Since its release on April 2nd, the Netflix Original series Daredevil has been turning heads. Many things make this show stand out: the subtle yet powerful use of sound to accentuate Daredevil’s heightened awareness, the gritty aesthetic, and protagonist’s slow and realistic growth from vigilante to super-hero. In spite of all of this, what I find most impressive is the show’s semi-realistic and yet flashy fight choreography.
To me, however, the flashiness of the combat can draw this series a step away from the gritty and realistic feel of the show in general. I know you’re thinking, “It’s a superhero show. It’s supposed to be larger than life. It’s supposed to be over the top.” While I agree with those statements, I believe they are based on a perspective that does not understand the realities of martial arts and combat in general. Sure, someone with superhuman abilities can get away with doing flashy and ridiculous techniques, but wouldn’t he be better served utilizing the most efficient and best techniques available?
The thought seems to be that realistic fighting can’t be exciting, but I couldn’t disagree more.You watch UFC 1 and tell me that isn’t exciting. The thing is, increasingly film-makers are moving towards realism; but very few want to go the whole way. This is a topic that I intend to revisit throughout my writing because it is so important. Even knowing that movies and television are fantasy, fight choreography seems to permeate American’s understanding of martial arts and violence in general. Most people don’t even know that grappling is one of THE most important parts of fighting. Most people don’t know that wrestling is a very effective martial art. Why? Culture. In particular, I would argue cinema.
Really. Watch it.
With that in mind I look at Daredevil, a dark and gritty take on the rise of a superhero, and I see fight choreography with the most promise of any television series I have seen (If you know of others I would LOVE to see them. Please comment below). However, it comes just shy of martial arts perfection. To best explain my point I would like to share with you the most notorious scene from the series. This scene comes from the second episode of the first season titled “Cut Man.”
As you can see, this is a badass fight. It has been compared by many, including myself to the famous “Corridor” fight scene from Oldboy (one of the best revenge films of all time). I will use this comparison to demonstrate where Daredevil shines and where I find it lacking. Here is the Oldboy scene below for reference.
You will notice several similarities between these fights: The exhaustion. The look and feel of the dingy hallway. The darkness. The single take. The humor. These are all amazing, but what is most interesting about this comparison are the things that are added to the Cut Man scene. Because it is my contention that Daredevil commits the sin of going too far rather than not doing enough.
Take for instance the cadence of the fight. In Oldboy the drama of the fight is created by the cadence. What makes it so real and gripping is the way that it starts so fast and begins to gradually slow down as the combatants become more exhausted. There are ups and downs throughout the fight as the protagonist struggles to keep the pace, but the trend is definitely a slowing of energy.
What makes this so powerful is that the viewer can almost FEEL the struggle. The fight becomes, in a sense, a story of its own. It has ups and downs, and by the end the protagonist comes out on the other side, but not unscathed.
The Daredevil fight attempts to create a similar feeling, but it is almost like there is a split personality in this fight. Where Oldboy shows the natural ebbs and flows of human exertion, Daredevil shows the strange spikes of energy of a man who is, well, pretending to be tired.
Above you can see a particularly good example. Daredevil is exhausted and he needs to lean against the wall to support his weight. This is very common in combat; most people will never realize how exhausting it is. However, he miraculously is able to recover, unleashing a flurry of blows followed by a (very telegraphed) jump kick. Compare this to the gif below showing the protagonist from Oldboy struggling to walk towards his opponent and throw three clean punches.
What you will immediately notice is that there is so much more drama in the Oldboy gif. It is a paradox in a sense because even though less is happening, so much more is communicated: the fear, the exhaustion, the struggle to overcome. What Oldboy’s makers realized is that it isn’t the special techniques that make martial arts films exciting. The essence of martial arts cinema is the hero’s struggle to overcome incredible odds, and Oldboy demonstrates that in one single scene.
Oldboy captures the essence of martial arts film in a single poster.
The second issue I have with the Daredevil scene that I already touched on is its use of unnecessary or overly flashy techniques. Below is one of the last techniques Daredevil uses in the fight.
In case it is hard to tell what’s happening, Daredevil (while exhausted) literally throws himself into the air doing a flip and landing upon his target. I’ve already gone over the absurdity of using a technique like this while exhausted or trying to conserve energy, but why THIS technique. Why not simply use a soccer kick to the the ribs or face ala Gerard Gordeau in UFC 1?
Gerard Gordeau head kick in UFC 1
What I find most frustrating about this is that in the series a part of Daredevil’s backstory is that he was raised into a family of boxing. In fact he is often shown training late at night punching a heavy bag. So, why then have Daredevil use a flashy flip when he was tired instead of relying on good, efficient boxing? I may be wrong, but boxing seems to be the primary style I am picking out in the Oldboy fight, so it is clearly a compelling style in cinema. In addition, boxing has been proven again and again to be an essential skillset in mixed martial arts.
So, why not use boxing in the fight? My guess is fear. Not the fear of the protagonist but the fear of the filmmakers. Would Americans accept fight scenes that don’t have flashy kicks or flips? Clearly there are many that think not. As an example here is a Youtube clip showing back to back footage of the original fight scene from Oldboy followed by the American remake. It is this fear that is holding Daredevil and many others back from martial arts fight perfection.
But it is not just this fear that is holding it back. It is the tendency we all have to overcomplicate things. Art’s purpose is to express human emotion, but many times we as producers can get in the way of that, cluttering and distorting the true message of the art and clouding the purity of the raw content. This is what I believe happened in this fight scene. If you look closely enough and you take out the flashy kicks and flips, you can see that same raw emotion that is displayed so elegantly in Oldboy and that is what I find so cool about Daredevil. It’s not quite there yet, but it’s damn close and I respect that a lot. I for one am eagerly awaiting the next season, and I can’t wait to binge watch it all in as few days as humanly possible.
Stay tuned for part two where I will focus on Daredevil’s strengths as it compares to Television fighting in general. Please comment below with suggestions of other television series with above average fight choreography, and I will do my best to include them in the coming article.
