Since I only had a short amount of time to research four different topics, I thought for this one it would be much easier to watch, pick apart, analyse and report back my insight into a film fight scene I personally enjoy watching. Since I already have quite a bit of knowledge in this subject, I knew that I could do this without having to spend too much time researching and just write out what I noticed.
This is why this post is mainly an analysis of the 'Church Massacre' scene from the 2014 film Kingsman: The Secret Service. However, there are some additional notes relating to film fight scenes in general.
Firstly, this list started life as a quick brainstorm made on an A2 sheet of paper. I broke down the scene into nine categories: weapons used, amount of realism in the scene, emotions portrayed, general scene trivia, martial arts used, suspense, people involved, camera angles and music and sound effects. I then wrote down everything I noticed.
4. Fight Scenes in Film and Other Media
The 'Church Massacre' Scene from Kingsman: The Secret Service:
Within good fight scenes in the media, it is important to identify the key themes. From analysing the ‘Church Massacre’ scene from Kingsman: The Secret Service, I have created a mind map of all the most noticeable things within the scene, including:
· Weapons used (Hand guns, knives, wooden steaks, crucifixes, canes, crutches, cygnet ring tazer, fists, various pieces of church paraphernalia, hand grenade, chairs, books and a fire axe) Some of these are specialist and are only used by the Kingsman agent
· The amount of ‘realism’ involved (Quite to very realistic, blood toned down heavily to comply with film rating standards)
· Emotions portrayed (Just mindless violence, no real other emotions other than blind rage)
· General trivia informing researchers how the scene was made (20 stunt men, 1 week to shoot, not a continuous shot but set up to look like one)
· Martial arts being used (if any) (Some being used, unspecified, Judo (?), fist-fighting involved)
· Suspense (Everything is very quick, sporadic and fast, there isn’t much time for suspense, there is just action)
· Kinds of people involved (Congregation of the ‘hate group’, 1 sermon ‘leader’, 1 Kingsman agent, mostly people in their 40s to late 50s, some elderly with crutches, a few young people but not many seen)
· Camera angles used (Tracking shots most of the time, a few over-the-shoulder shots, one 1st person shot, the camera follows the Kingsman agent)
· Music and sound effects (‘Free Bird’ (guitar solo) by Lynyrd Skynyrd, screams of pain, slamming of bodies and weapons on the floor and into other fighters)
I am interested in this subject because I have written a few rudimentary fight scenes myself.
A good fight scene relies mostly on the setting, or venue, it takes place in. For example,
film franchises such as Mission: Impossible and James Bond often employ several martial arts experts or instructors to make the films fight scenes authentic. If you pay close attention to these scenes, certain blocks or punches from martial arts such as Judo or Karate can be seen.
What qualifies as a ‘fight scene’?
Fight scenes can be implemented into many films and other media, but are mostly prevalent in films such as:
Traditional Kung Fu films
Boxing films
Films about the mafia in different countries
Examples of good fight scenes in film and television:
Kingsman: The Secret Service ‘Bar Fight’ and ‘Chruch Massacre’ Scene(s)
Opening Scene from The Matrix (1999)
Kill Bill Vol. 1 ‘Showdown at the House of Blue Leaves’
Terminator 2: Judgement Day ‘Asylum Escape’
Boxing Films (Rocky, Creed, Million Dollar Baby)
Saving Private Ryan
Gangs of New York
Circa 07 - 17/10/2019
Week 2: 07/10/2019 - 13/10/2019
Week 3: 14/10/2019 - 20/10/2019