Search - Knife Survival: Jim Wagner's Reality-Personal Protection (Self-defense) on DVD

Some good information

Seppo Vesala | Helsinki, - Finland | 02/14/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This is the fourth film in series of Jim Wagner reality based self defense films. As you could guess from the title, this film covers surviving a knife attack (or kinfe survival, as the title says with a typo).

The film starts out with realistic feel to it, as Wagner shows that a criminal is likely to attack in real life with ambush tactics, and demonstrates how human reacts to a sudden threat with a instinctive reaction rather than some fancy martial arts technique. Because of these facts, you simply cannot expect to pull off some martial arts defense that you have learned in dojo.

Later in the film, Wagner teaches some things that are not very realistic, in my opinion. One of the not so realistic issues is Jim Wagner knife disarm rule. It states that first you have to grab the attacking knife hand, then got close to your opponent, then throw him to ground, and finally escape. I agree with the first three counts, but disagree with the fourth. Wagner tells that it is too dangerous to start wrestling with the attacker with a knife in his hand, therefore it's better to create distance and pull your own knife (or handgun). That's fine as long as you are carrying one, but Wagner teaches the same tactic for everyone. The problem is, if you let go of your assailant, he is free to make another attack. And if you are cut with the first attack, your chances of blocking the second attack are lessened with every drop of blood you bleed.

There is not any emphasis on mental issues, rather Wagner handles only physical techniques. Mental aspect would have been a very important issue, especially with knife attacks that are life-threatening and very scary. On the other hand, it may be that Wagner handles these issues in another film of the series. On some occasions you get the feeling that Wagner uses this film as a commercial of his training courses as if to say that this is just the beginning, come to my self defense courses and I'll give you the whole story.

Run time: 0:58"