Review of W.E. Fairbairn's WW2 'Gutterfighting' Combatives Training Videos

This is an edited version of a short review I did back in 2011 (how time flies) of two remastered copies of original training films made during WW2 that show W.E. Fairbairn demonstrating both the unarmed and knife fighting techniques of his ‘Gutterfighting’ course. The audio is not in English, but the subtitles are well done, and the quality of the video is very good. Since I originally purchased this DVD the company offering it is, to my knowledge, no longer selling copies of the DVD. Copies are hard to find these days, but they do turn up once in a while for a somewhat high, but not unreasonable price.

Aside from the historical value, this DVD offers a visual insight into the actual execution of the techniques, as well as to the physical abilities of Fairbairn himself who was well into his 50's at the time. Whether you are a WW2 buff with an interest in the hand to hand combat practices of the American OSS, the British SOE or the US Marines Raiders or an practitioner of these methods for self defense, this Video is worth having.

Now on to my actual review.

To put it succinctly, this DVD was most definitely worth the money. If you already practice Combatives for self defense, there is nothing earth shattering on it that you probably haven’t seen before in books such as Get Tough. But to actually watch Fairbairn doing this stuff on a film that wasn't falling apart due to age was a real treat.

To cover the Unarmed section first; This section was distilled by Fairbairn down to 4 basic moves. The Tiger Claw, the Chin Jab, the Edge Of Hand, and the low kick. No fluff, no bullshit. And he also brought up something that my Combatives Instructor Carl Cestari always talked about. The need for speed, deception and violence of action. Fairbairn says flat out in the film that if you wait for the boxer, or the judo expert to make the first move, unless you're better than them at their own game, "you're sunk".

No ifs, ands, or buts!

One thing I’d like to mention is that Fairbairn himself says on the video is that most of his approach to kicking came from Chinese boxing. This debunks the claims of the Tenshin Ryu people.

The Fighting Knife section. Again, pretty much what has been shown before in the old manuals. However there were a couple of things that stood out, and one took me by surprise. While the thrust or lunge was covered as the endgame, or killing blow, he actually emphasized using slashes and cuts to the hands and face of your opponent to psych him out, or disable him so that you could get in the finishing blow. There were even a couple of pieces showing Fairbairn "shadow boxing:" with the FS dagger. Let me tell you, for a guy who was in his late 50s, the man could move.

One thing that did surprise me was Fairbairn shadow boxing with an FS dagger in reverse grip.
Also, in Yeatons book about the FS daggers, he quotes Fairbairn as saying that to go unarmed against a knife he "would use a lightning like kick" to disarm his opponent and then attack him. In this film however, he states that if someone attempts to use a kick against you, while you're armed with a knife, pretty much all he would get for his trouble was to have his legs cut up.

Why the discrepancy, I have no idea. I'm just telling you what's in the film.

As for the actual quality of the DVD itself; The two pieces together are just a little over 25 minutes in length (just over 12 minutes each). The quality of the film is excellent for a wartime training film that is well over 60 yrs. old. as advertised, the Knife section is dubbed in Greek, and the Unarmed in German. Now the next point is something i need to tell you. When you start the DVD up, you will see a prompt to go to the "Subtitles" area. You are then given the option to put in the English subtitles or not. On my DVD, I was able to have the Subtitles work when I played it on my PC. However I was unable to get the Subtitles to work when I played the DVD on my DVD player. Now maybe it has to do with my particular player, either the make, model or age, however it is a glitch that I feel you should know about. so if you guys try to watch the DVD on your players and don't get the subtitles, try dropping it into your PC.

Overall though, as I stated up at the beginning of this mini-review, I still feel that this DVD was well worth the cost, and is most definitely a keeper in my collection.