A "hot topic" in the stage combat industry is whether or not
big budgets means better fight scenes. The answer to this is not as straight forward as it may initially appear. When it comes to creating a professional film project, the more experienced Stunt Coordinators/Fight Directors will likely charge more for their time than an amateur. Something to consider, however, is the fact that these incredibly knowledgable Stunt Coordinators/ Fight Directors also bring years of training and experience to the table. If a film has a higher budget, the producers can afford to hire the best of the best and therefore have better results, right? Not always! There is nothing stopping a group of excellent stage combatants from coming together to create some epic battles to film for fun and for free. While the overall quality of the footage may not be nearly as good as that of a feature film, would the impact of the fight itself suffer? Well, let's see.
First let’s look at a motion picture with a huge budget. Despite being ten years old, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, is still an incredibly popular movie. This film’s estimated gross earnings since
it’s release in 2003 is over 300 millions dollars, earning more than double the
amount it took to create the production as a whole (
The general plot of the film is as the name would imply: there are pirates in
the Caribbean who are cursed on a ghost pirate ship. Needless to say, there are many
epic battles to choose from when it comes to analyzing stage combat. One of my absolute favorites from this movie is
between William Turner, our leading hero played by Orlando Bloom, and Captain
Jack Sparrow, our leading pirate played by Johnny Depp. In advance, I’d like to apologize because the "snip" you are about to watch is from the spanish version of the movie. None of the choreography is different, however, the “witty banter” laced into the fight is spoken in Spanish.
This is an incredible fight.
The choreography is clever, the actors move as thought they are really
fighting, and the timing of everything is pristine. I like that the camera angles are generally
consistent and don’t change sporadically. Nothing drives me more insane than an
editor covering up poor fighting with constant changing of camera angles. Here,
while the camera angles do change, they change in ways that add flavor to the
fight, rather than “covering up” for mistakes.
That being said, both of these
actors are experienced stage combatants. Additionally, both Orlando Bloom and
Johnny Deep are incredibly talented actors. This affords them the ability to
fight like their characters would rather than how they, themselves, would. That
is to say, both actors fully embrace the heat of the moment and fight like they
mean it while still remaining safe.
Because the actors express their characters
so well through their combat, the audience then receives a full story of who
these people are. For example, Will
Turner is fighting passionately; he wants to kill Jack Sparrow. This is obvious
through the swiftness and effort put into his movements and facial expressions.
Captain Jack Sparrow, on the other hand, just wants to get away and would rather be
out the door than fighting Will. This can be seen by the fact that throughout
the fight, Captain Jack seizes every moment possible to get away. Unfortunately
for him, Will keeps getting in the middle of Jack and the door.
It scares me to imagine the horror that would have been the result if these roles had not been cast appropriately. Because of the complexity of the
choreography, there is a lot of room for messing up and getting hurt. Luckily,
these two actors knew what they were doing and the Stunt Coordinator was
inventive enough to use their capabilities in all the right ways.
Next time, I will look at a film with little to no budget
and see how it compares.
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