Premise: Would we have been better off if Karate was not a toy for Hollywood to use.

 

Premise: Would we have been better off if Karate was not a toy for Hollywood to use.

 

Of course back in the day, new movies did drive people to the  training halls, in the 1970s. But when you consider how movie karate has nothing to do with karate study on the whole, did Hollywood getting the idea karate could be used in their movies and shows,  actually hurt the study, by giving a long term unrealistic public perception of what karate is.

 

Look, when I was a kid Cowboys and John Wayne did pretty well in fights without karate. In fact it was the bad guys who most often stuck in a kick to try and win. The movies since then could have stayed with the old style fighting and still been viewable.

 

I remember Lee Marvin going off on someone just using free style crazy and it looked fine,

 

Setting expectations that karate was something it was not meant to be, a tool for the hero, rather than a lifetime of training. Just made things more difficult IMVHO for all of us.

 

And I have a hard time of thinking of any movie but the Karate Kid 1 and 2, that ever got close to what karate should be.