Monday 30 May 2011

Violence above and beyond movies - the UFC!!

This break has been very good for me, and thanks to venkhat and Shaz, I haven't deleted the blog to take time off to think. During my last year of posting reviews I had begun to notice a disturbing change in my viewing taste. I had stopped enjoying romances (which was my staple diet in both books and movies). Maybe this is because of falling in love myself, I could spot the fakeness when it is shown as a sweet emotion, maybe because of hormones. But I think I had to overfeed my inner child enough with animation, skip the sugar and leap my moral restraints to see the real emerging 'new' me ... as one prone to violence.

It started with my fascination for the 70 yr old Sylvester Stallone's Expendables. That was so deliciously testosterone-filled. I went on to feverishly download every man-thulping-man movie made. And even that wasn't enough. In Stallone's interview on David Letterman, he mentioned Randy Couture and how amazingly strong that MMA fighter was.

It got me started. I've watched UFC for almost 8 hours a day for weeks now and can't get enough of the bloody fights. The more I understand it technically, the more I watch ... its amazing how refined fighting and violence really is!

Anderson Silva, Georges St-Pierre and Couture are my top favorites - their fights are like watching a ballet in blood and guts - a thing of beauty. And the work they put into training is astonishing. (I want to post some of the coolest fights I've seen but I'm wondering if blogger has some rules about copyrighted vids.:)

Just a note: I used to hate the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) so much a decade ago that I used to call it the Ultimate Redneck Comedy. There is one Matt Hughes who epitomized all my old hate, repulsed me on sight, that I searched and regretted immediately - never look too deeply into a US redneck's life because they're chronic abusers. Like serial killers - abusing animals, children and women before they work up the guts to hit a man. The cliff notes of Matt Hughes in the comments here will deepen the hate for the sport.

5 comments:

venkhat said...

Oh Yoda the fighters have mesmerized you, u do not belong to them, u are one of passion and love, u need to remember u abhor blood, and u are a peace maker.

I hope u fall in love again, i hope a smarty comes your way and steals your heart, to wean u away from the fights of fists.

Unknown said...

Martians are supposed to like action movies, But I hate them.. and if there is more blood and gross fights, I'd even puke!!

Local said...

I've changed a lot since irc, gardner. Being exposed to all those young sick minds all at once changed my belief in human goodness. Nobody is naturally good.

We live in a violent world and need special skill-sets to preserve our rights.

I think the self-defense of buddhist monks was a necessity 2000 yrs ago and is called martial art today.

It must be learnt by the vulnerable - women, children, the disabled and old. UFC is just a mixed martial art stage.

Local said...

... and love is for the birds, venkhat. Literally, since birds are more highly evolved towards love, monogamy and romance than mammals.

We mammals are just predators who mate mindlessly and display dominance as our highest social capacity.

Local said...

Shaz, there's lots of blood and gore, but its evolving. You'll see the ugly brawlers like Chuck Lidell and sadists like Matt Hughes rule for a while... and they do turn my stomach too.

But they're always overcome by thinking fighters like the school teacher Rich Franklin and artistic atheletes like Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre.

It really is a good vs. evil, mind vs. matter playing out - that the greater power lies in the disciplined mind, not the body.

The body strangely seems to reflect the mind in these fighters.