Sherlock Holmes movie update

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.

“Baritsu” to feature in new Sherlock Holmes movie

Robert Downey, Jr., who is to star in an upcoming Sherlock Holmes feature film being directed by Guy Ritchie, was quoted in Premiere Magazine as saying:

“We’re both martial arts enthusiasts and historically, in the real origin stories of Sherlock Holmes, he’s kind of a bad-ass and a bare-knuckle boxer and studies the rare art of baritsu [fictional martial art created by Doyle for the final Holmes story, 1901's The Adventure Of The Empty House]. If you look baritsu up, they can’t even really tell you what it is, so it gives us a lot of leeway.”

“Baritsu”, of course, was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s misspelling of Bartitsu.  Since Mr. Downey is a Wing Chun kung fu enthusiast and director Ritchie is a brown belt in Brazilian jiujitsu, their cinematic version of Holmes’ martial art may well pack quite a punch …