Parkour
by Al
There was some discussion on an e-mail list that I’m on about Parkour the other day. This is the freestyle street running and climbing discipline that people may have heard about. I first heard about it a year or two ago when Warren Ellis had a character doing it in one of his Global Frequency comics (#6, I believe) in order to get across London quickly.
I’ve been doing a little reading on it today and watching some google videos and the best of these guys are quite impressive. Think of Jackie Chan’s antics of diving and leaping above and through things done at a full run on rooftops and the sides of builds or other structures.
A few links:
- Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkour
- David Belle on Google Video: http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=parkour+belle&so=0. David seems to be one of the hot practitioners in the UK and has been in BBC and other videos doing his thing.
- David Belle in some kind of guns and chase video (looks like it is from Banlieue 13)
- A Luc Besson trailer that uses David Belle as well: Banlieue 13 – Trailer
Interesting stuff though you obviously need to be in incredible shape to do this. Some of the moves I’ve seen in the videos might get stupid people killed too.