#sword fighting films

[assiraphales]

remembering the time I called american psycho (a satirical film about toxic masculinity) a dark comedy and the overwhelming response was 'oh so u think men killing sex workers is funny? u think THAT'S funny?' like no I find a patrick batemen listening to 'i'm walking on sunshine', killing jared leto while wearing a clear raincoat and giving a dissertation on huey lewis n the news, using 'I need to return some video tapes' to get out of awkward situations, throwing a hissy fit about business cards, dropping a chainsaw down a flight of stairs, thinking an atm is telling him to feed it cats, and crying hysterically under a desk is funny. but thank u for ur wonderful insight

[project1939]

Day 41- Film: Scaramouche 

Release date: June 27th, 1952. 

Studio: MGM 

Genre: Action/Adventure 

Director:  George Sidney 

Producer: Carey Wilson 

Actors: Stewart Granger, Eleanor Parker, Janet Leigh, Mel Ferrer 

Plot Summary: We follow the adventures of Andre Moreau in pre-revolutionary France as he searches out his biological father, runs from the law with revolutionary friend Phileppe, tries to avenge Phileppe’s death at the hands of the Marquis de Maynes, hides out as famous comedian Scaramouch, and woos two different women. 

My Rating (out of five stars): ***½ 

It took me awhile to really get into this movie, but once I did, I enjoyed it. It was the kind of light-hearted colorful historical epic you would expect from 1950s Hollywood. Flashy and splashy but not overly complex in terms of character or nuance. And certainly not overly concerned with historical accuracy! Some spoilers ahead. 

The Good: 

The fencing! The fencing! If there is one thing that elevates this film and makes it worth checking out, it’s the sword fighting. There’s lots of it, and it is all convincing and well-staged. (Except for the speed at which blood spurts out of people when they get slashed!) The actors all did pretty extensive training to learn how to make it realistic, and it shows. The sword fight at the end of the movie is the longest in Hollywood history, as far as I know. 

This kind of goes with the above, but I absolutely loved the fact that the long swordfight at the end of the film had no non-diegetic music. The only sounds we heard were the swishes and clangs the swords made, the gasps of the crowd watching them, and the grunts from the two men as they battled with each other. It heightened the drama so much for me. 

Mel Ferrer. He is one of my favorite actors of the time period. He’s so good at playing wounded sensitive brooding people! In this he was generally a bad guy, but I still loved him more than the actual hero! 

Eleanor Parker. I always think of her as the Baroness in The Sound of Music, but in this movie she really stole my heart. She was just so captivating to watch at every moment- she was by far the most interesting female character in the film. Her luscious long red hair looked great as well. It was wonderful to see a woman who didn’t have a short tightly styled 1950s poodle cut! 

I liked part of the ending. The fact that they didn’t kill the Marquis de Maynes made me really happy. I was dreading Mel Ferrer’s death and knew it must be coming. When he was spared, I was legitimately satisfied and relieved. It also made the end more interesting and unusual. 

Janet Leigh was better in this than I expected. Her character was pretty boring, though. 

The light-hearted vibe of the whole film. The film was just good fun, and it didn’t take itself too seriously. 

The bad: 

The incest? I know it ultimately wasn’t really incest because Granger and Leigh turned out not to be brother and sister. But when you spend almost the entire movie believing they are, it’s hard to turn off the disgust switch when they suddenly get married at the end! I just did not like it at all. 

Granger got a little grating after a while. Maybe some of the stories I’ve heard about what a difficult person he was bled into my opinion of his character, but I didn’t totally like him. He seemed to be trying too hard to be devil-may-care charming. He was certainly hot, though, if you like the hunk-of-man-meat type. 

Historical accuracy! Costumes were especially loosely authentic to say the least. But you don’t really expect a 1950s Hollywood epic to be especially historically accurate. 

The plot could be overly tangled at times, and it took awhile for me to fully get into it. 

And again, why did Granger have to marry Leigh? 

[sahind]

“What is the dream of rome if our people are not free?“ GLADIATOR II (2024) Directed by Ridley Scott

[la-cocotte-de-paris]

#undertones

MAM'ZELLE BONAPARTE (1942), dir. Maurice Tourneur

[stbot]

[sahinduzgunart]

GLADIATOR (2000) by SahinDüzgün

[retropopcult]

Swashbuckler (1976)

[of-fear-and-love]

Wong Mei-Mei (a.k.a. Wei Wei Huang), Richard Norton and Cynthia Rothrock fight scene from Magic Crystal (1986)

[assortedantics]

You know the film will be absolutely FILLED with deeds of derring-do when…

He’s the hero,

He’s the villain,

And she’s the lady fair.

[bimblescribbles]

"You Little Bilge Rat!"

Pasquale finally bursts into the captain's chambers just in the nick of time! Though the first thing he notes when he enters is how... different Miriam looks now. Miriam gives a quick explanation of what happened, and Pasquale doesn't care that she's temporarily human, he's just glad that she's okay... Until Orca nearly slices his back with one of her cutlasses, a surefire sign that a good ol' fashioned swordfight is about to begin. Which of course is what happens, and even though Orca absolutely has the upper hand, Pasquale's trying his best! Plus Miriam helps him out a little via a roundhouse kick to Orca when Pasquale's knocked down. By a sheer miracle, Pasquale ends up winning by knocking Captain Orca's cutlass out of her arms, but then she pulls out a gun instead. Y'know what they say, never bring a sword to a gunfight after all. But then, the effects of the Personium that Orca took just before she gave a taste to Miriam has just started to run out, and she ends up flopping down onto the deck, and in her attempts to regain her bearings she slips right off and into the sea! Initially she thought she was going to drown but very thankfully her merfolk genes are not betraying her in this moment, however it does make for a bit of an embarrassing moment on her end. Thankfully her boys find this revelation positive, rather than negative, and it wasn't just the booze talking.

[mudwerks]

(via JHALAL DRUT: WOLVES OF THE CITY FIRST TO FIGHT (1971) 小林千枝 Chie Kobayashi)

[rabbitwoman24]

Scooby-Doo! and the Samurai Sword

Overall the movie was an enjoyable scooby doo adventure. The music scores took me out of the scooby doo emersion with it's shit song "do the samurai". The action was intense with the whip sword and flying robot ninja's. There was no mystery which is a shame because that is what I am searching for in a scooby doo film.

Action 9/10

Music 1/10

Jokes 6/10

Mystery 5/10

Overall 6.7/10

[blacknarcissus]

Ivanhoe (1952)

[cheeseanonioncrisps]

Every teenage girl has:

a) a society telling her constantly that the only thing she should be interested in is love and BOYSSSS!

b) a frustrated lust for violence

And the societal role of YA fantasy/sci-fi fiction is to act like it's just conforming to the former, while in reality appealing pretty transparently to the latter.

[hecksupremechips]

I finally watched bottoms and my absolute favorite part is how the football players were literally never not in uniform like they were just always in those ugly ass shoulder pads

[sahinduzgunart]

GLADIATOR (2000) by SahinDüzgün