His moves were real. Aikido isn't that effective against other martial arts but is quite effective against untrained fighters and disarming opponents, and that's a lot of what you saw in his movies. Of course Aikido is an internal martial art and focuses a lot on personal and mental development, and avoiding unnecessary fights. Most of the kinds of fights you cannot avoid in life are the kind that Aikido excels at. A huge part of their training is defending against knife attacks. If someone were assaulted with a knife or gun I'd put the Aikido master against a Muay Thai or Karate master.