Not a hunting rant, but a petty cavil about the film I am half watching at them moment, namely 'The Mask of Zorro'. It's a fine, rip roaring adventure but in the words of 'The Streets' there's one thing that's really, really annoying me.
The fencing.
When Zorro goes en garde with the rapier he point his sword away from his target. Wrong, wrong and thrice wrong. If you are going to hit somebody, then you need to point your sword (and the point will beat the edge nine times out of ten) at either their throat or their belly. Pointing it up the air just gives your opponent a handy semaphore as to the line of your attack.
Also, you are trying to hit the man not the sword he is carrying.
Oh, and bending your wrist removes all the power from a sword thrust.
Compare and contrast with the sword work in 'The Three Musketeers' which got it right.
Saturday, October 02, 2004
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2 comments:
Is that "The Mask of Zorro", starring Antonio Banderas - which is rubbish - or "The Mark of Zorro" starring Tyrone Power - which is ace?
I just wanted to settle that it wasn't a typo. I mean, Basil and Tyrone both knew how to fence and all, but maybe they were doing a special Hollywood style for the big screen.
If you haven't seen the 2nd version (the original is from 1920 with Douglas Fairbanks!) then you should. Anything with Tyrone is brilliant. I also recommend "The Black Swan".
It was the Antonio Banderas one, and funnily enough the fencing scene later in the film showed Catherine Zeta Jones doing it correctly. I know the earlier film, and I agree that it was smashing. I do like the Errol Flynn style of screen sword play, but it is always more about flashy moves rather than actually trying to hit somebody.
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