From what I remember, that first saber fight used actual glowing prop swords that were in danger of breaking if swung to hard.
In the subsequent films they switched to adding the glow in post production.

How much can this be repeated? The saber fights in the OT were FAR more realistic. The new ones they are barely paying attention, flipping and twisting and spinning and twirling their weapons around in a flashy, showy obviously choreographed dance.In the OT they fought much more slowly but with precision, focus and skill. Each blow had purpose beyond pretty colors flashing on screen. Nobody EVER turned their back on their opponent or (for fuck sake) leaped over them. It helps that the sabre fighting was choreographed by the legendary Bob Anderson who coached Errol Flynn and played Vader in the sabre fights himself.

I know, in this day in age everything in the movies has to be fast, showy and mesmerizing but those original Star Wars sabre duels are so memorable because they were raw and realistic. You think when life or death hangs in the balance you ever actually turn your back to your opponent? Or swirl your weapon flashily? No you make every strike, country, parry and guard a deliberate action. It's about outmaneuvering and out thinking your opponent, not how many blows you get in per second.

Old school saber fights aren't as "flashy" as the new ones, but oh so more satisfying.

>> ^Shepppard:

@<a rel="nofollow" href="http://videosift.com/member/Xaielao" title="member since March 13th, 2009" class="profilelink">Xaielao
Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're the only one who thinks the old battles were better. The old battles were slow.. and that MADE them unrealistic.
In a typical swordfight, I'm pretty sure you're not gonna hit 3 times in 5 seconds and stop. And I can probably back the rest of that up with Lore.
Despite being "The Chosen One", Luke was only trained when he was older. Yoda came close to showing off a jedi's true potential by lifting the X-wing out of the marsh, but at that point he was old, and likely hadn't used the force for ages since Luke had appeared.
The Jedi we see in the prequel trilogy had been raised since they were insanely young (Younger then the 9 year old Anakin, because someone even says "He's too old.") and whenever you see someone fighting they're not just a run-of-the-mill jedi, it's typically someone from the council, essentially, the cream of the crop.
And.. just on a last little rant about the swordplay.. they're Jedi. Again, people trained since they were extremely young to use the force as a guide. Qui gon Jin at one point even says something about "He can see glimpses of the future, it's a jedi trait." which again, is something that happens in battle making the fights faster and more epic. Jedi are essentially a partial ripoff of samurai anyway.. and if you don't think sword fighting can be that fast and action packed, watch a couple good Kendo matches.



I may be the only one (though I sometimes doubt that hehe, but I must disagree about the saber battles in the original. They were choreographed by Bob Anderson, one of the greatest holywood sword trainers ever. The guy is behind literally every major action movie with sword fighting in them from Star Wars to The Lord of the Rings, and Pirates of the Caribbean to Highlander. The saber fights are slow I'll give you that, but they were slow for a reason. As I said they were choreographed in such a way that you could almost feel the battle of wills behind the sabers themselves.

Nice CG but I don't like the saber fights or force powers. Every since Ep 1 the saber fights have been a flurry of flashing lights, cool leaps and overpowered force powers where guys can throw around objects weighting many tuns as if they were throwing a toy.

I mean am I the only one who thought the old battles were better. The sword play was slower and more deliberate (and more realistic). The fights were battles of will as well as sabers. Throwing an object around took serious concentration and it was a rather cumbersome ability in the first place. Only the most powerful of jedi and sith had abilities like force lightning or the ability to throw around objects. It's almost as bad as that last superman movie with the superman who could live a continent made of kryptonite out of the ocean lol.

Ok rant over hehe. Cool CG, to bad the actual gameplay and saber duels look 'nothing' like that.

Well said, Farhad. I too love the "first" 3 ie. SW, Empire, ROTJ (<-- Yes, I like the Ewoks) but had severely mixed feelings about the last 3. I remember sitting down to watch Phantom Menace the first time, excited out of my gourd. But after it finished, I was conflicted. It's more Star Wars which was a good thing but the story sucked. Certain aspects of it kicked ass like the pod race, saber fights but the rest wasn't up to par. Like you stated, one of the main appeals of the original trilogy, was that everything had a used feel to it. It wasn't the pristine hospital that Star Trek is; everything look old and like it belonged there. I think CGI still has a long way to go (detail wise) before it completely fools the eye.

Come Attack of the Clones, with Chistensen's horrible acting and Lucas' awful romantic dialog, I started feeling like I was watching Alien 4, thinking "Where the fuck are they taking this series?..." Again, a few high points but over all, meh.

I did like how he tied it all together in the 3rd movie. That is that trilogy's only saving grace.

With all that said, I thought they already did "The Clone Wars" as an animated series? Not sure what this new flashy 3D version is all about...

...aaaaand all of them suck at light saber fighting.

Nick Gillard has been with George Lucas from the beginning, doing the choreography for every saber fight since 1975... He's constantly traveled to keep up with trends and new styles... GL asked him to find something much more exotic for "these Jedi and Sith at their prime". Wushu was the only solution...

The wild swings are called flares, and serve to misdirect your opponent and gain momentum on your strikes... In EPIII Obi-Wan and Annakin stand inches apart doing infinity flares at high speed... Most would say it's just showing off, but it serves an important purpose when you can be cut in 2 at any moment...

And it was Mace Windu that beheaded Jango Fett... Not Obi-Wan.

One thing that now bugs me about the saber fights in these prequels is all the saber swirling that the jedis do to try to look cool. Especially at 4:27. It just looks stupid.

Darth Maul was actually their teacher that taught the actors about the choreograhy. the Orginial actor that was playing dath maul just couldnt do the tricks, spins and other stuff, so they canned him and hired the teacher, he wasnt an actor (hense the Always super serious face and vitually no lines). its is probably why the fights between these three flows so well, because you have an Actual Kendo master (maul) fighting the other 2.
also, its all Kendo (apperently), just practiced to perfection in what we see.
this saber fight was apperently, fromt the start, the biggest and most planned out part for EP. 1. nothing else in the 3 movies was practiced as much as this fight, which is Why this part (imho) stands out as the best part of the movie, cause it was

For me this was the best saber-fighting in the SW prequels. (Yoda doesn't count. He just spins a lot.) The entire thing was very well choreographed, and Obi-Wan's fighting after Qui-Gon bites it is particularly intense.

But beyond this fight, is it just me, or are all of the saber-fight scenes in TPM choreographed a lot better than the two following movies? As bad as the movie was, they were quite fun to watch . . .

this has to be the best website for videos. that home made video of the light saber fight rocks!!!!

Very nice i want to c a saber fight with some real hot women

Story:

A light saber fight sequence with the flavor of a Hong Kong martial arts action movie. This short is set in a dense forest of an unknown planet, where a young Jedi, eager to fight to help the Revolution, clashes with a Sith Lord in a battle where only one will remain standing. Music by Hans Zimmer, and a monologue extracted from an authentic Civil War love letter written in 1861, help to set the tone for this movie.

--

This is probably my favorite saber fight out there, simply because they went beyond just putting in a fight and they added an entire good short story with emotion

I hate to burst your bubble but http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2667365
Is the best Saber fight out there. Blows Dorkman's away. If you have trouble finding it google "Art of Saber"