who's the better fighter?

I've now shown parts of the movie "Troy" to my students on two occasions. We are winding down with the eight-week term, which means I am once again in the middle of teaching my four-week Greco-Roman mythology course. I decided to look up some trivia on "Troy," and the following tidbit (from IMdB) caught my eye. The mark of a good movie fighter is his or her ability to exercise control during a choreographed fight (something the great Samo Hung is known for):

Brad Pitt and Eric Bana both did their own fighting scenes. They also made an agreement that they would pay for every hit they accidentally made. The costs were $50 for a lighter blow and $100 for a hard blow. Pitt ended up paying $750 to Bana, who didn't have to pay Pitt anything.

If you watch the Achilles/Hector fight in "Troy," you could argue on Pitt's behalf that his character, Achilles, was on the attack during that entire scene, which meant that Pitt had a greater chance of accidentally striking Bana. But two counterarguments immediately present themselves: (1) no self-respecting martial artist involved in movie fighting would hide behind such a defense, and Pitt, while not a martial artist, would be aware of this; and (2) it's just as easy to clout people while blocking as it is to hit them while on the attack.


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