The Martial Arts of Batman2

8/11/2019 The Martial Arts of Batman2

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the Best Fights ofthe Franchise

by Jeff McKissack

I, It was an ins tant box-office

success. The same w ill no doubt be tru e when

The ark Knight

is released on

July 18, 2008. Evident in both fi lms is an animalistic fighting style used by the

tit le ch aracter, an a rt th at s supposed to tra ns form Batman from a comic-book

icon Into a more believable person . The m artia l art s behind th a t tra ns for m atio n

is the Keysi Fighting M etho d.


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B a tma n Is B a c k

When

Batman Begins

was released,

it was obvious that director Christopher

Nolan had redefined the movie franchise.

but the comic faithful knew that the sw itch

marked a return to the original, darker

character of Batman. Among other things,

we witnessed the

f igh

training of Bruce

Wayne prior to his adoption of the aveng-

ing alter ego- Elements of ninjutsu were

apparent in the League of Shadows,

which explained much of his stealthy na-

ture and theatrics, but when it came to the

actual combat, viewers we re treated to an

art that had never been co mmitted to

film.

The sheer brutality of what was show n left

martial artists wondering. What f ighting

style is that?

Interestingly, that reaction was also

what the casting crew experienced when,

during their search for the self-defense

system that would best suit the DC Com-

ics icon, they came across the Keysi

Fighting Method.

"I wanted to take it back to a grubbier

place, a place where you feel the punches

a bit more and you're actually a bit more

concerned about the violence on-screen."

Nolan said. "There's been a lot of very ex-

cessive use of wire work in martial arts and

everything to the point where violence los-

es its threat because it's become dance-

likeand we've become comfortable

watching it that way."

Stunt coordinator Paul Jennings a lso felt

the pressure. "The greatest challenge was

to find something new and unique to Bat-

mansomething that was identifiable with

Batman and was almost animalistic and to-

tally functional for the fights," he

said.

Fight arranger Dave Forman echoed

those sentiments: "We were looking for

something so that when Batman threw a

punch or kick, it went through the person

like a ragingbull,"

The introduction to KFM came when a

key Stuntman, a veteran of

Troy Mission:

Impossible III Jumper and The Bourne Ul-

timatum lobbied Forman and Jennings to

consider it, "One of the Stuntmen who was

already working on Batman Begins. Buster

Reeves, a previous w orld/uyuisuchampion,

mentioned a fighting system called KFM."

Jennings

said.

"We thought we should take

a look. Andy Norman and Justo Dieguez

turned up for an audition and started dem-

onstrating KFM- When Chris Nolan saw

[it], he thoug ht it worked pe rfectly for Bat-

man. So together with Dave Foreman, we

went for KFM."

Norman, co-founder of KFM. recalled

the experience: "Our audition for Batman

Begins was very interesting. As you can

imagine, the process that's used at this

level is not designed to make you feel

good, nor does the word 'compassion'

enter into the equation, I can remember

arriving at the studios and thinking. What

have I got myself into? It was a brutal pro-

cess."

In the end, however. Forman and

Jennings a greed that KFM was perfect for

the caped crusader,

"Throughout all the fighting movies,

we've seen traditional taekwondo muay

h i

ano

karate, but we hadn't seen KFM ,"

Forman said in a follow-up interview. "[It's]

very, very new and still evolving."

What im pressed them? "It 's very much

about being mentally aware of your envi-

ronment, mentally aware of how people

behave and respond to actions and reac-

tions,"

Jennings said. "That's exactly what

we wanted for Balmansomeone who, if

he feels like it, is going to head-butt you.


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school to enjoy themselves. Normansaid.

Another unique aspect of KFM is the

way it introduces students, even those who

are apprehensive or intimidated, to the

prospect of facing a mass attack. When

multiple assailants are used in a scenar-

io,

they attack as one. As students rise

through the ranks of the system, additional

attackers are add ed so that by the time the

students are at black-belt level, the result-

ing meiee resembles a gang fight. Yet ev-

erything takes place in a controlled manner

that allows for the new predator to learn

about and reassess his strengths and

A primary goffKt-M

ts .

orjce an at-

tack begins, to transform yourself from

prey to predator.

weaknesses. It's perfect for studentsand

for Batman.

Mo r e c t i o n

Audiences w ill certainly see more KFM

action in The Dark Knight, but will any-

thing be different from the fights of Bat-

man Begins? Chris [Nolan] was always

clear that he wanted Batman to be as real

as possible, Jennings said, That meant

everything we did with Batman in a f ight

situation should be done for a reason

not because it looks great but because

it functions. For The Dark Knight. Chris

wanted to continue with Keysi for Bat-

man because he felt Keysi was ideal for

the character with its hard,b rutal, no-non-

sense fighting approach. He also wanted

the actors to have more input to make the

fighting more character-driven.

With this in mind, we started to give

Christian Bale personal KFM classes

with Justo and Andy so he could lead the

moves through his character mere. He

loved it and did all the fighting himself in

The Dark Knight.

Bale add ed: We've gone a bit further

with Keysi. I'm actually learning how to

do it more realistically than ever before,

though it's such an extreme way of fight-

ing.

There are literally moves where you

tear someone's cheek away from their face

or rip their nose off. Every part of you be-

comes a weapon. It 's formidable. Batman

doesn't kill, so we can't have him doing

that: we modify it.

The star became a model martial artist

during the filming of the sequel, the KFM

founders said. We were abie to spend a

lot of quality time with Christian, and he

trained really hard, ' Norman said. Chris-

tian really liked K FM. so he showed a great

interest in furthering his abilities and know l-

edge of [it] as a fighting art. Obviously,

spending a lot of time with him meant that

we built a very good friendship with him.

The consequence of this was that prepar-

ing all the fights with him was great fun as

he actually had a genuine interest in what

was going on.

Dieguez and Norman also appreciated

the extra time they were able to spend with

Hollywood's favorite reality-bas ed

martial art is the Keys i FightingMetf^od

Its techniques were used in Batmanl

Begins and the upcoming sequel,Tme

Dark Knight.


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^ m vu ^

AndyNorman (left) winds u p his punch . .

causing Justo Dieguezto s hift into attack m

'..?'and hit his opponent in th e chest while

e

ing the blow

. Dieguez exploits the tem

rarygap that exists between himself and his

by swinging his right foot into the man s l

leg n y and

converting

t he

motion

into a kn

stomp8 .Once t he attacker is down . the

KF M practitioner drops his knee onto his thi

'.

while maintaininga defensive posture

some of the other acfors. including the

late Heath Ledger. Said Norma n: Heath

Ledger, who passed away this year, was a

genuinely cool guy. We did a different kind

of training with htm. as the character of the

Joker required a slightly crazy twist. Heath

pulled it oft amazingly well as you will see

in the

film,

but his fighting style is not as

stylized or fluid [as Batman's], He iooks

and moves exactly how the Joker should

movea little crazy.

It all comes together in what's sure to

be a summer blockbuster, but what lies

ahead for KFM? Norman is optimistic.

KFM has made quite an impact in the

film industry already, but this is just the

beginning. hesaid. Obviously, when you

have something unique and can deliver

the product well, people like it. We do get

approached a lot these days with an ar-

ray of offers inside and outside of the film

industry. KFM has made its mark and is

here to stay.

I think we'll be seeing a lot more of

KFM in films in the future, said Jennings.

a veteran stunt coordinator who's worked

on The Golden Compass. Blood Dia-

mond. Munich and Batman Seg/ns during

his 25 years in mov iema king. It's unique

and can adapt to the individual. Everyone

in the film business who has seen KFM

loves it, so I think its involvement in the

industry is just beginning. >^

About the

author:

JeffMcKissack is a self-deferr

instructor and crime-prevention specials

based in Dallas. For more information, visit

www. b lackbeltmag.com/archivBS/who/.


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