A fight on a knife’s edge
Welcome to this edition of SoundCzech looking at expressions in the Czech language through song lyrics. In today’s episode we look at sayings associated with the word battle or fight which is boj in Czech. The featured song is sung by Daniel Landa, related to the Hussite wars. Bojovníci means warriors. We’ll be looking at fighting not in an historic context, though, but on a more comic book level.
Why fighting? Well, for one thing it seems that physical combat has become an ever more dominant element in recent genre films, from all manner of thrillers to adventure to and science fiction. Not just one or two scenes, either, but usually the film’s resolution, the grand finale, the grand battle to the death. In Czech, a fight to the death is boj na život a na smrt.
The climactic fight in some genre films can sometimes even achieve something like cult status at least for internet geeks: the grand-daddy of them all is Sigourney Weaver in her mechanized suit taking on the xenomorph at the end of Aliens. But there are many others: Jean Reno’s Victor the cleaner fighting his way out of the embassy in La Femme Nikita, Luke Skywalker clashing with his dark father, and more recently Hit-Girl in the comic book fantasy Kick-Ass (with one of the more disturbing fight scenes in a while, considering she’s just 11 and wipes out a whole crew of drug dealers). That is a boj o život, mortal combat, a fight for sheer survival. Nevzdávej to, er… don’t give up.
On the whole, however, I have to admit this kind of thing in genre flicks is getting just a little bit tiring – like facing the Big Boss at the end of a level in a video game. How many times can we see similar such endings in popular films? Worst examples would have to be the Lara Croft movies – where it’s probably more fun to play the actual game. By comparison, it’s usually more exciting to watch characters overcome their own limits by using their heads – and too few Hollywood films show that. Indiana Jones would be a good exception; Harry Potter another. Of course, they still fight when they have to and don’t run away. Je třeba bojovat - it’s important to fight.
Most of us face far more pedestrian challenges in day-to-day life than something like taking down a bitchy insect in space or taking revenge on a drug clan! Thank goodness! After all, who would want the pressure of really being a Dark Knight in a psychotic Joker’s world?! Sure it would be great if we could clock some comic book badass in the mouth every once in a while. But as we all know, the majority of real-life problems are too complex, delicate or important to be handled like that!
