I haven't posted a good sword fight in a while.

This one's from The Great Race, an overly long but really very amusing film that is perfect for hunkering down in front of for several hours with people who love to see a good piss-take*. The fight starts at about the one-minute mark, and ends at about 5:15. It's notable for the dash and flair of the villain, played by Ross Martin, whose career apogee may well have been his role as Artemis Gordon in the original Wild Wild West television series (about which it must be pointed out, in order to parenthetically lengthen this sentence beyond all reason, that it may well have been the very first introduction of the steampunk aesthetic to a mass audience — but that has little to do with this clip, so never mind).



*"Piss-take," for those unfamiliar with the term, is an Aussie expression meaning something — a remark, a comedy sketch, a falsely serious op-ed piece, etc. — that is designed to point out someone else's silliness or error, and can range from savage satire to just a bit of jovial mockery. "To take the piss" is the verb form. I consider The Great Race to be a piss-take not only of the The Prisoner of Zenda-type adventure film (note: if you haven't read the actual The Prisoner of Zenda book, I implore you, find it and read it — it's fantastic) but of piss-takes themselves. As such, it's a sort of meta-piss-take. And now this footnote, like the sentence above, has gone on for way too long.