Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Fights!



Cockfight.

Display of feathers and prancing. Stilted homoerotic tango.

But honestly, what's with Sherlock's fancy footwork down here? What is that? What does that do? Flit like a butterfly display of agility? Fists rotating to keep them guessing when one will come flying out of the windmill. The form is funny.


I love this.

Robert Downy Jr.'s version shows the odd Victorian form initially, then changes, as fight scenes do nowadays long after one or the other would already be well unconscious. After you're sucker punched from behind like that, you're out, or else you're thinking, "What just happened, how'd I get here?" Not plan a series of moves and countermoves in sequence, then perform it. We get to see it twice.  Did he say, "... weaken right jaw, now fracture, break cracked ribs, traumatize solar-plexus, defecate entirely?" "Defeat jaw entirely?"  Because if he does say, "defecate entirely" in the planning then he leaves off "pooped pants" from his summary.


Still, a very odd way of punching. In the first Sherlock example he says only ruffians fight that way, backhanded, and he is a gentleman so delivers straightforward punch. A fist does make a terrible weapon, with all those little bones in there. 

4 comments:

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

There will never be a better fight scene than the one on Star Trek TOS where William Shatner hits the bad guy with double prayer hands like he's Chrissie Everett swinging a tennis racquet.

When the bad guy falls to the floor, Shatner jumps up against the wall and falls down on top of him.

Nobody is ever topping that.

Nobody.

AllenS said...

Speaking of cockfights, the authorities just busted a cockfighting place about 20 miles from me, just north of Glenwood City, WI.

Commenters are betting if the participants are Mexican or Hmong.

Unknown said...

What on earth is that first video?

Rabel said...

Watched the first one. Now I feel like I need to find something prettier to put on for my afternoon's lounging. I'll go see what's in the wife's closet.

Also, a strange urge to visit TOP.