Only the Strong

[khafra]

Great movie, wasn't it?
Wish I had the upper body strength, lower body flexibility, and overall coordination to do it.

[joyago21]

Totally great. I liked the music too

[Chazz]

That was a great movie. at one time i watched it once a week. But then i broke the tape. A friend across the country sent it to me for my birthday so i have it once again. HAHAHA My next goal it to get the soundtrack, I have most of the songs on my PC but i want the CD.

I give the movie ***** (5 stars)

Chazz

[Andy Murray]

Wish Mark Dacascos would do a sequel

[Chazz]

I think we all agree

[hellfire]

HAVE YOU GUYS SEEN THE MOVIE DRIVE WITH MARK DUCASCOS

FANTASTIC FILM
PRETTY SURE YOU CAN GET IT FROM MORPHEUS

[Cooler]

Hi hellfire,

Just watched Drive last night (24.02.02) on the telly (Channel 5).

Excellent movie.

Cooler.

[hellfire]

HES DONE A COUPLE OF TURKEYS UNFORTUNATELY
<HAVE U SEEN THE BASE, ITS BEEN ON CHANNEL FIVE>

USED TO OWN ONLY THE STRONG TILL I MADE THE MISTAKE OF LENDING IT TO MY M8 GRANT.

CAN U STILL BUY IT?

[Chazz]

yeah Ebay is a great place to get it.

-Chazz

[CyCloNe]

Drive is superb.

The Chemistry between the two works wonders and add a lil of the Dacascos magic and you have probably the worlds most underrated MA movie.

Regardless of what has happened during the day, I watch the scene at the old cement factory (or whatever it is) where they are handcuffed and still laugh my ass off when the dreadlocks dude pulls dacascos onto the floor when he launches himself for a nice jumping kick OMG!! Im smiling whilst even typing this :)

If you havent seen drive (/me strokes his DVD) then I recommend you rent it asap, but be prepared to buy it thereafter.

[dragon_duplicat]

loved the music on Only the Strong

[wayofthedragon]

Speaking of Only the Strong, yes, it is a good movie (I own it ofcourse) I would like to know do any of you guys know of any other Capoeira movies, because I can't fined any other movies based on Capoeira anywhere. Can some one help me?

[Dragon_Princess]

Can't tell you where to find Capoeira movies but I can tell you that I agree with Only the Strong being a good movie and having nice music to make you want to dance as well. Mark Dacascos is just too fine. oops... that's off the subject, huh?

[waya]

I've seen some Capoeira tapes somewhere, and another movie set in NY that was based on it, but I can't recall the name offhand. I'll see if I can find them.

Rob

[pesilat]

Originally posted by wayofthedragon
Speaking of Only the Strong, yes, it is a good movie (I own it ofcourse) I would like to know do any of you guys know of any other Capoeira movies, because I can't fined any other movies based on Capoeira anywhere. Can some one help me?

The only other movie that I've seen that specifically has any Capoeira in it is called "Rooftops" ... if memory serves, it's a "Romeo & Juliet" kind of story but the kids settle their disputes by dancing on the rooftops (kind of breakdancing thing) ... the hero stumbles across a group of Capoeristas. I don't recall if he formally studies or if he just watches ... but he starts using some of the Capoeira in the rooftop competitions.

It's been a while since I've seen it so my above recollection may be a little fuzzy ... but I think it's got the gist.

BTW ... Hellfire ... just an FYI ... to type in all caps on the net is equivalent to yelling (or at least raising your voice) in person. Also, it gets kind of annoying to read a lot of it. Save the caps lock button for when you're really upset about something :)

If you dislike or aren't used to using the shift key while typing then just stay in all lower-case (unless you *are* yelling at someone :) )

Not trying to ride you ... just shelling out some friendly advice on netiquette :)

Mike

[Chazz]

Mike,

when did that movie come out cause i would like to try and find it. Was it any good?

[pesilat]

Originally posted by chazz982001
Mike,

when did that movie come out cause i would like to try and find it. Was it any good?

Released in '89. Here's a link to info about it: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0098222

Actually ... looking at it, I think I was mistaken about it being a "Romeo & Juliet" thing ... but anyway ...

Umm ... haven't seen it in years ... probably since '89 or '90 ... but it seems like it was decent. Of course, I've learned *a lot* since then and have seen some real Capoeira since then ... I may have a lower opinion of it now ... but I don't know.

Mike

[Dragon_Princess]

Very good. It had nice music as well to move along with.

[Scuzzi]

There arent actually that many movies about Capoeira, infact Only the Strong is really the only mainstream production based around capoeira.

Other films such as The Quest with Van Damme has a capoeira player in it. Kickboxer 3 (or was it 4) has some capoeira in it also.

I must admit that I have seen Only the Strong hundreds of times, that was before I started to do Capoeira for real and I havent watched it since. OTS is a VERY cheesey movie and to be honest the movements arent that good, even marc dacascos (he only did 4 months training for the part).

The only particularly good one in the film was the main master who he plays against at the beginning and who he brings to america at the end. For those who dont know he is Mestre Amen - a real capoeira master.

Again, the music is brilliant in the film and i have the soundtrack that I listened to many times until I started capoeira and I have never listened to it since, simply because the other capoeira cds i have (all 54 of them :) ) are SO SO much better.

If people are interested in watching some "real" capoeira videos - filmed at capoeira events, check out http://www.capoeira-shop.com they have a few capoeira videos in stock and they are well worth watching.

[voodue]

I can't watch Only the Strong! The movie is great if you never trained capoeira but for people who have put years into the art it’s painful. The fact that they didn't get a real capoeirista to play the bad guy sucks too! It was bad enough that they only had real capoeira at the beginning and end of the movie. I also read that the studio didn't want to leave those parts in the movie. The studio heads thought that it was to "ethnic" for America.

I met Marc Dacascos a couple of times. The first time I met him was in Hawaii. I was walking on the beach carry a berimbau and he was surfing. He saw me coming and ran into the water because he was embarrassed so I talked to he's girlfriend while he surfed. Afterwards he finally came in and I said hello. I wish him an aloha left him alone. The next time met him was at Mestre Amen's batizado in L.A. Marc gave a workshop to Mestre Amen's students. I was only visiting and didn't have time to take the class. Marc was still a nice then too! He was pretty laid back an open to learning something new. He's acrobatics were very sharp!

There is a Brazilian movie with capoeira. Mestre Nestor Capoeira is the star. My mestre has the movie but I cannot remember the title. Again I was disappointed because they had some capoeiristas in black face playing african-brasilian capoeiristas. I mean they had a whole country of famous black capoeira players and they only got the light skin ones. I am not usually one to cry the race card but man what were they thinking.

There are numerous movies with capoeira. The Mighty Quinn with Denziel Washington has capoeira along with Richard Pryor's Moving. My friend has start comprising a list of all the movies with capoeira. I will ask him and report back with his findings.


Anyway I just wanted to drop my .02 cents.

P.S. I loved Only the Strong until I started training. It did a great deal for capoeira in the USA. I just wish they made another movie featuring capoeira. My friend makes documentaries and has won some major awards. I have been after him for years to make a capoeira documentary. Hopefully one day we will have film produced by him.

[Guy Mendiola]

Only The Strong was a great movie and yeah, there's not that much pure Capoeira films out there now and this movie is all the close you can get, There was Capoeira in Bloodsport II but I think in only one fight scene and there was rumours that Capoeira was in the third sequal of Bloodsport but when I watched it it didn't look like Capoeira at and like come it's like an Africa doing some kind of African art but not Capoeira but so it was really corny.

[voodue]

I met the guy who was in Bloodsport III. He studys capoeira with mestre Amen. He is also the leading expert on African Martial Arts in the USA. The fighting techniques were a combination of capoeira and african arts but primarily capoeira.

[Pananaue]

Great movie, wasn't it?
Wish I had the upper body strength, lower body flexibility, and overall coordination to do it.


If you are doing martial arts, chances are you do ;) It will just take some determination and not minding if you look/feel silly at first. Give it a go.