Fight Clip Club: Duel at Blood Creek
Sir!!
My dudes, this short film has won so many awards I can’t list them all here. Just check out the original vimeo to see only a partial list. It’s a delightful little joke but it’s also such a well constructed gem of a short. Made by 3barrels media, it came out in 2010, and especially us stage combat guys have been in love with it ever since.
I’m continuing with my analyses of funny fights, and this one is one of my very favorites. Do I say this about every fight I’ve reviewed so far? Maybe. Sssh.
It’s easy to see why this short got awarded so many …er, awards. As you’ll notice, it’s mostly dialogue—only the very end of the just-over-14-minutes-long film is the actual violence; the rest of it is all the dialogue leading up to it. But! Far from the script being a dreary info dump or exposition poisoning slog, it’s highly entertaining, and builds in tension more and more until the final snap, where the duels begin. And the twist of an ending? I won’t spoil it here, just in case you haven’t seen it, but beware—after the clip below, I will be discussing the twist in my detailed breakdown, so be aware of that and watch it before you move on.
Let’s watch it together, yes? I’ll meet you on the other side. Sir!
—No paywall today: Merry Christmas!—
Scene: several gentlemen vs. other several gentlemen, “Duel at Blood Creek,” 2010.
Actors: Since there are several actors all equally characterized and involved in the fight, I won’t list the whole cast here but will steer you to the imdb page, where the cast is listed in full.
Stuntpeople: none, the actors do the fights. Then again, the actors are all portraying reenactors, though, so. It was written and directed by one Leo Burton, and I am assuming he’s the fight choreographer as well. We also see one Hamish MacLeod (gee, think he might be Scottish, or what?) listed as our ‘armourer’ for this film, so we can further assume that all the weapons were his, and that he was the supervisor for them. He may or may not have been involved in the choreography. I also found two names as ‘fight coordinators,’ but only in the video credits and nowhere else: John Waller and Aidan Cook.
Setting: Blood Creek, a popular place for dueling. Looks like…late 1700s, early 1800s? But also not.
Style & Weapons: Smallsword, military saber, pistols, taunts, ‘Sir’s, and a bit of unarmed.
Scenario: a gentleman arrives in a private park to settle a matter of honor in a duel. Another gentleman arrives for a different dispute, as do more and more, until the whole cluster of gentlemen end up in a scuffle, which ends in a twist.
Genre: 2 (expressionistic), a (comedic)
I was tempted to call this fight a 1 (realistic), but those of you fight-watchers with sharp eyes (or expertise) will notice that these fights are ostensibly stage fights. To a layperson this might not be apparent, but. It’s enough, and with the twist at the end, I’m feeling the 2.
All the men involved are there for a duel (at least, that’s what we think until the twist). Therefore, all the fighters’ objectives are: to win the duel (to achieve one’s honor). Their tactics all have to do with what weapons they’re using, and their obstacles across the board have to do with how good they and their opponents are at wielding those weapons, as well as (especially in the case of the pistol fighters) any malfunctions those weapons put in their way.
Of course, if we look at everyone’s real objectives, knowing the twist ending, we can actually say that everyone’s objective really is: to have a great time and finish before they’re discovered (or just not be discovered).
Other Questions: The twist is really the part that makes this short film what it is. It’s already cleverly written, entertaining to watch, and the fights are pretty solid and not bad at all in execution, especially if you consider the first Fun Fact below (not counting the two young men obviously slipping in the creek at one point in their fight late in the film). But going back and rewatching this, knowing the twist, it’s still fantastic stuff. And that’s a testament to its quality of composition, both screenplay and directing (and choreography of course).
Let’s also remember that they say outright that these duels are ‘highly illegal,’ and as such we can imagine they would not find a generous sentence if found.
Fun Fact: This is one of the funnest facts I found about this film: it was filmed in only 2 days, using Canon DSLRs. Whattya know! As you can imagine, this inspired my stage combat students from 2011 on, to make their own silly combative shorts. I mean. Give these guys another award just for that, oh my goodness.
Another fun fact on a more personal level: one of my batches of college age stage combat students loved this dialogue so much, they added one requirement to their sword fight test: they needed to include the declaration, “Sir!” someplace in their fight. Now usually all fight tests except their final exams used no dialogue, just movement and vocal reactions, but in this case I had to agree with them. One duo made a whole spare script using only the word “Sir!”
I chose this scene because: Do you have any doubt why? Sir!
