Friday, January 25, 2008

What Say You: The Naked Fight Scene


Okay, here's something to wrap the old gray matter around. When I read that Viggo Mortenson was nominated for his role in Eastern Promises, it got me thinking. If Viggo isn't naked in the steam room for his fight scene, does anyone even talk about the scene? Wait, allow me to rephrase. If Viggo were fully clothed and not swinging his pink propeller about, does anyone notice this scene? I have to tell you, the scene didn't do a whole lot for me. I've seen tons of fight scenes (fully clothed) that were much more impressive than this. And so then my first question leads me to this next question. If Viggo does the fight scene without his junk on full display, does he get the Oscar nomination? I believe it to be a legitimate question because when people speak of Eastern Promises, they don't talk about character development or storyline, they always ask me what I thought of the fight scene. So is the naked fight scene strong enough to make a movie and make a performance? Hmmmmmmm. I look to you for the answer.

WHAT SAY YOU?

8 comments:

Nayana Anthony said...

The naked fight scene is certainly over-discussed... but what really struck me was his performance as the cool, quiet Russian chauffeur/mobster. I saw none of Viggo in that, and I was totally swept away. That's what gets my vote... because really the fight scene is more about the movie in general than Mortensen's performance in particular.

Anonymous said...

He is nominated to an Oscar IN DESPITE of the overtalked scene. The members of the Academy are very conservative. The rather nominted him because his performance is great. He was even better in "History of violence" and the Academy ignored him. He finally has the recognizion that he longed deserves. He is a really fine actor and artist.

Burbanked said...

I'll agree that The Scene and The Junk have been discussed to death, but I also think that the scene has a lot to do with Nikolai's extreme levels of badassery. Not only that, but it also serves to dramatize his level of commitment when you learn something rather pivotal about him later in the story.

I liked that the scene didn't seem as choreographed by most movie standards. It was uglier, meaner, more chaotic and only felt more so because of the character's vulnerability.

Until the end, of course. Who the hell would crawl over a (not quite!) dead man to get out of the room? Couldn't he have crawled around him just as easily? It's not like the corpse was blocking the door or something.

PIPER said...

burbanked,

I don't disagree that the scene added texture to Mortenson's character, but whenever someone brings up the movie, they just talk about how intense the fight scene was and I didn't find it that intense.

I think Mortenson wanted to drag his junk one last time over the dead man to disrespect him even more.

Sheamus the... said...

ha..."drag his junk over the dead man"...

I love this movie. I thought Viggo did an amazing job junk swinging or no junk swinging. He lived in Russia and traveled trying to learn the language and research prisons in that world resulting in an amazing performance.

The fact that the scene is being talked to death is more about the people seeing the movie than the movie itself. The most intense scene for me was when he was banging that chick with bro watchin. Then his reaction to her after told me all I needed to know about his character.

Anonymous said...

"pink propeller"

Ha. Good stuff.

The scene is pretty brutal though. I remember cringing real quick when he stabbed that last fella in the eye (after dragging his junk over him of course).

I've got a film page as well. Check it out sometime....

Wine and Werewolves

Anonymous said...

Piper, you're right, methinks.

Frankly, the fight scene in The Bourne Ultimatum is better than this one, and I bet Damon's cock is bigger, too.

I think it's BRAVE, but the performance and the fight are overrated.

NATHANIEL R said...

well, i love viggo's junk personally. But i don't think that's why he got the nomination. Yes that got people talking about the movie but the academy hardly salutes men who display their birthday suits (the actors who are most willing to do it: ewan macgregor, richard gere, bruce willis, etcetera... have all never been nominated and that famous famous scene from WOMEN IN LOVE --neither of the naked wrestling men there got nominated even though the movie did!

so VIGGO is up for a naked gold guy despite his naked pink guy antics.