Where is your god now?
Great moment here. You see when he's doing a cartwheel,
if you do without the hands, it gives him even more power.
My name is Amen Santo. I'm from Bahia, Brazil,
and I've been practicing capoeira for 50 years.
So today we're going to be reviewing some capoeira scenes
in movies and TV and see how effective they are.
People take for granted how powerful the hands are.
In the modern capoeira practice, we do have some strikes.
You can use this part of your hand,
and it can hurt as much as this.
If I go like this up with full power, it's devastating.
What they did is something we do very commonly in capoeira.
We practice the armada,
and typically, we get this close
to go fast and be able to react.
The front kick, bênção, that was beautifully done.
Because you use your upper body going back, you gain power.
You can make someone fly like that.
Wesley Snipes is an incredible guy,
incredible martial artist.
Because they're exaggerating, I'll still keep it a nine.
When we're judging by the technical aspect, it was perfect.
Lateef is an incredible fighter.
Adding that spin, right, was his choice.
In a fighting situation, you will never do that.
In a lot of the presentations you see in movies,
you can only see one part of capoeira,
which is more the visual.
Capoeira is an African Brazilian martial art
and was brought from Africa to Brazil.
But in Brazil, because of slavery,
people, they had to practice capoeira differently,
because it was illegal to practice.
So even today, people are completely confused
about capoeira.
Because you see, like, beautiful movement,
but the whole point is to disguise the potential you have
behind that particular movement.
When he did the cartwheel from the low position,
he had to be also careful,
because if he goes all the way in,
he'll definitely hit the other actor.
That one in the movie that he kicks back and forth,
it's not a movement that you're going to see in a fight.
But also it gets people confused.
Capoeira, there's an element of playfulness.
There's no right or wrong.
Some people use more the combat,
other people more the playfulness.
That's the meia lua. It's called half-moon.
The way they were shot,
you just see the kick going like this.
Because they do not allow it to go all the way,
because it would be too fast for him to get out.
And that meia lua in the real world
really goes with the heel.
With full speed, good luck with that.
He wouldn't be standing up right now.
I will give her nine.
They were very to the point,
but for safety they had to pull back a lot of stuff.
Where's your god now?
Great moment here. You see when he's doing a cartwheel,
he's using the acrobatic as a way of attacking.
You can definitely generate the cartwheel with your hands
and without your hands.
If you do without the hands, it gives him even more power.
Because you're just throwing. Your body's such a force
that it's going to swing very hard in the face.
That slide is escape.
But from that escape, typically you want to strike,
because what you do after the escape,
that's the whole point.
The nature of capoeira, you escape and you have a follow-up.
From that situation, you're dodging,
then I will throw a meia lua,
which is a low kick.
Can be anywhere, from the leg, here, or up to the head.
No powers!
So, that's one very, very typical way of attacking capoeira,
is with a headbutt.
And they're doing the different angles,
like forward, sideways, backwards.
But this was perfect because
the only way he can actually strike back
was using his headbutt.
And that was a perfect example,
where he did that scissor.
It was beautifully done because it comes from the ground,
which is, capoeira, I think, is the only art
that we really use the floor the way we do.
Equally, 50/50, standing and also using the ground.
And then he went to the choking,
which is more like jujitsu.
Definitely the capoeira scissor allowed the person
to have the opportunity to do the next thing.
There were certain things that I would've done differently,
like the escapes. I'll give a seven.
It can be very fluid.
It can be from slow pace to superfast
and do, like, five, six, seven, eight kicks back-to-back.
It can be super dangerous when you do that
and when you have the right timing.
With that lower position that we call rasteira, the sweep,
it can be done but will be extremely hard.
Especially if you have someone like Batman.
She will be more in advantage
of waiting for him to attack her
and be responding
instead of being attacking all the time.
And using techniques that would hit the chin,
be more direct, the groin,
the knee, throat, eye.
She used the walls to kick.
Visually, it's great.
When you telegraph, when you show what you're going to do,
that means your opponent will be ready to respond.
It's not the capoeira nature of showing.
Like a snake,
and a snake will wait for the right moment to go.
I will give you a 4 ½.
Wait, what is it?
It's capoeira.
I thought maybe you were doing it wrong,
but that's actually what it looks like.
If you're practicing this, you know, calling ginga,
you know, that's silly.
If I'm practicing ginga,
basically it's the stance, you know, you do your triangle.
I'm working my posture
so I can block with my elbow.
I can block down, I can block up.
So you move, you escape, attack from that foundation.
If you're just there doing this all day,
it's pretty funny.
Jairo: Ha! Sa! Sha! Brazil!
Sa! Sha! Brazil!
Even this entrance here
is more like a karate entrance.
Just imagine someone, like, doing karate
and doing cartwheels and, "Ha! Huh! Huh!"
It's interesting.
But it's definitely not a representation
of what we're talking about.
My name is Jairo. Welcome to the world of capoeira.
Capoeira is the most seductive form of self-defense.
It combines peacefulness, fighting, and cardio.
Hold there for a second.
Peacefulness,
this, to me, it feels like more like yoga.
Capoeira came from struggles,
came from a survival situation.
To be peaceful when you're supposed to survive
is a contradiction there.
Jairo: You can advance through the stages
by earning different-colored chords at the
troca de cordoes.
The rankings, right?
That became more popular
later on,
but that traditionally wasn't that way.
Lots of the training were done in the streets.
Because certain people,
they were able to survive
doing this combat,
they became recognized as a master
or a teacher by the community
instead of someone just giving you a ranking.
I'll give 1 ½.
That was a great way
to use capoeira, with lasers.
He's using a lot of capoeira Angola.
There are two styles capoeira.
Capoeira Angola, which you're going to see a lot
of the more fluid, slow movements.
Some people can stand up as well, but most people,
they'll be more on the lower part of the art.
The other style is called capoeira regional.
That was introduced later
by a master called Mestre Bimba,
which you're going to see more the strikes
like the other films that you saw.
And it's interesting, this scene here,
that they use a lot of that to avoid to be touched,
not to be in control of anything,
and just react to something that you see.
To be able to fall and be able to bounce back
without putting a lot of effort,
did a good job as far as using the flexibility
and the abilities that we are capable of in capoeira.
I'll give 8 ½.
This is me when I used to have long hair.
People think that we're actually doing the fighting here.
We are doing the roda circle
to practice our skills.
If you notice, there's no contact,
because it is more the training.
So, the music is a big part of capoeira.
Basically, in a circle, you have a bateria.
That means where they have the berimbau, the drum.
So when you clap and when you sing and when you play,
you create more and more energy,
so you'll be able to perform better.
Even during slavery, a lot of times,
the music was used to create courage, to create endurance,
to be able to fight against the oppressors.
So the musicality is so important.
Talks about history, it talks about struggles,
how we were able to overcome to become who we are today.
I think this film was the first movie
that actually featured capoeira from beginning to end.
I won't give it 10, I will give 9 ½,
because I know there was a lot of way to improve.
Will Ferrell is such a funny guy.
I think the capoeira here is definitely overly exaggerated.
You don't need to go over,
but in a real situation
he just simply has to go down and then drop the kick.
If you're going to spend that time just flying in the air,
before you drop, people can, they have many options
to get out of the way and do other things.
Would it be interesting if it was the berimbau
and he was hitting people?
Then it would be very accurate.
The berimbau is the main instrument in capoeira.
But using somebody's body to do that
is pretty unrealistic.
This one I'll rate 6 ½.
It's too much of an exaggeration
to complete one simple task.
OK, let's stop!
Historically, it's a great story,
but it took it to a level
that for me was unnecessary.
Besouro was an incredible capoeirista.
Traditionally, people claimed that he was able to fly.
And it's very romantic.
But this scene here, completely unrealistic.
How can somebody be shooting
and you be flying in the air like that?
I can watch "The Matrix" and appreciate that.
It's a whole different story here.
Even though you have three people with rifles,
and you still be able to stand up.
Not very realistic, but it's doable.
Capoeira came from that environment,
fighting multiple people.
It is just something that we know works.
But, again, it depends how good you are,
how effective you are, how efficient,
and that goes with many other arts,
you know, not just capoeira.
I will give it a four.
My favorite movie featuring capoeira,
not because I'm in it, but I think "Only the Strong"
because there was the element of the performance
and now the actual combat to be able to use
in a full-length film.
Thanks for watching this video.
If you like this one, watch the one above.