Indecipherable Part Deux:
Chris, you are the man. You're right, of course, about why that scene ended up the way it did. And it's hard to debate the director's ability when you look at the rest of the film. My beef is just this: If these scenes of incomprehensible hand-to-hand fighting are indeed a director's attempt to let the audience feel the urgency or the closeness of quarters.....well, it just plain doesn't work. They need to come up with a new way to do that, because if I can't follow the action, I immediately don't care what's going on. They need to remember that many of us came to see Damon's Bourne kick-a**, not to feel what he's feeling. And it's pointless for me to feel the closeness of quarters or urgency if I can't even tell if the character is fighting or having sex. So there has to be a balance. The camera can be placed close to the characters, thus creating the feel of tightness, without being so close as to blur the action. I guarantee you Bourne knew whether it was his crotch or the bad guy's that just got kneed, and if you're trying to make me feel what he feels, you have to craft the mood and ambience without sacrificing the details. I can totally appreciate a director using angles and shots to create a feeling or sensation for the audience, but it's overboard these days. Bourne knew who he was fighting, and also knew what parts of the fight were happening to which character....but I didn't. I'd rather see them knock out a light and have the rest of the fight play out in pitch black darkness, with us only hearing the punches and kicks and grunts until the light finally returns and we see Bourne has won. That's a much better way to put us in his shoes of confusion and urgency. But to actually show the fight, as they chose, means they want us to see it...or see something in it. And I just didn't. I'm not asking for one-shot fight scenes, and I'm not asking for the camera to pull all the way out either. But somewhere in between those suggestions and what they gave us would be the best choice.
I should also point out that I really need to see the scene again to have much more debate on it, as I'm sure it's distorting already in my brain over time. It may not have been as bad as I made it out to be. Regardless, you remain the king of movies in my book...I'll gladly settle for the title of Jester....or maybe royal messenger....or maybe bard. Oh, and I do want you to hate a Michael Bay fight scene. In fact I want you to hate every Michael Bay fight scene, but mostly the one at the end of Bad Boys where they're in that hanger and everyone's shooting at everything but the only things blowing up are the things near the bad guys and there is virtually no sense of placement or continuity....yeah..hate that one....for me.