Escape to the Movies: Man of Tai Chi
- Thread starter MovieBob
- Start date
Gordon_4 said:
Personally, the Noah movie is something I didn't expect. Just completely out of left field.
Well, I can answer the question about the paid "street fighting" to an extent.
There are three points to consider:
One, a lot of desperate people will do just about anything for money. The old video series "Bum Fights" made sort of a point about this, and it involved more than just bums being paid to fight each other for peanuts, some of which is pretty de-humanizing, which is why it wound up being banned. At one time however you could find those videos with a quick trip to Blockbuster. Sometimes you do wind up with people out on the streets who can actually fight, ghetto trash who are failed boxers (or trained and never went anywhere), Ex-military, and various other backrounds that can put someone who is more or less unemployable or fallen on hard times into such positions. Typically though "Bum Fights" was just pathetic, and that was kind of the point, however you can see where the inspiration for some of this came from.
Two, an appreciation of real fighting, the thing about UFC, Boxing, and other organized contests is that there are tons of rules to make them safe and about what kinds of techniques can be used. It's more of a sport than a real fight, the guy who wins a UFC match under those rules (where tons of things are banned nowadays) is not necessarily the guy who is going to win an actual fight if it was for real.
Even today there are a lot of people who got somewhat irritated with the way UFC developed, given that early on it was more of a true "no holds barred" fighting competition where they didn't worry much about what techniques were used, and about "petty" things like weight classes. You could have some 150 pound dude going up against a 300 point monster, and try and take him out by grounding him with a hold and smashing his brain stem. For obvious reasons the authorities said "no" and pressured UFC to change into what it is now, however it was at one time a real fighting competition as opposed to a sport... and honestly a lot of people like to see that, as opposed to necessarily just wanting to see someone hurt or killed.
Three, gambling, simply put there isn't going to be a lot of money made off of doing illegal, no holds barred fighting and selling the rights given that the illegal nature of it presents a barrier to getting the sales. On the other hand if you get a bunch of enthusiasts together with money to spend who are willing to bet on the outcome of the fights, the house can make a pretty decent chunk of change. At the end of the day it comes down to getting good fighters who are willing to risk getting seriously hurt or killed for whatever can be afforded, see point one, and it would largely come down to fighting the right people, under the right circumstances.
Now, of course TV and movies in general want to make things more dramatic, so they of course play everything up, and of course try and create some kind of great battle between good and evil, as opposed to people who know what they are doing (as opposed to being victims) working with people who set up a venue for it and themselves have a vested interest in keeping things as relatively clean and quiet as possible. When it comes to death matches, when and if such things were going to take place nobody involved would likely want to tape or televise it. As a result they mostly remain the stuff of "urban legend". For example not too long ago there were some stories about Mexican gang members hijacking buses on the border, forcing the people in the bus to fight each other to the death:
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2011/06/gladiator-death-fights-mexico-drug-war/38812/
So there you go, your underground death matches (maybe, hard to say, but fairly likely) IRL. Albiet without a lot of skill involved in the actual fighting.
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As far as the question about why someone with millions of dollars to blow wouldn't just pay to snuff people, IRL it could just be about the fighting itself. In a movie having some sadistic psychopath at the helm adds tension, but IRL the appeal is more likely to be akin to watching boxing or the UFC without the rules.
To put things into perspective with all the rules in UFC, it seems 90% of the matches nowadays come down to people rolling around on the ground and trying to finish each other with wrestling or Juijitsu. Strikes (ground and pound) some into play, but there are so many rules about where and how you can hit someone that typically stand up comes down to a kickboxing match, and while some fights ARE resolved by strikes, it seems to be something of a minority. Even with the grappling there are certain things you can't do....
There are three points to consider:
One, a lot of desperate people will do just about anything for money. The old video series "Bum Fights" made sort of a point about this, and it involved more than just bums being paid to fight each other for peanuts, some of which is pretty de-humanizing, which is why it wound up being banned. At one time however you could find those videos with a quick trip to Blockbuster. Sometimes you do wind up with people out on the streets who can actually fight, ghetto trash who are failed boxers (or trained and never went anywhere), Ex-military, and various other backrounds that can put someone who is more or less unemployable or fallen on hard times into such positions. Typically though "Bum Fights" was just pathetic, and that was kind of the point, however you can see where the inspiration for some of this came from.
Two, an appreciation of real fighting, the thing about UFC, Boxing, and other organized contests is that there are tons of rules to make them safe and about what kinds of techniques can be used. It's more of a sport than a real fight, the guy who wins a UFC match under those rules (where tons of things are banned nowadays) is not necessarily the guy who is going to win an actual fight if it was for real.
Even today there are a lot of people who got somewhat irritated with the way UFC developed, given that early on it was more of a true "no holds barred" fighting competition where they didn't worry much about what techniques were used, and about "petty" things like weight classes. You could have some 150 pound dude going up against a 300 point monster, and try and take him out by grounding him with a hold and smashing his brain stem. For obvious reasons the authorities said "no" and pressured UFC to change into what it is now, however it was at one time a real fighting competition as opposed to a sport... and honestly a lot of people like to see that, as opposed to necessarily just wanting to see someone hurt or killed.
Three, gambling, simply put there isn't going to be a lot of money made off of doing illegal, no holds barred fighting and selling the rights given that the illegal nature of it presents a barrier to getting the sales. On the other hand if you get a bunch of enthusiasts together with money to spend who are willing to bet on the outcome of the fights, the house can make a pretty decent chunk of change. At the end of the day it comes down to getting good fighters who are willing to risk getting seriously hurt or killed for whatever can be afforded, see point one, and it would largely come down to fighting the right people, under the right circumstances.
Now, of course TV and movies in general want to make things more dramatic, so they of course play everything up, and of course try and create some kind of great battle between good and evil, as opposed to people who know what they are doing (as opposed to being victims) working with people who set up a venue for it and themselves have a vested interest in keeping things as relatively clean and quiet as possible. When it comes to death matches, when and if such things were going to take place nobody involved would likely want to tape or televise it. As a result they mostly remain the stuff of "urban legend". For example not too long ago there were some stories about Mexican gang members hijacking buses on the border, forcing the people in the bus to fight each other to the death:
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2011/06/gladiator-death-fights-mexico-drug-war/38812/
So there you go, your underground death matches (maybe, hard to say, but fairly likely) IRL. Albiet without a lot of skill involved in the actual fighting.
-
As far as the question about why someone with millions of dollars to blow wouldn't just pay to snuff people, IRL it could just be about the fighting itself. In a movie having some sadistic psychopath at the helm adds tension, but IRL the appeal is more likely to be akin to watching boxing or the UFC without the rules.
To put things into perspective with all the rules in UFC, it seems 90% of the matches nowadays come down to people rolling around on the ground and trying to finish each other with wrestling or Juijitsu. Strikes (ground and pound) some into play, but there are so many rules about where and how you can hit someone that typically stand up comes down to a kickboxing match, and while some fights ARE resolved by strikes, it seems to be something of a minority. Even with the grappling there are certain things you can't do....
I was going to bring this up! He's also (for lack of a better term) the host of the documentary. After watching it, I had a newfound respect for him, as it was obvious that he A) loved moviemaking and it's related jobs and B) really knew what he was talking about. Seriously great stuff.NinjaDC said:
Plus, the guy invented (with some help) a new kind of camera crane so he could better film the action in 'Man Of Tai Chi'. That's dedication.