The Other Bench Apropos of Nothing #1

Love it. Got me thinking about driving stuff:

I got some driving for you:



You have probably seen that already. Only the sound effects are fake -- Claude Lelouch and his cameraman were arrested for doing it. The legend that the chase in The French Connection were filmed on open streets are not true, but this one really was filmed with closed roads or permits.

Yes. I have seen that and every time I see that Merc dance through the streets it makes me want to do bad things. Thankfully I did not drive to work!

(The turn at 6:32 always freaks me out. He is inches from hitting that woman!)

Please excuse the quality, but here is another example of what a really amazing car can do in the hands of the right driver:

Awesome. I love how little body roll the car displays even in fast cornering -- that sucker hugs the road!


I found the car chase from the Jean Paul Belmondo film The Professional that I told you about before. In the film, the two men in the car have been tailing him, and he decides to play with them a bit. The neat thing is how completely cool (and somewhat amused) Belmondo is in the first part of the chase, since he is just having a bit of fun. Then they take a shot at him, and his demeanor changes as he goes after them. It is 100% Belmondo behind the wheel for the entire chase (even Steve McQueen, contrary to what he sometimes claimed, had a stunt driver for many shots in Bullitt.)

That was nice. I also love the car-chase scene from Ronin:

Hard to beat. Unless, of course, you try this one:

That is also a good one.

This won't mean much to you if you don't care for scale models or RC helicopters, but I thought it was pretty cool:

That was cool. How about a mix of the helicopters and the chase?



Unfortunately, that was the only version that I could find, and it both starts in the middle and is poor quality, but you get the idea. One of the great "forgotten" chase scenes.

Nice.

I assume you have seen the District B13 chase scene?

I did. I did not really care for the movie, but some of the parkour was fun.

Which, of course, forces me to do this:

I agree. District B13 was horrible. But the free running was nice and inlfluenced the scene in which you just linked.

And now that you've gone Bond, you force me to link to this:

And that, of course, forces me to trot out this one:



Watching both of those makes me realize that in the best Bond fights, it is not really the technique or choreography that matters as much as the brutality. That is why I even enjoy the unfortunately "sped up" fighting in OHMSS; as frustrating as I find the fakey-looking photography, it really looks like they are trying to kill each other. The Russia and Goldeneye fights are also particularly brutal. Maybe my preference for them is because everything seems so artificial in so many of the Bond films -- none of the fights (or even most of the action sequences) feel like they have any real consequences. But in rare scenes like these, it looks like they are playing for keeps.

I agree with you. However, as phoney as some scenes are, they can still be a lot of fun (excuse the quality):

O.K., but now I am forced to resort to John Woo:

Well:

Then:

Followed by:

Can't beat the Drunken Master.


Not a fight, but I was going to link to my favorite stunt in Who Am I, but here is a decent fan compilation that includes it:

He is one crazy dude. Don't know why, but your video made me think of this:

That made me think of this classic rally. If you have never seen it, you will not believe it:

I have seen that rally and it is incredible. Here's another good one, with a fun ending (my apologies for the poster's incessant need to overlay comment bubbles):

I did not know that McEnroe played squash!

Not sure if you saw The Fighter, but here is a pretty interesting comparison of the final fight in the film to the real fight:

I'm going to skip watching that one, as I am planning on seeing the film.

For fun:

That one has been making the rounds!

If you know nothing about the real life Mickey Ward title bout, it is perhaps best that you skip it. I offer this in its place:



That roundhouse was ugly and it was slow, but God help you if it connected!

Ouch. You wouldn't know your head from your arsehole after some of those.

Here is a highlight of one of my favourite martial artists, who is capable of pulling off some seemingly impossible submissions. He wouldn't back down from anyone, would fight opponents much larger than himself and yet remained very respectful in and out of the ring: