Day 17: Film
with Great Fighting
So at first I thought I’d choose the uninhibited thunder-and-lightning
shootouts and fights of Jimmy Cagney’s “White Heat” or “The Roaring Twenties”
(because, what a film!), but I think “Hell’s Drivers” (1957) is a ‘Film with
Great Fighting,’ at least for 2 minutes. It’s a tough-talking, quick-tempered
economic/character thriller in a working-class setting with the feeling of
Jules Dassin films of the previous decade (and written by also-blacklisted Cy
Enfield, before “Zulu”!) and the fistfight between Stanley Baker’s ex-con Tom
and fellow truck driver, Red, played by Patrick McGoohan feels like the boiling
point to all that pressure, head butts, low kidney punches, and all. This dirty
loutish brawl showcases Stanley’s sheer power and bulky strength but also
Patrick’s contained magnetic force (all while never letting a cigarette drop
from his lip, a strangely delightful, balletic moment in an otherwise very
naturally choreographed, violent scene) Xo
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