Medieval Movie Swordfighting

During the lunch break at the longsword workshop yesterday, the instructor talked about medieval swordfighting in films. A couple of things struck me. (Disclaimer superscript exponent: This is filtered through my perception of what he said in informal conversation, and through my memory of my perception! All musings and paraphrases are mine own.) One is that the films he recommended--among them Yojimbo, Rashomon, Throne of Blood--are Asian films (as well as Kurosawa films). Another is what he said about how those films had budo either doing the swordfighting or advising on the swordfight choreography.

We seem to have a lack of equivalent budo in Hollywood. It would be so awesome if people highly trained in historical Western martial arts could start advising or doing the fighting in historical and, especially, fantasy films involving Western swordplay. It would be so awesome if the choreography could be more solidly, historically realistic than fantastical. There's nothing wrong with fantasy martial arts and balletic interpretations of martial arts. There are inspired experts doing beautiful stage-fighting choreography in Hollywood. But there's nothing boring about realistic swordfighting. In fact, it's cooler than fantasy and stage swordfighting. It's more intense, and because it's more physically plausible and far, far more deadly, it's more dramatic. And it could be accurately simulated while keeping the fighters as safe as stunt fighters are now. It seems to me that the same way there's room for both Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and realistic empty-hand or Asian martial-arts sequences in film, there's room for Highlander and also something else, something more--something real.

I'd give a lot to see a movie in which the head of ARMA organized the swordfights.

( the workshop was great, btw )