fights to the death are all very well but the stakes of a fight not bad at all
don't always have to be quite so fatal today's topic is the gold standard of
scenes which can be summed up we're fighting but secretly i fancy the pants
off you alejandra and elena in the mask of zorro i do love a flirty fight scene
well mostly you get your romantic leads you get them sparring or competing or
just really really mad and off you go you can
add levity playfulness character development if you do it right
my name is jill bear up and i enjoy pretending to hit people for fun and
fiction and i make videos about movie fights
if that sounds like your thing subscribe if you're not into that
well maybe i can persuade you in the next 10 minutes the first thing you need
to do is make sure your characters have a reason to fight
to be fair the setup for a fight that's mostly about flirting is a little bit
easier because it's inherently a little bit ridiculous but
you have to have something so zorro has just stolen a map from elena's adopted
father on behalf of her biological father and then there was a huge
multi-person fight scene which generally caused chaos
and now he needs to escape elena doesn't know what he's stolen but she confronts
him with a sword in order to get it back she needs to win this fight to get the
map back he needs to win this fight so that he
and de la vega can carry on with her plans to save california plausible
enough great because it's mostly just an excuse to get these two characters into
close and sweaty contact swords notwithstanding close and sweaty
contact again i should say because they have met before both with
alejandro as zorro and as the delightfully jerkish but
secretly sweet don alejandro this particular setup means
that both of them are actively trying to win
as opposed to something like the fight between lizzie and darcy in pride and
prejudice and zombies which we'll get to in a later video where lizzy is trying
to hurt darcy because he hurt her sister's feelings
and her feelings but darcy is physically speaking mostly just trying to defend
himself there's more going on than that but you'll just have to watch the video
but since both of these two are actually really trying to win and we can see that
alejandro is taller stronger probably faster and has
been training with de la vega we need this line by elena
i have had the proper instructions since i was four
to let us know she's going to be able to handle it just fine because in this
situation it needs to be a close fight it needs to be a contest between equals
he's got the physical advantage but she's had a decade or two more to work
on the swordplay and weapons are excellent equalizers
if you know how to use them this whole fight is the swashbuckling tone of this
film tutti he could attempt to escape without
fighting but should he seems more likely that he can
beat elena or at least achieve a win condition that means he gets to leave
without attracting attention and this is fun so he's just gonna do
that there's a danger that she might beat him to the point that he has to
give the map back but that's clearly not a danger
that he takes very seriously as for elena she's taking the opportunity to do
something her father would approve of the retrieval of his property
in a way that he most definitely would not approve of his daughter randomly
dueling masked men and it's perfect because what we've already seen of her
points to elena as headstrong and adventurous and a risk
taker well i tried to behave properly the way my
father would like me too yes we know honey but really
you're quite the adrenaline junkie and she correctly assesses that asking
nicely for the stolen item will probably not result in its return
no matter how charming she is or how much of her underwear she flashes and so
she brings a short pointy object with her good morning signo
and her sultriest expression obviously that little appraising look is just
perfect tonally you can't take a fight like this too seriously you need a
sprinkle of levity from at least one of the parties and preferably both because
otherwise it's a flirty fight you don't want it to
be darn boring do you this fight is not like the other fights in the film
even the ones which are inherently very swashbuckly and have a
lot of humor in them don't have the same feel as this they're
inherently more about danger and adventure
this is the dance again only this time he's not doing it to distract her father
and there's no one around to watch and so command give it back
refusal no and then he laughs so escalation the first escalation it's not
that every fight choreographed by bob anderson begins with testing the skill
and determination of your opponent it's just that all of my favorite fights
choreographed by bob anderson begin with testing the skill and determination of
your opponent now a weapon is involved we're introducing some actual risk and
with that risk comes physiological arousal heart rating palm sweaty heavy
breathing that kind of thing you don't see much of that yet but you
will are those feelings present because
you're in danger because it's hot in here
or is that just your opponent physiological arousal is one of the
things we'll be talking about when we talk about bulletproof monk
yes really it's going to be a time because the general lack of
physiological arousal in that fight is one of the things that makes it so
boring and jarring there are several escalations in the fight but this is the
first and the most overtly threatening and it immediately ups the sticks
because you know sharp pointy object near your face and note that he doesn't
have a sword right now she could just stab him but this
is not that kind of fight and these are not those kind of characters
and she knows it which is why she looks so pleased with herself
and he knows it but he tests her intent and her skill by quite casually knocking
the blade away but nope she's quite serious but not
serious enough that he can't probably seduce and or swordfight her
into changing her mind and he knows it hence this intimately toned sword-bled
touchy feely thing and her little smile and the flick away followed by of course
i don't have the time to give you the proper instruction and indeed
i have had the proper instructions since i was four which as i said
establishes our level playing field honor satisfied by both parties he draws
his sword and look how she smiles about that
and off we go the arc of the fight runs thusly
zaro attacks initially and elena parries everything until this disengage and you
can see the anger under there because he stole something and she's
going to get it back yeah that's not the main thing that's going on really is it
he nodes acknowledging her skill they circle he
smiles she takes her stance again at which
point he immediately attacks a bit like a master waiting for his
student to be in the best position possible to give her the best chance of
winning which is either very noble or a little bit
patronizing a little bit provocative a little bit
talking down to you but with a sword she certainly seems to think so because now
she goes on the attack and she looks positively joyous about it
he's backing up and looking uncomfortable and the first point so to
speak goes to elena who rips his shirt
escalation the second but a decidedly different tone than the first one right
still decidedly marshall but also really quite suggestive
note how the sword is generally at his throat or his mouth
yeah they then mutually break apart to disrobe some more because gosh yes you
are quite skilled and i'm getting a bit warm and
might need my full range of motion after all but even though they're literally
taking clothes off this part is more for humor than sex appeal
though there is some of both incidentally that expression on his face
is just perfect tone again it's basically play
fighting but with live blades you lunatics hey does anyone else
remember the wilkinson sword advert that was
heavily inspired by this nebula and patreon viewers
more on that later elena at this point is flush with success and immediately
goes on the offensive as soon as zoro has his blade back which again
noble and of course a sly little echo of him doing exactly the same thing to her
in a choreographed fight you really do want to wait until your partner is
actually ready before attacking them but it's nice that they can work that into
the choreography as a character moment and then we play with tone some more
with some unnecessarily fancy dancy spinning with elena still mainly being
the one on the offensive because as i said before this is the continuation of
the paso doble is that a paso doble i don't
actually know well whatever it is the continuation of the dance by more
violent means and without the necessity of hurting her feelings directly
afterwards anyway it's his turn to randomly slice
some clothing no bad another escalation as it were and then
not bad at all
note in this case that he just moves right in this isn't an attack parry
riposte kind of thing he just gets her blade out of the way and then balls his
way right into her personal space that makes her a little bit angry though
mostly because it's scoring a point in the same way that her slicing his shirt
was her scoring point she didn't really seem to mind him slicing her skirt
though incidentally making her angry is actually very clever
from a tactical standpoint someone who is precise enough to slice
your shirt open is clearly a formidable opponent
and so maybe making them angry so they forget
form and sense is a good idea and it makes sense for him to take advantage of
her impulsiveness and make her cross and sloppy remember
it's a game and they're both trying to win and while mutual
winning is possible no jokes please the idea is that the other person has to
acknowledge that you're winning and so she attacks again but he parries easily
and then slices off her shoulder strap and then shrugs the cocky little twerp
baiting her to get in closer at which point she loses her temper
completely and tries a big old stab which he quite easily avoids traps her
sword and kisses her again after which point he disengages laughing
and then engages her in a sword fight again
really there is no clearer indication that he's not actually trying to hurt
her like at all then this that ridiculously
telegraph lunge should have been the end of the fight if
he'd wanted to he could have ended it right there
but no and then we mirror that with this exchange where she gets her temper under
control and manages to disarm him note hi heavily they're both breathing right
now by the way
i love this tiny piece of choreography note how she moves
backwards into a more threatening posture the pose and the facial
expression say i will kill you but the moving backwards into it say but i'd
rather not because you're pretty hot and isn't it nice when people are quick on
the uptake because clearly he realizes this too
smiles beats the sword away and backflips his way to freedom or at least
to a pile of hay or possibly straw cute and
suggestive and a minor change of environment and
also an opportunity to a make elena's life more difficult as she's got to wade
through this stuff and b bring in a more amusing defensive
weapon in the form of a horse collar and then the reverse disarm
and he is back in control she quite sensibly goes for his sword as soon as
he disarms her but not quite fast enough remember it's
about the other person knowing that you've won
hence the logical extension of all of this bodice ripping he just looks so
ridiculously pleased with himself what would her dad think
okay fine do you surrender never but i may scream largely chemistry is
something that you can't teach it's just something that you know
when you see but two quick notes for it at this point
note how neither of them are moving back both of them stay
absolutely rooted to the spot if anything they move towards each other i
mean part of that is because actors need to hit marks in order to be
in focus and stuff but still also watch how his eyes are either
on her eyes or her mouth and they keep skipping from one to the other sometimes
i have that effect
and more snogging which is the actual win condition
so to speak oh look at that little cheek stroke that's adorably romantic
the important thing is not the disarm itself but the incapacitation via
clothes ripping and the distraction via kissing so that
he can escape with style obviously because you know at this point
that both of them have kind of forgotten about the whole map thing
and two round off the playful tone nicely uh sorry you only get one kiss
because i gotta go do important adventuring stuff
and you don't get to keep the hat either resolution zoro gets to keep the map
elena needs new underwear and they both got a toe curling snog out of the deal
he was very vegan his father this fight is beautiful in a serious
movie it would make no sense but this is a
comic swashbuckling adventure and sometimes that means showing off an
unnecessary dance spinning and flirting with beautiful ladies who are unexpectedly amazing fencers