In childhood, I liked fight scenes on TV, particularly in Westerns. I would watch each move in a fight, including when a character's hat fell off, usually never to be retrieved. I was interested to read a magazine article on how such scenes were staged and disappointed when a comic strip adaptation of a TV fight did not reproduce each move but merely displayed a single panel of two guys punching each other. Some comics do go into details with fights. On TV, I preferred the Range Rider, who wrestled, to the Lone Ranger, who merely boxed.
We have mentioned that Poul Anderson's frequent action scenes include physical fights between characters as well as battles at sea, in space etc. Physical combat is integral to a series like Conan and both Anderson and SM Stirling give us plenty of it, e.g.:
"A Darfari sword slashed at [Conan], and his blade met it in an upward sweep, a clang of steel and shower of sparks and shock to the wrist." (p. 278)
That is a single sentence but this fight, like many others, continues for more than a page. I can only direct blog readers to read the books. And, of course, we would like it if all this were reproduced on screen.
6 comments:
Poul was good at fights. He'd had SCA experience with them, both personal and observation.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: I never much cared for Westerns. Possibly because, even as a boy, I somewhat dimly thought them too retrograde, focusing too much on the past. I far preferred SF, esp. hard SF--stories about space, spaceships, and other worlds were what gripped me.
Mr. Stirling: Sir Bela of Eastmarch! (Smiles)
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I realized that I preferred men in spacesuits to men on horseback.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Good! But you can find horses in hard SF.
Ad astra! Sean
In Poul's WINTER OF THE WORLD, for example.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Indeed, and in MRKHEIM as well, if I recall correctly.
Ad astra! Sean
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