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Fencing has grand Hollywood tradition

By Richard Harrington
The Washington Post

The 1920 silent “The Mark of Zorro” introduced both a mysterious and heroic figure and Hollywood’s first great swordsman, Douglas Fairbanks Sr. He was the first actor to seek out a fencing master, a move that brought verite and gravitas to such Fairbanks-starring ‘20s swashbucklers as “The Three Musketeers,” “The Black Pirate” and “The Iron Mask.” Dramatic confrontations between sword-wielding heroes and villains — whether in dark hallways, atop castle ramparts or ship’s decks, or in space (think Jedi knights) — would become a timeless element of action films.

What Fairbanks was in the ‘20s, Errol Flynn was even more so in the ‘30s and ‘40s, starting with the high-seas escapism of “Captain Blood” and “The Sea Hawk,” and “The Adventures of” both Don Juan and Robin Hood.Many would say the definitive Robin Hood is Flynn’s in the 1938 Michael Curtiz-directed Technicolor version, released in a beautiful DVD set a few years ago with a host of extras.

Fencing-movie templates were quickly established: pirates and scallywags, romantics (Don Juan, Cyrano de Bergerac), justice-seeking outlaws (Robin Hood, Zorro) and loyal brotherhoods (those Musketeers). The most widely adapted stories came from the romantic costume novels of Alexandre Dumas (“The Count of Monte Cristo,” “The Three Musketeers,” “The Man in the Iron Mask”) and Rafael Sabatini (“The Sea Hawk,” “Scaramouche,” “Captain Blood”).

Richard Lester did the most with Dumas in the ‘70s with the historically resonant “The Three Musketeers” and its sequel, “The Four Musketeers, along with a coda 15 years later, “The Return of the Musketeers.”

Zorro began appearing in movies soon after being created by pulp fiction writer Johnston McCulley in 1919; he has inspired numerous films, two television series and four animated series. The most recent films, “The Mask of Zorro” and “The Legend of Zorro,” feature three generations of Zorros! And, of course, the current Zorro, Antonio Banderas, is the voice of “Shrek’s” Puss in Boots, the Zorro-like sword-fighting cat.

More recently, Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) has revived the art of fencing in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, seemingly fighting his best when he’s feeling his worst. You should also look east to the Hong Kong martial arts films (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” Ang Lee’s tribute to the genre, being perhaps the best known of a huge selection). From Japan, there are the classic Akira Kurosawa samurai epics from the ‘50s and ‘60s (“Throne of Blood,” “Yojimbo,” “The Seven Samurai”) and more than two dozen films featuring the blind swordsman Zatoichi.

And what of the future and space as the final frontier? The original “Star Wars” featured kendo-style fencing with those wonderful light sabers, wielded not much differently than the Three Musketeers did their swords in long-ago France.

FIVE GREAT DUELS AND ONE GRAND DUET

“Scaramouche” (1952) Stewart Granger and Mel Ferrer face off in a deserted theater in a seven-minute duel thought to be the longest, and one of the best, ever committed to film.

“The Duellists” (1977) Ridley Scott directed a grim account of a series of duels (in several styles) fought over 20 years between Harvey Keitel and Keith Carradine during the reign of Napoleon.

“Romeo and Juliet” (1968) Franco Zeffirelli’s wonderfully romantic take on Shakespeare also offers some thrilling sword fights.

“The Princess Bride” (1987) Rob Reiner’s fractured fairy tale features some entertaining duels between Cary Elwes and Mandy Patinkin.

“Rob Roy” (1995) Bad guy Tim Roth has a great down-and-dirty duel with Liam Neeson.

Errol Flynn vs. Basil Rathbone: Flynn, perhaps the most charismatic film swordsman of them all, and Rathbone, who was a fencing expert, faced off in “Captain Blood” (1935) and “The Adventures of Robin Hood” (1938).

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Cary Elwes helped make dueling hip and cool in "The Princess Bride."

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