and awesome factor, nothing beats just about every fight in the LotR films. Also, Kruger and Ramirez duking it out on that crumbling staircase was pretty damn epic, I’d say.
As I recall, Kenneth Branagh’s film Henry V had some great battle scenes—not to mention lots of great Shakespearean dialogue.
O.K. one more. I would argue that this is certainly one of, if not the most compelling and nuanced battle scenes in modern cinema.
Star wars took far far to long to be mentioned in this question lol
@uberbatman
Yeah – I posted earlier on and didn’t think about it. I dropped the ball. We all did on that one.
I usually don’t care much for battle scenes, but i did like the battle scene in the movie 300.
General
Saving Private Ryan (1998) Come and See (1985)
Enter the Dragon (1973) Master of the Flying Guillotine (1975)
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) The Mark of Zorro (1920)
Fight Club (1999) The Warriors (1979)
The Matrix Trilogy The Bourne Trilogy
Single Scene
Heat (1995)
Millers Crossing (1990)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
They Live (1988)
Wings (1927)
Critics’ Choice – Single Scene
The Wild Bunch (1969)
Ben-Hur (1959)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Seven Samurai (1954)
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Cutting room floor
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Braveheart (1995) Michael Collins (1996)
The Cruel Sea (1952) Das Boot (1981)
Master Killer (1978) (aka The 36th Chamber of Shaolin) Magnificent Butcher (1979)
Bloodsport (1988) Prodigal Son (1982)
The Matrix Trilogy Kill Bill I/II
Single Scene
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) (“no man shall pass”)
Fantasia (1940) (the broom vs. Mickey)
Happy Gilmore (1996) “the price is wrong bitch”
The 13th Warrior (1999)
Glory (1989)
@Akua – Just saw The Book of Eli – very badass dude!
@ipso He wasn’t no joke. And he was blind as a bat! Nobody knew that!
@ucme – precisely. I think his mule sequence in Fist Full of Dollars is better, but I use that too much.
Notice how the general section movies had to “fight”. I need to get a life.
@ipso Yeah another Leone great. Never tire of watching those movies….ever!!
hands down lord of the rings movies
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