Dead Man's Shoes

I am off sick with the lurgy today so I decided to catch up on some DVDs. Apart from Supra States and responses to Common Attacks from some guy called Richie Grannon, I had Dead Man's Shoes to watch.

If you haven't seen this it's billed as First Blood meets Taxi Driver in an English town (thank you reductionist journalism.) It stars the brilliant Paddy Considine as an ex-Para returning to the town where he grew up to get vengeance on the gang that tormented his younger brother.

I won't spoil it but there are a couple of brilliant moments where he psychologically turns the tables on people. Firstly in response to the classic, "What the fook you lookin at?" Secondly when the head of the gang (former middleweight boxer Gary Stretch) tries to intimidate him whilst backed up by his gang.

They fall into the category of "don't try this at home" but they are interesting scenes and it's a very good movie.

Me and my mates started watching this for a laugh during a night in. Turned out to be the best film we'd ever seen together (apart from the gay pornos).

Paddy Considines performance was very good, but like a lot of British crime/gangster I found it fell short of the mark through missed opportunities

the scene where he gets them high and then shanks the guy after telling him in his best sympathetic voice he wont hurt him was one of my all time favourites for an actor trying to do genuine threat, I believed it

Considine is great in this. Top notch actor.

It seemed someone else liked those two scenes I mentioned. They are better in the context of the whole movie but here you go...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58ylrJ0cH2w

That second bit is dynamite, where he just interrupts the guy and says "itwasme".

Good film, watched it a few years ago. Hung around in my head for quite awhile afterwards.

I too thought Paddy Considine had some really powerful moments in this film, one of my favourite british vengeance drama's

Should stick a comment in the review thread.

Guy in the suitcase, when they are all off their tits is a classic

Another clip.

Is that the guy from Geoff's short film 'Bouncer'? The knob who pulls a knife?

Don't know why that clip was called death punch. Looked like a palm strike to me.

Sharif H wrote:

Don't know why that clip was called death punch. Looked like a palm strike to me.

Make a palm. Feel the bone at the end of your ulna? Tap that against your head. Imagine a powerful strike focusing on that point of delivery. The Chinese called is a "ji strike." My sparring partners call it pain. Even with light contact. It concentrates yuor kinetic energy well!

now look what you've done...i'm fixated on this film.
it has a great energy. my nipples are hard and running
around in circles banging my head against the wall

RichardB wrote:

Sharif H wrote:

Don't know why that clip was called death punch. Looked like a palm strike to me.

Make a palm. Feel the bone at the end of your ulna? Tap that against your head. Imagine a powerful strike focusing on that point of delivery. The Chinese called is a "ji strike." My sparring partners call it pain. Even with light contact. It concentrates yuor kinetic energy well!

Cheeky bugger. I hope that was sarcasm I know all about palm strikes. Or at least I hope I do, being an instructor and all.

The clip is still called death 'punch' though

But seriously. Angle your palm toughly 45 degrees inwards, depending on what habd you're using. And make impact with the end of the ulna bone. You will concentrate the power if the strike on that point.

Of course death point in the past only needed to trigger any of the medical emergencies we now can cure. while today it has to do truly catatsophic damage to primary life support systems to kill reliably.

The "death touch?" If you broke your leg wrong in the past or got an internal bleed, that could be IT!

Now, a punch like that, in a self and drug induced soft state. If he hit a table ro something on the way down then tha could be death. But heck, it's just a movie. What kind of incompentant killer would kill a man in front of witnesses, an fail to finish him? And why let anyone ever come to the belief that is WAS a murder in the first place? People die all the time. Why not just inspire "natural causes?" Then people accept it as natural and won't investigate it much.

To answer that, you'd need to see the film

Gentlemen, If I may? The death palm strike to the face is often seen in movie's, striking the wrong target (this film, Deadman's Shoes & The Last Boy Scout etc), to wit, the nose. This would just break, I cant see you managing to push the small piece of cartiliage you snap of with the strike up either nostril or as happened with me the small pieces of nasal bone which break achieving the same.

Target is right between the eyes, just above the bridge of the nose instead. I only have this from written sources. Was wondering if one of you instructors, like Sharif apparently, might try it on a particularly annoying client & let us know how you get on