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With Gordon Alexander and Ian Freeman as two of the leads and Danny
John Jules sterling action sequences with Wesley Snipes in ‘Blade2’,
action was always going to be an integral part of ‘Sucker Punch’
but everyone involved had firm beliefs about what they did and did
not want to see from the action set-pieces. All were unified in
being tired of wire-work, cranking (speeding up the action), triple
somersault spin kicks and unrealistic reactions to shots, where
stunt men were catapulted across the room from the simplest punch
or kick. To the cast and crew of ‘Sucker Punch’ the modern action
film had become over-stylised and totally over the top and they
wanted to bring back a healthy dose of reality.
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‘Action films don’t tend to have a dramatic
content and we wanted to get the balance right so that you believe
in the characters and care about them. It’s important to realise that
whilst our action is important, the set pieces do link the story-they’re
not the plot, they serve the plot and that is the big distinction
between what we’re doing and other people are doing at the moment.’
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| Director Malcolm Martin led the
way, by pointing everyone in the direction of ‘Hard Times’ the
Charles Bronson/James Coburn 1970’s classic that features Bronson
as Chaney, a bare knuckle fighter in the depression era. The
fights were, by modern standards, simple and basic but they
were hard, brutal, and believable and still resonate today,
over thirty years later. The fighters involved in ‘Hard Times’
also looked like real bruisers, with a history etched on their
battle-scarred faces. With so many tricks being utilised in
modern action films the fighters have to be more of a gymnast
and acrobat, so they tend to be younger and fresher faced, the
result that a supposed bar-room brawl looks more like a scrap
in a school dinner hall. |
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Whilst
everyone involved with ‘Sucker Punch’ wanted the fights to be great
and still have a certain style to them, they also wanted a raw, believable
brutality that would ground the action in truth. Thus, Buchinsky gets
hurt, he feels the punches, he bleeds, he is physically sick with
fear. His opponents are rough and ready types, genuine tough guys
and this is reflected in the action, where every unblocked kick or
punch, knee or elbow, causes damage and fights can be over almost
before they’ve begun.
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Similarly, the ‘Sucker Punch’ team were tired of watching films
where the villain’s henchmen run around mob-handed in sharp suits
and sun-glasses, tooled up for World War 3, managing to wipe out
three quarters of the cast, yet somehow missing the hero and failing
to draw the attention of the local police. There’s suspending disbelief
and there’s taking the piss! ‘Sucker Punch’ is grounded more in
reality, where ‘mobsters’ only ever grab a gun if they are going
to use it, as gun crime means a far heavier sentence to a professional
villain if caught. There are loose cannons and contract killers
in real life but gun gang warfare and shootings on the streets of
London are still front page newsworthy rare events and our urban
slice of life story reflects that fact.
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| As a result, the action in
‘Sucker Punch’ harks back to the gritty days of the 1970’s, an era
the film openly pays homage to, as the makers feel that the film-watching
public are ready to go back to their roots and be emotionally involved
with the action because it actually serves the plot and is not simply
vacuous eye candy of the more is better variety. |
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