The Raid: Redemption, directed by Gareth Evans, is often considered to be one of the best action movies of the 21st Century. Starring Iko Uwais, the tense action thriller follows a SWAT team’s efforts to escape a building run by a violent mobster after a raid goes wrong. The movie features intense hand-to-hand combat using all sorts of improvised weapons and martial arts. But, despite the passion of the fan base, the fights in The Raid aren’t very realistic, at least, not according to a real Navy SEAL.
Insider recently interviewed DJ Shipley, a former Navy SEAL, and showed him various fight scenes from popular action movies. Shipley was shown the machete fight from The Raid: Redemption, a personal favorite of fans. But, despite the intense choreography of the action, it’s not very realistic. In the fight, Rama (Uwais) gets disarmed and has to fight two machete-wielding attackers without a weapon. Shipley had a lot to say about the scene:
“Pick up that blade behind you. He just waited at the threshold for two more guys in machetes to come running in. Pick that machete up and give yourself an advantage. Snap the leg off the table. Take the whole table and kick it in front of the threshold and slow them down and start looking for environmentals. You could do anything at that point, except stand there and wait for them to close the distance.”
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The heavy criticism of the machete fight continued. The Raid is highly lauded among action fans because of its blend of martial arts and weapons in its fight scenes. But what looks great on camera, isn’t always realistic. “He’s striking,” Shipley continued. “It’s good. But the reality is that everybody he’s fighting is somehow a kung fu expert, and they’re kicking, punching… at the end of the day, they’re just going to hack him up into pieces with that.”
‘The Raid: Redemption’ Earns a Measly 4/1 for Realism
After watching the scene, DJ Shipley summarized his thoughts about The Raid: Redemption‘s fight scene. “I would give this a four,” he said, making it one of the lowest-scoring scenes from the films that he watched. His issues with The Raid stemmed less from the actual choreography and performances and more from the decisions made by the characters in the scene. “There’s not a scenario in life where that singleton, without any external tools, is going to walk through that apartment building and survive it.”
Despite scoring low with DJ Shipley, The Raid: Redemption still scores highly with fans. The movie is considered to be a modern action classic and spawned a sequel three years later, aptly titled The Raid 2. While the sequel isn’t as well-regarded as the original, it does feature the most iconic kitchen fight scene in action cinema.
As for director Gareth Evans, he continues to make high-octane action movies. His latest, Havoc, stars Tom Hardy as a police detective on a one-man mission to rescue a politician’s son. Havoc is easily Tom Hardy’s most violent movie to date, and Netflix viewers can’t get enough of it, despite mixed reviews.
Source: Insider
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
