MovieChat Forums > Sunshine (2000) Discussion > Adam Sors correcting fencing referee

Adam Sors correcting fencing referee

posted 12 years ago by bruce_lynn
4 replies | jump to latest

What are people's interpretation of Adam Sors' actions in the Hungarian fencing championship when he corrects the referee by saying that a point was indeed scored against him (when the referee appeared to have missed it)? For starters, I couldn't tell if a point really had been scored against him. It seemed like a point hadn't really hit, but he was claiming it was (when it wasn't). Was this because...

A. I got it wrong. He did get hit and he was just showing his good sportsmanship. (I also seem to recall a comment later in the film that the referee was Jewish and perhaps he felt that the referee was unfairly favoruing him and he didn't want such an unfair advantage)

B. He did it to psych out the opponent, ie. the opponent knew that he didn't hit Sors, but Sors claiming he did was a bit of a mind game. Sort of like 'I can beat you even when you get incorrect points'.

Thoughts?

Bruce
brucelynnblog.spaces.live.com

[–] PeterSouth 11 years ago

Interesting thread. I would also like to know from a fencing professional if the fencing in the film is well played or not? To an untrained eye like my own it looks magnificent, but it could very well be acted out completely wrong.

[–] Jeromagnus 11 years ago

I took it as way to impress his future wife. Remember that he sent her a letter through a go-between at the same time during the fence match. It was a way for him to show her how good he was, and how he could win the match anytime he wanted when he would decide it. The very same way he would win her in the end because of his will and nothing else.

If you saw Raging Bull, De Niro is doing something very similar at some point by inviting his opponent to freely hit him as hard as he could, a way to show him there is no way he could beat him.

[–] Rheli 11 years ago

Not just that. It's a way of telling us, the viewers, how good, and confident, he is.

By the way, Hungary actually did win the gold medals in team and individual saber at the Berlin Olympics.

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[–] franzkabuki 11 years ago

As usual with fencing, it`s often very difficult to tell with a naked eye as to who was hit, or who was hit `first`. I`d guess though that he was indeed caught on these occasions - which, of course, doesn`t mean he couldn`t also be making a show of it for the reasons cited above.

"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan