Thanks for sticking with me for two years, and here's to the next...however many years I'm able to do this for!
(Originally posted on Channel Awesome on October 30, 2015) Well, I'm back! Just in time for the INCspotlight's two-year anniversary! And as I did for my last anniversary post, I wanted to spotlight something - or in this case, someone - who has had a huge impact on my life. Even if you've never heard of Bob Anderson (1922 - 2012), I'd bet good money that everyone reading this has seen at least some of his work. The Lord of the Rings and original Star Wars trilogies, The Princess Bride, The Mask of Zorro (and its lesser sequel), Highlander (the original movie and the first two seasons of the TV series), the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, Die Another Day...Anderson's worked on all of them and more as sword master and fight choreographer. That's a hell of a resume for any Hollywood fight arranger to have, probably rivaled only by the father-son team of Fred and Albert Cavens (who will most likely get their own INCspotlight special one day). And then there's the lengthy roster of talent he's worked with - Errol Flynn, Sean Connery, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Viggo Mortensen, Orlando Bloom, Antonio Banderas, Richard Gere, Lindsay Lohan, Johnny Depp, Charlie Sheen, Liv Tyler, Pierce Brosnan, to name but a few. Longtime readers and friends/acquaintances know what a big fan I am of cinematic swordsmanship, and Anderson is the guy who made me one. The Princess Bride (1987) The Three Musketeers (1993) The Mask of Zorro (1997) Robert James Gilbert Anderson, born in Hampshire, England, claimed that "I never took up the sword. I think the sword took me up." While serving in the British Royal Marines in the late 1930s, Anderson was teaching fencing as a physical training instructor, winning numerous competitions in foil, sabre, and epee. (In 1942, Anderson survived an attack on the HMS Coventry, severely damaged by German planes - he was adrift for eight hours before rescue came.) After the war, Anderson kept up with fencing, winning the annual Combined Services [fencing] Championships on multiple occassions, as well as each of his 103 foil bouts (not a single loss!) at the Royal Tournament from 1951 - 1954. He was part of the British fencing team at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, tying for fifth place, and became National Fencing Coach in 1952, coaching Olympic fencing teams for the next 20 years and six Olympics. Impressive as his professional fencing record is, it's his film work that Anderson is more well-known for. With swashbuckler films still making big money in Hollywood in the 1950s, Anderson's fencing expertise got him hired as fencing coach and fight choreographer for The Master of Ballantrae (1953), Errol Flynn's last movie for Warner Bros. and director William Keighley's last film altogether. He got the gig ten days before he was to participate in the 1952 Olympics and had to leave the production to do so. However, he stayed on for long enough to impress Flynn, who made sure Anderson was brought back to the production when the games had concluded. Anderson would double for both Flynn and his opponents, and was amused when editing allowed him to "kill" himself. (During Flynn's duel with Jacques Berthier, it's pretty obvious when Anderson is doubling for him.) Flynn and Anderson became friends, even despite Anderson accidentally stabbing Flynn in the leg during a rehearsal. Flynn blamed himself, saying he'd been distracted and didn't parry in time. Still, for years, Anderson was known throughout Hollywood as "the guy who stabbed Errol Flynn." The two would work together again in Crossed Swords (1954), filmed in Italy and released by United Artists. The Master of Ballantrae (1953) Following his work as sword master for Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (1974), Anderson was hired for more and more film work. Arguably one of Anderson's biggest claims to fame is his work on the original Star Wars trilogy, not only choreographing the lightsaber duels, but stunt-doubling for David Prowse in the sequels - which meant actually wearing the Darth Vader suit and performing the duels himself in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. (Prowse did his own fighting in the original Star Wars, something which apparently made the insurance folks very nervous.) Anderson's choreography impressed George Lucas, but he nevertheless hushed up Anderson's stuntwork to sell the illusion that one actor was doing it all. However, Mark Hamill felt this was insultingly unfair to Anderson and revealed the truth in a 1983 interview. The 1980s through the 2000s were particularly busy for him in terms of his film work, thanks to movies like my favorite version of The Three Musketeers (1993), First Knight (1995), and The Parent Trap (1998), not to mention the movies I mentioned earlier. Anderson frequently collaborated with stuntman and fellow fight choreographer Peter Diamond, including on Highlander and The Princess Bride. (Fun fact: Diamond played Iman Fasil in Highlander). The last complete film he worked on as sword master was Alatriste (2006), reuniting him with Viggo Mortensen (I reviewed Alatriste a while back). He had already begun working on Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy at the time of his death on January 1, 2012. I was surprised to learn a while back that Anderson's work as a fight choreographer was not limited to cinematic swordsmanship. According to IMDB, he's worked as a stuntman and stunt coordinator on non-swashbuckler films such as The Guns of Navarone (1961) and Superman II (1980). His involvement in the James Bond film series goes all the way back to the Sean Connery era, long before he worked on the awesome sword duels for Die Another Day (2002) - he was a stuntman for From Russia With Love (1963) and the comedic Casino Royale (1967). I've heard he also worked on the elevator fight between Bond and Peter Franks (Joe Robinson) in Diamonds are Forever (1971), although I haven't been able to confirm this. More recently, he'd even worked as a stunt coordinator for an episode of Ashton Kutcher's Punk'd (the episode featuring Justin Bieber) - and a segment of the notorious Movie 43 (2013). In front of the camera, Anderson's had bit parts in The Empire Strikes Back and an installment of the Doctor Who serial "The End of the World." The Empire Strikes Back (1980) There is, fortunately for me and this blog post, a treasure trove of DVD special features out there from the movies Bob Anderson's worked on that feature him in action behind the scenes, as well as interviews from actors he's worked with. He was obviously a guy who loved working on movies as sword master, but he was also a perfectionist who refused to treat big stars like big stars. Typically, he trained actors to the point where they could do as much of the swordplay themselves as possible to the point where stuntmen would only be needed occasionally, if at all. Aside from a stunt that had nothing to do with bladework, the entirety of the legendary duel from The Princess Bride was performed by Cary Elwes and Mandy Patankin. According to Martin Campbell, director of The Mask of Zorro (1997) and its 2005 sequel, Anderson's perfectionism earned him the nickname of "Grumpy Bob" on the set. On the other hand, he knew how to make actors look like expert swordsmen on screen, so his efforts did not go unappreciated in the end. I've come across numerous interviews from actors who've worked with him with nothing but praise for him. Geoffrey Rush (Captain Barbossa in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies) said that Anderson understood acting with a sword, and the importance of the beats between each move. Cary Elwes's book As You Wish, about the making of The Princess Bride, has considerable space dedicated to Anderson and Diamond training him and Mandy Patankin for their legendary sword fight. On a more personal note, when I attended Awesome Con in 2015, I had the opportunity to attend a Lord of the Rings panel featuring John Rhys-Davies and Sean Astin. During the Q&A section, I got to ask them about what it was like working with Anderson, as well as how he worked. Rhys-Davies (who also narrated the documentary Reclaiming the Blade, which prominently features Anderson) replied that Anderson knew what an actor was physically capable of, and then how to make them look as good as possible on screen. Astin described the way Anderson broke down fight scenes into quick, easy to learn series of moves, as well as his kindly, down-to-earth personality. It was directly because of his work on The Princess Bride that I wanted to take fencing lessons, something I kept up for six years, and learn stage combat and fight choreography (which I only have basic training in, to be honest). He also further inspired an already strong interest not only in older swashbuckler films, but historical fiction and the real history behind it. And, of course, there's the impact he had on me as a writer, inspiring me to create my own stories of swashbuckling heroics and learn how to write action sequences that would capture the flavor of the duels he choreographed, rather than going for gritty, realistic combat. In fact, my novel The Brotherhood of the Black Flag (a pirate novel I'm currently working on trying to get published), will be dedicated in part to Bob Anderson's memory. There's no doubt in my mind that Black Flag would never have happened if not for his inspiration - nor would a majority of the other books I've got in progress - and that's one hell of a debt I owe him for that. And so we come to the end of another year of The INCspotlight! I'm sorry it ended on a bit of a quiet note, given how long it's been since my last review. As I said in my Highlander: the Series review, my output and schedule are going to be a lot more unpredictable and sporadic from here on out, due to new time commitments. The good kind of time commitments, which I wouldn't trade for anything - they just leave less time for blogging, let along watching movies to review. I still have a substantial backlog of film reviews I want to get around to, and I'm hoping to have the opportunity to finally keep my promise from last year to review works from other mediums, so I've got enough material to last me a good long while, especially if I'm no longer on a weekly schedule. Thanks for sticking with me for two years, and here's to the next...however many years I'm able to do this for! Reviews that were, reviews that are, and some reviews that have not yet come to pass...
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