Why are there so many father themes in swashbuckling movies?
I had a movie night for fencers and people who like swords last night - and we managed to run the gamut of quite-good-but... to WTF? But the one thing all four movies had in common was a strong emphasis on fatherhood. I suppose if we'd pulled out Three Musketeers, it would have been about brotherhood... yet I wonder, was this coincidence or is there something about the genre?
Le Bossu: Lets see, you have the protagonist, an impulsive fencer who insists on challenging the Duke to duels at the drop of a hat, intent on learning the secret Nevers Technique. The two become friends despite this, and dash off to marry the Dukes sweetheart who has just had his child. The Dukes cousin, who also loves the sweetheart, murders the entire wedding party. Protagonist escapes with the child, who turns out to be a girl, and raises her in a circus. After the time passing montage, the cousin becomes aware that the two are alive and starts hunting them down.The girl professes her love to the protagonist, whom she thinks is her father, and is most relieved to find out he's not. There's some cunning disguises (Clark Kent should have used a false nose) and rallying of their allies, and a happy ever after. Now. I had this problem in Damia, where she falls in love with the man who raised her - age gap aside, it's still a bit creepy. Apart from that squick, pretty good movie.
By the Sword: It's a modern day fencing school, run by the maestro - a man who hovers between arrogant douche and dedicated artiste. A stranger comes to the school who wants to teach, but who has abysmal skills. We learn he was a master back in the day, who spent a lot of time in prison, and most of the film is him gradually regaining form and confidence. There are these bizarre dream sequences of a boy watching two men fighting, with blood and screaming - terribly confusing, but these are the dreams of the fencing maestro who saw his father killed by a student. This is his motivation to be the best, not merely good. The climax of the film is pretty anti-climactic, with what looked like a rivalry between the maestro's students and the stranger's students suddenly moving into a duel with sharp blades between the stranger and the maestro. OMG the stranger killed the maestro's father and has returned to teach the maestro the meaning of Christmas that winning isn't everything. There's a particularly awful romance among two of the students, but that's it. Overall - terrible screenplay, reasonable acting from the leads, very good fencing apart from the bits where the maestro decides to dick around without masks. But the WTF prize goes to...
Zorro, the Gay Blade! The original Zorro has left his title to his two sons, not really caring which one puts on the mask.One son is a dashing ladies man, Diego, who gets the whole 'fighting tyranny' thing going - until he injures his ankle. The other son joined the navy to become a man, and changed his name from Ramon to the macho Bunny Wigglesworth. One Zorro fights in black, the other in scarlet, yellow, avocado, peach and finally blinding gold. Yes. Seriously. There is cross-dressing and terrible jokes and probably some good parodies of the original Zorro tropes which I didn't get. Both roles are played by the same actor, who has the best unconvincing grin I've seen in a while.
We wrapped up with D'Artagnan's Daughter. It's another conspiracy against the crown, which for some reason involves the convent that the daughter Eloise was sent to (I was walking the dog for this part). She vows vengeance for the death of the Mother Superior and rides to Paris to see her father, picking up a lovesick dissident along the way. What follows is a bit of a comedy of errors, as the new Cardinal receives what he thinks is a coded message from the conspiracy - actually an abysmal love poem. The Musketeers regather to bring down the conspiracy - which involves selling slaves to America, an instant contact poison, and a coded laundry list... Unfortunately the dvd cut off before the climactic battle, but what we saw was pretty good - good costumes, a strong female lead, nice banter between characters. Like Le Bossu, there was a lot of understated comedy going on.
Overall, a good night, and people resolved to do it again. Hopefully with better weather.
Le Bossu: Lets see, you have the protagonist, an impulsive fencer who insists on challenging the Duke to duels at the drop of a hat, intent on learning the secret Nevers Technique. The two become friends despite this, and dash off to marry the Dukes sweetheart who has just had his child. The Dukes cousin, who also loves the sweetheart, murders the entire wedding party. Protagonist escapes with the child, who turns out to be a girl, and raises her in a circus. After the time passing montage, the cousin becomes aware that the two are alive and starts hunting them down.The girl professes her love to the protagonist, whom she thinks is her father, and is most relieved to find out he's not. There's some cunning disguises (Clark Kent should have used a false nose) and rallying of their allies, and a happy ever after. Now. I had this problem in Damia, where she falls in love with the man who raised her - age gap aside, it's still a bit creepy. Apart from that squick, pretty good movie.
By the Sword: It's a modern day fencing school, run by the maestro - a man who hovers between arrogant douche and dedicated artiste. A stranger comes to the school who wants to teach, but who has abysmal skills. We learn he was a master back in the day, who spent a lot of time in prison, and most of the film is him gradually regaining form and confidence. There are these bizarre dream sequences of a boy watching two men fighting, with blood and screaming - terribly confusing, but these are the dreams of the fencing maestro who saw his father killed by a student. This is his motivation to be the best, not merely good. The climax of the film is pretty anti-climactic, with what looked like a rivalry between the maestro's students and the stranger's students suddenly moving into a duel with sharp blades between the stranger and the maestro. OMG the stranger killed the maestro's father and has returned to teach the maestro the meaning of Christmas that winning isn't everything. There's a particularly awful romance among two of the students, but that's it. Overall - terrible screenplay, reasonable acting from the leads, very good fencing apart from the bits where the maestro decides to dick around without masks. But the WTF prize goes to...
Zorro, the Gay Blade! The original Zorro has left his title to his two sons, not really caring which one puts on the mask.One son is a dashing ladies man, Diego, who gets the whole 'fighting tyranny' thing going - until he injures his ankle. The other son joined the navy to become a man, and changed his name from Ramon to the macho Bunny Wigglesworth. One Zorro fights in black, the other in scarlet, yellow, avocado, peach and finally blinding gold. Yes. Seriously. There is cross-dressing and terrible jokes and probably some good parodies of the original Zorro tropes which I didn't get. Both roles are played by the same actor, who has the best unconvincing grin I've seen in a while.
We wrapped up with D'Artagnan's Daughter. It's another conspiracy against the crown, which for some reason involves the convent that the daughter Eloise was sent to (I was walking the dog for this part). She vows vengeance for the death of the Mother Superior and rides to Paris to see her father, picking up a lovesick dissident along the way. What follows is a bit of a comedy of errors, as the new Cardinal receives what he thinks is a coded message from the conspiracy - actually an abysmal love poem. The Musketeers regather to bring down the conspiracy - which involves selling slaves to America, an instant contact poison, and a coded laundry list... Unfortunately the dvd cut off before the climactic battle, but what we saw was pretty good - good costumes, a strong female lead, nice banter between characters. Like Le Bossu, there was a lot of understated comedy going on.
Overall, a good night, and people resolved to do it again. Hopefully with better weather.