Reclaiming the Blade Page #5

Again the arm goes first,

the reality obviously

the arm plunge down

or through the throat.

See, there won't be a second

performance so we keep the arm,

shoulder, the body looking

as though it's going towards

the throat but at the last

moment we turn the point.

And to make it real,

he then defends and turns away.

'Cause I don't trust him.

I feel that I might get hit

so I then use the dagger

to make sure that the sword

has actually missed me.

You cut, and you hit him,

and you take his intestines out.

You hope.

The reason I don't hit him

is because as I cut him,

my elbow is pulling

the sword back into me.

The skill that that

needs is just as great

as the skill of killing

him is, of course,

sometimes the difference

of about 2 inches.

The point of choreography

in a play or a movie

is to forward the story.

If it does that

it is successful.

It's not designed to

actually show a real fight,

it's designed to show

something exciting with swords.

There's an undeniable

romanticism attached to it all.

And there's even

the grittier films, I think,

tend to steer clear

of much of the mechanics

of what a sword does

to a human body.

And it has to look

good on the screen.

I think, you know, I honestly

believe that a real fight

would be very short, sharp.

It's not just

a piece of art,

though it can be

appreciated that way.

It's not just

a piece of history

because they were used

for a purpose.

It is an ancient weapon that was

used to gain or lose kingdoms.

There's always been fighting.

There's never been a time

when there hasn't been

personal combat.

People are interested in combat

and cared about combat

from the highest

to the lowest in the land;

kings, and princes, emperors.

A sword as a weapon

is something that pretty much

everyone would have owned

it in the Anglian Period,

anyone being an adult male.

So, from top to bottom

of society

personal combat

was important.

Few subjects have received

such unfortunate neglect by

historians than the

martial arts of western Europe

although ancient kings

and nobles gave the blade

great credence

during their time,

often modern academics

fail to clearly write about

the reality of the blade,

defining its practice

as something apart from

its actual use.

It's quite a popular subject,

the history of dueling.

And you look at these books

and one thing they

never mentioned is the fighting.

You know, you'd think that this

was the raison d'etre of a duel.

But the one thing

they never mentioned

was techniques of combat.

It's a subject that

has been ignored

for the most part

for centuries.

Probably the world's foremost

scholar on historical fencing,

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