Steven Seagal... why does it seem everyone is so down on the guy?

A well adjusted person wouldn't want to fight anyone without protective gear or rules. I don't see why Seagal would be an exception to that rule.

 

My issue with that is that I don't mind the harder moves, if his students are fine dealing with that.

What I don't like is if you watch him during documentaries and the like, when he slaps on certain locks or takedowns, he doesn't bother to stop and check to see if his partner is OK, he literally just moves onto the next person he can find. For an Aikidoka in a position of authority and trust, that's just wrong IMO.

 

Rather than trying to read through six pages of thread and respond to it all, here is my answer to OP's question of "Why is everyone so down on this guy?":

He's on his fourth wife because he cheated on the first three. He's been sued for sexual harassment several times. Every moment he gets in front of a camera is spent talking about himself. He pretends to be an MMA coach despite the fact that he's so out of shape that he can barely move and has no MMA competition experience. He has a reputation in film circles for being unnecessarily rough on stuntmen.

Seagal is a legitimate aikido expert and movie star, and for that he deserves all the respect that you think goes along with those two things. But the general consensus is that he's a pretty horrible human being.

 

Well, think about it like this: The vast majority of what you've seen from Seagal is from choreographed movies in which he's cast as the hero. So, having seen him snap limbs, throw people through windows, and rupture spleens with his front kick, it's not entirely surprising that you don't envision yourself starting up with him.

But what screen martial artist CAN you picture yourself throwing down against? Dolph Lundgren? Michael Jai White? Scott Adkins?

...

Ralph Macchio perhaps.

The question isn't whether Seagal is tougher than you or me. That's not the question in my mind anyway. The question is whether he's as tough as he claims to be. Is he as tough as the people he routinely puts down?

I'm fairly confident that Seagal hasn't built his self-image and screen persona on being tougher than you and me.

 

^Ralph Maccio definately, i'd one hitter quitter him

lol, seriously, not a fan of Segal's work, his MA is cool but I dont like a single movie of his. OK maybe the one with the jamaican badguys but I dont even know the name to it. Or even if its him as the hero.

 

speaking of his voice, great impersonator


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Rx69NXgIjw"]Steven Seagal Joins The Weidman Camp - YouTube[/ame]

 

All she knows is an armbar... I can't wait for her to lose, I get so tired of the same thing over and over and over again.

P.S. I cannot stand the Diaz brothers and I LOVED when nick whined like a little girl after Carlos beat him and he looked like he wanted to cry as he said he was going to retire. WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! I'm gonna take my ball and go home! WAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

 

well, i totally forgot about the training montage in "above the law". thanks for pointing that out.

and also, per hanni's bet, i have so far asked two people. one was my wife, she couldn't name anyone that does aikido, but she said steven seagal did "something". mind you, i talk martial arts, buy martial arts books, watch martial arts videos, do martial arts and did aikido while knowing my wife. so maybe she's just oblivious or seagal just never came up. i asked a work associate that i know loves bad movies like me, he said he couldn't think of anyone specifically that does aikido. so pretty inconclusive so far.

regarding the bourne movies, is krav specifically mentioned?

 

you realize she medaled in judo at the olympics and that she fights in "mixed" martial arts as a professional, right?

 

^See, I love the Diaz brothers both of them even their in and out of ring antics. I totally dislike Rondas behaviour though. I dont care how much you hate someone, dont act like that on a show kids will be watching.

 

You cannot be serious? Do you even watch MMA?

 

I only vaguely remembered it myself.

Again, though, I don't think the question is whether everyone knows he's doing aikido. Nothing is going to galvanize everyone into inquiring about a martial art. Some people are going to be indifferent (e.g., your wife). Others are going to be content to enjoy the movie (e.g., your friend). But there's a percentage who are going to be intrigued and want to know more about what he's doing. My friends and I were all topped up on Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, and countless other screen martial artists. But throwing and joint locks didn't capture our imaginations the way that kicks and punches did until Seagal. And I doubt we were isolated cases.

Substitute "aikido" with "that stuff Seagal did in 'movie title of choice'" and I think you'd have found lots of interested people in the late 80s, early to mid 90s. I strongly believe that Seagal raised the profile of aikido. Hell, just look at the fight choreography after Seagal hit the scene. Lots more of his kind of joint locks and throws after he captured the audience's imagination with it.

Nope. They weren't using krav. The movies were choreographed by Jeff Imada, a JKD/Kali exponent under Guro Dan Inosanto. Kali isn't mentioned in the movies either. Just in the "behind the scenes" content.

But that didn't stop droves of posters flocking to MAP and other fora asking about krav, kali, or (again) "that stuff Jason Bourne does in the movies."

 

interestingly ap_oweyn, there's a lot i remember about above the law, only because it's the neighborhood i've been living in for awhile. when above the law was filmed and up until the late 90's, wicker park in chicago was one tough neighborhood. even when my wife and i moved in in 2002, she kept asking me about why there's always a guy standing out on the corner (drug spot lookout). totally different now, it's a shopping, restaurant, bar haven.

the outdoor scenes were mostly filmed in wicker park. you know the scene where he one punches the dude out? i've walked that very spot millions of times.

 

Now that's cool. I generally have to wait for a Tom Clancy adaptation to see the places I live and grew up. (Annapolis, DC, etc.)

 

Officer Seagal is Officer Trendy

 

Yes, I watch it... and she's a very boring fighter... how has she won every single one of her fights exactly?