By the Sword

[135711]

so then, we don't need to be fencing geniuses in order to write about fencing.

MIRACLES DO HAPPEN!

[Gav]

Chris. That's an intriguing point. If he wrote the movie knowing nothing about Fencing and based it upon Martial arts stories. You're right that it does possibly indicate some sort underlying commonality between the two. Did he contact his fencing friends for input?

[Chris Aher]

Hi Gav,

I'm pretty sure that John worked out the basic story line without much input from serious fencers. He almost certainly discussed it with Gus Fleming,(both his and my closest friend and former boss at Lincoln Center) one of the producers of BtS. Gus took a theatrical fencing course in Grad school in the early sixties but was never a serious fencer. He didn't discuss it with me at the time. I had moved out of NYC and was just getting my new career (in international telecom) off the ground. I did see an early cut of the film at Gus's about a year before the release. The last time I spoke with John was at Gus's memorial service 2 years ago.

Last night, in one of life's strange coincidenses, I was channel surfing while thinking about this thread. I stumbled across the scene at the tail end of the early 70s film "Serpico", where the doctor is telling Frank Serpico's parents that the bullet missed the brain and he would be allright. The doctor was played by Gus. It brought back both sad and happy memories.

[swordsen]

I think that any time you deal with schools of combat be they fencing salles or shaolin temples you will get the same type of legends. Evil master kills mine, I go and get revenge. master kills father, son secretly enters the (club) learns the secret arts to get revenge.
Wonderful old story lines that seem to flow across cultures.

Oh yes, as an aside. Yes there are clubs like that out there. I have seen a few.
And even further off track, I would fence at any club that Mia Sara is at.

[ 05-17-2002: Message edited by: swordsen ]</p>