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The Top Ten Fight Movies of All Time
- By Jesse Campbell
- Published 10/18/2009
- Pro Football (NFL)
-
Rating:
Who's the Greatest?
I love fight movies. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy movies of various genres but nothing quite beats a great “fight movie”. When I say “fight movie”, I’m referring to movies where fighting is central to the theme and/or is the primary method of resolving conflicts in the movie by the protagonist. The line is drawn to separate action movies from fight movies, when guns are used as a substitute or are used with more frequency than hand-to-hand combat. I’m not saying that our star can’t use a weapon, but if he’d rather use said weapon, than use either his fist or feet, then that movie is classified as action in my book. (See All Arnold Schwarzenegger movies)
After much thought and consideration, I began the process of trying to determine the ten greatest fighting films of all time. In order to take on such a task, movies were evaluated on the following categories:
Plot- This is simple enough to explain. To make it in the top ten, the movie has to have a cohesive, discernable plot. To sum up, it has to make sense. It can be set in the future, the past or the present, makes no difference to me, but it has to make sense and it has to be able to be explained to a third party who has never heard of such flick, without the third party responding to your explanation with a “huh?” or a “I don’t understand. This is a real movie?”
So, right off the top, "Unleashed" doesn’t make this list. I’m sorry, but this movie revolves around Jet Li’s character being trained similar to a dog, only for his “rescuer” to end up being a blind man and a child. Sit down with someone and explain to them why they need to see this movie without mentioning Jet Li or his fighting skills…You can’t, it’s impossible.
Realism- This was a very important evaluation tool and one that some may or may not agree with. But, to be a “great” fight movie, either the plot or the fight scene, has to have a sense of realism. If both the plot and the fight scenes come across as something that can happen in real life, great, but if neither the plot nor the scenes have any sense of realism then you have a movie operating on an “all bets are off” status and nothing good can come from that.
Now may be the proper time to talk about "Kill Bill." Uma Thurman is not a martial artist. Her upbringing as a Buddhist is the closest she ever came to real martial arts training. That is a statement of fact. Quentin Tarantino created a film that paid homage to Hong Kong martial arts movies, without casting a martial artist as his star!
Now, do all the fight scenes in a movie need to be realistic for it to be a classic or crack the top ten? No, absolutely not. Number one on the list took great liberties when it came to the fight scenes. (Even though the writers bothered to give us an explanation) But Kill Bill was much different. Imagine if someone was able to replace Jet Li in ‘Once Upon a Time a China’ with Chuck Norris. We could call it, Once Upon a Time in Oklahoma. Would you watch? Chuck can fight; he has even created his own martial arts style, ‘Chun Kuk Do’. Would that in any way help you visualize Chuck in that type of film? No, because part of the reason you watched the Hong Kong martial arts movies, was for the quality of the practice of the martial arts. Uma Thurman’s character defeated 88 trained assassins at one time. It’s just too much, and if you’re able to get past that, the final fight scene, the climax of the whole movie, is a fight with Vivica Fox. I’m sorry; I can’t allow that in my top ten, I just can’t.
Rewatchability- You have to be able to sit down and watch the movie at a drop of a hat in order for it to be included on the list. All of the movies on my list can be watched, over and over and over again. In fact, TBS and TNT are well aware of this fact, hence why you can find several of these movies on television on any given Sunday. (Note: Raging Bull, Million Dollar Baby & Cinderella Man does NOT fall into this category. I don’t care how great some think Robert DeNiro was as Jake LaMotta. You wouldn’t watch this movie on Sunday at 2pm in the summer. You wouldn’t under any circumstances.)
Quality of the Movie- Here’s where the Kung-Fu heads can stop reading. The movie has to be of good quality, and I mean the whole movie. Scenes related to and unrelated to fighting. If you have to fast forward to the next fight scene, skipping over dialogue, the movie fails here. I was one of many that loved Ong Bak. But let’s be serious, you aren’t watching any of the scenes that don’t include Tony Jaa or Petchtai Wongkamlao (“Dirty Balls”) because the rest of it is awful. You watch it for Tony Jaa’s ability and for what little humor you can discern from the subtitles. (This is a good time to also eliminate any underground Kung Fu flicks. If you are naming movies in your head that you saw on a blank VHS Cassette, then it doesn’t have a place in this discussion. You are no better than the guy who wants to compare Biggie’s ‘Ready to Die’ with a mixtape from a guy in his hometown.)
Intangibles/Feeling- Movies have to give you a feeling; some sort of emotional response from the climax, the triumph, the fights, etc. If you leave the theater or turn off the television with either a negative feeling or no feeling at all, then it was just a movie, nothing special. Now, if said film emits a feeling uncharacteristic of a fighting movie, then it doesn’t crack the top ten either. For example, the critically acclaimed 2002 film, Hero, was an art film. That’s great but if comments coming from people leaving or reviewing a movie, include words such as “beautiful” and “beguiling”, then I don’t want that movie in my top ten. The key word in this column is fighting, and this film took the word martial out of martial arts.
The remaining evaluation categories are the effect on the genre, and the datedness of the film. These two categories served as more of a ranking tool amongst the movies that made the top ten, as opposed to eliminating or including any, with one or two exceptions. So without further ado……
10.) The Last Dragon (1985)
It serves as Bruce Leroy’s dive into popular culture. It’s cheesy and it scores a perfect 10 on the unintentional comedy scale (or was Sho-Nuff supposed to be taken seriously?), but the movie lives on 20 years later. Taimak’s Leroy Green is a legit martial arts student in search of the ‘final level’ but its Julius Carry’s show stealing portrayal of Sho-Nuff that launches this movie into the top ten. Hopefully Samuel Jackson will do him justice in the remake.
“Am I the meanest? Am I the prettiest? Am I the baddest mo-fo, low-down, around this town?”-Sho-Nuff
9.) Gladiator (2000)
The story was great, Russell Crowe’s performance was even better. The fight scenes felt real, the speeches felt powerful, the music and the quality of the movie only helped enhance the battle scenes. It’s a classic.
8.) Enter the Dragon (1973)
This one was difficult to place for me. Yes, it’s Bruce Lee, but the folklore surrounding this movie overshadows the movie itself. It’s outdated (does the constant clapping during the tournament not ruin some of the movie to anyone else?) and I find Jim Kelly and John Saxon’s presence a bit questionable in such a high profile martial arts movie for that era. However it’s the first big budget kung fu film made by a major Hollywood studio and arguably one of the most influential films from this genre, I would be remiss to leave off the list.
7.) Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000)
Groundbreaking. Over $120 million grossed in the US alone, 40+ awards, including a nod from the Oscars. It’s a film that officially brought martial arts films to the mainstream. And here is a good time to mention subtitles.
Subtitles take away from the “feeling” you get in certain scenes. If Adrian screamed “You can’t win!” to Rocky in French, and you read the words in English instead of hearing them, it would affect you differently, it just would. With that being said, some movie’s can convey the story in such a way that you can ignore the fact that you are missing that element, and with that being said…
6.) Fearless (2006)
This is an excellent film that tells Hua Yuanjia’s story in such a way that the subtitles in this movie are irrelevant. You can watch the film without the sound on from beginning to the end and follow the story, and of course Jet Li’s skills are on full display. Definitely one of his very best movies, too bad it serves as his last martial arts epic.
5.) Rocky IV (1985)
It’s the best Rocky, period. Everything was present here. We had the impossible challenge (The Russian), the doubters (Adrian, even though it seemed like she never supported the champ in his fights), revenge (Poor Apollo shouldn’t have taken the fight), the training (Is there a movie that had better training sequences?) and of course the over the top finale. Now, I can’t think of a referee anywhere, not in Hollywood, that wouldn’t have stopped this fight midway through round 1, but that’s what made this movie great and the greatest of all the Rocky’s.
Rocky I was a great movie, but it’s less about boxing and more about Rocky’s chance to make something of his life. Rocky II was a love story. It’s the one that you show your girlfriend/wife to get her to give the rest of the Rocky’s a chance. It’s the courtship, the wedding, the baby. Rocky III falls short on the boxing scenes and is more known for the creepy beach race between Creed and Rocky. Rocky V was a depressing dive into a world that Rocky never had to be in, in the first place. He couldn’t write a book? Do some promotions? Why was Rocky broke? If Mike Tyson hasn’t had to move back to Brownsville yet, then Rocky never would have had to move back to his Philadelphia neighborhood. And Rocky Balboa, well, come on, it had Antonio Tarver in it.
4.) Karate Kid (1984)
This film is timeless. The story (New kid meets girl, bullied by girl’s ex-boyfriend, falls for girl, girl falls for new kid, new kid learns to fight, new kid defeats bully) never gets old. My only hope is the remake starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan doesn’t taint this classic story. Daniel held his own in the Ally Valley Tournament and had young kids everywhere thinking, even for just a second that that crane kick actually could work in a fight.
Now, whereas this story was believable, the writers went too far with Karate Kid II, deciding that somehow Daniel, who has had a summer of Karate training, could travel to Okinawa and compete in a fight to the death with a black belt and prize student, over a girl, and with only the help coming in the form of the audience beating on hand drums.
3.) Fight Club (1999)
We all have fights within ourselves for whatever reason. This cult film examined it and in the process, gave us a dark look at the world of fight clubs. Whereas the fight scenes were less “intricate”, they were raw and we still get a man’s man flick, with an exceptional plot that can be watched over and over and over.
2.) Bloodsport (1988)
Van Damme gave us a whole lot of movies in the late 80’s to early 90’s but this was his best by far. It’s MMA before popular culture knew what MMA was. Van Damme kept the dialogue simple here, and it works. This movie is just about fighting, plain and simple. And if anybody is making a list of the greatest villains in movie history, Chong Li (with all of about 8 lines of dialogue in the movie) needs to be included somewhere on that list.
“You are….next!”- Chong Li
1.) The Matrix (1999)
If you could take a Hong Kong martial arts film, blend it with a 90’s action film, add some 20th century visual effects and an imaginative screenplay, this is what you’d get.
Yes, Keanu Reeves gets top billing on my list and it’s well deserved. He’s no Bruce Lee, but he wasn’t supposed to be. He’s just a computer nerd who “learned Kung Fu” through programming and well, that’s about it. Plenty of chill scenes, it’s as rewatchable as an old episode of the Cosby Show. The plot actually employs some thinking, and it gave birth to two more sequels, be it less creative and impressive.
And there you have it, the top ten fighting films of all time. You could argue with me on a few (It hurt to leave Jason Statham off the list but it felt good to leave Tom Cruise and Last Samurai off) but this is as concrete a list as you’ll fine. So, you’re welcome.
After much thought and consideration, I began the process of trying to determine the ten greatest fighting films of all time. In order to take on such a task, movies were evaluated on the following categories:
Plot- This is simple enough to explain. To make it in the top ten, the movie has to have a cohesive, discernable plot. To sum up, it has to make sense. It can be set in the future, the past or the present, makes no difference to me, but it has to make sense and it has to be able to be explained to a third party who has never heard of such flick, without the third party responding to your explanation with a “huh?” or a “I don’t understand. This is a real movie?”
So, right off the top, "Unleashed" doesn’t make this list. I’m sorry, but this movie revolves around Jet Li’s character being trained similar to a dog, only for his “rescuer” to end up being a blind man and a child. Sit down with someone and explain to them why they need to see this movie without mentioning Jet Li or his fighting skills…You can’t, it’s impossible.
Realism- This was a very important evaluation tool and one that some may or may not agree with. But, to be a “great” fight movie, either the plot or the fight scene, has to have a sense of realism. If both the plot and the fight scenes come across as something that can happen in real life, great, but if neither the plot nor the scenes have any sense of realism then you have a movie operating on an “all bets are off” status and nothing good can come from that.
Now may be the proper time to talk about "Kill Bill." Uma Thurman is not a martial artist. Her upbringing as a Buddhist is the closest she ever came to real martial arts training. That is a statement of fact. Quentin Tarantino created a film that paid homage to Hong Kong martial arts movies, without casting a martial artist as his star!
Now, do all the fight scenes in a movie need to be realistic for it to be a classic or crack the top ten? No, absolutely not. Number one on the list took great liberties when it came to the fight scenes. (Even though the writers bothered to give us an explanation) But Kill Bill was much different. Imagine if someone was able to replace Jet Li in ‘Once Upon a Time a China’ with Chuck Norris. We could call it, Once Upon a Time in Oklahoma. Would you watch? Chuck can fight; he has even created his own martial arts style, ‘Chun Kuk Do’. Would that in any way help you visualize Chuck in that type of film? No, because part of the reason you watched the Hong Kong martial arts movies, was for the quality of the practice of the martial arts. Uma Thurman’s character defeated 88 trained assassins at one time. It’s just too much, and if you’re able to get past that, the final fight scene, the climax of the whole movie, is a fight with Vivica Fox. I’m sorry; I can’t allow that in my top ten, I just can’t.
Rewatchability- You have to be able to sit down and watch the movie at a drop of a hat in order for it to be included on the list. All of the movies on my list can be watched, over and over and over again. In fact, TBS and TNT are well aware of this fact, hence why you can find several of these movies on television on any given Sunday. (Note: Raging Bull, Million Dollar Baby & Cinderella Man does NOT fall into this category. I don’t care how great some think Robert DeNiro was as Jake LaMotta. You wouldn’t watch this movie on Sunday at 2pm in the summer. You wouldn’t under any circumstances.)
Quality of the Movie- Here’s where the Kung-Fu heads can stop reading. The movie has to be of good quality, and I mean the whole movie. Scenes related to and unrelated to fighting. If you have to fast forward to the next fight scene, skipping over dialogue, the movie fails here. I was one of many that loved Ong Bak. But let’s be serious, you aren’t watching any of the scenes that don’t include Tony Jaa or Petchtai Wongkamlao (“Dirty Balls”) because the rest of it is awful. You watch it for Tony Jaa’s ability and for what little humor you can discern from the subtitles. (This is a good time to also eliminate any underground Kung Fu flicks. If you are naming movies in your head that you saw on a blank VHS Cassette, then it doesn’t have a place in this discussion. You are no better than the guy who wants to compare Biggie’s ‘Ready to Die’ with a mixtape from a guy in his hometown.)
Intangibles/Feeling- Movies have to give you a feeling; some sort of emotional response from the climax, the triumph, the fights, etc. If you leave the theater or turn off the television with either a negative feeling or no feeling at all, then it was just a movie, nothing special. Now, if said film emits a feeling uncharacteristic of a fighting movie, then it doesn’t crack the top ten either. For example, the critically acclaimed 2002 film, Hero, was an art film. That’s great but if comments coming from people leaving or reviewing a movie, include words such as “beautiful” and “beguiling”, then I don’t want that movie in my top ten. The key word in this column is fighting, and this film took the word martial out of martial arts.
The remaining evaluation categories are the effect on the genre, and the datedness of the film. These two categories served as more of a ranking tool amongst the movies that made the top ten, as opposed to eliminating or including any, with one or two exceptions. So without further ado……
10.) The Last Dragon (1985)
It serves as Bruce Leroy’s dive into popular culture. It’s cheesy and it scores a perfect 10 on the unintentional comedy scale (or was Sho-Nuff supposed to be taken seriously?), but the movie lives on 20 years later. Taimak’s Leroy Green is a legit martial arts student in search of the ‘final level’ but its Julius Carry’s show stealing portrayal of Sho-Nuff that launches this movie into the top ten. Hopefully Samuel Jackson will do him justice in the remake.
“Am I the meanest? Am I the prettiest? Am I the baddest mo-fo, low-down, around this town?”-Sho-Nuff
9.) Gladiator (2000)
The story was great, Russell Crowe’s performance was even better. The fight scenes felt real, the speeches felt powerful, the music and the quality of the movie only helped enhance the battle scenes. It’s a classic.
8.) Enter the Dragon (1973)
This one was difficult to place for me. Yes, it’s Bruce Lee, but the folklore surrounding this movie overshadows the movie itself. It’s outdated (does the constant clapping during the tournament not ruin some of the movie to anyone else?) and I find Jim Kelly and John Saxon’s presence a bit questionable in such a high profile martial arts movie for that era. However it’s the first big budget kung fu film made by a major Hollywood studio and arguably one of the most influential films from this genre, I would be remiss to leave off the list.
7.) Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000)
Groundbreaking. Over $120 million grossed in the US alone, 40+ awards, including a nod from the Oscars. It’s a film that officially brought martial arts films to the mainstream. And here is a good time to mention subtitles.
Subtitles take away from the “feeling” you get in certain scenes. If Adrian screamed “You can’t win!” to Rocky in French, and you read the words in English instead of hearing them, it would affect you differently, it just would. With that being said, some movie’s can convey the story in such a way that you can ignore the fact that you are missing that element, and with that being said…
6.) Fearless (2006)
This is an excellent film that tells Hua Yuanjia’s story in such a way that the subtitles in this movie are irrelevant. You can watch the film without the sound on from beginning to the end and follow the story, and of course Jet Li’s skills are on full display. Definitely one of his very best movies, too bad it serves as his last martial arts epic.
5.) Rocky IV (1985)
It’s the best Rocky, period. Everything was present here. We had the impossible challenge (The Russian), the doubters (Adrian, even though it seemed like she never supported the champ in his fights), revenge (Poor Apollo shouldn’t have taken the fight), the training (Is there a movie that had better training sequences?) and of course the over the top finale. Now, I can’t think of a referee anywhere, not in Hollywood, that wouldn’t have stopped this fight midway through round 1, but that’s what made this movie great and the greatest of all the Rocky’s.
Rocky I was a great movie, but it’s less about boxing and more about Rocky’s chance to make something of his life. Rocky II was a love story. It’s the one that you show your girlfriend/wife to get her to give the rest of the Rocky’s a chance. It’s the courtship, the wedding, the baby. Rocky III falls short on the boxing scenes and is more known for the creepy beach race between Creed and Rocky. Rocky V was a depressing dive into a world that Rocky never had to be in, in the first place. He couldn’t write a book? Do some promotions? Why was Rocky broke? If Mike Tyson hasn’t had to move back to Brownsville yet, then Rocky never would have had to move back to his Philadelphia neighborhood. And Rocky Balboa, well, come on, it had Antonio Tarver in it.
4.) Karate Kid (1984)
This film is timeless. The story (New kid meets girl, bullied by girl’s ex-boyfriend, falls for girl, girl falls for new kid, new kid learns to fight, new kid defeats bully) never gets old. My only hope is the remake starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan doesn’t taint this classic story. Daniel held his own in the Ally Valley Tournament and had young kids everywhere thinking, even for just a second that that crane kick actually could work in a fight.
Now, whereas this story was believable, the writers went too far with Karate Kid II, deciding that somehow Daniel, who has had a summer of Karate training, could travel to Okinawa and compete in a fight to the death with a black belt and prize student, over a girl, and with only the help coming in the form of the audience beating on hand drums.
3.) Fight Club (1999)
We all have fights within ourselves for whatever reason. This cult film examined it and in the process, gave us a dark look at the world of fight clubs. Whereas the fight scenes were less “intricate”, they were raw and we still get a man’s man flick, with an exceptional plot that can be watched over and over and over.
2.) Bloodsport (1988)
Van Damme gave us a whole lot of movies in the late 80’s to early 90’s but this was his best by far. It’s MMA before popular culture knew what MMA was. Van Damme kept the dialogue simple here, and it works. This movie is just about fighting, plain and simple. And if anybody is making a list of the greatest villains in movie history, Chong Li (with all of about 8 lines of dialogue in the movie) needs to be included somewhere on that list.
“You are….next!”- Chong Li
1.) The Matrix (1999)
If you could take a Hong Kong martial arts film, blend it with a 90’s action film, add some 20th century visual effects and an imaginative screenplay, this is what you’d get.
Yes, Keanu Reeves gets top billing on my list and it’s well deserved. He’s no Bruce Lee, but he wasn’t supposed to be. He’s just a computer nerd who “learned Kung Fu” through programming and well, that’s about it. Plenty of chill scenes, it’s as rewatchable as an old episode of the Cosby Show. The plot actually employs some thinking, and it gave birth to two more sequels, be it less creative and impressive.
And there you have it, the top ten fighting films of all time. You could argue with me on a few (It hurt to leave Jason Statham off the list but it felt good to leave Tom Cruise and Last Samurai off) but this is as concrete a list as you’ll fine. So, you’re welcome.
Jesse Campbell
Jesse Campbell currently works for Indemnity Insurance Corporation of DC. Jesse received his Juris Doctor from American University, Washington College of Law in 2005. Jesse currently trains in MMA at MMA Ferocity in Owings Mills, MD.
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Comments
Comment #1 (Posted by Jin)
Rating:
You won't put Kill Bill on the list b/c of Uma Thurman, but Keanu qualifies as a martial artist? No disrespect, just wondering.
Comment #2 (Posted by Patrick)
Rating:
Good point Jin. lol