Combat in Film - Classical Fencing

Classical Fencing

Cinema inherited the concept of choreographed fights directly from the theatrical fight. Movies that feature notable classical fencing scenes include:

• Douglas Fairbanks:
  • The Mark of Zorro (1920), The Three Musketeers (1921), Don Q (1925), Son of Zorro (1925), The Black Pirate (1926), The Iron Mask (1929)
• Captain Blood (1935)
• The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
• The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
• The Sea Hawk (1940)
• The Adventures of Don Juan (1949)
• The Mark of Zorro (1940)
• The Corsican Brothers (1941)
• The Black Swan (1942)
• Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)
• Scaramouche (1952)
• At Sword's Point (1952)
• The Court Jester (1956)
• Jean Marais
  • Le Bossu (1959), Le Miracle des loups (1961) and others
• The Great Race (1965)
• The Three Musketeers (1973)
• The Four Musketeers (1974)
• The Duellists (1977)
• The Princess Bride (1987)
• Cyrano de Bergerac (1990)
• Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)
• By the Sword (1991)
• The Fencing Master (1992)
• Rob Roy (1995)
• Le Bossu (1997)
• The Mask of Zorro (1998)
• Die Another Day (2002)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

Douglas Fairbanks in 1920 was the first film director to ask a fencing master to assist the production of a fencing scene in cinema. A second wave of swashbuckling films was triggered with Errol Flynn from 1935. Also notable in the early period were Ramon Novarro, Rudolph Valentino and John Barrymore

Fencing masters (fight arrangers): Henry Uttenhove, Fred Cavens, Ralph Faulkner, Jean Heremans, Bob Anderson, William Hobbs, Claude Carliez.

Renewed interest in swashbuckling films arose in the 1970s, in the wake of The Three Musketeers (1973). Directors at this stage aimed for a certain amount of historical accuracy, although, as the 2007 Encyclopædia Britannica puts it, "movie fencing remains a poor representation of actual fencing technique". A notable fight arranger of this period is William Hobbs.