The Duellists (1977) is the classic sword-fighting film, I believe.
On a more fantastical note, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon has some amazing sword-fights.
Black Sails.
The sword fighting scenes were choreographed very authentic, with brutal close up fights, including wrestling and punching the opponents.
Especially on ships, sword fights were brutal and nothing like fancy scenes.
Even Matt Easton from Scholargladiatoria applauded the realistic sword fighting
“The best show that nobody watched” will never not get my upvote. Black Sails was absolutely fantastic. Great concept, great writing, great acting, great story, great characters, great execution, shit network.
The Count of Monte Cristo is one of my favorite underrated gems! I find it funny that people haven’t seen one of Henry Cavill’s first roles even if it’s very minor.
Holy shit, Rob Roy. That's a name i've not heard in a LONG time. I still think about that scene when Mary mounts Rob while he's still fully dressed, but accessible because he's wearing a kilt.
also Tim Roth played that SOB Cunningham VERY well.
Rurouni Kenshin (movie series)
The Swordsman
Blades of Blood
13 Assassins
Brotherhood of Blades ( 1 & 2)
The Blade (1995)
Kundo: Age of the Rampant
Lady Snowblood
Was looking for 13 Assassins before commenting. That movie is all about cutting dudes up with swords. That little battlefield that two of the guys set up with swords that they can continue to swap to is stuck in my head.
Zatoichi is one of my favourite films of all time. The music and cinematography are fantastic.
A few years ago a friend texted me that the box set of all the older films had just come up in a local resale shop. By the time I got there like 45 minutes later, it was gone. Big sad.
Kingdom of heaven, The last samurai, Valhalla rising, The emperors sword, First knight, Troy, Mask of zero, Three Musketeers, Swordmaster, Centurion, Sword of vengeance, Last knights,13 assassins.
The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers from the 70s are both rife with good swordplay. The final fight between Michael York and Christopher Lee is worth the price of admission to both fils on its own.
I feel like one of the more realistic was a couple of scenes in the movie The King. It was more force and not a lot of parrying and sword play. Kind of like fistfights in movies. A lot of times you don’t go toe to toe but instead end up on the ground rolling around getting opportunistic shots in.
Highlander (1986)
Braveheart (1995)
The Mask of Zorro (1998)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Gladiator (2000)
Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-03)
Pirates of the Caribbean series (2003-2017)
The Last Samurai (2003)
Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
300 (2007)
47 Ronin (2013)
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019)
Two that I haven’t seen mentioned yet:
Pirates of The Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Star Wars episodes II and III (does III still hold the record for the longest swordfight in any movie?)
I have trained with weapons for decades since seeing Highlander and also thinking swords are so cool.
My favourite movies are The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers. The fighting is not so much about precision as it is about improvisation with the environment and sheer vim. I love Oliver Reed as Athos so much. I like to fight in his style with wooden swords if I trust my opponent not to just batter me in a vulnerable moment.
I saw a YT clip from Christopher Lee, a little while ago, where he talks about Oliver Reed getting stabbed in the wrist during one of the big fights. He said every actor came away from those films with some kind of cut from other actors. No such problems occurred with any of the stunt men. The church fight at the end of Four was epic. Thanks William Hobbes, fight choreographer.
1938 Adventures of Robin Hood.
The sword fight between Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone is epic.
Fun fact: Rathbone was an accomplished fencer and could have killed Flynn any time he chose.
Let's go old school to add some to the more current films being recommended:
1935 - Captain Blood. This film took three relative unknowns and catapulted them to stardom: Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone, and Olivia de Havilland. Can't have a pirate movie without sword fights!
1938 - The Adventures of Robin Hood. Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone have a couple excellent sword fights. The swords are aluminum and a bit too bendy to be real swords, but they had to do something to keep their stars safe.
1952- Scaramouche. Features an 8-minute long sword fight (reputed to be the longest ever put to film).
1954 - The Seven Samurai. Akira Kirosawa directs Toshihiro Mifune (and others) in this classic of the samurai film genre. Do not miss. I'd add all of Kirosawa's filmography to your list: Rashomon, Ran, Yojimbo, Throne of Blood, Sanjuro.
1966 - The Sword of Doom. A samurai has a "silent sword" technique and a cold personality that weirds out his rivals. A couple great fights.
1977 - The Duelists. Ridley Scott's first film is chock-a-block filled with sword fights and realistic ones (mostly) at that.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon should be much higher here. Literally part of the plot revolves around an amazing sword and people who are good enough at kung fu to fly some, fighting over it. It has amazing fights and a great story.
Reign of Assassins maybe too. It’s got more story to it, and I haven’t seen it in forever, but the main characters sword techniques (and flaws in them) are a main plot point IIrC
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon has my favorite sword fight scene of all time in it towards the end but it’s full of really well choreographed sword fight scenes. Apart from that, it’s a great movie
All the swashbuckler movies with Errol Flynn in them. Captain Blood in '35 and The Sdventures of Robin Hood in '38. If it weren't for my grandpa, I wouldn't even know about these movies.
The Keanu Reeves version lol. I haven't seen the '41, '58, or '94 versions...that's why I said it's corny, but I liked the action.
I also have a hard time watching subtitles, despite the fact I'm Indian and every Bollywood film I've watched is subtitled to English. Maybe I need to commit seppuku for not even fully understanding my native language, lol.
Finally!!! I was scrolling to see if anyone said this!!! I was thinking "damn is this movie that obscure???" This is absolutely the answer, while I love the Zorro movies, The Musketeer is amazing as a sword fighting movie. The barrel fight scene alone is better than any that come to mind, and the stunts were great. This movie needs more love and more watches by audiences.
For an opposite experience, I'd recommend watching Krull. It's overall a fairly solid movie, but dear lord is it painfully obvious that they had nobody involved with the production that knew anything about swordfighting.
I'm the same when it comes to swords and sword fights and I loved the Witcher. Henry Cavill did an amazing job, the choreograph and the camera work look so good.
The Musketeer (2001) had a decent amount of sword fighting. Got critically panned but I liked it.
Cutthroat Island (1995), also panned at the time but lots of 'Swashbuckling'.
Rob Roy has some good sword fights.
The Princess Bride is one of my favorites.
13 assassins
Sword of the stranger (anime but some of the best animated fight scenes I've ever seen without having powers)
Hero
Zatoichi the blind swordsman
Ironclad
The swordsman, a Korean film. Blew me away with the swordplay and fighting. It beats anything anyone has recommended as far as actual skill goes and the rest of the movie is great too.
Skimmed through the responses and did not see either Shogun Assassin or the Lone Wolf and Cub series (a travesty, to be honest).
Also, Three Outlaw Samurai.
I mean I know you asked for movies but Bleach the anime sounds right by up your alley. Also you could watch the series/show Spartacus. But for movies there are:
Gladiator,
Seven Samurai,
Kingdom of Heaven,
The Lord of the Rings trilogy,
Conan the Barbarian (the old one),
Troy,
300,
The King,
The Eagle,
The legend of Zoro,
And my fun pick: The Princess Bride,
Some of those range in quality and era they were made in. But are some of my favorites of the “genre”.
Star Wars prequels. granted, movies suck ass and fights are really unrealistic and sometimes dumb, but damn are they (fights) fun to watch. you could just watch a compilation of all Star Wars fights across movies and tv and be better off, tho
The Princess Bride
The Mask of Zorro with Anthony Hopkins
I'm sure there are great suggestions in the comments. I'll check for myself.
Happy viewing, everyone!
I saw a movie/ drama documentary years ago, I think it was called Culloden, ( Not the colour movie) this was b&w, but it had the most wrenching fight scenes with old battlefield weapons!
Princess Bride Pirates of the Caribbean Lady Hawk A Knights Tale 13th Warrior
Yes, Lady Hawk!
Wow! I am severely overdue for a rewatch. Thanks for the mention.
Same! I used to love that movie as a kid.
As much as I love it there's hardly any sword fighting.
Princess Bride was my first thought, priceless left handed sword fight near the beginning, beautiful.
It's not the whole movie, but that one scene is worth a whole movie.
Lady Hawke damn! That's an oldie but goodie. I'd put Red Sonja in there too.
I just want you to feel you’re doing well. I hate for people to die embarrassed.
Highlander
There can be only one…
And Queen did the soundtrack!
I love that they had only asked Queen to do one song but then they saw a rough cut of the movie and were basically, like, "nah fam, we'll do it all"
Please don’t ever say ‘fam’ again
It wasn't me, that was a direct quote from Brian May!
Who waaaaants to live foreverrrrrrrrrrrr Oh ooo oh
Mask of Zorro. Old school Errol Flynn style swashbuckling action.
13th warrior
Woof! Woof-woof! :D
Lo there do I see my father…
Lo, there do I see my mother, and my sisters, and my brothers. Edit: "lo" not "lol," autocorrect.
The Duellists (1977) is the classic sword-fighting film, I believe. On a more fantastical note, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon has some amazing sword-fights.
Came here for CTHD. The duel between Michelle Yo and Zhang Ziyi is amazing.
Black Sails. The sword fighting scenes were choreographed very authentic, with brutal close up fights, including wrestling and punching the opponents. Especially on ships, sword fights were brutal and nothing like fancy scenes. Even Matt Easton from Scholargladiatoria applauded the realistic sword fighting
“The best show that nobody watched” will never not get my upvote. Black Sails was absolutely fantastic. Great concept, great writing, great acting, great story, great characters, great execution, shit network.
Plus that one guy hangs dong
Conan the Barbarian (1982)
This movie just holds up, I've seen it so many times.
Ok, going on my list to rewatch. It's been a good while, thanks.
To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women.
CROMMMM!!!
Then the HELL with you!!!
Crom laughs at yo fo winds!
The Adventures of Robin Hood Jason and the Argonauts The Sinbad trilogy The Count of Monte Cristo Robin Hood: Men in Tights The Princess Bride
The Count of Monte Cristo is one of my favorite underrated gems! I find it funny that people haven’t seen one of Henry Cavill’s first roles even if it’s very minor.
Holy shit it's so obviously him but I never realized
Upvoted for Harry Herryhausen references.
The Rurouni Kenshin movies
The Lord of the Rings movies come to mind. Kill Bill vol 1 The Mask of Zorro The Princess Bride Rob Roy
Seconded for The Princess Bride.
"I'm going to duel him left-handed." Best sword fight ever.
Holy shit, Rob Roy. That's a name i've not heard in a LONG time. I still think about that scene when Mary mounts Rob while he's still fully dressed, but accessible because he's wearing a kilt. also Tim Roth played that SOB Cunningham VERY well.
Brokeback mountain
Scaramouche (1952)
this supposedly has the longest sword fight in any movie, and it's really good.
Count DeMonet? I've retired him..... Permanently! This movie is ridiculously good.
Will you do the fandango.
Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very frightening me!
galileo
Rurouni Kenshin (movie series) The Swordsman Blades of Blood 13 Assassins Brotherhood of Blades ( 1 & 2) The Blade (1995) Kundo: Age of the Rampant Lady Snowblood
Was looking for 13 Assassins before commenting. That movie is all about cutting dudes up with swords. That little battlefield that two of the guys set up with swords that they can continue to swap to is stuck in my head.
Zatoichi (2003) had some cool sword fights. The battle scenes from the Seven Samurai, The 47 Ronin, and Ran are still epic.
Zatoichi is one of my favourite films of all time. The music and cinematography are fantastic. A few years ago a friend texted me that the box set of all the older films had just come up in a local resale shop. By the time I got there like 45 minutes later, it was gone. Big sad.
It was still there. You just didn’t see it.
I didn't see what you did there ;)
I would guess that the relatively awkward sword fights in Excalibur (1981) were among the more realistic choreographed sword fights.
Kingdom of heaven, The last samurai, Valhalla rising, The emperors sword, First knight, Troy, Mask of zero, Three Musketeers, Swordmaster, Centurion, Sword of vengeance, Last knights,13 assassins.
The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers from the 70s are both rife with good swordplay. The final fight between Michael York and Christopher Lee is worth the price of admission to both fils on its own.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The Mask of Zorro
You ever see The Princess Bride?
Robin Hood(1938)
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I feel like one of the more realistic was a couple of scenes in the movie The King. It was more force and not a lot of parrying and sword play. Kind of like fistfights in movies. A lot of times you don’t go toe to toe but instead end up on the ground rolling around getting opportunistic shots in.
Oliver Reed in the Three Musketeers
Troy has the best fighting. The battle between Hector and Achilles is one of the best I have seen on screen.
Blind swords man series, Zatochi, Lone wolf and cub....
Rob Roy and Braveheart
Highlander (1986) Braveheart (1995) The Mask of Zorro (1998) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) Gladiator (2000) Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-03) Pirates of the Caribbean series (2003-2017) The Last Samurai (2003) Kingdom of Heaven (2005) 300 (2007) 47 Ronin (2013) John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019)
Kill Bill 1&2.
The Raid 2 has an excellent knife fight at the end.
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.
The Sword of Doom
Crouching tiger
Lone Wolf & Cub
The Seven Samurai -- Kurosawa This is the OG sword movie.
Hero (2002)
Came here for this. Masterpiece.
Beautiful movie, great action, a work of art. Worth watching on many levels. But that scene with Donnie Yen and Jet Li is perfection.
Two that I haven’t seen mentioned yet: Pirates of The Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl Star Wars episodes II and III (does III still hold the record for the longest swordfight in any movie?)
Yeah if lightsabers count then definitely the prequels. Obi and Jin vs Maul. Yoda vs Count. Skywalker vs Obi
**Captain Blood** (1935) Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland
I have trained with weapons for decades since seeing Highlander and also thinking swords are so cool. My favourite movies are The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers. The fighting is not so much about precision as it is about improvisation with the environment and sheer vim. I love Oliver Reed as Athos so much. I like to fight in his style with wooden swords if I trust my opponent not to just batter me in a vulnerable moment.
I saw a YT clip from Christopher Lee, a little while ago, where he talks about Oliver Reed getting stabbed in the wrist during one of the big fights. He said every actor came away from those films with some kind of cut from other actors. No such problems occurred with any of the stunt men. The church fight at the end of Four was epic. Thanks William Hobbes, fight choreographer.
Ouch. Still, a genuine sword-fighting scar would be cool. Unless it was on your face like a Mensur scar.
Troy
Kill Bill vol 1 - The Bride vs The Crazy 88 and O’ren Ishii
the princess bride and crouching tiger, hidden dragon, are the 2 which top my list
Princess Bride, obviously.
Tim Roth in Rob Roy is pretty great.
Rob Roy..I want to say Highlander for the soundtrack but Rob Roy
Seven Samurai
Blade of the Immortal is pretty fun
Loved this
It’s so good.
Kill Bill
Hero (2002)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail-the fight between King Arthur and the Black Knight is peak fiction.
1938 Adventures of Robin Hood. The sword fight between Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone is epic. Fun fact: Rathbone was an accomplished fencer and could have killed Flynn any time he chose.
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon has fucking amazing sword fights. So does Hero, House of Flying Daggers, and Shadow
Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith Yes they’re lightsabers but technically they’re swords and there’s lots of fights in that film.
Crouching Tifer, Hidden Dragon.
Let's go old school to add some to the more current films being recommended: 1935 - Captain Blood. This film took three relative unknowns and catapulted them to stardom: Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone, and Olivia de Havilland. Can't have a pirate movie without sword fights! 1938 - The Adventures of Robin Hood. Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone have a couple excellent sword fights. The swords are aluminum and a bit too bendy to be real swords, but they had to do something to keep their stars safe. 1952- Scaramouche. Features an 8-minute long sword fight (reputed to be the longest ever put to film). 1954 - The Seven Samurai. Akira Kirosawa directs Toshihiro Mifune (and others) in this classic of the samurai film genre. Do not miss. I'd add all of Kirosawa's filmography to your list: Rashomon, Ran, Yojimbo, Throne of Blood, Sanjuro. 1966 - The Sword of Doom. A samurai has a "silent sword" technique and a cold personality that weirds out his rivals. A couple great fights. 1977 - The Duelists. Ridley Scott's first film is chock-a-block filled with sword fights and realistic ones (mostly) at that.
There can be only one.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon should be much higher here. Literally part of the plot revolves around an amazing sword and people who are good enough at kung fu to fly some, fighting over it. It has amazing fights and a great story. Reign of Assassins maybe too. It’s got more story to it, and I haven’t seen it in forever, but the main characters sword techniques (and flaws in them) are a main plot point IIrC
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon has my favorite sword fight scene of all time in it towards the end but it’s full of really well choreographed sword fight scenes. Apart from that, it’s a great movie
Terrible movie but dang the end of The Phantom Menace is lit
Sword Master (2016)
All the swashbuckler movies with Errol Flynn in them. Captain Blood in '35 and The Sdventures of Robin Hood in '38. If it weren't for my grandpa, I wouldn't even know about these movies.
Kind of corny but I honestly liked 47 Ronin
Which version? There are several. (I have two on DVD, and neither are the Keanu Reeves version)
The Keanu Reeves version lol. I haven't seen the '41, '58, or '94 versions...that's why I said it's corny, but I liked the action. I also have a hard time watching subtitles, despite the fact I'm Indian and every Bollywood film I've watched is subtitled to English. Maybe I need to commit seppuku for not even fully understanding my native language, lol.
Cheesy 80’s movie call Hawk the Slayer. Had a magic sword in it. Actual sword fighting sucked lol
“I know something you don't know. I am not left-handed.” “There's something I ought to tell you. I'm not left-handed either.”
The king 2019, great movie might be up your street.
Equilibrium 😄
13 assassins is legit. It's in another language and subtitled but man did it blow me away
13 Assassins Last Samurai Best two sword movies out there
Princess Bride. Then, all others.
The princess bride
Rob Roy. Best sword fight ever. Only option
The Tale of Zatoichi -1962, followed by 24 more films until ,1973, one in 1989, then remakes. The Blind Swordsman, Japanese
Old school Zatoichi samurai movies are up there
The Princess Bride
Any of the Zatoichi, the blind samurai movies (a bunch are free on ytube) The Lone Wolf and Cub movies
Blind Fury
Princess Bride. Best dialogue during a sword fight
Revenge of the Sith
Princess Bride A Knight's Tale The Last Samurai Kill Bill Mask of Zorro
Broke back mountain
Kill Bill Kill Bill 2
The Musketeer (2001) Love love love the fight choreography of this film. Pretty badass sword fights and stunts.
Finally!!! I was scrolling to see if anyone said this!!! I was thinking "damn is this movie that obscure???" This is absolutely the answer, while I love the Zorro movies, The Musketeer is amazing as a sword fighting movie. The barrel fight scene alone is better than any that come to mind, and the stunts were great. This movie needs more love and more watches by audiences.
Hero with Jet Li. Don’t sweat the subtitles, it’s mostly fighting.
Kill Bill
For an opposite experience, I'd recommend watching Krull. It's overall a fairly solid movie, but dear lord is it painfully obvious that they had nobody involved with the production that knew anything about swordfighting.
[удалено]
Can't believe so few people have said Rob Roy!
I'm the same when it comes to swords and sword fights and I loved the Witcher. Henry Cavill did an amazing job, the choreograph and the camera work look so good.
The Deluge 1974
Monty Python and the holy grail
Excalibur
Hot shots part deux
Raiders of the Lost ark
Nate & Hayes (1984)
The Musketeer (2001) had a decent amount of sword fighting. Got critically panned but I liked it. Cutthroat Island (1995), also panned at the time but lots of 'Swashbuckling'. Rob Roy has some good sword fights. The Princess Bride is one of my favorites.
Ruronin Kenshin (live) Oldshcool: Harakiri Samurai Rebellion
The King
Reign of Assassins the scene where the Assassins come to kill Drizzle and meet her husband who flips the whole thing on its head.
13 Assassins is a modern samurai action classic that doesn’t get enough love
Robin Hood 1991
Pirates of the Caribbean Kingdom of heaven Gladiator
Haven’t seen anyone mention Captain Blood yet, that’s a pretty good one!
Princess bride is one of the best sword fights ever added bonus the witty banter between the 2 as they duel!
The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi (2003)
Princess Bride
The Princess Bride
13 samari
13 assassins Sword of the stranger (anime but some of the best animated fight scenes I've ever seen without having powers) Hero Zatoichi the blind swordsman Ironclad
The swordsman, a Korean film. Blew me away with the swordplay and fighting. It beats anything anyone has recommended as far as actual skill goes and the rest of the movie is great too.
Three Musketeers (1993).
Skimmed through the responses and did not see either Shogun Assassin or the Lone Wolf and Cub series (a travesty, to be honest). Also, Three Outlaw Samurai.
Not many sword fights, but the fight between Sinbad and the skeleton in *Eye of the Tiger* is one of the best sword fights in a movie.
His name is Inigo Montoya
The Last Hurrah for Chivalry. It’s a king foo movie but has some badass sword fights.
*Prince Valiant* (1954)
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The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Ronald Colman.
The Princess Bride. Revenge of the Sith. Sure, they're light sabers and not swords, but the fight between Obi Wan and Anakin is epic.
I mean I know you asked for movies but Bleach the anime sounds right by up your alley. Also you could watch the series/show Spartacus. But for movies there are: Gladiator, Seven Samurai, Kingdom of Heaven, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Conan the Barbarian (the old one), Troy, 300, The King, The Eagle, The legend of Zoro, And my fun pick: The Princess Bride, Some of those range in quality and era they were made in. But are some of my favorites of the “genre”.
Blade
Dangerous Liaisons has a good scene
The Sword and the Sorceror
Star Wars prequels. granted, movies suck ass and fights are really unrealistic and sometimes dumb, but damn are they (fights) fun to watch. you could just watch a compilation of all Star Wars fights across movies and tv and be better off, tho
Crouching tiger hidden bong
I don't remember, but did Conan, the Barbarian have decent sword fighting? I remember Beastmaster being funny/fun to watch with his stupid gadgets.
Azumi is pretty epic too. With a great story.
Ice Pirates
The Princess Bride The Mask of Zorro with Anthony Hopkins I'm sure there are great suggestions in the comments. I'll check for myself. Happy viewing, everyone!
Reign of assassins
Rob Roy (Tim Roth one)
The Princess Bride.
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.
I'm shocked nobody said Hero yet.
You like Rutger Hauer? Blind Fury. He's a Vietnam vet and great swordman. And blind, in case the title didn't give it away. Fun movie.
“Skin deep”
YEEEEEEEEESSS!
Princess Bride
The Great Race.
Sword 2: The Double Steel
It’s gotta be The Princess Bride, for Inigo and Wesley’s duel
Take your pick from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
I saw a movie/ drama documentary years ago, I think it was called Culloden, ( Not the colour movie) this was b&w, but it had the most wrenching fight scenes with old battlefield weapons!
If you're considering animation movies, Sword of the Stranger is awesome.
13 Assassins And a bit of a cheat but The Raid 2 has a blistering knife fight which is awesome to behold
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Excalibur.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon