the martial arts of batman2
TRANSCRIPT
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the Best Fights ofthe Franchise
by Jeff McKissack
I, It was an ins tant box-office
success. The same w ill no doubt be tru e when
The ark Knight
is released on
July 18, 2008. Evident in both fi lms is an animalistic fighting style used by the
tit le ch aracter, an a rt th at s supposed to tra ns form Batman from a comic-book
icon Into a more believable person . The m artia l art s behind th a t tra ns for m atio n
is the Keysi Fighting M etho d.
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B a tma n Is B a c k
When
Batman Begins
was released,
it was obvious that director Christopher
Nolan had redefined the movie franchise.
but the comic faithful knew that the sw itch
marked a return to the original, darker
character of Batman. Among other things,
we witnessed the
f igh
training of Bruce
Wayne prior to his adoption of the aveng-
ing alter ego- Elements of ninjutsu were
apparent in the League of Shadows,
which explained much of his stealthy na-
ture and theatrics, but when it came to the
actual combat, viewers we re treated to an
art that had never been co mmitted to
film.
The sheer brutality of what was show n left
martial artists wondering. What f ighting
style is that?
Interestingly, that reaction was also
what the casting crew experienced when,
during their search for the self-defense
system that would best suit the DC Com-
ics icon, they came across the Keysi
Fighting Method.
"I wanted to take it back to a grubbier
place, a place where you feel the punches
a bit more and you're actually a bit more
concerned about the violence on-screen."
Nolan said. "There's been a lot of very ex-
cessive use of wire work in martial arts and
everything to the point where violence los-
es its threat because it's become dance-
likeand we've become comfortable
watching it that way."
Stunt coordinator Paul Jennings a lso felt
the pressure. "The greatest challenge was
to find something new and unique to Bat-
mansomething that was identifiable with
Batman and was almost animalistic and to-
tally functional for the fights," he
said.
Fight arranger Dave Forman echoed
those sentiments: "We were looking for
something so that when Batman threw a
punch or kick, it went through the person
like a ragingbull,"
The introduction to KFM came when a
key Stuntman, a veteran of
Troy Mission:
Impossible III Jumper and The Bourne Ul-
timatum lobbied Forman and Jennings to
consider it, "One of the Stuntmen who was
already working on Batman Begins. Buster
Reeves, a previous w orld/uyuisuchampion,
mentioned a fighting system called KFM."
Jennings
said.
"We thought we should take
a look. Andy Norman and Justo Dieguez
turned up for an audition and started dem-
onstrating KFM- When Chris Nolan saw
[it], he thoug ht it worked pe rfectly for Bat-
man. So together with Dave Foreman, we
went for KFM."
Norman, co-founder of KFM. recalled
the experience: "Our audition for Batman
Begins was very interesting. As you can
imagine, the process that's used at this
level is not designed to make you feel
good, nor does the word 'compassion'
enter into the equation, I can remember
arriving at the studios and thinking. What
have I got myself into? It was a brutal pro-
cess."
In the end, however. Forman and
Jennings a greed that KFM was perfect for
the caped crusader,
"Throughout all the fighting movies,
we've seen traditional taekwondo muay
h i
ano
karate, but we hadn't seen KFM ,"
Forman said in a follow-up interview. "[It's]
very, very new and still evolving."
What im pressed them? "It 's very much
about being mentally aware of your envi-
ronment, mentally aware of how people
behave and respond to actions and reac-
tions,"
Jennings said. "That's exactly what
we wanted for Balmansomeone who, if
he feels like it, is going to head-butt you.
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school to enjoy themselves. Normansaid.
Another unique aspect of KFM is the
way it introduces students, even those who
are apprehensive or intimidated, to the
prospect of facing a mass attack. When
multiple assailants are used in a scenar-
io,
they attack as one. As students rise
through the ranks of the system, additional
attackers are add ed so that by the time the
students are at black-belt level, the result-
ing meiee resembles a gang fight. Yet ev-
erything takes place in a controlled manner
that allows for the new predator to learn
about and reassess his strengths and
A primary goffKt-M
ts .
orjce an at-
tack begins, to transform yourself from
prey to predator.
weaknesses. It's perfect for studentsand
for Batman.
Mo r e c t i o n
Audiences w ill certainly see more KFM
action in The Dark Knight, but will any-
thing be different from the fights of Bat-
man Begins? Chris [Nolan] was always
clear that he wanted Batman to be as real
as possible, Jennings said, That meant
everything we did with Batman in a f ight
situation should be done for a reason
not because it looks great but because
it functions. For The Dark Knight. Chris
wanted to continue with Keysi for Bat-
man because he felt Keysi was ideal for
the character with its hard,b rutal, no-non-
sense fighting approach. He also wanted
the actors to have more input to make the
fighting more character-driven.
With this in mind, we started to give
Christian Bale personal KFM classes
with Justo and Andy so he could lead the
moves through his character mere. He
loved it and did all the fighting himself in
The Dark Knight.
Bale add ed: We've gone a bit further
with Keysi. I'm actually learning how to
do it more realistically than ever before,
though it's such an extreme way of fight-
ing.
There are literally moves where you
tear someone's cheek away from their face
or rip their nose off. Every part of you be-
comes a weapon. It 's formidable. Batman
doesn't kill, so we can't have him doing
that: we modify it.
The star became a model martial artist
during the filming of the sequel, the KFM
founders said. We were abie to spend a
lot of quality time with Christian, and he
trained really hard, ' Norman said. Chris-
tian really liked K FM. so he showed a great
interest in furthering his abilities and know l-
edge of [it] as a fighting art. Obviously,
spending a lot of time with him meant that
we built a very good friendship with him.
The consequence of this was that prepar-
ing all the fights with him was great fun as
he actually had a genuine interest in what
was going on.
Dieguez and Norman also appreciated
the extra time they were able to spend with
Hollywood's favorite reality-bas ed
martial art is the Keys i FightingMetf^od
Its techniques were used in Batmanl
Begins and the upcoming sequel,Tme
Dark Knight.
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^ m vu ^
AndyNorman (left) winds u p his punch . .
causing Justo Dieguezto s hift into attack m
'..?'and hit his opponent in th e chest while
e
ing the blow
. Dieguez exploits the tem
rarygap that exists between himself and his
by swinging his right foot into the man s l
leg n y and
converting
t he
motion
into a kn
stomp8 .Once t he attacker is down . the
KF M practitioner drops his knee onto his thi
'.
while maintaininga defensive posture
some of the other acfors. including the
late Heath Ledger. Said Norma n: Heath
Ledger, who passed away this year, was a
genuinely cool guy. We did a different kind
of training with htm. as the character of the
Joker required a slightly crazy twist. Heath
pulled it oft amazingly well as you will see
in the
film,
but his fighting style is not as
stylized or fluid [as Batman's], He iooks
and moves exactly how the Joker should
movea little crazy.
It all comes together in what's sure to
be a summer blockbuster, but what lies
ahead for KFM? Norman is optimistic.
KFM has made quite an impact in the
film industry already, but this is just the
beginning. hesaid. Obviously, when you
have something unique and can deliver
the product well, people like it. We do get
approached a lot these days with an ar-
ray of offers inside and outside of the film
industry. KFM has made its mark and is
here to stay.
I think we'll be seeing a lot more of
KFM in films in the future, said Jennings.
a veteran stunt coordinator who's worked
on The Golden Compass. Blood Dia-
mond. Munich and Batman Seg/ns during
his 25 years in mov iema king. It's unique
and can adapt to the individual. Everyone
in the film business who has seen KFM
loves it, so I think its involvement in the
industry is just beginning. >^
About the
author:
JeffMcKissack is a self-deferr
instructor and crime-prevention specials
based in Dallas. For more information, visit
www. b lackbeltmag.com/archivBS/who/.
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