Swashbuckler film

Swashbuckler films are a subgenre of the action film genre, often characterised by swordfighting and adventurous heroic characters, known as swashbucklers, often set in Western Europe in the period between the late Renaissance and the Age of Reason with appropriately lavish costumes. Real historical events (from the colonization and plunder of the Americas, with ensuing slave trade and piracy, to Wars of Religion in Europe, up unto the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars) often feature prominently in the plot, morality is often clear-cut, heroic characters are clearly heroic and even villains tend to have a code of honour (although this is not always the case). There is often a damsel in distress and a romantic element. The genre is related and interlinks itself with the sword-and-sandal genre, the two being among the very early cinematic genres. The series is called capa y espada in Spain and cape et d'épée in French.

History

Right from the advent of cinema, the silent era was packed with swashbucklers. The most famous of those were the films of Douglas Fairbanks, such as The Mark of Zorro, which defined the genre. The stories came from romantic costume novels, particularly those of Alexandre Dumas and Rafael Sabatini. Triumphant, thrilling music was also an important part of the formula. There were three great cycles of swashbuckler films: the Douglas Fairbanks period from 1920 to 1929; the Errol Flynn period from 1935 to 1941; and a period in the 1950s heralded by films, including Ivanhoe (1952) and The Master of Ballantrae (1953), and the popularity of the British television series The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955–1959). Richard Lester's Dumas adaptations revived the genre in the 1970s.