Who choreographs movie fight scenes?

Who is the person who choreographs fight scenes in films?

—Matthew, New Port Richey, Florida

The B!tch Replies: There is no single guy. If only one person were in charge of choreographing all the fight scenes in film, we'd get, maybe, one action flick every three years. That would be rotten.

We would have no outlet for our natural inclination toward violence, see, and we would be forced to stage live hobo fights on the streets. When was the last time you saw a live hobo fight on the streets? (Those of you not living in a Carolina, that is.) I thought as much.

Actually, there's a whole mess of people who specialize in knives, swords, fisticuffs, nunchucks, guns and vicious flying kicks--solely for the purpose of entertainment.

In the world of theater, these people are called fight directors. In film, they are known as fight coordinators. Fight coordinators are trained to oversee several aspects of a film fight: smack-down choreography, weapons or martial arts training, physical training, safety instruction and even acting. (How might Batman react to a flying kick to his face? Would his murky-hearted character react differently if that kick instead landed on his ass? Only the Dark Knight and his fight coordinators know for sure.)

The most noted fight coordinator in the business is named Cheung-Yan Yuen. Cheung-Yan is credited with creating the marvelous throw-downs in two of the three Matrix installments; both Charlie's Angels movies and Daredevil.

This B!tch is told Cheung-Yan speaks only Chinese, and this B!tch does not speak Chinese, so this B!tch interviewed two other fight coordinators instead.

"I approach action as dialogue with movement instead of words," says Anthony De Longis, who co-choreographed a saber fight for Jet Li's latest film, Fearless.

Ergo, fight coordinators usually partner with a director when creating a brawl. The director fills in the coordinator about the larger purpose of the scene and the motivations behind the fighters. The coordinator then introduces the proper fighting styles and weapons. For example, De Longis arranged a fanciful flashback in Haley Joel Osment's Secondhand Lions.

The fight scene was supposed to be a classic showdown between an outmatched, straightforward hero and a morally bankrupt force of evil--in this case, a wicked sheik. De Longis honored that scenario by giving the villain a fluid fighting style and two blades. The imaginary hero fought with a more linear, defensive technique.

"If a fight doesn't articulate the story or the character, it's just a lot of eye candy," De Longis tells this B!tch.

Sometimes fight coordination doesn't involve a lot of fighting at all.

"We spent hours just talking about his character, about how he would respond, why he fights the way he does," says Bill Goodwin, referring to his three days of fight training with Christian Bale for Batman Begins.

Goodwin also taught Bale basic techniques in Shaolin and other Asian disciplines before turning him loose to fight a prison yard full of make-believe baddies--baddies who must, of course, have inferior kung fu and only middling ninja skills.

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