"More like fights most people can relate to", 'proceeds to show a guy savagely mauling another guy with his fists and a cannonball'. Uhh, Matt, mate, is there something you haven't been telling us?
But it wouldn't normally get to the point of you pommelling the hell out of somebody head with a hard object until he died. XD Hench, most people wouldn't relate to that unless Matt has something he haven't been telling us.
Absolutely, next to Vikings it`s my favourit action series. I especially liked the development of John Silver. I first thought Luke Arnolds was the wrong guy for this role, but i couldn`t have been more wrong.
Agreed. Was such a great show! I got in the mood to re-watch it again the other day and even though I knew the story already, it still gripped me from the first episode again.
@@gehtdianschasau8372 Much better than Vikings in my opinion. I think that Vikings became a joke after 3 seasons. Especially when show runners introduced asian female and ragnar became an addict. Sails kept me going until end of the show, and I like how it ended.
I can't believe they tried to copyright strike this, this is some of the best advertisement of the show they could ever hope for. I bet a good 90% of viewers here wouldn't particularly care about an ordinary ad, but are now much more interested in the series. It certainly worked on me!
I never have any problems with some copyright holders (eg. HBO and Disney are pretty good), but Starz took a whole month to say that I could not use their material for a review... So I tried again and it got through the second time.
This is interesting because since all the minor mistakes/potential gripes are fairly simple, you can still easily believe the characters rather than the choreographers made the errors.
Exactly. In a real fight in real time, the fighters in the struggle are not always going to make the "best" choices. They are reacting to their opponent and trying to get any advantage they can under very tight circumstances.
The mistakes aren't even that bad, honestly. To me, this looks like a good saber/cutlass fight. I would have preferred that the sword killed the opponent, but I'm fine with a cannonball doing the job.
For those interested in Black Sails after watching this ... enjoy. I have to say, Black Sails is one of my favorite shows of the past few years. It is a very well written existential character development show, so don't expect every episode to be packed with physical action, but there's always something going on.
Captain Flint looking directly into the camera at the end of the fight was perfect way to finish the fight. The characters brutality was really showed by seeing the whites of his eyes and his pearly teeth being contrasted against everything else being a bloody mess. Amazingly well choreographed.
I like how the mistakes the fighters made are the kind a tired fighter would make. I also love how so much was going on, but they don't confuse you with so many jump cuts. The director lets you see what is happening. I might start watching Black Sails now.
That is why many techniques in martial arts are for drills or academic knowledge and not for actual use which many mistake for use or being able to train them into second nature, simply because human basic nature will take over trained second nature when the senses are overloaded.
As my instructor said, you need to train your inner caveman to be a scientist. The reason why you drill in techiniques so many times is so that it overides and replaces your body's natural instincts (for example: training your hands quickening moving up cover head from an incoming punch response into a boxing stance response). What many people who haven't practiced any kind of martial art or only practiced very briefly usually don't understand is that the end goal is not think 10 moves ahead of your opponent and pick some overly complex techinique in the moment to try against your opponent. The goal is to drill enough functional techiniques into your head over years of training so that your brain can default to them and you don't have to think about doing them, you just do them, so that when you're brain is under extreme stress your body can just pull off those techiniques and guards and parries because you've drilled it into you. Hence Most HEMA or any functional martial art system's techiniques are usually relatively simple yet extremely functional for that reason, only having a few moves to each as opposed to having some absurd 15 step bullshit Ninjutsu techiniques that only work against a person standing still. For the more complicated yet useful stuff...you have to keep drilling it into your head even longer.
that's where muscle memory and training take over you don't remember it you do it based on Instinct people who've never had such situations and do not train wouldn't understand that though
They actually look like they were trying to hurt each other, moving into actual able to strike range, unlike most movie/tv sword fights which seem more about pretty dancing.
Glad someone else likes Black Sails. It's a really good show that very few people seem to know about.
7 ปีที่แล้ว +44
Hey Matt, if you like fights that "feels like real fight", I must admit the series "Rome" from HBO is the one to see. Their choregraphy is not always "historical" (since basically we don't know a lot about how romans fought) but it includes very frequently just anything that falls under the hand of the fighters with random initiatives, rage, fear and chaos in the same time. I loved that series for a lot of things (the story is epic even though not very historical) but the fights... man that was an adrenalin kick almost every episodes.
I sincerely believe that if it weren't for Rome, Game of Thrones series would never see the light of day. The experience HBO gained with the large scale production, the vast number of props and custom sets, and the management of an enormous budged (which ultimately led to Rome's premature cancellation) would all have been invaluable from the development point of view. As for the audience's side of the screen, Rome established a political drama in a historical (or pseudo-historical in GoT's case) setting as a valid and attractive premise, which had to go a long way towards justifying the expense to whoever's financially backing Game of Thrones.
Thanks - and yes Black Sails is very good after the first half of the first season. It is slow to get going, but from the last part of Season 1 onwards it's great.
I was never particularly interested in fencing, historical reconstructions or fighting in general. But your stuff is so cool and nicely presented that I keep returning here over and over again. Excellent job, keep doing it! If I ever visit England I will definitely want at least a short introductory course in this stuff at your school, just to know how it feels :) All the best!
Hey there Scholagladiatoria, a question for you :) Seeing as Pirates for the most part were not trained fighters like you are and the vast majority of their crews were civilians trying to survive. would the big windmilling over arm chop you talked about actually be that rare? These, I assume, are for the most part, untrained men, they wouldn't have done cutlass drills or fenced, save perhaps the Captains and some of their officers, so to see a wild swing like that which was so telegraphed he knew it was coming last week. I think it might actually happen.
I had a book on Pirates that had lots of details on their weapons too, they seem to have used pretty much everything you could think of for melee. Hatchets, long daggers, a whole manner of sword, but the Cutlass will forever be enshrined as the pirate weapon. So really the chaps fighting here would at best be semi-trained (probably self taught or learned through experience) and comparied to someone like you who's FAR more proficient than most real pirate Captains, then you could well see them doing more wild blows. I did like the use of the guard and how very physical it was. Very realistic. As beautiful as the swordplay in something like The Princess Bride was, it wasn't at all realistic as that was a very formal duel, not a winner takes all brawl the death as we saw in your vid.
*spoilers*I believe most of Flints men (he is fighting an usurper I believe), are relatively well trained and disciplined. Flint himself is militarily trained by the Royal Navy, and would value fighting skill and a training regimen. On the other hand, pirates were not the most eager and disciplined soldiers, seeing as thery did desert from service (whether from military or civilian vessel). I would guess there also is a division of labour on board, some are good fighters, while other are good sailors, cooks or serve other functions (much like the division of marines and sailors in the military).
Flint should be the one guy who wouldn't be doing it though, being a trained british officer. But I suppose it can be excused in this case, by arguing that he's tired, off balance and even on his knees.
Was the fight in Game of Thrones the one between Geoffreys cheek and Tyrions backhand? Myself i quite liked the one with Khal Drogo vs the Bacteria. I mean it wasn't a fair fight with him being outnumbered so heavily, but it had that gritty realism to it you don't see in TV that often.
The shores of Nassau are strong! Cool video, Matt. I love this show right up to the end. Any chance you'd review the fight Between Flint and Teach, that one stands out in my mind a lot, for some reason. Keep up the fine work!
What an absolutely brilliant series! I loved treasure island as a kid, I've read Captain Charles Johnson's account, and I loved how they handled the historical characters within this fiction. In particular, Blackbeard's death followed the narrative of how he died in battle particularly well, down to a more realistic interpretation of his final moments. I hope they do a spin off with Mary Read, Anne Bonney, and Jack Rackham.
Which one should I shoot? I can't tell them apart. Wait... I know, Someone should ask them a question only the real Matt would know. Like what is behind the Union Jack...
Toby Stephens vs. Pierce Brosnan in Die Another Day was one of my favorites. I wonder if Toby Stephens is a sword enthusiast or has had some training besides movie choreography. Pierce did damn good job too for that matter. The Choreography was excellent of course.
I really would like to see a review from you of the british beach encounter of the last episode in season 3. I found it was awesome to watch the redcoats not charging the defences but coldly build a battle line and use different portable infantry weapons to crush the pirate/slave defence walls. There was only one thing i wonder if it was an accurate technology of this period: The redcoats have some mini- mortars to shell above the defence wall of the pirates, ok, but the shells explodes just about 2 or 3 meters above the defenders and unleash deadly shrapnels in their lines. I could imagine it is possible that the best army of their time has such waepons in their arsenal, but i would really like to know. Maybe you have some more interesting insites of this battle. Btw: I love your channel, your gently and humorous style and your vast specialist knowledge about historic mililtary tactics and waeponry.
this fight accurately conveys a few points. It's better to be lucky than good (breaking the blade). close combat tends to be brutal and messy. and lastly, don't be afraid to improvise. good job on the review Matt, I loved this fight too.
The first episode is set around the year 1715. 100 years before the British Navy standardized their Cutlass drills. While Flint may have been a former Naval Officer during that period, his rank would have been due to birthright and social standing, not based upon any special training. Shipboard training for midshipman ( officers in training) would varied from ship to ship. Having myself engaged in many knock-down drag out fights with drug crazed suspects, I can tell you that much of your training and fine motor skills go by the wayside during a real life and death fight. Your body often reverts to big exaggerated movements after you have had your head smashed about a few times.
I suggest you read something like N.A.M. Rodger: The Wooden World. Royal Navy officers of the period were mostly in the Navy because they LACKED influence etc. The Navy was the one of the few areas where Gentlemen could succeed on merit. After all the sea is no respecter of social status and birthright. The RN was quite protective of this, Rodger highlights at least a couple of cases where people tried to interfere with the Navy's way of doing things and came a-cropper. This is an era when a pressed man who was once 'Flogged round the Fleet' could rise to Admiral, when a man who is believed to have been an escaped slave could retire as a Captain and when, later on, the son of an country Parson could rise to Vice Admiral and Viscount and die as the greatest naval hero his country has ever known. If birthright and social status were that important then officers would not have had to start their career at age 12 in order to ensure they had learnt all they needed by the time they came to undergo their professional examination for Lieutenant at age 17 or 18 (officially the earliest was 19). The professional examination had been in place since 1677, when one Samuel Pepys, Secretary to the Admiralty Commission, introduced it. As far as training in weapons goes, there was, as far as I know, no formal drill for firing the guns either. Yet men were trained to, and practised, firing them, with very evident results. Similarly training in hand weapons and other matters related to boarding actions was one of the things Captains would ensure the ordinary seamen underwent. Officers were expected to (and did - see Lt Maynard vs Edward Teach) lead Boarding Actions, it unlikely that Captains and other officers, at least the ones who sore action and survived, forgot to undertake training and carry out their own practise. These were days when combat was more than a theoretical possibility (and was actively sought out) and good performance in battle was a key way to ensure your advancement (and riches, though Prize Money). Dilettantes did not survive long against the twin threats of the sea and human enemies.
I agree, I have indeed read "An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy" by Rodger and more recently his book "Command of the Ocean". There was another of his books I was assigned to read back in 1981-82 when I was still in the Navy. Something about how the Admiralty worked. It was more text like and less entertaining to read. My point is that statistically speaking there is no particular reason to believe that this {television character} would have been a great blade duelist. Being the second or third non-inheriting son of a landed family meant a much better chance of growing up in the midshipman's quarters, than being the son of the local ditch digger. Although it did happen occasionally for the ditch digger's son as well. As for blade training, I still contend that it would depend on the whims of the Captain and 1st Lt. They might be inclined to insist upon exceptional training with a blade or they might have hammered other subjects like navigation, seamanship and gunnery to the point that less time was available for blade training between watches.
Flint is a low-born. Thomas Hamilton: "The son of a carpenter, no record of any formal schooling, and yet more literate than any three boys I knew at Eton." Navy officer mocking him: "Of course, I can understand how it would be of such importance to you. Someone of your station... son of a carpenter's mate given a chance to socialize with a lord. Hold that position for long enough and you might convince everyone you're something more than you actually are. A gentleman, most civilized."
One thing I was trying to point out is that the attitude of the RN Officer is probably anachronistic, the period pre-dates the aristocratic RN. In the mid 17th century the RN even considered banning the Nobility and Gentlemen from entry to the Officer Corps. The RN had to be egalitarian in this way since the peacetime RN was so small compared to its wartime strength. That difference, for both officers and men, had to made up from the trading fleet, the Merchant Navy. In wartime many officers would have come from trade and thus been regarded as anything but Gentlemen. An attitude like that of the officer you quoted would have been seriously damaging to morale and efficiency, given how many of his fellow officers would have been 'low born', especially in wartime. It is a fiction, a lie made to tell a story, a departure from reality. Social exclusivity came in toward the end of the Napoleonic Wars when the status of the Navy as the chief protector of the nation had been established and when there was, for a number of reasons, a serious oversupply of officers, many more than the RN could employ, even in wartime. It then became possible to pick and choose on the basis of social status and the social status of candidates had risen significantly.
Watched 4 seasons of Black Sails in a week after watching this... Thank you so much for doing this video and introducing such a great show! My knowledge of fighting and fencing is very limited, but I do find the fights/battles in Black Sails very enjoyable to watch, for it is far more brutal and unpredictable than many other shows/movies, and more life-and-death struggle than dancing. Could you please do more fight reviews on Black Sails? There are quite a lot of other interesting fights/battles in it, e.g. battle against the British Navy; Flint vs Blackbeard; Flint's fencing class, etc. Anyway, thanks again for all the wonderful videos! : )
Look again Matt, Flint starts in the MEDIUM guard, not the outside guard. In stage fencing using the medium guard has the advantage of showing the audience how wide the blade is. Also, if you look closely, all cuts are either horizontal or vertical. No diagonal cuts (cuts 1, 2, 3 or 4) in stage fencing because they're too dangerous to perform at high speeds when wearing no protective gear.
When Flint was on the floor and the other guy fell on him to stab, maybe he wasn't confident he could catch it with one hand so he let go of his sabre. I mean, he has taken a few knocks to the head and been cut across the chest. I imagine he's pretty weak.
Hey Matt! i just finished Season 1 yesterday and i was searching in your channel if you talked about this show.. today you put up this video! you must read my mind!! keep up the good work and greeting from Tuscany :)
Black Sails was a fantastic show, with a very well done ending. One of the things that they did fairly well but I would like to see done even better is the group fighting dynamic. Basically relatively unskilled (but very tough) folks going at it like you often see in boarding actions. I think you would see a lot less extended swordplay and a lot more quick actions followed by an individual retreat, accompanied by screams, begging for mercy, etc. I think this because in any group fight, you don't HAVE to stay engaged, in the short term anyway. Two people start swing at each other, slash, parry, very soon one will get cut. This cut will likely be fairly severe. The kind of cut that if it happened to you in the 21st century, you stop what you are doing and go right to the hospital. As soon as that cut happens, the cut guy is out of the fight. He'll scream in pain and terror and he'll try as hard as he can to get away from the guy who just cut him. The winner of that mini-duel will also likely not pursue, if he's smart, rather he'll find the next best target, that is also trying to kill him. Black Sails did a decent job of this, but I always thought the group fighting could have been a bit better in this regard.
Very well filmed fight, it's such a nice change to have a fight I can actually see, it's a rare thing these days which has killed my enjoyment of the action adventure genre.
Great review, Matt! Now I finally know what I liked about this fight when I saw it... A short question, have you ever done a fight review on Vikings? I only remember the "biker-gear" and the costumes, but I'm not sure if you ever talked about the fights - other than a brief mention in a 5 Questions video to which TV shows are showing good fights... Greetings from Germany, Another Matt
Made my own practice sword (they don't have 'em out here in Thailand) and will be practicing spanish fencing on thursday, thanks so much for all the inspiration and insight mate. Keep it up, cocker!
Overall I highly agree with you on this one, but one thing I might add - your criticism of not following a hilt strike with a cut might be due to tiredness and injuries, like hitting and getting away to catch a bit of breath. And as for holding a blade in one hand and having one arm free - he didn't. He was holding the blade in one hand and his opponent arms in the other. Flints opponent was less hurt during that fight, probably less tired and most definitely physically stronger, thus the necessity to use both hands in that position. But to sum it up - I am very thankful that you featured this series, thanks to your video about pirates and cutlasses was the first time I was introduced to this series, and now it's one of my favourite ones! Thanks!
Oh, and if I may, I'd suggest a fight in an old movie The Deluge. When you type in youtube "the deluge fight" it's the first thing that comes up. And from what I can see, it's pretty good. I think you might get that request often, I also have a vivid memory of you mentioning it before, but I'm not sure, so yeah, I'll be another one to suggest that :D
Question: would the roll of the ship (if there was one :) ) mitigate against long lunges - either because the deck has moved before the foot lands, or because the long stance is unbalanced in case the opponent is not disabled.
Quite possibly the very best pirate tv show or movie ever broadcast! I thought it was very well done in every aspect! I've always been intrigued and a huge fan of pirate lore and was thrilled when I discover this show. I was even more thrilled when my wife started watching and insisted we start watching it over from season 1! I have a modest collection of knives, and a couple of reproduction swords, nothing exciting really just some I find cool as I have always liked edged weapons.
Great review as usual Matt. One question - you describe some optimal approaches to certain scenarios, like pivoting your blade forwards when grappling swords, or following a punch from the hilt/guard with an immediate strike from the blade. In your experience, how well-trained/experienced does one have to be to react appropriately to situational opportunities? Is this a matter of training these types of reactions (maybe committing them to muscle memory) or does it come naturally when one develops a familiarity with the blade?
You point out at around 8:30 that the blade could realistically break had it sustained enough damage or if it had a notch, and, well, at about 2:20, Singleton does hit a cannon edge first at approximately the same spot where the blade later breaks. In my mind, that was the reason the blade did not bend and instead broke. If so, that's great attention to detail.
So happy you made a video reviewing this fight Matt! When I first saw this episode I was definetly on the edge of my seat, I don't claim to know much about swordfighting other than watching alot of your videos, and similar tubers, but It felt realistic. that's when I knew I was probably going to watch the series til the end ;) By the way, was the GoT fight you mentioned The Hound & Brienne fight by any chance? Edit: major props to the actors, which are amazing! Good stuff as always mate, cheers!
re: the blade braking, they are really using old style hangers rather the more beefy 19th century cutlasses (the ones with big bowl guards). I have a real old one from the 1700's.... the blade gets real thin real fast, the distal taper is immense. If this is the style if sword it was supposed to be I totally believe in it breaking, especially as being pirates they are presumably using captured or second hand weapons rather than newly purchased or issues swords which already had some wear on em... FYI if you haven't seen black sails it is quite good, this video actually prompted me to watch it!
Matt, I'd love for you to check out Solomon Kane. It's a low budget film from 2009 that has faded, but it had some very simple, to the point (wink!) fighting with cutlasses. It also has some Hollywood style, twirling fighting as well. I think it strikes a nice balance. Cheers.
You are quite right, the shorter the weapon, the more violent the fights get. This is true for any kind of weapon, not just swords or other historic ones.
Yeah, we REALLY enjoyed this fight sequence too! Great to see some "real" fighting getting into screen fighting. I think the guys behind it were Pyranha Stunts...
thanks for this video Matt, would be great if you comment fight Blackbeard vs Flint, why Edward Teach dominated ? Because of his strenght or skill? Broadsword vs cutlass?
Awesome review Matt, I'm sure you like showing off that massive TV but figured I'd let you know there's lots of video capture extensions both standalone & browser add ons that let you draw over text if you ever wanted to get a bit more in-depth about what's going on with the screen action.
Thanks - in fact I have avoided screen capture until now for two reasons - it takes me a lot longer to edit and secondly because it gets flagged for copyright blocks more easily. For the most part, filming from my TV seems to avoid the automated copyright blocks!!
I didn't think of that aspect. The TV definitely works well enough. You can get rid of the scan lines by matching your camera's shutter speed with your TV's refresh rate.
What was the Game of Thrones fight you liked? I think my favourite is with Arya and The Hound in the tavern, maybe followed by The Mountain vs The Viper in a close second. Loved the breakdown of this fight, btw!
Hey Matt, you mention as one of the blades is broken into two is improbable, though not impossible. And I'm far from an expert when it comes to swords and other weapons, though i tend to be quite curious. What would be more likely to happen? Bending the blade or that nothing of note would have happened?
Hey Matt, have you ever handled any of the Cutlass's or Sabre's made by Windlass? If so, are they good for the price, or a waste of money? Only wondering, because I haven't found any high quality sword makers that make sabre's.
Also, I have a question. The Infantry Officer Saber seemed to be too thin. Does it make it really less durable? I liked the Saber due to it's bigger length, but that skinny blade made me think that it could break anytime during the fight. And does it actually have less cutting power, due to that? I like fencing-style, but I prefer the slashing-style. Is that something viable to do with the Infantry Officer Saber? Or slashing is meant to the Cavalry Officer Saber?
My apologies as a recent subscriber if you've been asked this a million times, but have you seen any of either the recent The Last Kingdom series or the older Sharpe's Rifles series based on the books by Bernard Cornwell? I haven't gotten around to checking out The Last Kingdom yet despite being a huge fan of the books, but Sharpe's Rifles is something I remember seeing as a much younger man and feeling like it had very realistic fights, and I'm interested in finding out whether that's actually true. Edit: In retrospect I should've done a web search first, as I see you've discussed The Last Kingdom before.
I'm a massive fan of Black Sails and of your channel. I've been wanting you to do a fight review of Black Sails for a while, lol. So it's great to see it at last and it was a fantastic review. I'm not 100% sure if pirates were trained in sword combat. You see Flint's opponent, Singleton, cut down sailors with a boarding axe in an earlier scene so we can assume he is a tough, aggressive brute of a man. Futhermore, as Black Sails is set in 1715, a year after the Spanish War of Succession, which helped give rise to piracy in the Caribbean, a lot of pirates were ex privateers or Royal Navy sailors. Were sailors drilled with swords at this time? *Season Two SPOILERS* Season Two reveals Flint was a Leiutenant in the Royal Navy 10 years before Season One takes place. Chances are he would have some training and experience due to him being an officer, and I doubt he would've forgotten it. So I kind of expected his fighting to be more refined. You mentioned 19th Century cutlass tecniques. I assume you meant 18th century? I've looked for treatises on early 18th century dueling but I cant find much... The part where Flint knee's Singleton I can only imagine he panicked, for want of a better word. I've been in a few fights myself and realise that you tend to act on impulse. He's cornered and the adreniline is pumping. I also liked Flint strugglin to get up after being knocked onto the floor due to a punch in the face. I liked the last leg of the fight, however I'm not sure if cannon balls were just stored in the open like that. I thought they would've been stowed away in crates down below. But I did enjoy the fight overall, it showed how aggressive these people were and last bit showed an example of the brutility of this era. After studying piracy for nearly 7 years, it's nice to finally see th being portrayed faithfully in mainstream media.
Something I forgot to mention I think was the subject of Stamina. The series is filmed in South Africa where I can imagine it is very hot and humid. So this scene does show the formidable stamina the actors posses, let alone the characters they portray. Of course the series is set in the Caribbean, where of course, it is very hot. The characters here are wearing long sleeve shirts with long trousers, as would have been worn by people, in this era and in this region. So the real pirates of this age, as well as their Royal Navy counterparts, must've had incredible stamina. However, there is some cases of pirates ending battles at sea fairly quickly....
Hey Matt! Knowing how big of a "fan" you are regarding Eastern Martial Arts - it would be grand to see some review on "The Last Samurai" battle scene in the fog. Whilst I know movie is, from historical perspective, somewhat trash-y - still would be neat to know if their choreography was at a good level or not!
I love Black Sails. I know it wasn't initially received very well, but honestly I think that it is a very good show. I love the idea of seeing this backstory to Treasure Island, and the way they blend that fiction with real, historical pirates (albeit with a ton of changes to the history.) It's a very fun show, and the cast is awesome.
Hi Matt. Can you tell me if there's anywhere in London or Kent to learn and practice montante fencing? I looked at London Historical Fencing, but their website doesn't mention montante, only longsword, smallsword and rapier. Thanks.
I love that show. Its gory, viceral and rugged mixed with, to the viewer, realistic strife. Sure they apply heavy use of plot armor and they even out every fight to a ridiculous extent but that keeps the viewer engaged and on their toes.
So one knife fight from a movie that is surprisingly well done is the Rumble from West Side Story. It really does look and feel like a pair of street toughs without training going after each other with knives. You even get a feel for the style of each. One of them has a very loose grip that is intended for fast movement, the other has a steadier T-grip. It's surprising, since I can't find any evidence that the choreographer did any other knife or sword fights, but he did a good job of that one.
I'd be interested to know your thoughts on the Jon Snow/Karl fookin Tanner fight; I know your opinions are usually mixed at best with GoT fights; I particularly enjoy that one though so as I say I'm interested in your more learned opinion
Agreed, that would be an interesting one. The daggerplay does is abit flashy far as I recall, but it's alot better than most dual wielding combat you see on TV/Movies.
I would say that they were using some unconventional tactics and not fighting in a very formal way with lunges and quick movements and instead using punches and hilt whacks is because they are after all just inexperienced pirates that were better at using brute strength and dirty fighting!!! I think it really works for pirates!!!
Question that isn't related to the choreography itself: This made me think of your Cutlasses and Pirates video. Didn't you say that this type of cutlass wasn't really around yet at during the golden age of piracy? I might be mixing things up though. Are the swords used here accurate?
Hi, I don't know a lot about fencing, but I have always wondered something. Since many of those that do posses fencing knowledge and review movie sword fights, most reach the consensus that the telegraphed swings are something that would never normally happen and are always a poor choice in a fight. My thinking, though, is that couldn't you generate more power from a swing such as a "telegraphed swing/blow" to try and brute force your way through an opponent's guard? Is this something that would not/never be attempted? I mostly ask, because it's something I see a lot of in hand to hand fighting, such as MMA or boxing. A fighter with a good parry still has difficulty when a blow is thrown at an opportune angle with a lot of force behind it. If you answer, thanks for taking the time to read this.
Not so much "would not normally happen" as "not the smartest thing to do if you wanna stay alive". A trained and/or experienced fencer will look for those chances when an opponent opens up his guard. And a big swing opens it wide open. But as many has pointed out, a brutal and long fight is something different than "the smartest thing to do" in many cases.
FWIW, I agree. Brienne beat him with fencing skill, then he grabbed the sword and tried to out grapple her ... and then she lost her shit and just *monstered* him.
The thing I like about the portrayal of Brienne that makes her a plausible badass is that she's portrayed as both an excellent fencer AND a giant musclebound savage monster.
this is exactly why I loved this series. they took these things seriously and tried to give us a world we can believe with all its details, even the horrible ones.
![เปิดใจ "อาจารย์เบียร์ คนตื่นธรรม" อดีตเคยสุดทุกทาง ถ้าใช้หนี้หมดไปบวชแน่ l [Nickynachat]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/IxeE0xVhy08/mqdefault.jpg)
"More like fights most people can relate to", 'proceeds to show a guy savagely mauling another guy with his fists and a cannonball'.
Uhh, Matt, mate, is there something you haven't been telling us?
Jim Cullen I once bashed a man's head into a street sign, it's not that unusual for real fights to get brutal. There's no ref in a brawl ;)
Especially no reason for courtesy or rules if they've brought a friend.
Well, brawls where you might hit someone with a handy blunt object are (fortunately) more common than sword fights these days.
But it wouldn't normally get to the point of you pommelling the hell out of somebody head with a hard object until he died. XD Hench, most people wouldn't relate to that unless Matt has something he haven't been telling us.
MariusThePaladin usually the fight ends before it gets to that point....
Black Sails did not get the recognition they deserved! So glad they were able to finish their story though.
Absolutely, next to Vikings it`s my favourit action series. I especially liked the development of John Silver. I first thought Luke Arnolds was the wrong guy for this role, but i couldn`t have been more wrong.
I was happy that it didn't end up like Marco Polo, which got killed off after 2 seasons in the middle of the story...
@@V4zz33 what nooooo
thought it was pretty good the few episode i was able to see so far of first seasone hahha
Agreed. Was such a great show! I got in the mood to re-watch it again the other day and even though I knew the story already, it still gripped me from the first episode again.
@@gehtdianschasau8372 Much better than Vikings in my opinion. I think that Vikings became a joke after 3 seasons. Especially when show runners introduced asian female and ragnar became an addict. Sails kept me going until end of the show, and I like how it ended.
I can't believe they tried to copyright strike this, this is some of the best advertisement of the show they could ever hope for. I bet a good 90% of viewers here wouldn't particularly care about an ordinary ad, but are now much more interested in the series. It certainly worked on me!
T33K3SS3LCH3N most of the time it's just automatic detection.
I actually filmed this a couple of months ago, but it has been caught up in copyright disputes... Season 4 has now finished.
Is it normal for the company to be a bit protective of their film, or do they normally see it as a bit of free advertising and say "Go right ahead!"
I never have any problems with some copyright holders (eg. HBO and Disney are pretty good), but Starz took a whole month to say that I could not use their material for a review... So I tried again and it got through the second time.
Well they feared to get shit on for the fight coreography :D. Awesome that it worked now. Nice vid as always!
Disney is pretty good? Huh, who would have thought. That's honestly a surprise to me.
Was looking forward to your thoughts on Black Sails combat scenes. Hope there's more to come!
This is interesting because since all the minor mistakes/potential gripes are fairly simple, you can still easily believe the characters rather than the choreographers made the errors.
That's what makes good fiction.
Exactly. In a real fight in real time, the fighters in the struggle are not always going to make the "best" choices. They are reacting to their opponent and trying to get any advantage they can under very tight circumstances.
The mistakes aren't even that bad, honestly. To me, this looks like a good saber/cutlass fight. I would have preferred that the sword killed the opponent, but I'm fine with a cannonball doing the job.
@@wayneparker9331 yea i mean they are also priates, not masters of the sword
For those interested in Black Sails after watching this ... enjoy. I have to say, Black Sails is one of my favorite shows of the past few years. It is a very well written existential character development show, so don't expect every episode to be packed with physical action, but there's always something going on.
Captain Flint looking directly into the camera at the end of the fight was perfect way to finish the fight. The characters brutality was really showed by seeing the whites of his eyes and his pearly teeth being contrasted against everything else being a bloody mess. Amazingly well choreographed.
I like how the mistakes the fighters made are the kind a tired fighter would make. I also love how so much was going on, but they don't confuse you with so many jump cuts. The director lets you see what is happening. I might start watching Black Sails now.
Trying to remember proper techniques when you're hurt, tired, and a 250 lb bald-headed monster is trying to kill you might be tricky.
That is why many techniques in martial arts are for drills or academic knowledge and not for actual use which many mistake for use or being able to train them into second nature, simply because human basic nature will take over trained second nature when the senses are overloaded.
As my instructor said, you need to train your inner caveman to be a scientist. The reason why you drill in techiniques so many times is so that it overides and replaces your body's natural instincts (for example: training your hands quickening moving up cover head from an incoming punch response into a boxing stance response). What many people who haven't practiced any kind of martial art or only practiced very briefly usually don't understand is that the end goal is not think 10 moves ahead of your opponent and pick some overly complex techinique in the moment to try against your opponent. The goal is to drill enough functional techiniques into your head over years of training so that your brain can default to them and you don't have to think about doing them, you just do them, so that when you're brain is under extreme stress your body can just pull off those techiniques and guards and parries because you've drilled it into you. Hence Most HEMA or any functional martial art system's techiniques are usually relatively simple yet extremely functional for that reason, only having a few moves to each as opposed to having some absurd 15 step bullshit Ninjutsu techiniques that only work against a person standing still. For the more complicated yet useful stuff...you have to keep drilling it into your head even longer.
Redman A
trained reflexes work
that's where muscle memory and training take over you don't remember it you do it based on Instinct people who've never had such situations and do not train wouldn't understand that though
Nikita Onassis that's why you have to spar
They actually look like they were trying to hurt each other, moving into actual able to strike range, unlike most movie/tv sword fights which seem more about pretty dancing.
Glad someone else likes Black Sails. It's a really good show that very few people seem to know about.
Hey Matt,
if you like fights that "feels like real fight", I must admit the series "Rome" from HBO is the one to see. Their choregraphy is not always "historical" (since basically we don't know a lot about how romans fought) but it includes very frequently just anything that falls under the hand of the fighters with random initiatives, rage, fear and chaos in the same time.
I loved that series for a lot of things (the story is epic even though not very historical) but the fights... man that was an adrenalin kick almost every episodes.
(and congrats for your 150002 views :p )
Thanks - yes I loved Rome when I first watched it (when it first came out) but I need to go back and re-watch it.
If they had made it today with a even bigger budget, Rome would rival GoT in popularity I'm sure.
I sincerely believe that if it weren't for Rome, Game of Thrones series would never see the light of day. The experience HBO gained with the large scale production, the vast number of props and custom sets, and the management of an enormous budged (which ultimately led to Rome's premature cancellation) would all have been invaluable from the development point of view. As for the audience's side of the screen, Rome established a political drama in a historical (or pseudo-historical in GoT's case) setting as a valid and attractive premise, which had to go a long way towards justifying the expense to whoever's financially backing Game of Thrones.
Good point. Also that both series are sharing the same problem, budget getting too big to sustain it, sadly.
Definitely gonna give Black Sails a shot over the weekend, looks pretty nice.
Congratulations on 150k subs Matt, well deserved!
Thanks - and yes Black Sails is very good after the first half of the first season. It is slow to get going, but from the last part of Season 1 onwards it's great.
I was never particularly interested in fencing, historical reconstructions or fighting in general. But your stuff is so cool and nicely presented that I keep returning here over and over again. Excellent job, keep doing it!
If I ever visit England I will definitely want at least a short introductory course in this stuff at your school, just to know how it feels :)
All the best!
Hey there Scholagladiatoria, a question for you :) Seeing as Pirates for the most part were not trained fighters like you are and the vast majority of their crews were civilians trying to survive. would the big windmilling over arm chop you talked about actually be that rare? These, I assume, are for the most part, untrained men, they wouldn't have done cutlass drills or fenced, save perhaps the Captains and some of their officers, so to see a wild swing like that which was so telegraphed he knew it was coming last week. I think it might actually happen.
It's a good point and yes true - there was no official regulation cutlass drill in the British Navy until 1813!
I had a book on Pirates that had lots of details on their weapons too, they seem to have used pretty much everything you could think of for melee. Hatchets, long daggers, a whole manner of sword, but the Cutlass will forever be enshrined as the pirate weapon. So really the chaps fighting here would at best be semi-trained (probably self taught or learned through experience) and comparied to someone like you who's FAR more proficient than most real pirate Captains, then you could well see them doing more wild blows.
I did like the use of the guard and how very physical it was. Very realistic. As beautiful as the swordplay in something like The Princess Bride was, it wasn't at all realistic as that was a very formal duel, not a winner takes all brawl the death as we saw in your vid.
*spoilers*I believe most of Flints men (he is fighting an usurper I believe), are relatively well trained and disciplined. Flint himself is militarily trained by the Royal Navy, and would value fighting skill and a training regimen. On the other hand, pirates were not the most eager and disciplined soldiers, seeing as thery did desert from service (whether from military or civilian vessel). I would guess there also is a division of labour on board, some are good fighters, while other are good sailors, cooks or serve other functions (much like the division of marines and sailors in the military).
Flint should be the one guy who wouldn't be doing it though, being a trained british officer. But I suppose it can be excused in this case, by arguing that he's tired, off balance and even on his knees.
Ahh well if one chaps ex RN then yeah he'd have a lot more training than Pirate Captain Dave McYarr or what ever.
Was the fight in Game of Thrones the one between Geoffreys cheek and Tyrions backhand?
Myself i quite liked the one with Khal Drogo vs the Bacteria. I mean it wasn't a fair fight with him being outnumbered so heavily, but it had that gritty realism to it you don't see in TV that often.
Looking at IMDB the fight choreographer for Black Sails is Grant Powell.
The shores of Nassau are strong! Cool video, Matt. I love this show right up to the end. Any chance you'd review the fight Between Flint and Teach, that one stands out in my mind a lot, for some reason.
Keep up the fine work!
What an absolutely brilliant series! I loved treasure island as a kid, I've read Captain Charles Johnson's account, and I loved how they handled the historical characters within this fiction. In particular, Blackbeard's death followed the narrative of how he died in battle particularly well, down to a more realistic interpretation of his final moments. I hope they do a spin off with Mary Read, Anne Bonney, and Jack Rackham.
Thoughts on exhaustion in combat? I feel as though a lot of the missteps in the fight could be explained via exhaustion or being dazed
Shirley it wud be betta wiv a byke chain, init bruv?
Spodrun maybe, byke chane, not shure.
all haiyl dA grant Mitchell oft hema
Ah, it's Mett Euston of 'Scholar Cafeteria'.
Which one should I shoot?
I can't tell them apart. Wait... I know,
Someone should ask them a question only the real Matt would know.
Like what is behind the Union Jack...
we already answered that question, it's victorian era porn.
wait, I knew the answer does that mean I am the real Matt?
Toby Stephens vs. Pierce Brosnan in Die Another Day was one of my favorites. I wonder if Toby Stephens is a sword enthusiast or has had some training besides movie choreography. Pierce did damn good job too for that matter. The Choreography was excellent of course.
That fight wasn't even as realistic as "Princess Bride".
Please keep doing these man! I love your review on tv/movie fights
I really would like to see a review from you of the british beach encounter of the last episode in season 3. I found it was awesome to watch the redcoats not charging the defences but coldly build a battle line and use different portable infantry weapons to crush the pirate/slave defence walls.
There was only one thing i wonder if it was an accurate technology of this period: The redcoats have some mini- mortars to shell above the defence wall of the pirates, ok, but the shells explodes just about 2 or 3 meters above the defenders and unleash deadly shrapnels in their lines. I could imagine it is possible that the best army of their time has such waepons in their arsenal, but i would really like to know. Maybe you have some more interesting insites of this battle.
Btw: I love your channel, your gently and humorous style and your vast specialist knowledge about historic mililtary tactics and waeponry.
this fight accurately conveys a few points. It's better to be lucky than good (breaking the blade). close combat tends to be brutal and messy. and lastly, don't be afraid to improvise. good job on the review Matt, I loved this fight too.
Great video! Black Sails is a personal favorite of mine. Just out of curiosity, what was the fight in Game of Thrones that you liked?
The first episode is set around the year 1715. 100 years before the British Navy standardized their Cutlass drills. While Flint may have been a former Naval Officer during that period, his rank would have been due to birthright and social standing, not based upon any special training. Shipboard training for midshipman ( officers in training) would varied from ship to ship. Having myself engaged in many knock-down drag out fights with drug crazed suspects, I can tell you that much of your training and fine motor skills go by the wayside during a real life and death fight. Your body often reverts to big exaggerated movements after you have had your head smashed about a few times.
I suggest you read something like N.A.M. Rodger: The Wooden World. Royal Navy officers of the period were mostly in the Navy because they LACKED influence etc. The Navy was the one of the few areas where Gentlemen could succeed on merit. After all the sea is no respecter of social status and birthright. The RN was quite protective of this, Rodger highlights at least a couple of cases where people tried to interfere with the Navy's way of doing things and came a-cropper. This is an era when a pressed man who was once 'Flogged round the Fleet' could rise to Admiral, when a man who is believed to have been an escaped slave could retire as a Captain and when, later on, the son of an country Parson could rise to Vice Admiral and Viscount and die as the greatest naval hero his country has ever known. If birthright and social status were that important then officers would not have had to start their career at age 12 in order to ensure they had learnt all they needed by the time they came to undergo their professional examination for Lieutenant at age 17 or 18 (officially the earliest was 19). The professional examination had been in place since 1677, when one Samuel Pepys, Secretary to the Admiralty Commission, introduced it.
As far as training in weapons goes, there was, as far as I know, no formal drill for firing the guns either. Yet men were trained to, and practised, firing them, with very evident results. Similarly training in hand weapons and other matters related to boarding actions was one of the things Captains would ensure the ordinary seamen underwent. Officers were expected to (and did - see Lt Maynard vs Edward Teach) lead Boarding Actions, it unlikely that Captains and other officers, at least the ones who sore action and survived, forgot to undertake training and carry out their own practise. These were days when combat was more than a theoretical possibility (and was actively sought out) and good performance in battle was a key way to ensure your advancement (and riches, though Prize Money). Dilettantes did not survive long against the twin threats of the sea and human enemies.
I agree, I have indeed read "An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy" by Rodger and more recently his book "Command of the Ocean". There was another of his books I was assigned to read back in 1981-82 when I was still in the Navy. Something about how the Admiralty worked. It was more text like and less entertaining to read. My point is that statistically speaking there is no particular reason to believe that this {television character} would have been a great blade duelist. Being the second or third non-inheriting son of a landed family meant a much better chance of growing up in the midshipman's quarters, than being the son of the local ditch digger. Although it did happen occasionally for the ditch digger's son as well. As for blade training, I still contend that it would depend on the whims of the Captain and 1st Lt. They might be inclined to insist upon exceptional training with a blade or they might have hammered other subjects like navigation, seamanship and gunnery to the point that less time was available for blade training between watches.
Flint is a low-born.
Thomas Hamilton: "The son of a carpenter, no record of any formal schooling, and yet more literate than any three boys I knew at Eton."
Navy officer mocking him: "Of course, I can understand how it would be
of such importance to you. Someone of your station... son of a carpenter's mate
given a chance to socialize with a lord. Hold that position for long enough and you might convince everyone you're something more than you actually are. A gentleman, most civilized."
One thing I was trying to point out is that the attitude of the RN Officer is probably anachronistic, the period pre-dates the aristocratic RN. In the mid 17th century the RN even considered banning the Nobility and Gentlemen from entry to the Officer Corps.
The RN had to be egalitarian in this way since the peacetime RN was so small compared to its wartime strength. That difference, for both officers and men, had to made up from the trading fleet, the Merchant Navy. In wartime many officers would have come from trade and thus been regarded as anything but Gentlemen. An attitude like that of the officer you quoted would have been seriously damaging to morale and efficiency, given how many of his fellow officers would have been 'low born', especially in wartime. It is a fiction, a lie made to tell a story, a departure from reality.
Social exclusivity came in toward the end of the Napoleonic Wars when the status of the Navy as the chief protector of the nation had been established and when there was, for a number of reasons, a serious oversupply of officers, many more than the RN could employ, even in wartime. It then became possible to pick and choose on the basis of social status and the social status of candidates had risen significantly.
I thought it was only in Britain's Army that a rank could be bought, not the Royal Navy.
Watched 4 seasons of Black Sails in a week after watching this... Thank you so much for doing this video and introducing such a great show! My knowledge of fighting and fencing is very limited, but I do find the fights/battles in Black Sails very enjoyable to watch, for it is far more brutal and unpredictable than many other shows/movies, and more life-and-death struggle than dancing. Could you please do more fight reviews on Black Sails? There are quite a lot of other interesting fights/battles in it, e.g.
battle against the British Navy; Flint vs Blackbeard; Flint's fencing class, etc. Anyway, thanks again for all the wonderful videos! : )
Look again Matt, Flint starts in the MEDIUM guard, not the outside guard. In stage fencing using the medium guard has the advantage of showing the audience how wide the blade is. Also, if you look closely, all cuts are either horizontal or vertical. No diagonal cuts (cuts 1, 2, 3 or 4) in stage fencing because they're too dangerous to perform at high speeds when wearing no protective gear.
When Flint was on the floor and the other guy fell on him to stab, maybe he wasn't confident he could catch it with one hand so he let go of his sabre. I mean, he has taken a few knocks to the head and been cut across the chest. I imagine he's pretty weak.
I thought the same, catching a heavy guy like that wielding a dagger-like weapon with one hand is a fucking gamble.
"Let's carry on with the fight." -Matt Eason, 2017
I'd never even heard of Black Sails. I'm off this week and have just binge watched the first season.
Thanks for the recommendation
In the end I was half-expecting Matt to say "and by the way, I was the choreographer behind the fight" :)
Matt, you should do a video on the knife fight at the end of the revenant. An amazing film
Do a fight review from Alatriste (any of the fights). I've asked for it quite a few times now so please.
I requested the same just yesterday in a different video. Glad to see I'm not the only one. ;)
VompoVompatti amazing,amazing movie.
VompoVompatti Yup, would love to see that too.
Awesome review! Do Vikings Ragnar vs Haraldson!
150K subscribers Matt. Congrats!
Thanks!
I've been waiting for you to review this one for a while now and I'm glad to see your opinion on it. I really enjoyed as usual.
Just started this show last week and I absolutely love it. Deserves more attention than it's gotten.
Can I just say that the pirate in question had an amazing dental plan for his time :)
Well, I just found my new show to binge on, thanks Matt! Solid video.
Hey Matt! i just finished Season 1 yesterday and i was searching in your channel if you talked about this show.. today you put up this video! you must read my mind!!
keep up the good work and greeting from Tuscany :)
Ciao, grazie :-)
So many good fights in Black Sails, its an amazing show.
Black Sails was a fantastic show, with a very well done ending.
One of the things that they did fairly well but I would like to see done even better is the group fighting dynamic. Basically relatively unskilled (but very tough) folks going at it like you often see in boarding actions. I think you would see a lot less extended swordplay and a lot more quick actions followed by an individual retreat, accompanied by screams, begging for mercy, etc.
I think this because in any group fight, you don't HAVE to stay engaged, in the short term anyway. Two people start swing at each other, slash, parry, very soon one will get cut. This cut will likely be fairly severe. The kind of cut that if it happened to you in the 21st century, you stop what you are doing and go right to the hospital.
As soon as that cut happens, the cut guy is out of the fight. He'll scream in pain and terror and he'll try as hard as he can to get away from the guy who just cut him. The winner of that mini-duel will also likely not pursue, if he's smart, rather he'll find the next best target, that is also trying to kill him.
Black Sails did a decent job of this, but I always thought the group fighting could have been a bit better in this regard.
Very well filmed fight, it's such a nice change to have a fight I can actually see, it's a rare thing these days which has killed my enjoyment of the action adventure genre.
Great review, Matt! Now I finally know what I liked about this fight when I saw it...
A short question, have you ever done a fight review on Vikings? I only remember the "biker-gear" and the costumes, but I'm not sure if you ever talked about the fights - other than a brief mention in a 5 Questions video to which TV shows are showing good fights...
Greetings from Germany,
Another Matt
Made my own practice sword (they don't have 'em out here in Thailand) and will be practicing spanish fencing on thursday, thanks so much for all the inspiration and insight mate. Keep it up, cocker!
Hi There, Just watching Black Sails now in 2022, I have seen your other clips before, keep up the good work
Great video, would love to more reviews of the fights on Black Sails.
Overall I highly agree with you on this one, but one thing I might add - your criticism of not following a hilt strike with a cut might be due to tiredness and injuries, like hitting and getting away to catch a bit of breath.
And as for holding a blade in one hand and having one arm free - he didn't. He was holding the blade in one hand and his opponent arms in the other. Flints opponent was less hurt during that fight, probably less tired and most definitely physically stronger, thus the necessity to use both hands in that position.
But to sum it up - I am very thankful that you featured this series, thanks to your video about pirates and cutlasses was the first time I was introduced to this series, and now it's one of my favourite ones! Thanks!
Oh, and if I may, I'd suggest a fight in an old movie The Deluge. When you type in youtube "the deluge fight" it's the first thing that comes up. And from what I can see, it's pretty good. I think you might get that request often, I also have a vivid memory of you mentioning it before, but I'm not sure, so yeah, I'll be another one to suggest that :D
Question: would the roll of the ship (if there was one :) ) mitigate against long lunges - either because the deck has moved before the foot lands, or because the long stance is unbalanced in case the opponent is not disabled.
Quite possibly the very best pirate tv show or movie ever broadcast! I thought it was very well done in every aspect!
I've always been intrigued and a huge fan of pirate lore and was thrilled when I discover this show. I was even more thrilled when my wife started watching and insisted we start watching it over from season 1!
I have a modest collection of knives, and a couple of reproduction swords, nothing exciting really just some I find cool as I have always liked edged weapons.
I knew that cutlass was your favorite c-word.
Great review as usual Matt. One question - you describe some optimal approaches to certain scenarios, like pivoting your blade forwards when grappling swords, or following a punch from the hilt/guard with an immediate strike from the blade. In your experience, how well-trained/experienced does one have to be to react appropriately to situational opportunities? Is this a matter of training these types of reactions (maybe committing them to muscle memory) or does it come naturally when one develops a familiarity with the blade?
The fight you mean is probably the hound vs Brienne :D
It is.
You point out at around 8:30 that the blade could realistically break had it sustained enough damage or if it had a notch, and, well, at about 2:20, Singleton does hit a cannon edge first at approximately the same spot where the blade later breaks. In my mind, that was the reason the blade did not bend and instead broke. If so, that's great attention to detail.
So happy you made a video reviewing this fight Matt! When I first saw this episode I was definetly on the edge of my seat, I don't claim to know much about swordfighting other than watching alot of your videos, and similar tubers, but It felt realistic. that's when I knew I was probably going to watch the series til the end ;)
By the way, was the GoT fight you mentioned The Hound & Brienne fight by any chance?
Edit: major props to the actors, which are amazing!
Good stuff as always mate, cheers!
7:03 Matt, when did you learn to teleport? Do you teach that in your classes too?
Thank you fore making this, it makes me want to see the season of black sails.
I really enjoy these. Would love to see a review of the Errol Flynn classic Captain Blood. Namely the duel between him and Basil Rathbone.
We ever going to get the Princess Bride duel review you spoke of doing years ago? lol
re: the blade braking, they are really using old style hangers rather the more beefy 19th century cutlasses (the ones with big bowl guards). I have a real old one from the 1700's.... the blade gets real thin real fast, the distal taper is immense. If this is the style if sword it was supposed to be I totally believe in it breaking, especially as being pirates they are presumably using captured or second hand weapons rather than newly purchased or issues swords which already had some wear on em...
FYI if you haven't seen black sails it is quite good, this video actually prompted me to watch it!
Matt, I'd love for you to check out Solomon Kane. It's a low budget film from 2009 that has faded, but it had some very simple, to the point (wink!) fighting with cutlasses. It also has some Hollywood style, twirling fighting as well. I think it strikes a nice balance. Cheers.
That fight stuck with me for years. Certainly one of the best I've ever scene.
You are quite right, the shorter the weapon, the more violent the fights get. This is true for any kind of weapon, not just swords or other historic ones.
Yeah, we REALLY enjoyed this fight sequence too! Great to see some "real" fighting getting into screen fighting. I think the guys behind it were Pyranha Stunts...
thanks for this video Matt, would be great if you comment fight Blackbeard vs Flint, why Edward Teach dominated ? Because of his strenght or skill? Broadsword vs cutlass?
Awesome review Matt,
I'm sure you like showing off that massive TV but figured I'd let you know there's lots of video capture extensions both standalone & browser add ons that let you draw over text if you ever wanted to get a bit more in-depth about what's going on with the screen action.
Thanks - in fact I have avoided screen capture until now for two reasons - it takes me a lot longer to edit and secondly because it gets flagged for copyright blocks more easily. For the most part, filming from my TV seems to avoid the automated copyright blocks!!
Clever.
I didn't think of that aspect. The TV definitely works well enough. You can get rid of the scan lines by matching your camera's shutter speed with your TV's refresh rate.
What was the Game of Thrones fight you liked? I think my favourite is with Arya and The Hound in the tavern, maybe followed by The Mountain vs The Viper in a close second. Loved the breakdown of this fight, btw!
Hey Matt, you mention as one of the blades is broken into two is improbable, though not impossible. And I'm far from an expert when it comes to swords and other weapons, though i tend to be quite curious. What would be more likely to happen? Bending the blade or that nothing of note would have happened?
That's a good question, how likely is a bent sword actually? Not so likely considering the nature of blades, but I have no idea.
Chris Eriksson most likely his hand will give out before the blade
Hey Matt, have you ever handled any of the Cutlass's or Sabre's made by Windlass? If so, are they good for the price, or a waste of money? Only wondering, because I haven't found any high quality sword makers that make sabre's.
Also, I have a question.
The Infantry Officer Saber seemed to be too thin. Does it make it really less durable? I liked the Saber due to it's bigger length, but that skinny blade made me think that it could break anytime during the fight. And does it actually have less cutting power, due to that? I like fencing-style, but I prefer the slashing-style. Is that something viable to do with the Infantry Officer Saber? Or slashing is meant to the Cavalry Officer Saber?
Great video as always, Matt. I was wondering, if he kicked the sword, even if it didn't break, would he have a chance at bending the sword?
My apologies as a recent subscriber if you've been asked this a million times, but have you seen any of either the recent The Last Kingdom series or the older Sharpe's Rifles series based on the books by Bernard Cornwell? I haven't gotten around to checking out The Last Kingdom yet despite being a huge fan of the books, but Sharpe's Rifles is something I remember seeing as a much younger man and feeling like it had very realistic fights, and I'm interested in finding out whether that's actually true.
Edit: In retrospect I should've done a web search first, as I see you've discussed The Last Kingdom before.
Now if only they got rid of all that leather... Leather in the Carribean, just lol
Yeah, the costumes are.... interesting
Leather on a boat, period.
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BLACK-LEATHER-ROYAL-NAVY-PARADE-SHOES-Sizes-British-Issue-Naval-NEW-/311856866315
Yes we all know they wore gore-tex
hahah I think I've watched literally every video already Matt. I've been watching them since as they came out since the days of Wallhammer 40,000.
So how long do we wait for the review of teaching saber/cutlass with a crutch scenes?
Well clearly I've got to go watch this entire show now. Thanks Matt...
SPOILER ALERT
Matt please review the Blackbeard vs Flint fight from season 3. Cheers
I'm a massive fan of Black Sails and of your channel. I've been wanting you to do a fight review of Black Sails for a while, lol. So it's great to see it at last and it was a fantastic review.
I'm not 100% sure if pirates were trained in sword combat. You see Flint's opponent, Singleton, cut down sailors with a boarding axe in an earlier scene so we can assume he is a tough, aggressive brute of a man.
Futhermore, as Black Sails is set in 1715, a year after the Spanish War of Succession, which helped give rise to piracy in the Caribbean, a lot of pirates were ex privateers or Royal Navy sailors. Were sailors drilled with swords at this time?
*Season Two SPOILERS*
Season Two reveals Flint was a Leiutenant in the Royal Navy 10 years before Season One takes place. Chances are he would have some training and experience due to him being an officer, and I doubt he would've forgotten it. So I kind of expected his fighting to be more refined.
You mentioned 19th Century cutlass tecniques. I assume you meant 18th century? I've looked for treatises on early 18th century dueling but I cant find much...
The part where Flint knee's Singleton I can only imagine he panicked, for want of a better word. I've been in a few fights myself and realise that you tend to act on impulse. He's cornered and the adreniline is pumping. I also liked Flint strugglin to get up after being knocked onto the floor due to a punch in the face.
I liked the last leg of the fight, however I'm not sure if cannon balls were just stored in the open like that. I thought they would've been stowed away in crates down below. But I did enjoy the fight overall, it showed how aggressive these people were and last bit showed an example of the brutility of this era. After studying piracy for nearly 7 years, it's nice to finally see th being portrayed faithfully in mainstream media.
Something I forgot to mention I think was the subject of Stamina. The series is filmed in South Africa where I can imagine it is very hot and humid. So this scene does show the formidable stamina the actors posses, let alone the characters they portray. Of course the series is set in the Caribbean, where of course, it is very hot. The characters here are wearing long sleeve shirts with long trousers, as would have been worn by people, in this era and in this region. So the real pirates of this age, as well as their Royal Navy counterparts, must've had incredible stamina. However, there is some cases of pirates ending battles at sea fairly quickly....
What kind of cutlass are you holding as you explain??? Such a beautiful blade.
Nice. I love these fight reviews
Hey Matt! Knowing how big of a "fan" you are regarding Eastern Martial Arts - it would be grand to see some review on "The Last Samurai" battle scene in the fog. Whilst I know movie is, from historical perspective, somewhat trash-y - still would be neat to know if their choreography was at a good level or not!
Hey, Matt! Just saw 'The Seven Samurai' last week and thought there might be something to be said about that film. Hope you'll look in to it! Cheers!
The Hound vs. The Beauty right? I loved that fight. It was a brutal battle for custody. :'D
I love Black Sails. I know it wasn't initially received very well, but honestly I think that it is a very good show. I love the idea of seeing this backstory to Treasure Island, and the way they blend that fiction with real, historical pirates (albeit with a ton of changes to the history.) It's a very fun show, and the cast is awesome.
Hi Matt. Can you tell me if there's anywhere in London or Kent to learn and practice montante fencing? I looked at London Historical Fencing, but their website doesn't mention montante, only longsword, smallsword and rapier. Thanks.
I love that show. Its gory, viceral and rugged mixed with, to the viewer, realistic strife. Sure they apply heavy use of plot armor and they even out every fight to a ridiculous extent but that keeps the viewer engaged and on their toes.
So one knife fight from a movie that is surprisingly well done is the Rumble from West Side Story. It really does look and feel like a pair of street toughs without training going after each other with knives. You even get a feel for the style of each. One of them has a very loose grip that is intended for fast movement, the other has a steadier T-grip. It's surprising, since I can't find any evidence that the choreographer did any other knife or sword fights, but he did a good job of that one.
Thanks a lot, you just got me watching a tv show i had no intention of watching...!
I'd be interested to know your thoughts on the Jon Snow/Karl fookin Tanner fight; I know your opinions are usually mixed at best with GoT fights; I particularly enjoy that one though so as I say I'm interested in your more learned opinion
Agreed, that would be an interesting one. The daggerplay does is abit flashy far as I recall, but it's alot better than most dual wielding combat you see on TV/Movies.
just wondering where you got your grate sword form I have been wanting to get one for a wile and like the look of yours and the wait of it
I wasn't a huge fan of Black Sails early on, but it caught my interest.
I would say that they were using some unconventional tactics and not fighting in a very formal way with lunges and quick movements and instead using punches and hilt whacks is because they are after all just inexperienced pirates that were better at using brute strength and dirty fighting!!! I think it really works for pirates!!!
Question that isn't related to the choreography itself: This made me think of your Cutlasses and Pirates video. Didn't you say that this type of cutlass wasn't really around yet at during the golden age of piracy? I might be mixing things up though. Are the swords used here accurate?
Thank you- I have a secret for you, “I am not left handed.” Seriously though, great review and assessment.
Hi, I don't know a lot about fencing, but I have always wondered something. Since many of those that do posses fencing knowledge and review movie sword fights, most reach the consensus that the telegraphed swings are something that would never normally happen and are always a poor choice in a fight. My thinking, though, is that couldn't you generate more power from a swing such as a "telegraphed swing/blow" to try and brute force your way through an opponent's guard? Is this something that would not/never be attempted?
I mostly ask, because it's something I see a lot of in hand to hand fighting, such as MMA or boxing. A fighter with a good parry still has difficulty when a blow is thrown at an opportune angle with a lot of force behind it.
If you answer, thanks for taking the time to read this.
Not so much "would not normally happen" as "not the smartest thing to do if you wanna stay alive".
A trained and/or experienced fencer will look for those chances when an opponent opens up his guard. And a big swing opens it wide open. But as many has pointed out, a brutal and long fight is something different than "the smartest thing to do" in many cases.
Brienne vs The Hound?
Yup
What about the Hound vs Polliver and his gang at the inn?
FWIW, I agree. Brienne beat him with fencing skill, then he grabbed the sword and tried to out grapple her ... and then she lost her shit and just *monstered* him.
The thing I like about the portrayal of Brienne that makes her a plausible badass is that she's portrayed as both an excellent fencer AND a giant musclebound savage monster.
thats what i thought too
this is exactly why I loved this series. they took these things seriously and tried to give us a world we can believe with all its details, even the horrible ones.
I was eyeing those cannonballs...
They sure wanted them in the previous shots.