shittest/best battle scenes in film and tv

[stavros]

The end of Blackadder Goes Forth?

 

[agricola]

Its more of a fight than a battle, but the bit in Yojimbo where Mifune kills two, maybe three "gamblers" just to advertise his services is magnificent. There is also a great fight in Samurai Rebellion, at the end where Mifune reluctantly kills his mate in a duel and then gets cornered by a load of arquebusiers in a cornfield. (edit) Also the fight at the start of the Takeshi Kitano version of Zatoichi, but mainly because its hilarious:



As for the worst, thats probably a draw between the Castle Black battle that took up an entire episode of GoT (the one where Ygritte dies, not the one recently) and the start of Gladiator, which was spectacular but made absolutely no sense whatsoever at any point.

 

[passenger]

wot no Zulu ?

 

[Buddy Bradley]

I watched Edge of Tomorrow the other night, and the battle on the beach was pretty well done. They said they were aiming for Normandy-style confusion, and it is fairly reminiscent of Saving Private Ryan.

 

[David Clapson]

The daftest ever was when Ridley Scott did a Saving Private Ryan rip-off in his 2010 film Robin Hood. He invented medieval oar-propelled landing craft: http://s881.photobucket.com/user/BaalTshuvah/media/wtf.jpg.html .

Then he copied the scene where bullets kill people who are under water (which they don't) http://www.dga.org/~/media/Images/D...03 Fall 2011/ShotToRemember04PrivateRyan.ashx by having arrows killing people under water.

 

[JimW]

The battle scenes in Feng Xiaogang's Assembly were better than the run of the mill in Chinese cinema in being grim and gritty:

 

[adidaswoody]

 

[Casually Red]

pretty epic gun battle in Heat after the robbery. Just so loud, well shot, etc

The echoes off the concrete ...the brass plinking off the Tarmac...the feckin business .

 

[Casually Red]

The Wind that Shakes the Barley's version of the Kilmichael ambush.

If you're vote is for the shittest rather than the best I agree .

Although I liked the film I thought that was awfully tepid , lukewarm . Tom Barry's description of what actually happened was nowhere near that totally vanilla episode . There was no tension in it , no brutality , nothing . In actuality it was a bloody fight to the death , often at close quarters against very experienced and brutal killers . The auxies were former British officers from the working and lower middle classes who'd won their commissions in the field in WW1. They were elite soldiers and to wipe them out en masse , sometimes face to face , took a brutality we can only think off . Horrific stuff . That's why Tom Barry had to drill his guys on the road for half an hour afterwards . They were totally traumatised at what they'd just done to other people .

The film never even remotely came close to capturing that , or even attempted it . Loach was better off leaving kilmichael alone rather than that effort IMHO . It was shite , total anti climax .

 

[8den]

The attack on Zion in the 3rd Matrix Film. It suddenly dawns on that you've paid a tenner to watch a protracted video game cut scene.

 

[Casually Red]

Good battle scenes in Cross of Iron......

That one at the end , when Coburn tells that Prussian twat to follow him to " where the Iron crosses grow " , him laughing like a madman . And the Berthold Brecht Quote and al that . Top class . Then again pretty much every Peckinpah film ends on that note . All out mayhem . The Wild Bunch...the Long Riders ...amazing scenes .

A fistfull of dynamite has some cracker scenes too . That bit at the bridge with Coburn and Steiger taking on the convoy . Top notch stuff .

 

[trabuquera]

of course 13 Assassins (2010) is basically just one gigantic sword fight melee. Epic and/but repetitive and distressing after a while. Best Japanese battles ever surely has to be something Kurosawa, maybe Ran or Kagemusha or Throne of Blood?

If your taste is for more mechanised violence the danish tv series 1864 got pretty full-on in the two penultimate episodes.

 

[Redeyes]

The church scene in Kingsman was ace. It nearly tops A Better Tomorrow 2's ridiculous final battle.

 

[pogofish]

One of the Star Wars prequels has an absolute turkey of a battle IIRC.

 

[DexterTCN]

300. First battle. Spartacular.

 

[Nine Bob Note]

From the best episode of scifi ever produced...

 

[agricola]

One of the Star Wars prequels has an absolute turkey of a battle IIRC.

All of them do.

 

[agricola]

of course 13 Assassins (2010) is basically just one gigantic sword fight melee. Epic and/but repetitive and distressing after a while. Best Japanese battles ever surely has to be something Kurosawa, maybe Ran or Kagemusha or Throne of Blood?

Throne of Blood has one of the best death scenes in it, not sure about battles though.

 

[Casually Red]

wot no Zulu ?

Even though it's a load of Victorian shite that never actually happened...'twas a mere skirmish that they massively exaggerated to take the humiliation off Isandlwhana ...when them Zulus start battering the shields it's flipping awesome . Great pity they never won , they deserved it . But then again fighting massed rifles with pointy sticks puts one at a disadvantage .

John Barry's score is first rate too

 

[lefteri]

Ran

 

[Cid]

Now I've always recalled the various series of Sharpe here- the battle scenes were never terribly well funded and this was all pre CGI so fair play:

Thats sean bean not dying because his invincibilty cloak only works in the Sharpe universe. The eagle at talevera.

I've got a lot of time for the opening scene to Gladiator, The battle in the german midwinter.

There was some absolute shit, superflous and over done ones in the hobbit trilogy.

See also Hornblower. Did they even have a proper battle on Hornblower? Good stuff either way.

For all it's shitness Gladiator really ushered in/popularised the gritty battlefield. With bits of slow-mo. Watching it again is, I reckon, like someone would feel 15 years after Jason and the Argonauts (now and Gladiator = A New Hope and the Argonauts). Saving Private Ryan obviously earlier, but that trope of gritty quickness (hopefully minus the the slow-mo) is what you do in battles now. Not comparing overall film quality of course.

 

[Cid]

Even though it's a load of Victorian shite that never actually happened...'twas a mere skirmish that they massively exaggerated to take the humiliation off Isandlwhana ...when them Zulus start battering the shields it's flipping awesome . Great pity they never won , they deserved it . But then again fighting massed rifles with pointy sticks puts one at a disadvantage .

John Barry's score is first rate too

Batter as many shields you want, you won't break a Welsh male voice choir.

 

[agricola]

For all it's shitness Gladiator really ushered in/popularised the gritty battlefield. With bits of slow-mo. Watching it again is, I reckon, like someone would feel 15 years after Jason and the Argonauts (now and Gladiator = A New Hope and the Argonauts). Saving Private Ryan obviously earlier, but that trope of gritty quickness (hopefully minus the the slow-mo) is what you do in battles now. Not comparing overall film quality of course.

It does look at lot worse now than it did in the cinema.

Also I had forgotten about the Battle of Gaugamela, one of the few non Rosario Dawson highlights of Alexander:

 

[Casually Red]

Batter as many shields you want, you won't break a Welsh male voice choir.

" they've a good bass section , but not too many top tenors mind "

 

[Casually Red]

" we dropped at least 60 of them, wouldn't you say ? "

" that leaves 3940 "

 

[passenger]

quadrophenia

 

[starfish]

The Wanderers.

 

[8den]

From the best episode of scifi ever produced...

No the only thing naffer than the CGI lens flare is the acting.

 

[8den]

Start of Spiderman 3. I had literally no idea what was going on, I panicked because I assumed I'd has some kind of stroke and my occipital lobe was damaged.

 

[Casually Red]

The Wanderers.

These white boys , they're getting obstreperous

Don't fuck with the wongs

Dont fuck with the baldies