One thing that never fails to get movie audiences cheering is the big battle scene. It doesn’t matter if you’re 80 years old with no teeth or a little kid who picks his nose, these action packed, adrenaline charged sequences are truly why the cinema was invented. Sure, we all love great storytelling and acting, but when the energy of a big cinematic fight is unleashed on us, we basically revert back to being animals filled with testosterone. We scream, we drool, we get goosebumps. Even many of the girls who usually could care less love these scenes. The simple fact is seeing people kicking mucho ass onscreen has a universal appeal. Anyways, enough of my yakkin’, here’s 10 of our favorite battles on film!
Braveheart – William Wallace and The Scots Vs. King Edward I and his Army
We all know the story behind Mel Gibson, he’s a moody fella, especially when he drinks, but you can’t deny he’s made some really excellent works of cinema over the years. The action sequences in this 1995 epic about the ancient Scottish warrior are some of the best ever filmed from modern times. There’s nothing like seeing two warrior factions with clubs, axes, swords and other nasty weaponry bludgeon each other to bloody mush. That type of stuff is furious, and kickass, we just love it.
The Wild Bunch: Pike & Co. Vs Mapache’s Army
The climax of Sam Peckinpah’s 1969 classic western adventure is not only about the demise of the main characters but the of the end of the Old West itself. It’s a slow motion, gun blasting bloody massacre that still has a tragic resonance when you view it today.
King Arthur – The Knights Vs. The Saxons
What happens when a small group of gallant knights must face an entire army of oafish huns that would rather cut their heads off than look at them? They must employ the talents of some special friends to help them get the upper hand. So they do, and arrows of fire rain down from the sky while those grubby barbarians get worked over like lousy bums who gets caught stealing bread.
Zulu – British Army Vs The Tribe
The great thing about this film is how director Cy Endfield used sound to create an incredible amount of suspense and fear. When you hear the Zulu warriors chanting and beating drums as the British army wait for them to arrive at their compound, it’s so memorable and adds even more fury to the actual fighting when it occurs.
Apocalyse Now – Ride of The Valkyries/Helicopter Attack
By now you’ve heard how Director Francis Ford Coppola nearly went insane making this existential war epic set during the Vietnam War. It’s filled with such amazing imagery and bizarre interactions, the film’s highlight is this exhillerating yet horrific destructive helicopter attack on a small coastal village. Coppola and screenwriter John Milius drive the sequence over the top by using Wagner’s classical music piece “Ride of the Valkyries” which Col. Kilgore (Robert Duvall) chooses to play on the helicopters’ sound systems as a live soundtrack during the invasion.
Starship Troopers – Raid on Klendaathu
Paul Verhoeven is no slouch when it comes to over the top entertainment and he takes the sci-fi adventure film into highly charged, exciting new territory when the soldiers in this film are armed with guns which use BULLETS instead of lasers to take out an entire planet of super nasty space arachnids. These scenes may have mostly been done with CGI, but they still look outstanding and they never pull you out of the film. Rat-A-Tat-SPLAT!
They Live – Nada Vs. Frank Armitage
Two tough mudders (played Roddy Piper and Keith David) are pitted against each other in this epic, face smashing, nut kicking, piledriving street brawl in John Carpenter’s 1988 alien invasion film. This sequence has since become a cult favorite and once you see it, you’ll know why. It’s not only funny as hell, but it goes on and on and on!
Kill Bill – The Bride Vs The Crazy 88
When Writer-Director Quentin Tarantino decided to do his glorious Grindhouse epic homage, he knew he had to kick things up to 12 on the action meter and after watching hundreds of kung fu and pop samurai films throughout his movie geek life, this was his answer to them. Well, ‘ol Q surely pulled off one ultra bloody, sword slashing, eye ripping action packed fight sequence. Yes indeedy!
From Russia With Love: James Bond Vs “Red” Grant
When it comes to close quarters fights on film, this sequence between a cool as ice 007 (Sean Connery) and a sadistic SPECTRE assassin (Robert Shaw) is about as hard hitting as they get. These guys are like two rabid dogs doing battle while locked in a cage. It might not be epic in the cinematic sense, but it’s definitely badass.
Scarface – Tony Montana vs. The Bolivian Hit Squad
A crime kingpin filled with enough cocaine to get the city of Miami high and an arsenal of weapons who has just killed his best friend and seen his beloved sister sprayed with bullets is likely to be unpredictable. Watch as Tony Montana destroys his entire home with an M-16 grenade launcher when some folks show up unannounced. This is definitely one of the greatest violent endings in cinema history.
Do you have any furious battle scenes you love to watch? Let us know in our comment section!
4 thoughts on “10 FURIOUS FILM BATTLES”
I personally love the bank robbery shoot out scene in “Heat”. I’ve upgraded to DVD, HD-DVD and then blu-ray over the past decade or so and everytime, I buy that movie and watch that scene to test out the visual and audible magnificence.
The ax fight scene in “Oldboy” is pretty darn great. Final shoot out in “Open Range” is underappreciated. Many of the war scenes in “The Longest Day” still take my breath away as well.
def some great ones. i almost added the heat shootout but went with scarface instead.
How could you miss the bath house knife fight in Eastern Promises? It’s about as brutal as they come.
probably because the film is very new and i dont consider it an epic battle really. but its def a good one