I never considered myself a boxing fan as I didn't understand why anyone would agree to be hit, much less pay to watch two people hit each other. Years ago, when I was approached by former heavyweight contender Thad Spencer, about documenting his life, I was given an opportunity to experience a small part of the boxing world.
I spent six months researching his journey as a boxer in the late sixties which was an exciting time where one man could win the most sought after title of heavyweight champion of the world. I spent another six months in the crowd of boxing fans watching blows fly from the fists of Roy Jones Jr, Mike Tyson, Floyd Mayweather, Lamon Brewster and Winky Wright. It was fascinating to watch a punch be thrown with precision and force and then land square in the face of the opponent who managed to stay on his feet and return an equally powerful blow.
As my education unfolded I found myself enthralled with all types of fighting and started to take special notice of how battles were handled in movies. Unlike the drunken brawls on “Cops” where someone inevitably thinks it's a good idea to challenge the one person who has a gun, movie fights are choreographed to help drive the story. We've all seen the male hero go up against the bad guy with no ammo, no backup, nothing left but his fists. And while it's often a fight to the death, neither side hits below the belt. They fly through windows, break tables, fall two stories - all while fighting “fair”.
Unarmed, female heroines are not as common. It wasn't long ago that a girl fight in a movie consisted of two girls engaged in a hair pulling-scratching-biting exchange where high-heeled shoes had been kicked off and men were standing by waiting to see someone's underwear. Things turned when Demi Moore went to blows with a man in GI Jane and held her own. In a more farcical fashion Angelina Jolie knocked Brad Pitt around in Mr & Mrs Smith and Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz unleashed some creative stunts in Charlie's Angels.
I'm sure there are many reasons we don't see more of this in movies and I suspect it's because many people don't consider a fist fight between a man and a woman – a fair match. As a writer, if I expect the audience to back my male hero I can't have him kill an unarmed woman – unless she has superpowers or is a cyborg. If my story is filled with stunts and impossibilities I can easily have my female heroine take out an army of thugs with one punch after another. It's when the story is supposed to be taken seriously that writers start arming their women.
In Kill Bill I & II, Lucy faces an army using her martial arts skills. In The Matrix, Trinity uses her acrobatic fighting technique and guns to take out the computer generated “agents”. Alabama Whitman turns the tides of a brutal beating using a corkscrew in True Romance. And Lt Ripley, using a walking, forklift loader, takes on the Alien queen. The appeal that has stirred off of these tough girl characters has spilled into real life with the growing popularity of women's boxing and cage fighting as well as the more playful and sexually charged Jello wrestling, roller derby and organized pillow fighting. It seems that women are finding their inner Ripley and the rest of us are showing up to watch.
I exited my research on the life of Thad Spencer a boxing fan and I've made a commitment to include only realistic fights in my stories, unless I'm writing a comedy. I'd love to try out for the local roller derby team or even enter a Jello wrestling match but falling down, which I do from time to time, hurts a lot more than it used to.
As my education unfolded I found myself enthralled with all types of fighting and started to take special notice of how battles were handled in movies. Unlike the drunken brawls on “Cops” where someone inevitably thinks it's a good idea to challenge the one person who has a gun, movie fights are choreographed to help drive the story. We've all seen the male hero go up against the bad guy with no ammo, no backup, nothing left but his fists. And while it's often a fight to the death, neither side hits below the belt. They fly through windows, break tables, fall two stories - all while fighting “fair”.
Unarmed, female heroines are not as common. It wasn't long ago that a girl fight in a movie consisted of two girls engaged in a hair pulling-scratching-biting exchange where high-heeled shoes had been kicked off and men were standing by waiting to see someone's underwear. Things turned when Demi Moore went to blows with a man in GI Jane and held her own. In a more farcical fashion Angelina Jolie knocked Brad Pitt around in Mr & Mrs Smith and Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz unleashed some creative stunts in Charlie's Angels.
I'm sure there are many reasons we don't see more of this in movies and I suspect it's because many people don't consider a fist fight between a man and a woman – a fair match. As a writer, if I expect the audience to back my male hero I can't have him kill an unarmed woman – unless she has superpowers or is a cyborg. If my story is filled with stunts and impossibilities I can easily have my female heroine take out an army of thugs with one punch after another. It's when the story is supposed to be taken seriously that writers start arming their women.
In Kill Bill I & II, Lucy faces an army using her martial arts skills. In The Matrix, Trinity uses her acrobatic fighting technique and guns to take out the computer generated “agents”. Alabama Whitman turns the tides of a brutal beating using a corkscrew in True Romance. And Lt Ripley, using a walking, forklift loader, takes on the Alien queen. The appeal that has stirred off of these tough girl characters has spilled into real life with the growing popularity of women's boxing and cage fighting as well as the more playful and sexually charged Jello wrestling, roller derby and organized pillow fighting. It seems that women are finding their inner Ripley and the rest of us are showing up to watch.
I exited my research on the life of Thad Spencer a boxing fan and I've made a commitment to include only realistic fights in my stories, unless I'm writing a comedy. I'd love to try out for the local roller derby team or even enter a Jello wrestling match but falling down, which I do from time to time, hurts a lot more than it used to.
