Historical Martial Arts
Historical martial arts reconstruction developed in the later 20th century and became influential in cinema only from ca. the 1990s. Earlier sequences of combat with pre-Renaissance weaponry were typically based on classical fencing techniques, or choreographed as ad-hoc "blade whacking".
Influential movie heralding renewed interest in pre-modern swordsmanship were Excalibur (1981) and Highlander (1986). Lightsaber combat in the Star Wars films takes some elements from kendo, and The Lord of the Rings film trilogy employs some elements of historical fencing.
Historical drama films that feature combat based on historical swordsmanship include Rob Roy (1995), Gladiator (2000), Troy (2004), Kingdom of Heaven (2005), Alatriste (2006).
A Knight's Tale is an example of a movie that includes jousting performances (2001).
Read more about this topic: Combat In Film
Famous quotes containing the words historical, martial and/or arts:
“The proverbial notion of historical distance consists in our having lost ninety-five of every hundred original facts, so the remaining ones can be arranged however one likes.”
—Robert Musil (18801942)
“To a surprising extent the war-lords in shining armour, the apostles of the martial virtues, tend not to die fighting when the time comes. History is full of ignominious getaways by the great and famous.”
—George Orwell (19031950)
“Eliot dead, you saying,
And who is left to understand my jokes?
My old Brother in the arts . . . and besides, he was a smash of
poet.”
—Robert Lowell (19171977)