Taxi Driver: The Karate Stance Scene

I happened to watch the classic 1976 movie "Taxi Driver" again last night; I remember seeing the movie in the theater when it came out.
All star cast: Robert De Niro, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle and Jody Foster, masterfully directed by Martin Scorsese.

Among the dark themes was this one scene I had forgotten about; De Niro as Travis is stalking Cybill Shepherd into the political campaign headquarters she works at. As a co-worker attempts to kick De Niro out, he drops into a classic Shotokan-style Karate stance and freaks the co-worker out.

This reminded me of the influence that traditional martial arts had on cinema and the American psyche. Karate and Kung Fu were depicted as unstoppable in the era of the 1960's-70's. People realized that there was no fair fighting in those styles where you could loose an eye or suffer major breaks and dislocations. Not exactly your typical schoolyard fisticuffs.

In the summers during the '70's I was working cattle on ranches in Oregon. The older cowboys (some were pretty tough athletes) would talk about seeing fights in big urban cities. One was between a couple of hippies and a couple of Black Panthers. One of the Panthers popped a hippie's eye out with a hand strike. Another spear-hand strike went up the other guy's nostrils and split his nose in two.

Back then, you never really knew who was trained in these arts. They may have been crude but effective, and struck fear into the hearts of wanna-be tough guys.

Classic Karate Confrontation

Credit to Jonathan Bluestein at "The Rum-Soaked Fist" for posting this one.

According to the article in The British tabloid "The Sun", trouble maker Les Andrews confronted Gulf War veteran Jason Smith, 35 at his residence. Smith's wife and infant daughter were in the house at the time. The article states that Smith is trained in Karate and Jujitsu.
In my opinion, Smith takes an inordanite amount of shit before he takes this guy out. He patiently demonstrates to his neighbors that he is not the aggressor, as the guy is close enough to give him a head-butt or knee strike. Smith waits in the at-ease position a little too long, but he unloads on the idiot with classic left-hand Karate reverse punches.
Oh what a treat it is to see the punk slink and crawl out of Smith's yard.
At the time the article was printed, the video had 200,000 hits, currently on YouTube the hit count is 3,195,643.

Punks beware of Martial Masters with Beer Guts!

Martial Addiction

Old Guy Xingyi

Hi, my name is D.R.
-(Hi D.R.!)
I'm addicted to Xingyi.
That's why I entered the 12-Animal, 5-Element form program.
I know I've had bad habits.
But I can get better every day in every way.

It started when I had my first taste of Tai Chi Chuan.
Sure, all the cool guys were doing Karate, I tried it and used it for years.
I was a glutton for punishment.
I often found myself on the floor.
I had injuries I couldn't explain.
I thought I could get by just using Karate.

But I had never tried the Chinese stuff.
A guy offered me a little Tai Chi Chuan.
He said I already used Karate, and I wouldn't get hooked.
And that's when I got in deep.
There was so much resource material, and I wanted to sample all the varieties.
I tried Bagua, and found my life spinning in circles.
Finally, I got in with a group of guys in the city. They were messing around with Xingyi.
I thought; "Hey, all the guys are doing it".
And before I knew it, I was chasing the Xingyi Dragon and had the Xingyi Monkey on my back.
I often find myself really drawing inward and doing some Xingyi all alone.
I mainly use it for maintenance now, but every so-often I really cut loose with friends.

So, I'm here to discuss my addiction, and hear the stories of other martial addicts-
And seek serenity in the Martial Arts...

Back To Kenpo

Yes Folks, yet another Drinking Dojo Production demonstrating devestating destruction deriving from deeply ingrained motions drawing on deceptivly simple techniques of Kenpo Karate.
...Whew.
Here our fellow Dojo Rat shows how a few simple motions can be used against very different types of attacks. These techniques go back to the Kenpo origins of our little Dojo.