The technical lightsaber choreography for the original Star Wars trilogy was developed by Hollywood sword-master Bob Anderson. Anderson trained actor Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) and, in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, performed all the stunts as Darth Vader during the lightsaber duels wearing Vader's costume. Anderson's role in the trilogy was highlighted in the film Reclaiming The Blade where he shared his experiences as a fencer developing the lightsaber techniques for the three original movies.
The lightsaber duels in the Star Wars prequel trilogy were specifically choreographed by stunt-coordinator Nick Gillard to be miniature "stories". For these films, Gillard was the primary sword instructor for actors Liam Neeson (Qui-Gon Jinn), Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi), and Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader) among others. His goal in choreographing the action for The Phantom Menace was to create stunts that flow from the story; "You can't just think, 'I'm a stunt coordinator, I'm going to make a big stunt happen'," Gillard said. "It's all about making it tie in nicely with the film so that you don't notice the stunts."[citation needed]
In writing the prequel trilogy, Star Wars creator George Lucas said he wanted the lightsaber combat to be "reminiscent of what had been done in the previous films but also something that was more energized. We'd seen old men, young boys, and characters who were half-droid, but we'd never seen a Jedi in his prime. I wanted to do that with a fight that was faster and more dynamic — and we were able to pull that off."[13]
According to Gillard (who would later go on to perform a cameo role in Revenge of the Sith[14]), various lightsaber combat styles were devised for the prequels and intended to further characterize their practitioners.
I developed different styles for the characters, and gave each of them a flaw or a bonus. So with [Obi-Wan], for instance, he's got a very business-like style — when he was younger he could border on the flashy and might twirl his lightsaber a bit, because he was taught by Qui-Gon. Qui-Gon was brash, that rubbed off on [Obi-Wan] and [Obi-Wan] then taught Anakin, who was way too old to learn anyway... I think the style really worked well. The Jedi style of fighting is an amalgamation of all the great swordfighting styles. Melding them together is the difficult part — to move from a Kendo style to, say, Rapier requires a complete change in body and feet movement, and this must look effortless. The style moves seamlessly between the different disciplines, but remains technically correct throughout. It's unlike any other style of fighting and I think it's beautiful to watch.[15]
For The Phantom Menace, Gillard set out certain styles and faults for the saber-wielding characters.[16] He added that the Jedi's use of such "a short-range weapon" meant "they would have to be very good at it"; combining a variety of disciplines from various swordfighting styles to martial arts "with a touch of tennis and tree chopping", he created the style seen in the Episode I lightsaber battles.
The lightsaber duels in the Star Wars prequel trilogy were specifically choreographed by stunt-coordinator Nick Gillard to be miniature "stories". For these films, Gillard was the primary sword instructor for actors Liam Neeson (Qui-Gon Jinn), Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi), and Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader) among others. His goal in choreographing the action for The Phantom Menace was to create stunts that flow from the story; "You can't just think, 'I'm a stunt coordinator, I'm going to make a big stunt happen'," Gillard said. "It's all about making it tie in nicely with the film so that you don't notice the stunts."[citation needed]
In writing the prequel trilogy, Star Wars creator George Lucas said he wanted the lightsaber combat to be "reminiscent of what had been done in the previous films but also something that was more energized. We'd seen old men, young boys, and characters who were half-droid, but we'd never seen a Jedi in his prime. I wanted to do that with a fight that was faster and more dynamic — and we were able to pull that off."[13]
According to Gillard (who would later go on to perform a cameo role in Revenge of the Sith[14]), various lightsaber combat styles were devised for the prequels and intended to further characterize their practitioners.
I developed different styles for the characters, and gave each of them a flaw or a bonus. So with [Obi-Wan], for instance, he's got a very business-like style — when he was younger he could border on the flashy and might twirl his lightsaber a bit, because he was taught by Qui-Gon. Qui-Gon was brash, that rubbed off on [Obi-Wan] and [Obi-Wan] then taught Anakin, who was way too old to learn anyway... I think the style really worked well. The Jedi style of fighting is an amalgamation of all the great swordfighting styles. Melding them together is the difficult part — to move from a Kendo style to, say, Rapier requires a complete change in body and feet movement, and this must look effortless. The style moves seamlessly between the different disciplines, but remains technically correct throughout. It's unlike any other style of fighting and I think it's beautiful to watch.[15]
For The Phantom Menace, Gillard set out certain styles and faults for the saber-wielding characters.[16] He added that the Jedi's use of such "a short-range weapon" meant "they would have to be very good at it"; combining a variety of disciplines from various swordfighting styles to martial arts "with a touch of tennis and tree chopping", he created the style seen in the Episode I lightsaber battles.
No comments:
Post a Comment