Closest depiction of MA in a movie

[bushido_man96]

Spartacus: yes, I think that was it.

[DWx]

What about Tony Jaa's films? Ignoring the bits of acrobatics in the chase scenes, how close is Ong Bak to actually Muay Thai?

Or a bit left field, the choreography of the Dark Knight Trilogy was done by a couple of Keysi Fighting Method guys. Batman's gadgets aside apparently it's supposed to be a reasonable depiction of the style:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/christian_bale_trainer_interview.htm

Not sure how the morals or theory stack up (not even sure what they are in KFM) but the fighting certainly seems close.

[Archimoto]

Forgot about Ong Bak

Good one!

And this thread wouldn't be complete without JLo's boxing flick titled "Enough"

Ok just kidding !

[Spartacus Maximus]

I'm not familiar enough with Muay Thai to give an informed opinion of Ong Bak. I hope that someone who practises it would comment. If I just judge it by what I have seen, I would say that there are more spectacular techniques than anything else.

The most intriguing scene for me is where he appears to be doing a form whenhe demonstrates before his uncle. Is there such a thing as forms in Muay Thai? I thought they trained mostly by drilling individual techniques and two-person combinations practise...hmmm

[scohen.mma]

I would agree with anyone who mentioned The Last Samurai. My old Sensei, Tony Aloe, teaches Kaze No ryu Bugei Ogawa Ha and is the president of the International Bugei Society. He's an amazing teacher and has such a great understanding for martial arts in all aspects. From what I've seen, he also has a huge interest in the Samurai. After a class I had with him one night, that movie was mentioned and Sensei Aloe immediately spoke greatly of how accurate the movie was. I'm not very knowledgeable in the Samurai, but I trust Sensei Aloe entirely.

[Oshishinobu]

Kuro Obi is a fine film and if you want to see some neat Karate action you can go wrong.

Fighter in the wind is a good one. The fights are well paced and not too unrealistic.

For a great bit of fun The Street Fighter series with Sony Chiba are a riot!

OSU!

[Spartacus Maximus]

Kuro Obi is one of my favourites and I saw it in its original version when it came out. One of the actors is a good acquaintances of my instructor.

[hansenator]

As far as fight scenes go, I think the most realistic would be the ones that don't have the look of obvious martial arts styles.

I thought the last couple of James Bond movies were pretty good. The fight scenes were kind of ugly and awkward and didn't look stylized or anything.

I also remember a scene in Johnny Mnemonic where he did some kind of take down on a bad guy. It was too quick to really see but it looked like something from Silat.

[Oshishinobu]

Kuro Obi is one of my favourites and I saw it in its original version when it came out. One of the actors is a good acquaintances of my instructor.

OSU!

That is really cool, I know one of the guys I follow on facebook is in the org of one of the actors and he has some photos of his visit to their dojo. Check out Back in the gi on facebook OSU!

[sensei8]

The Pink Panther!! Inspector Clouseau and Cato/Kato...It's a wonder that either of them survived each other!!