- Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 18th October 2008
Since our early September update, the Bartitsu Society has been in contact with the upcoming Sherlock Holmes movie production and has donated copies of both volumes of the Bartitsu Compendium to the project. Of course, this does not mean that what appears in the move fight scenes will be verbatim Bartitsu, but it’s nice to know that the fight team has access to authentic historical sources for use as inspiration.
Guy Ritchie (left) practicing Brazilian Jiujitsu
In an October 7 interview with aintitcool.com, director Guy Ritchie said:
I like the idea that (Holmes is) as visceral as he is intellectual. It’s true to the origins of the narrative. He was a martial artist. He did something called Bartitsu, which wasn’t necessarily exposed or utilized in other productions. So we’ve made more of a meal out of that. He’s an intellectual action man, which is pretty consistent with his origins.