Phantom Menace Discussion: Is the Duel of the fates a classic match?

I loved Ray Parks martial arts work, his kendo etc.

Thought Ewan was good as well.

But it seems a lot more visual, less than anything above a physical confrontation.

It lacked the meeting of mental Wills.

I know it's been said before, but the song is excellent. As for the fight itself, I don't really remember it much.

I was never much a fan of either the fight or the music, since they both seemed to have little to do with the rest of the movie. And I'm usually a fan of John Williams music, but the song never grabbed me.

I thought that duel was best part of the entire PT (except for CPY, of course).  Loved the music and the choreography.  Also loved the contrast between Qui-Gon and Maul when the barriers seperated them.

That said, the classic battle between Luke and Vader in ESB was still better.

The song was great... but every other element sucked balls, including the choreography, the cinematography, the script (Or lack thereof), the props, the lighting, the set design, the costume design, the make up, the sound design and the entire conception of the whole thing at a story and character level... but as I said good job John Williams on creating a piece of music so good that quite a few people still can enjoy the sequence anyway :-)

Handman said:

Well... they never actually tried to hit eachother...

 This is great! Perfect!
"Aim any old how."

Odd though this may sound, I think it would have worked better if you didn't have to cut between the three strands of plot in that part of the film. Duel of the Fates is meant to be really engaging, but I'm thrown off by the pacing of the cuts between it, the race to the throne room, and the space battle. Straight-up flair works best uninterrupted like that.

I like it but that's my one complaint.

I'd say yes and no. Yes in that it introduces an incredible piece of music and it was probably the most engaging part of the movie on the big screen. No in that it fails in fridge logic terms. After a while they're just fighting to fight. This is apparent when there's a freaking wall that puts a complete halt to the action and there's no attempt to negotiate things. Regardless of the choreography and whatnot story wise that's the perfect time for the Jedi to at least try to come to terms with Maul. Zero attempt, absolutely zero. Even if it's a long shot they could've at least tried but no.

TV's Frink said:

Interesting that not a single fanedit has attempted it (to my knowledge).

twister111 said:

I'd say yes and no. Yes in that it introduces an incredible piece of music and it was probably the most engaging part of the movie on the big screen. No in that it fails in fridge logic terms. After a while they're just fighting to fight. This is apparent when there's a freaking wall that puts a complete halt to the action and there's no attempt to negotiate things. Regardless of the choreography and whatnot story wise that's the perfect time for the Jedi to at least try to come to terms with Maul. Zero attempt, absolutely zero. Even if it's a long shot they could've at least tried but no.

TV's Frink said:

Interesting that not a single fanedit has attempted it (to my knowledge).

Plenty of people on YT have edited it as a single fight though here's one.

 I never really thought about the Jedi talking things through, but I don't think that the scene needed that. Lucas seems to work best when he focuses on the music and images. Perhaps in the hands of a good screenwriter some dialogue could have worked, but with Lucas at the helm, the less dialogue the better.

Interesting that all the great lightsabre battles in the OT included a lot of talking.