the moment we've all been waiting for to
go over
the fights this is something that i'm
very excited for
just like pretty much every other part
of the bonus discs that i've said i'm
excited for
so i hope you'll sit back relax and we
can get to the fights
of episode one the phantom menace behind
the scenes
i've never actually seen this i've only
seen pictures and i know this is where
it is because i can see from this little
animation here so
let's get into it episode 1 takes place
about 30 some
odd years before episode 4 which was the
original film
i was looking for a kind of sword
fighting that was reminiscent of what
was in the movies that we'd already done
but a more energized version of it
because we'd actually never seen real
jedis at work we'd only seen
crippled half droid half men and young
boys that had learned from these old
people
so to see a jedi in his prime
fighting in the prime of the jedi i
wanted to be a much more
energetic and and faster version of what
we've been doing
so i think he wanted something special i
think he wanted the audience to
understand
where these jedi's came from what their
powers were
and how sophisticated they were in the
art of battle
the sith knights were started by a
fallen
jedi knight who was tempted by the dark
side
the secret was that they they were
patient and they
trained and studied that they didn't
make their presence known to anybody
until we get to episode one here where
they
finally make their move to try to take
over the universe
[Music]
with this film the fighting had to be
very strong
what i had in mind after watching the
first
star wars films was that um
was that you would see that they had
studied every single style
swordplay you know from epa to kendo
that's what we've gone for
i like that there that's strong in there
isn't it
you know kendo movies since they had
chosen such a short range weapon
they would have to be so good if they're
up against ray guns and lasers
i think it just needed to be much more
gritty than it was you know much
more scary than it was much
faster and much stronger they have to be
constantly in
in check
there's no room for error in any of the
fights you won't see it because they're
so fast but if you
slow them down and freeze framed them
they can only parry there they can only
attack there the moves are so natural
or so correct it's the only place they
can be
[Laughter]
[Music]
the first time we were rehearsing these
fights of course we
we started making the sound effects of
the lightsabers
you know i kind of looked at each other
and i thought okay we have to stop that
get over it's interesting i mean i've
done
maybe four or five films where i've had
to do quite serious
sword fighting so i have a kind of a
grounding on it
normally with like sabers you have to
get a hack
you know put weight behind it but with
these things it's
very very gentle kind of smooth and
fluid
fast movements but very kind of gentle
at the same time
and when they use their lightsabers
they're
extensions of themselves you know i love
having my lightsaber it's the most
exciting thing i've ever known
to have my own lightsabers cool there's
not many people can say that they have
one
i mean you're almost straight out of
that once that's gone and you're almost
you're spinning
and chopping because he just steps in
um they understood that it had been
written
almost as dialogue and so it was they
could relate to it very easily
and it's got such a particular style of
its own really
the the lightsaber fights so i don't
know um
it just all came together i love it i've
really enjoyed it
ewan picks it up in a flash and um now
is
is i think faster than any of us so this
is a
it's a mcgregor lightsaber we have to
go through 105. gonna have to get
stronger ones made
they don't make light sabers like they
used to
liam has a there's a beautiful style
powerful
yeah that's it that's why he's fantastic
at it
i said i wanted a faster version of what
the other movies were
more energetic version and that's
basically what he gave me
and i think the key to it was we had a
good villain who was a great fighter
i always wanted to fly when i was a kid
i wanted to be like the guys in the
movies so that's how i started my
martial arts
i found darth maul and he's been played
by a guy called ray park
and he's very good in um like kendo and
marshall
arts and and he's a brilliant gymnast i
mean you know
he's better than i am we actually cast a
villain who was a sword fighter
you know when you have one of the
characters who actually knows what he's
doing and is really an expert at it it
it definitely ups the annie for all the
other actors to
do their thing as well as they can and i
think it makes a big difference on the
screen
we could see immediately he had the look
he had all the physical skill
he was incredibly disciplined and the
amount of work that this guy did
was phenomenal i mean he put everything
he spent
you know 20 hours at the studio every
day the hatred that comes out of his
eyes there's no question that he is the
serious bad guy
the um makeup which was beautifully done
instantly shows you someone of who is a
real menace the look of um darth maul
the sith lord
i think it's cool i think the makeup and
the horns and the lenses and the teeth
you just can't help being naughty you
know just help being that character
i think we all have a bit of a dark side
in us and so i just try and bring that
out myself when i play the character
no he's got to kick him and then jump up
because in the next cut
he's landing
[Music]
so then he could he could kick him and
then jump jump yeah you got to kick him
it would be not a very exciting sequence
i think it was all just done with
doubles
um i want to try something else because
most of the emotion of the fight is on
people's faces
do it slow you go like that
now you gotta kick it yeah i don't even
think if you did it with stunt people it
would all be they'd all be little tiny
things in the frame you'd never get
close to the emotion that you get when
you actually see
the actors playing the part and see the
actors struggling
in the fight sequences
[Music]
you've got to be down there doing it but
you've got to get the sense of
peril or threat you know we want them to
win they're
our heroes and so we need to be there
with them
cool man
there's something a lot of people don't
know is that ray park was actually a
martial art he is a martial artist
uh everything that went into it as they
said
it obviously makes the actors much more
inclined to
really get their fighting style right
man the way ray park was swinging
his saber especially with the metal
dowel like
if ewin would have missed a moment his
head would have been taken off
so they must have been really dialed in
now this also brings me to the point of
anakin and obi-wan in episode three
which we're going to see once we're
pretty much done
episode one which we almost are they
trained for
months for that final battle which was
the most intense
i would say sword battle in all of movie
history
it was absolutely phenomenal and they
did it all themselves
it wasn't sped up or anything like that
they had it down to a t
and it had to be perfect because in star
wars lore
annika and obi-wan of course are these
very big monumental figures but at the
same time
they knew how they fought right obi-wan
had trained with anakin anakin and
trained with obi-wan his whole life
pretty much
you know age nine so they knew all of
their own tricks and
styles and everything like that and so
they were just really ramping up the
speed and everything
to counter the other one's attacks and
to finally defeat him because it's like
well i know all your tricks what are you
going to do what are you going to show
me
so that's another reason i believe at
least
that they really had to make that fight
scene you know
the next level really really interesting
stuff i love this stuff
let's get on to the next one shall we