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Beeb

RIP

The man was a true Master, and from what I've read he really did put in a hell of a lot of effort into making the OT fights. IMHO, the OT lightsabre fight scenes still hold up very well, particularly the TESB fight. Each fight is a story in itself and each is completely appropriate to the combatants: 'Master vs Master', 'Master vs Apprentice' and 'Master vs Very Quick Learner' all appear (apart from some of the sillier moves like Obi-Wan's spin in ANH) to be just what I'd expect to see (having studied Kendo for 10 years now myself). The PT fights also seek to tell a story, and in some cases they do it well, but I think when it comes to showing the way masters fight, Anderson did it better - there is far more economy of movement, for example.

We've lost one of the unsung heroes of the OT. RIP Mr. Anderson.

While I don't remember ever hearing that guy's name before now (I'm sure I have run across him before at some point or other, but we're talking 10 years on this forum alone) I do think he did damned good work. The fights in the OT might not have been as flashy or involving the various Force powers or conscious the fact that the only actual weight of a lightsabre is (apparently) in the hilt (hence Anakin effortlessly dual-wielding in II and III), but they still look damned good. Possibly because thanks to not involving much in the way of visible Force useage in the actual swordfighting parts, they actually looked like swordfights.

Batman wrote:While I don't remember ever hearing that guy's name before now (I'm sure I have run across him before at some point or other, but we're talking 10 years on this forum alone) I do think he did damned good work. The fights in the OT might not have been as flashy or involving the various Force powers or conscious the fact that the only actual weight of a lightsabre is (apparently) in the hilt (hence Anakin effortlessly dual-wielding in II and III), but they still look damned good. Possibly because thanks to not involving much in the way of visible Force useage in the actual swordfighting parts, they actually looked like swordfights.

You pretty much summed up why I prefer the fights of the OT over their prequel counterparts

Part of me wishes that Anderson had come back as the fight coordinator for the PT. While Nick Gillard did a good job, having Anderson might have ensured a tighter, visual continuity to the saber duels.

Agreed. As he was an Olympic fencer himself, I would have particularly loved to have seen Anderson's interpretation of Dooku, as Makashi is (according to its canon description in the AOTC novelisation) supposed to be tightly controlled single-line fencing with a lightsabre.

And I can't help wondering what he would've done with Yoda, Windu and Sidious.

Ah, well. RIP, Mr Anderson.

Interestingly, he also worked on Lord of the Rings, which probably explain why I love the swordfights there too.

I hate to imagine how he might have winced at the Geonosis arena lightsabre fight.