Genuine martial-arts are starting to feature more and more prominently in big feature films with major stars undergoing serious training – and not just in the likes of The Raid. Even Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson - the stars of this month’s Captain America sequel – were schooled in the finer points of martial arts and hand-to-hand combat… John Mosby met the cast in London….
While no-one would begrudge Marvel’s massive success at the box-office, it’s probably fair to say that you’re more likely to think of special-effects and super-powers than you are actual martial-arts and honest-to-(Thunder) God hand-to-hand combat.
With the news that Iron Fist is one of Marvel’s new television shows starting around 2016 that could be about to change and there’s certainly more to suggest that’s the case in Marvel Studios’ latest release, the Captain America sequel: The Winter Soldier. Yes, there are all the explosions and bullets one would expect in a big blockbuster, but also a surprising amount of well-choreographed hand-to-hand combat.
Early in the film we see the star-spangled hero take on an oil-tanker full of bad-guys; his symbolic shield gets thrown around a lot, but it’s clear the Captain knows a thing or two about more modern fighting methods with some one-to-one fight sequences. Another scene demonstrates close-quarter combat in an elevator. Though there’s some dramatic license taken for story purposes, a lot of the basic fighting techniques were very real and taken seriously in preparation. Cap’s fighting style was originally a very 1940s ‘old-school kick and punch’ but now Rogers has upped his game…
“The fighting techniques that we used in this are a mixture of Parkour, Brazilian Ju Jitzu, karate and boxing,” says the film’s Stunt Coordinator Thomas Robinson Harper. “So it’s truly a mixed martial arts that we had Chris training for… because part of bringing the character into modern day is that Steve Rogers has studied and mastered these modern fighting styles and techniques. It’s very hard to integrate all those fighting styles and techniques together because one generally doesn’t work with another, but we figured out a way to make it flow and show that he has learned these things, and that’s how he has to fight in a modern world.”
“It was very important to us that all of the actors trained rigorously for the film because we wanted the audience to see our actors executing the action in the film,” says co-director Anthony Russo. “Audiences want to feel that energy and see a fluid fighting technique up on the screen.”
“One of the things we all agreed on was stepping up Captain America’s fighting ability. In the first film he had just achieved the strength, power and prowess, but we didn’t get the chance to give him any training. The Russos and I decided that I should start taking gymnastics training and it was really great… and had a big impact when it came time to shoot fight sequences like the elevator fight,” Chris explains. ““There are always injuries – whether you end up in a cast or not , doing stunt-work IS physical stuff and even when you block a punch, that punch lands somewhere! You’re always going home with bumps and bruises and we’re all getting older so it has lasting effects. ANY fight you have with Frank Grillo (who plays SHIELD Agent Brock Rumlow) … if you don’t block his punch, then you’re going to get knocked out because he’s a real boxer. He doesn’t know anything BUT doing it 100%!”
Equally, Scarlett Johansson (who plays the Black Widow) said she learned very quickly that fighting techniques are all about using movement and weight as much as sheer power…
“I think part of the Widow’s fighting style, one of the reasons she’s so charming, is that she uses her size against her opponent and to her advantage . She’s fighting these big dudes and she’s quick and quick-thinking like a mouse that’s hard to catch. I guess I like to do as much of the stunt-work as possible. You take a little bit of a risk with that. But I’d rather have that than have to hand-off my scenes to the stunt-team all the time. I’d rather do some of it and have some battles wounds…”
Though actors often didn’t give their stunt-doubles and trainers the credit deserved, it now seems that’s changing. If that’s the case – and the quality of action on the screen is changing for the better, it looks like everyone’s a winner (whether you’re a Marvel hero or not)…
