you know what i can take a hint spoilers
for a movie that is nearly as old as i
am my name is jill bearup and my
favorite way to spend my non-lockdown
free time is hitting my friends with
swords or staffs or
my fists in a choreographed fashion
otherwise known as stage combat and that
is the lens through which we look at
stuff here on this channel
so if you're interested in that you know
which button to hit you won't get far in
the world of stage combat without
someone referencing the princess bride
and particularly this
the flashiest and most complex of its
fights here's the first thing you need
to know
audiences in general do not really want
a realistic sword fight
realistic sword fights tend to be fast
subtle
and indeed over quite quickly if you
want to tell a story with your fight and
we assume that you do
then you need some time for that arc to
develop there is a
realistically long shall we say sword
fight in the honor harrington novel flag
in exile
and it's two moves long now our
protagonist Honor is special for
a number of reasons which are not really
relevant here but the point is
if you're in a novel then you can have
three four five paragraphs of build up
and the climactic sword duel can take
two moves and that's kind of okay
especially if you're in the military
sci-fi genre where you can have
climactic space battles as your big set
pieces
in a visual medium you might need to
stretch it out a little bit
now if you're in a group fight then it's
fine if you dispatch multiple opponents
very quickly but your audience would
likely be quite disappointed if you
build up and build up to this climactic
battle and then oop done
in a visual medium there are lots of
things that you might want to do with
your fight
tell the story teach us about the
characters show off what your actors or
stunt performers can do show off your
cinematography or location or editing
style
and of course entertain us while you're
doing it and the princess bride is a
great example of this
the film itself is a fantasy adventure
comedy i mean that's what wikipedia says
and i have no reason to object to this
designation the tone
(and this will be important) is fond and
playful and combines an
archness which suggests that they're in
on the joke because it's a parody with a
sincerity that stops it from feeling
forced and cynical in general the more
epic you wish a fight to be the more
careful you have to be
about tone i unapologetically love the
throne room fight in the last jedi but
i do acknowledge that on a technical
level it is
shall we say perhaps over ambitious
which doesn't matter to me very much
because i love what they're going for
and i love the character moment that it
represents but is
very very difficult for other people and
they don't like it at all the princess
bride has no such issues
everybody knows that it is family
entertainment if the swords are a bit
wobbly or the set is a bit 80s well it
was a parody
from the 80s so we're going to be a bit
more forgiving the circumstances which
have led us to this fight
are as follows or for the
traditionalists among you
the plot to this point goeth thusly our
heroine Buttercup has been kidnapped
because reasons by a mercenary gang who
most of the sicilian the purported
brains of the outfit and a genuinely
nasty piece of work
inconceivable Fezzik the rhyme loving
giant and Inigo Montoya
a somewhat sober spanish swordsman try
saying that five times fast they take
Buttercup away on a boat but are pursued
by a mysterious man in black
later revealed to be wesley and climb
the cliffs of insanity to get away the
sicilian leaves Inigo to fight the man
in black
while he and Fezzik escape with buttercup
and now we need to talk about build up
inigo is a great swordsman "i'm going to
duel him left-handed"
hence the left-handed comment he's in no
hurry to catch up with his colleagues
and he likes a challenge
so he waits "I hate waiting" impatiently for
the man in black to climb the cliffs and
they have a very
honest exchange in which wesley we'll
just call him wesley we all know it's
wesley i told you there would be
spoilers
says that maybe Inigo could throw him a
rope Inigo says yeah i guess i could
but you probably wouldn't take it
because i'm waiting to kill you
"that does put a damper on our
relationship" indeed i love the dialogue
in this movie but then
"i swear on the soul of my father domingo
montoya
you will reach the top alive." "throw me
the rope" this should be a fight between
a pirate and a mercenary it should be
brutal and utilitarian
and ugly inigo should have dropped him
the rope and if he were foolish enough
to take it cut him down or at the very
least
dragged him up to the top and then
immediately run him through but inigo is
not that kind of character
this is not that kind of film and this
is definitely not the tone they wish to
strike
because there are baddies in the world
of the princess bride and you should
never turn your back on them
but there is also true love and respect
and trust and sportsmanship and quality
dialogue and just to underscore this
while waiting for the fight to begin
Inigo hands Westley his sword to look at
while he monologues about his backstory
"i've never seen its equal"
character you were expecting a scrappy
fight between two bad men
well you're getting an honorable duel
between gentlemen and that is signaled
by these exchanges before the fight
starts, by the tone and style of the
fight and the dialogue therein
we're getting there i promise and even
by the swords themselves because the
swords are just kind of
wrong for a fight between a pirate and
mercenary look at that long thin blade
and
that sparkly sparkly hilt by film
convention you would expect the dread
pirate
westley to be carrying a cutlass or
something similar maybe something like
jack sparrow's hanger instead both he
and Inigo carry swords which look more
like
rapiers the swords they're using i don't
think are actual rapiers
like say this one because this weighs
1.1 kilos and
trust me the blade does not wobble quite
so enthusiastically as theirs do i know
that both of these guys are
significantly stronger than i am but
no i'm thinking those swords are
probably
lighter than this one but this is a
fantasy movie made in the 80s before
hema and historical reconstruction of
swordplay techniques was really
taking off so are you going to nitpick
it i'm not going to nitpick it this
video is going to be long enough already
suffice it to say inigo and westley fight
a duel with swords which look
gentlemanly and we use this as another
visual clue that they are in fact
honorable men we also know if we're
paying attention that inigo starts with
his left hand on purpose and so we're
set up already
to think that nothing is quite as it
seems note that Inigo carries a sword
on his left hip because
he is right-handed but Westley while he's
carrying his sword behind him for the
climb
has it back and to the right suggesting
that he's left-handed
A+ attention to your fake details
there and then after this climb this
monologue this underlining of the swords
being used
they fight. on this channel we spend a
possibly unreasonable amount of time
asking
what is the takeaway from this fight?
what is it supposed to tell us about
the world the characters the plot the
tone that the film wishes to strike and
the answer seems to be that the tone
they're going for is
sheer joie de vivre. we go from humor to
sincerity to
sportsmanship to soul bearing to sheer
joy
joy and flynning because the princess
bride is a parody adventure movie and it
genuinely genuinely loves the movies
which it is parodying and that is part
of why we love it so much
and frankly no swashbuckling adventure
would be complete without a sword fight
or two on this channel we call the
sections into which fights are divided
for
learning and sometimes shooting purposes
phrases because they're like
dialogue or conversation or music
whatever you like this fight is
somewhere in the region of 230 moves
long
we will not be going into detail with
all of the phrases because
we would be here all day for context the
number of moves you would expect
in a beginner level fight for an exam
board like the apc or actt
is 20 moves the largest number of moves
you would expect in an exam
at the honors or specialization level is
50 something. 230
give or take if you're interested in a
literal blow-by-blow account of the
fight there is a blog called not gonna
hit you
and she breaks it down move by move and
it's
really really detailed it's wonderful the
choreographers for this fight were peter
diamond and bob
anderson and how to describe them
peter diamond taught errol flynn and
burt lancaster how to sword fight for
screen and you may also have seen his
work in
the original star wars trilogy or in
raiders of the lost ark
or maybe highlander among many many
others
as for former olympic fencer bob
anderson like peter diamond he's
basically
the john williams of fight choreography
you probably wouldn't know him by
sight but if you've seen an iconic film
with sword fighting in hollywood in the
last 50 years you've probably seen his
work either
in front of the camera as a stunt
performer he was darth vader in empire
strikes back and return of the jedi or
behind the camera as the stunt
coordinator bob anderson for example did
not do all of the choreography for curse
of the black pearl
but they did bring him in to polish up
the fights and
give everyone that extra edge no pun
intended the thing about being a fight
choreographer is that you've got to work
with what you've got i mean that sounds
obvious but you are limited by both the
whims of your director and also by the
skill of your stunt performers and your
actors
and the amount of time that you have to
film and where you're supposed to be
filming and the vision in the director's
head
it turned out that these two were both
quite skilled and really
into practicing in fact they got so good
that uh
they got onto the set and they performed
their sword fight and
they looked at their director rob reiner
and he said is that it? and so back to
the drawing board they all went to
create
learn and shoot a 230 move fight that
included
among other things left-handed fighting
stunt doubles but only for the flippy
parts as much of the set as they could
cram
in and as much flash and excitement as
possible remember that i said that the
curse of the black pearl swordfight
might be my favorite movie sword fight
but if not it was definitely in the top
five
okay this is one of the things that
keeps it off the top spot the others
you'll
just have to wait for i think the setup
has gone on long enough let us break it
down into sections because as i said the
phrases are too numerous and we'd be
here all day but we do need to talk
about the arc
again the fight begins with tests
it's quick but it's also casual look at
wesley's guard he's not concerned both
of them are so unconcerned in fact that
they're fighting with their offhands but
in at least one case
we don't know that yet attack attack
slash but neither of them move
significantly circle
attack attack diagonal slash and Inigo
smiles
Inigo is in it for the thrill of
swordsmanship and it's probably been a
while since he fought anyone as skilled
as westley i would call this
two phrases but they come together to
make one section which
shows us that they're testing each other
rather like the beginning of that curse
of the black pearl fight actually the
second section is a bout on level ground
which is mostly textbook advance
retreat attack parry riposte when we cut
in close again just in case we're
getting too linear and fencing-esque for
the audience we add in a head slash and
a spin linear attacks are all very well
and it's not the biggest set in the
world but
let's add some flavor you might again
note a similar approach
in the curse of the black pearl fight
and yes spinning in a real fight is
generally contraindicated however spins
look cool and dramatic and so
of course we're gonna have some
especially in a scene which is basically
we're dueling but we're having a great
time doing it
swashbuckling and all that buckle that
swash or
to be more accurate swash that buckler
and as i said in the curse of the black pearl video
you can provide interest and
distinctiveness and an arc in the fight
by dialing the complexity
up or down and so far we've been on
level ground with no talking like it's a
fencing match so the third section
is a bout on rocky ground and there is
dialogue "you're using Bonetti's defense
against me, eh?"
and i love the dialogue and then there's
a dramatic flip for a little extra
excitement
the first two sections have Inigo and
westley testing each other on a technical
level
this section is a little more practical
and psychological can you talk and fight
and
how do you do outside of the fencing
salle when the ground is uneven and rocky
after the flip the dialogue continues
with professional compliments "you are
wonderful"
and Inigo is pushed ever closer to the
cliffs oh
tense what's going to happen were you
paying attention earlier time for your
first fake out
"I am not left-handed!" if you weren't really
paying very close attention to what
Inigo said right before the fight this
is going to be more surprising for you
but either way it's still fun
inigo's hand swap has renewed his energy
and confidence and westley is in trouble
to underscore the seriousness there's no
dialogue whilst westley is forced to
fight up the stairs retreating to seek
an environmental advantage but lest you
get too worried in this u-rated movie or
g-rated movie for the americans in the
audience westley speaks again
you're amazing we're still concerned but
you know tone again we're holding that
tension at a children's movie
appropriate level
is it over now? "i'm not left-handed
either!" dramatic cheesy trumpets
westley's confidence is back and the
fight is evenly matched again
no dialogue for a bit and then westley
disarms Inigo but lest you worry we get
too serious
dramatic flipping performed by jeff
davis such drama llamas the pair of you
i love it who are you and there's that
perfectly balanced tone again keeping
you suspended between excitement and
comedy this is as i said about a million
years ago
a duel between honorable men inigo isn't
angry or even dismayed at this point
he's just in awe "i must know" "get used to
disappointment"
"Ok" and did i mention how much i love
the dialogue i feel like i should
mention again
how much i love the dialogue the last
part is my favorite because it's the
most ridiculous
we go traipsing all over the set there
are dramatic poses sword catches
flourishes that are incredibly silly but
you just don't care and yet underlying
all of the 'look at me ma i'm sword
fighting!' is the arc of the fight
nearing its conclusion we've tested each
other out we've swapped hands so that
both men are now fighting at full
capacity while Inigo is the one who
initiates this last exchange
it's quickly apparent that westley is the
one in control and Inigo becomes more
and more desperate as he's forced to
retreat until he's doing things which
don't even really make any sense but do
signal that he's getting near to the end
of what he can do i mean there's that
wonderful bit where they both change
hands and i love it but
look at westley's calm while Inigo flails
westley knows he's going to win and then
he
cuts off a lock of inigo's hair a
callback
but a relatively gentle one too how the
six-fingered man gave an eleven-year-old
boy two facial scars both of them have
been confident from the start that
they'd win this fight
"you seem a decent fellow i hate to kill
you" but it seems that westley's is the
confidence which is not misplaced
"you seem a decent fellow i hate to die"
and again again again
there is that tone "i would as soon destroy a
stained glass window as an artist like
yourself"
because westley appreciates a sportsman
however since he can't have Inigo
following him
you know the rest the princess bride
does many things well but i think its
greatest achievement
is that tone the fight isn't a movie
suitable for children so it can't be too
scary but it needs to entertain so there
needs to be flash
there has to be substance to keep us
engaged but they let it run for as long
as they can because we're just having
such a good time
the fight shines such a light on
westley's character that Inigo
instinctively knows that he will help
later on in the film westley tells him
nothing
not about buttercup not about who he is
or why he's there or any of that
but it doesn't matter because of this
shared experience of trying to kill each
other
Inigo instinctively trusts him and has
that trust rewarded
the fight builds from test to fencing
match to unexpected hand swapping
to unexpected hand swapping again to
flash
to desperation to climax without once
taking its eye off that tone that we
need and it varies its tone between
drama and comedy without ever straying
too far in one direction
it's iconic for a reason it's super
duper long but it's constantly changing
things up to keep it fresh and yet it
never changes things so quickly
that it becomes bewildering and the
length of time we can spend watching
uncut swordplay really helps with that i
haven't really talked about the editing
but it's very nearly perfect
long sections of uninterrupted swordplay
enough cuts that it doesn't feel
stagnant but not so many that were
confused could you even imagine this
fight with the shortcuts popular in
modern films
could you imagine the nightmare of a 230
move fight with over 100 shots in it
it just wouldn't work it just it just
would not work in terms of choreography
we mix it up as well
we have short phrases but we also have
phrases which are extremely long we have
linear fencing and then we have uneven
ground
we have spins we have flips we have
dialogue left hand versus left hand
left hand versus right hand right hand
versus right hand
increased confidence for Inigo increased
confidence for Westley it's silly but
it's not too silly it's dramatic but
it's not
too dramatic it's funny but not in a
forced way
it's sincere but it's not sappy tone is
everything in parody and the princess
bride is a master class in how to get
there and see now i'm getting sappy
okay this is the point in the video
where if you're a three dollar patron or
above
i'm going to tell you about the projects
that i have planned
for release in november yes i'm i'm
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patron but you do read my youtube
community post then you might be able to
guess the topic
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see you next time
