Gorky Park

 

Movie Gorky Park taught me a lesson about my karate.

 

One Saturday evening in 1983 I decided to go to a local theater in Scranton to watch a new movie Gorky Park.   It was a cold and rainy night. In those days I only slept 2 or 3 hours a night, a result of my training, my wife had gone to bed so I went by myself.

 

Gorky Park was about a Russian detective and his search for someone who murdered three Russians leaving their bodies in the snow in Gorky Park. Least I forget their faces were removed. And in the end it was an American who was the murderer. I enjoyed the movie immensely.

 

However as I watched the movie one scene made me realize something about my karate studies that totally stunned me. I was stunned about what I realized.

 

I could not put the revelation out of my mind.

 

So at 2 am I decided to call Ernest Rothrock to discuss it with him.

I had trained so heavily in his various Chinese Arts and we had become friends. In fact he regularly would ask me leading questions that made me think about my Isshinryu more deeply.

 

So I ignored propriety and called him waking him up. He was most groggy when he answered the phone. But I launched into my relaxation and went on and on about it.

 

Eventually he woke up and entered the discussion with me.

 

I expect he received more from my friendship than what he wanted.

 

What made the impression was when William Hunt, the detective, caught up with a criminal he was chasing in a railroad yard, began fighting with the criminal…and it was a pitched fight.

 

Eventually he took the guy to the ground and then proceeded to strike him again and again.

 

That made me realize when you immobilize an opponent the strikes to more damage when they cannot move away from them.

 

That was something on one had suggested in my 10 years of study with various people.

 

That opened up whole ranges of application studies for me.

 

Looking back on it I realize how silly it was to wake Ernest up over that. After all almost every application of his eagle claw involves grabbing some one with a clawing technique and then striking them.

 

But my studies with him were just form studies, not form technique application studies.

 

Gorky Park did make me learn. I have always been thankful for that. And it is a damn good movie too.