Two Stood Against Many

"Crom, I have never prayed to you before. I have no tongue for it. No one, not even you, will remember if we were good men or bad. Why we fought, or why we died. All that matters is that two stood against many. That's what's important!"  
- Conan the Barbarian (1982)

Scenes depicting a battle of a few brave heroes against a horde of enemies continue to be used in fiction, being drawn to such stories seems to be in human nature. The pathos, sympathy for the underdog, admiration of skill and bravery, all add to the appeal.

Doing such a scene in film is difficult for various reasons, most related to the fact we as viewers recognize certain aspects going against what we perceive as "realistic". 

Film makers get away with some of them - in massive battles there always seems to be a space around the hero, a few metres of air to allow for fancy moves and to give him time to recover while enemies approach one by one.
Still, there are different approaches and layers to such a scene and watching several of my favourites, I thought about them and why they do or don't work.

1) Intent and confidence 

This is such a subtle thing, but fairly important in my opinion. Holywood movies sometimes suffer for this, because stuntmen playing the bad guys are simply much more skilled than the hero played by a famous actor. The years of training and muscle memory show in their movements - the hero supposedly slaughtering multiple enemies with ease has to be carefully photographed from specific angles and helped by frequent cutting between shots, to hide flaws and enhance the way his moves look and feel. At the same time, the baddies move much better and have to visibly restrain themselves to not rush all in at the same time, they have to telegraph their moves to a ridiculous degree etc. They're also very determined to run at the hero and die, no matter how many of their comrades were butchered before their eyes.

Watching Japanese chambara movies recently, I noticed this aspect of them to be rather different. 

Watch this clip of Toshiro Mifune's samurai roles. Mifune being the protagonist is extremely good at being confident, the ultimate badass. He changes between cocky, goofy and serious, but look at the way he moves - low centre of gravity, upright body, look of disgust on his face. Now watch the baddies - lowly gangsters and stoic samurai, they notice their comrades being cut down, they waver, flail their arms and shuffle and fall back in fear. This is how you put many enemies around the hero and not get him swarmed instantly!

2) Movement

Nothing looks more fake than the hero standing in one spot and having the enemies run into his sword one by one. Most successful one-against-many scenes have the protagonist move around a lot. 
- you need to minimize the amount of enemies able to strike you at once. Move to make them get in each other's way, move to a place where they can only reach you one by one etc.
- if you strike them first, you win. This is related to intent - it takes experience and training to get over the fear of being hurt. Most people will not rush in on you. This is a very interesting part of group dynamics and psychology. Watch videos of riots or police training for riots and you'll see what I mean. Or, if you've ever participated in fighting games/sports like SCA, you know what I mean. Even if it's not your real life at stake, you move without thinking - stay closer to a friendly group, don't get surrounded, have someone else to take a hit for you etc.

Warning, this is a very disturbing video of real people getting seriously hurt!!!
(violence starts around the 7th minute)

In this clip, a single man armed with a knife manages to stab several (!!) policemen carrying guns before they take him down. Even trained professionals don't always respond as we'd expect. How does he manage such a thing? It's odd, he just runs from one guy to the next real fast and stabs them. Same way Toshiro Mifune cuts down those gangsters.
In this video a supposed boxer takes on multiple opponents in a street fight. Notice the continuous movement and how he moves them as well, to always keep just one guy in front.

So what are some successful examples of a good use of movement/intent/confidence trinity? 

Conan and the battle of the mounds does it well. Both Conan and Subotai hit and run from incoming enemies and they use the complex battlefield to break line of sight, ambush and avoid getting mobbed.

The landing attack in Troy is also quite good. Brad Pitt is helped by camera angles and shot cuts a LOT though. He's an athletic guy, the choreography is very fine, but some time ago I've seen this fight being shot in a behind-the-scenes video and it looked much less impressive, almost silly. Notice he also moves all the time - running, turning and (famously) jumping.

You can see great emphasis on intent and fighter morale as well as a lot of hero movement in old samurai movies - Hideo Gosha's for example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_eddPRh5eY   - Sword of the Beast
http://youtu.be/naZ5toWI2_M?t=1h19m50s  - Three Outlaw samurai

I've been thinking about the ways I could use this in illustrations, because last stand and one-against-many scenes are very common in fantasy art. Perhaps some of the enemies might be visibly wavering, shaken or terrified? It's easy to settle on a very static "none shall pass" pose for the protagonist, because it's simple to build a powerful composition around it. But perhaps I could try something more dynamic with a hero in the middle of a movement?

What are your favourite one-against-many scenes? Got any examples of really bad ones? Share in the comments! :)

Sword bashing, again

I really like Game of Thrones. Even though i criticized the designs in the show, I think it's a success and I'm enjoying it greatly.

It was suggested to me that I should write another GoT post, this time about swords and swordfighting, since we've seen a few fights already.

Before I start, here's a tiny bit of quick art I did today for The Last Days' mod screen.

Swords

Swords are an extremely interesting subject, one that I'm never bored with. If I get to talk about swords, it's difficult to stop me. But I'm just a reasonably self-educated layman. (By this I'd like to apologize to any true experts who might stumble upon this and be horrified or angered. Sorry!)

What do I think about the swords on this show? In short - I like them.

It's not Lord of the Rings I must admit, the sword design is much less original, but perhaps that fits better into Westeros.

I recommend watching this short artisan video interview with the show's swordmaker:

You can see quite a few of the swords in there. 

The Swords

The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword.

- the arakhs of the Dothraki look interesting. Very cool sickle blades, even if much heavier than I imagined them while reading the book. 

- most of the swords you see on minor characters (Theon, Robb, various soldiers of the great houses, Jorah Mormont, the longsword Ned wears that's not Ice etc.) are very nice. Very historical looking, nothing odd about them, looking "right". A good mix of arming swords and longswords.

- Joffrey's sword isn't on screen much, but it's a good looking prince-sword. Very ornate. It may be Joff's size, but it seems it may be a bit big for him, the pommel is quite large.

- Jaime's sword is quite similar to Joff's. Fits well with the character, the blade has a nice shape, but something about the button-like ends of the guard I find unpleasant.

- The Ice is interesting. I couldn't quite imagine the blade being as wide as Martin describes it in the book - wide as man's palm. But it works, it looks like a sword. The Ice and sword of Gregor Clegane share one detail I find a bit puzzling - the place where the guard meets the handle. I don't think this is a real historical detail, this prolonged tube coming out of the crosspiece. It's not wrong, I can imagine a sword being assembled like this, it's just unusual.

- Sword of The Mountain is a bloody beast. It's definitely much closer to real great swords than to a longsword.

- The Needle is pretty. Quite similar to how I imagined it. Although in context with the other sword styles it's a bit questionable. But hey, it's fantasy.

The effect of swords

All men are made of water. Do you know this? If you pierce them, the water leaks out. And they die.

I like that they use sharp swords in detail shots (when Joff cuts Mycah) - so many films only use "battle ready" swords with edges like ice skates. 

I really liked the little talk between Jorah Mormont and the Dothraki companion cavalryman about different uses of the sword and advantages of armour. What I didn't like though was Jorah's remark that broadswords are better against armour, because they allow you to pierce plate. This is simply not true. If he said "pierce armour", I'd nod, because you can pierce mail. This was a minor detail that only the geeks will catch I guess.

The show sadly didn't avoid this issue in other instances as well - Ned's guardsmen are killed by thrown spears that apparently pierce their mail shirts, padded armour underneath and a leather coat of plates over the mail. Wow, Lannister guards must be strong as bulls.

During the hillmen ambush the old master of arms from Winterfell gets slashed (or sliced rather) across the back, and it somehow hurts him. Do Stark armours have only leather vests with mail sleeves? If yes, that's dumb. If there's mail underneath, that attack would've mildly irritated him at most.

In another case, they managed to handle this well though. (which is puzzling) In the fight with the Lannister guards, ser Jory and Ned Stark both aim at unprotected necks (TOLD YOU, LANNISTERS!  Totally called it in the last blog posts! HA!) and between the breastplates and the plates skirts, which I found very nice.

The use of Swords

That is a grip. You are not holding a battleaxe!

I've read quite harsh criticism of swordfighting in the show, by both casual watchers and fencers.

And while I find it mostly unfair, there are certain points where I agree with the critics.

Firstly, I'll post videos I find relevant:

- interview with Buster Reeves - the fight choreographer:

Essentially he's right. It's difficult to do an original fight, people recognize moves they've seen before even if they're not fighters themselves. Still, I think more realistic fights would look original, because most of what we've been seeing in movies is crap.

He did manage to put a lot of character into each person's fighting style, something film people often talk about, but rarely actually do.

Now for the fights:

Jon "trains" - while not realistic swordfighting, it's effective for the scene. There's too much unnecessary sword clashing and smacking, but we do get the idea Jon is showing off, teaching these peasants a lesson. Showing them how bad and inappropriate their reflexes are, that they cannot counterattack, or do anything past the first strike.

Hill clansmen ambush - a good show of movie fighting. I LOVE that the hillmen use slingers! I'm also going to like Bronn. He's no fancy swordmaster, his fighting skill is obviously gained from battles, streetfights and skirmishes. Anything goes, but he's cocky enough to do that rather unusual artery slice on the first guy. The old master of arms is slightly disappointing, but the editing grants him more mobility and speed than he actually has.

Arya trains with Syrio - I love this scene. I must warn you, what they do can hardly be called swordfighting. Too much swirling and turning and unnecessary movement. But Syrio is showing off and Arya is an untrained kid, so they can be excused. The actor playing Syrio has apparently been training with William Hobbs, a choreographer responsible for the fights in Rob Roy and The Duellists. Sadly, it's not showing yet. I have hopes though.

Still, despite my nitpicks, the scene works almost miraculously well. I like the actors, the music, the pacing, the dialog...it's great.

The Cleganes fight it out - probably my least favourite fight of the show so far. I understand what they wanted to do here, it's obvious Sandor isn't really attacking, he's pushing his sword onto Gregor's close to Gregor's body, thus trying to prevent him swinging it. But Mountain's sword is too heavy, or the armour restrained their movement too much. It's slow, the shots are awkwardly cut together and it doesn't look very good. I like the ending with the kneeling, that's neat.

Starks vs. Lannisters - a great fight in my opinion. I mentioned it before, Jory and Ned slaying those guards are perfect. Jory is confident and capable, it's a great shame he had to go like this. I would've edited the eye stabbing a bit quicker, he seems too helpless.

The duel between Ned and Jaime is also very good. I've read people talk about spinning and pushing, disliking it. I think it's maybe the most realistic fight in the show. 

I like that they don't use rigid edge blocks, most attacks seem to be caught on the flat, deflected, or pushed aside by cutting into the flat. There's a lot of character from both fighters - Jaime is flamboyant and cocky, playing with Ned most of the time. Ned is hunched, almost like a brawler, very intensive.

Yes, the distance is a bit iffy at times, to allow for a lot of movement around each other that looks good on camera. But they thrust, they cut in nice controlled arches - in the end I only wished they started to wrestle, or halfsword instead of separating again.

I'm not sure how much more fighting we're going to get, but I'm not disappointed, not entirely. So far.

Next time, I think I could post a few links for people who'd like to know how swords were really made and used. 

(and leave the explaining to people more fit for the task than I am.)