Many works of popular culture feature knife fights.
Film
Knife fights, as well as knife-throwing stunts, are staged for dramatic effect in action films. In Under Siege, Commando, and Gangs of New York, knife fights are shown as climactic battles. A common theme in such films is for the hero to discard a gun or similarly superior weapon, in order to engage the otherwise unarmed villain in "fair" knife-to-knife combat. In the 2002 film version of The Count of Monte Cristo, the main character, Dantes, agrees to engage in a knife fight against Jacopo, a member of a smuggler's crew (the captain of which calls Jacopo "the best knife fighter I have ever seen"). Dantes defeats Jacopo but spares his life, gaining a pivotal ally in his future endeavors.
One of the most famous cinematic knife fights occurs in From Here to Eternity. The scene—occurring in a back alley—is stark and realistic, lacks background music and uses pitch black shadow.
In the movie Force 10 from Navarone, a knife fight appeard between Sgt. Weaver, a African-American M.P. Soldier, played by Carl Weathers, and Capt. Drazak, a officer of the Chetniks, allies to Nazi Germany, played by Richard Kiel. The fight ended with Drazak's death.
West Side Story in both its film and stage incarnations features a well-known knife fight between gang leaders Bernardo of The Sharks and Riff of The Jets. The entire fight is choreographed as an acrobatic dance set to musical score.
The film Eastern Promises has a rather intense knife fight that rivals that of the also psychologically disturbing knife fight scene from Saving Private Ryan.
In Kill Bill, a knife-fight occurs between the Bride and Vernita Green, during which the pair severely damage Green's living room, only to abruptly halt when Green's daughter is dropped off by the school bus and seen walking towards the house. Shortly thereafter, Green sneakily pulls a gun, and the Bride responds by throwing her knife, to deadly effect.
The Hunted (2003, William Friedkin) was a unique film that put an emphasis on showing knife combat. Starring Benicio del Toro and Tommy Lee Jones, each character has a special affinity for knives, due to participating in various special operations missions under military service, which required use of a knife as a primary weapon. Also Friedkin's Bug (2007) features a knife-fight.
A Grande Arte (1991) along with the above mentioned The Hunted, is one of the rare films to focus on knife combat and features training scenes as well.
Dune (1984, David Lynch) and the , based on Frank Herbert´s bestselling science fiction novel Dune, show a world where a corporeal shield (a force-field projector) makes laser and projectile weapons useless. Because of that, wars and duels are settled by knife-fighting, which is altered by the presence of the shield: a fast-moving knife bounces off the shield; a slow-moving knife can penetrate the shield to reach a vital organ. The climactic duel, between Paul Muad´dib and Feyd-Rautha, used only knives (no shields) and martial-arts abilities.
Michael Jackson's music video Beat it features two men knife-fighting using switchblade knives, with their wrists tied.
Video games
One of the few more detailed knife fight scenes (And also one of the more frustrating "quick-press" or "quick-time" sequences) is in Resident Evil 4 (Gamecube, Playstation 2, Wii, PC), wherein the main character, Leon Kennedy, is ambushed by another character named Jack Krauser. During the fight, each combatant switches from reverse and forward grips on their knives, and Leon even switches hands during a spin to land a glancing blow upon Krauser. However, the knife-fight nearly met disaster for Leon before another character showed up and shot Krauser's knife away.
Failing to press the correct buttons in the "quick-time" sequences in this scene leads to a bloody death for Leon, which can include being stabbed in the torso, his throat being slit, or his trachea pierced to name a few. These reflect some very effective places to aim with a knife if going for a kill.
In Call of Duty 3 knife fight happens several times when the player fights knife armed German soldiers. It's so far the only Call of Duty game which has knife fights in the story.
In one of the game Team Fortress 2 trailers, a knife fight between the Sniper and the Spy appeared. The Sniper used a Kukri and The Spy a butterfly knife. The Spy was more agile and was able to kill the Sniper.
Anime
In Shingetsutan Tsukihime, Shiki Tohno engages in a knife fight with Roa. Shiki Tohno destroys the hallway with the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception and proceeds to slay Roa.
Film
Knife fights, as well as knife-throwing stunts, are staged for dramatic effect in action films. In Under Siege, Commando, and Gangs of New York, knife fights are shown as climactic battles. A common theme in such films is for the hero to discard a gun or similarly superior weapon, in order to engage the otherwise unarmed villain in "fair" knife-to-knife combat. In the 2002 film version of The Count of Monte Cristo, the main character, Dantes, agrees to engage in a knife fight against Jacopo, a member of a smuggler's crew (the captain of which calls Jacopo "the best knife fighter I have ever seen"). Dantes defeats Jacopo but spares his life, gaining a pivotal ally in his future endeavors.
One of the most famous cinematic knife fights occurs in From Here to Eternity. The scene—occurring in a back alley—is stark and realistic, lacks background music and uses pitch black shadow.
In the movie Force 10 from Navarone, a knife fight appeard between Sgt. Weaver, a African-American M.P. Soldier, played by Carl Weathers, and Capt. Drazak, a officer of the Chetniks, allies to Nazi Germany, played by Richard Kiel. The fight ended with Drazak's death.
West Side Story in both its film and stage incarnations features a well-known knife fight between gang leaders Bernardo of The Sharks and Riff of The Jets. The entire fight is choreographed as an acrobatic dance set to musical score.
The film Eastern Promises has a rather intense knife fight that rivals that of the also psychologically disturbing knife fight scene from Saving Private Ryan.
In Kill Bill, a knife-fight occurs between the Bride and Vernita Green, during which the pair severely damage Green's living room, only to abruptly halt when Green's daughter is dropped off by the school bus and seen walking towards the house. Shortly thereafter, Green sneakily pulls a gun, and the Bride responds by throwing her knife, to deadly effect.
The Hunted (2003, William Friedkin) was a unique film that put an emphasis on showing knife combat. Starring Benicio del Toro and Tommy Lee Jones, each character has a special affinity for knives, due to participating in various special operations missions under military service, which required use of a knife as a primary weapon. Also Friedkin's Bug (2007) features a knife-fight.
A Grande Arte (1991) along with the above mentioned The Hunted, is one of the rare films to focus on knife combat and features training scenes as well.
Dune (1984, David Lynch) and the , based on Frank Herbert´s bestselling science fiction novel Dune, show a world where a corporeal shield (a force-field projector) makes laser and projectile weapons useless. Because of that, wars and duels are settled by knife-fighting, which is altered by the presence of the shield: a fast-moving knife bounces off the shield; a slow-moving knife can penetrate the shield to reach a vital organ. The climactic duel, between Paul Muad´dib and Feyd-Rautha, used only knives (no shields) and martial-arts abilities.
Michael Jackson's music video Beat it features two men knife-fighting using switchblade knives, with their wrists tied.
Video games
One of the few more detailed knife fight scenes (And also one of the more frustrating "quick-press" or "quick-time" sequences) is in Resident Evil 4 (Gamecube, Playstation 2, Wii, PC), wherein the main character, Leon Kennedy, is ambushed by another character named Jack Krauser. During the fight, each combatant switches from reverse and forward grips on their knives, and Leon even switches hands during a spin to land a glancing blow upon Krauser. However, the knife-fight nearly met disaster for Leon before another character showed up and shot Krauser's knife away.
Failing to press the correct buttons in the "quick-time" sequences in this scene leads to a bloody death for Leon, which can include being stabbed in the torso, his throat being slit, or his trachea pierced to name a few. These reflect some very effective places to aim with a knife if going for a kill.
In Call of Duty 3 knife fight happens several times when the player fights knife armed German soldiers. It's so far the only Call of Duty game which has knife fights in the story.
In one of the game Team Fortress 2 trailers, a knife fight between the Sniper and the Spy appeared. The Sniper used a Kukri and The Spy a butterfly knife. The Spy was more agile and was able to kill the Sniper.
Anime
In Shingetsutan Tsukihime, Shiki Tohno engages in a knife fight with Roa. Shiki Tohno destroys the hallway with the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception and proceeds to slay Roa.
Robert Norman Costlow (born June 5, 1973), known professionally as Rob Costlow, is a contemporary American pianist. His first album Sophomore Jinx was released worldwide in 2005. INgrooves, Rob's Digital Distributor, licensed his song "Wood of Chaos" (the title track from his second album) to both Nokia and Conrad Hotels for worldwide distribution.
Biography
Rob was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. His father, Ronald Neal Costlow, is a partner for a large Certified Public Accountant firm. His mother Linda Lee Miller was a stay-at-home mom to Rob and his three brothers. Rob's mother was of German descent and his father is of Scottish-Irish ancestry.
At age eleven, Rob lost his mother to ovarian cancer. His stepmother (Sharon Gustavel) and two step brothers came into his life over a year later.
Rob received a Bachelors and Masters degree in Kinesiology from Indiana University, Bloomington (IU). Before transferring to IU as a junior, Rob began his college career as a Piano Performance and Composition major at Ball State University. He then changed majors to Kinesiology as a sophomore, giving an ironic twist to the meaning of Rob’s first album.
At IU, Rob was hit by a drunk driver and suffered injuries to both hands, resulting in a broken left hand and carpel tunnel syndrome in his right. Through surgery and physical therapy Rob has recovered, but still feels aching in his hands after any especially extensive piano performance.
While working on his Masters Degree at IU, Rob unofficially started his own record label, based on a business class project. In 2002, Rob released his first professional solo project, Sophomore Jinx (re-released 2005), containing all original music. In 2004, Rob officially founded Tourist Records. Through Tourist Records, Rob continues to create and license music. He hopes to inspire other artists to make their own impact in the world.
Rob recorded his first piano album in the spring of 1998. It was his demo album Broad Uncertainty. He has since improved upon, renamed and rerecorded many of the songs on his professional album releases.
Professionally, Rob has also spent the last decade working for influential Internet companies. He has worked for 4 dot com companies.
Personal life
Rob is married to Melissa Flint. He met her at the Indiana University Kappa Alpha Theta sorority house in 1995. Rob worked as a pot-washer and then a waiter at the sorority. They were engaged in Rome, Italy in the spring of 1999 and married in Indianapolis, IN on October 2, 1999.
They have two children: Madeline June (a.k.a. "Maddie", born January 19, 2007) and Eleanor Carol (a.k.a. "Ellie", born May 8, 2009).
Discography
* Sophomore Jinx (2005)
* Woods of Chaos (2005)
* Return - Remix EP (2006)
* Reconstruction (2008)
Awards
* Rob's song "Forbidden" was selected as a Song of the Year finalist in the 2009 8th Annual Independent Music Awards.
* Rob's song "Reflections" won for Best Music at the 2007 Shoot Out Boulder Filmmaking Festival.
* Rob’s albums Sophomore Jinx and Woods of Chaos were both nominated for the 2006 Independent Music Awards New Age Album of the Year.
*Rob is ranked number one Best Keyboards (acoustic, all-time)
* Best Potential Movie Soundtrack (acoustic, all-time)<ref name="garageband.com"/>
Biography
Rob was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. His father, Ronald Neal Costlow, is a partner for a large Certified Public Accountant firm. His mother Linda Lee Miller was a stay-at-home mom to Rob and his three brothers. Rob's mother was of German descent and his father is of Scottish-Irish ancestry.
At age eleven, Rob lost his mother to ovarian cancer. His stepmother (Sharon Gustavel) and two step brothers came into his life over a year later.
Rob received a Bachelors and Masters degree in Kinesiology from Indiana University, Bloomington (IU). Before transferring to IU as a junior, Rob began his college career as a Piano Performance and Composition major at Ball State University. He then changed majors to Kinesiology as a sophomore, giving an ironic twist to the meaning of Rob’s first album.
At IU, Rob was hit by a drunk driver and suffered injuries to both hands, resulting in a broken left hand and carpel tunnel syndrome in his right. Through surgery and physical therapy Rob has recovered, but still feels aching in his hands after any especially extensive piano performance.
While working on his Masters Degree at IU, Rob unofficially started his own record label, based on a business class project. In 2002, Rob released his first professional solo project, Sophomore Jinx (re-released 2005), containing all original music. In 2004, Rob officially founded Tourist Records. Through Tourist Records, Rob continues to create and license music. He hopes to inspire other artists to make their own impact in the world.
Rob recorded his first piano album in the spring of 1998. It was his demo album Broad Uncertainty. He has since improved upon, renamed and rerecorded many of the songs on his professional album releases.
Professionally, Rob has also spent the last decade working for influential Internet companies. He has worked for 4 dot com companies.
Personal life
Rob is married to Melissa Flint. He met her at the Indiana University Kappa Alpha Theta sorority house in 1995. Rob worked as a pot-washer and then a waiter at the sorority. They were engaged in Rome, Italy in the spring of 1999 and married in Indianapolis, IN on October 2, 1999.
They have two children: Madeline June (a.k.a. "Maddie", born January 19, 2007) and Eleanor Carol (a.k.a. "Ellie", born May 8, 2009).
Discography
* Sophomore Jinx (2005)
* Woods of Chaos (2005)
* Return - Remix EP (2006)
* Reconstruction (2008)
Awards
* Rob's song "Forbidden" was selected as a Song of the Year finalist in the 2009 8th Annual Independent Music Awards.
* Rob's song "Reflections" won for Best Music at the 2007 Shoot Out Boulder Filmmaking Festival.
* Rob’s albums Sophomore Jinx and Woods of Chaos were both nominated for the 2006 Independent Music Awards New Age Album of the Year.
*Rob is ranked number one Best Keyboards (acoustic, all-time)
* Best Potential Movie Soundtrack (acoustic, all-time)<ref name="garageband.com"/>
Johnny Prill (hometown Bad Axe, Michigan) is a singer-songwriter, accordionist, and the author of “A Song for Grandma and Grandpa,†the official song of the U.S. National Grandparents Day holiday. In a career that dates back to 1978, he has recorded 45-rpm records, four albums, and four compact discs; including polka, country, big band, and easy listening formats.
Jackson Sweeney (born in Melbourne, Australia, 1992) is a young, versatile Australian composer who writes in a contemporary classical style which combines elements of jazz, neo-romanticism and postmodernism, developed into a heavily chromatic harmonic language.
Career
Sweeney's major success as a young composer came with the chamber work Delusional Mind which won the secondary category of the prestigious Sibelius Music Young Composers Award (Australia) in 2008. The work, composed for bass clarinet, vibraphone, violin and cello, was described by the notable Australian composer Damien Ricketson as "a very sophisticated work for someone so young, incorporting an excellent sense of pacing, drama and textural variation" .
Sweeney continues to compose a wide range of music for various ensembles in his home city of Melbourne, where he lives with his family. His works have been performed both locally and overseas. Delusional Mind also enjoyed a national broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Classical FM.
Music
Much of Sweeney's music is characterised by a strong emphasis on rhythmic drive and displacement, combining chromatic harmony with a distinctive melodic vein which he finds in highly influential composers including Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Francaix, Dutilleux, Penderecki, and Robert Simpson.
Sweeney's three finest serious works come from a creative period of three months in 2008 - the aforementioned Delusional Mind, a piano trio titled Dyssomnia and a second book of exotic dances for saxophone and piano - Demented Dances: Book II. The three works are contrasting in character and style. Delusional Mind is a dark, dramatic work in a three part form, with a central allegro framed by two outer slow sections. Dyssomnia is a meditative work in one movement, profoundly reflective in character, and inspired by sleep. In contrast, the Demented Dances: Book II is a lively suite of four exotic dances characterised by jazzy syncopations and rapidly changing time signatures.
Sweeney has also composed a variety of other chamber works, including a wind quartet suite to be premiered in America later this year. He has written pieces for choir, as well as a symphony (subsequently withdrawn).
Works
Works with Opus Number
* Opus 1: Descent into Madness (2007) for flute, clarinet, vibraphone, violin and cello.
* Opus 2: Study Symphony (2007) for orchestra (Originally Symphony No. 1, later retitled)
* Opus 3: Demented Dances: Book I (2007) for alto saxophone and piano
* Opus 4: A Short and Jocular Suite (2008) for wind quartet
* Opus 5: Dyssomnia (2008) for violin, cello and piano
* Opus 6: Three Pieces for Music Homework (2008)
* Opus 7: Demented Dances: Book II (2008) for alto saxophone and piano
* Opus 8: Delusional Mind (2008) for bass clarinet, vibraphone, violin and cello
* Opus 9: Adagio (2009) for string quartet
Other Works without Opus Number
* Waltz (2007) for trumpet, alto saxophone and piano
* Perpetuum Irritatium (2008) for trumpet, alto saxophone and piano
* Symphony No. 2 (2008) for orchestra, abandoned
* Grunticulous Groontiferies: Fishfluxum You! (2008) for mixed voices
* Welcome to the Morning Giant Pelican (2009) for trumpet, alto saxophone and piano
Career
Sweeney's major success as a young composer came with the chamber work Delusional Mind which won the secondary category of the prestigious Sibelius Music Young Composers Award (Australia) in 2008. The work, composed for bass clarinet, vibraphone, violin and cello, was described by the notable Australian composer Damien Ricketson as "a very sophisticated work for someone so young, incorporting an excellent sense of pacing, drama and textural variation" .
Sweeney continues to compose a wide range of music for various ensembles in his home city of Melbourne, where he lives with his family. His works have been performed both locally and overseas. Delusional Mind also enjoyed a national broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Classical FM.
Music
Much of Sweeney's music is characterised by a strong emphasis on rhythmic drive and displacement, combining chromatic harmony with a distinctive melodic vein which he finds in highly influential composers including Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Francaix, Dutilleux, Penderecki, and Robert Simpson.
Sweeney's three finest serious works come from a creative period of three months in 2008 - the aforementioned Delusional Mind, a piano trio titled Dyssomnia and a second book of exotic dances for saxophone and piano - Demented Dances: Book II. The three works are contrasting in character and style. Delusional Mind is a dark, dramatic work in a three part form, with a central allegro framed by two outer slow sections. Dyssomnia is a meditative work in one movement, profoundly reflective in character, and inspired by sleep. In contrast, the Demented Dances: Book II is a lively suite of four exotic dances characterised by jazzy syncopations and rapidly changing time signatures.
Sweeney has also composed a variety of other chamber works, including a wind quartet suite to be premiered in America later this year. He has written pieces for choir, as well as a symphony (subsequently withdrawn).
Works
Works with Opus Number
* Opus 1: Descent into Madness (2007) for flute, clarinet, vibraphone, violin and cello.
* Opus 2: Study Symphony (2007) for orchestra (Originally Symphony No. 1, later retitled)
* Opus 3: Demented Dances: Book I (2007) for alto saxophone and piano
* Opus 4: A Short and Jocular Suite (2008) for wind quartet
* Opus 5: Dyssomnia (2008) for violin, cello and piano
* Opus 6: Three Pieces for Music Homework (2008)
* Opus 7: Demented Dances: Book II (2008) for alto saxophone and piano
* Opus 8: Delusional Mind (2008) for bass clarinet, vibraphone, violin and cello
* Opus 9: Adagio (2009) for string quartet
Other Works without Opus Number
* Waltz (2007) for trumpet, alto saxophone and piano
* Perpetuum Irritatium (2008) for trumpet, alto saxophone and piano
* Symphony No. 2 (2008) for orchestra, abandoned
* Grunticulous Groontiferies: Fishfluxum You! (2008) for mixed voices
* Welcome to the Morning Giant Pelican (2009) for trumpet, alto saxophone and piano