The swashbuckler. The term embodies one of the oldest and finest flavors of the adventure genre. Its heyday in film was the Golden Age of Hollywood with films likeThe Adventures of Robin Hood,Captain Blood,andThe Count of Monte Cristo. Its influence, though, is palpable in many a contemporary fantasy or science fiction movie likeThe Princess BrideandThe Mask of Zorro. A few full-blown swashbucklers still pop up every now and again. These are easy films to enjoy; I owe my years of fencing practice (and more than a few eccentricities of my wardrobe) to indulging in this subgenre since childhood. It’s hard to resist the combination of period costume, stirring adventure, repartee, swordplay – and romance.
Love affairs run rampant throughout swashbuckling literature and cinema, but no sober assessment of these adventures would deny that they aren’t all romances for the ages. Many of the women in swashbucklers are only there to be a love interest or damsel in distress. The romance itself can feel obligatory rather than organic, or be marred by a lack of chemistry between co-stars. But sometimes chemistry, great writing, or even both at once can produce beautiful romances that sweep you away. Here are our rankings of seven of the best couples from swashbucklers past and present.
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7. Westley and Buttercup (The Princess Bride)
I’ll risk the ire of virtually everyone I know and say that I don’t care much forThe Princess Bride. It’s full of elements I usually love, but the presentation is too clean, too pat, and too rehearsed. The greatest offender on that last score is the famous sword fight on the cliff. It’s always looked like two men running through the steps of their choreography, not a sword fight. No action scene in the movies isn’t choreographed, of course, but it shouldn’t feel that way.
This list is concerned with love, however, not fencing, and if I’m a Scrooge about the movie as a whole, I’ll gladly concede the charms of Westley’s romance with Buttercup.Cary Elwescould have been genetically engineered to be an archetypal swashbuckling hero, andRobin Wrightbrings a more haunted quality to Buttercup than there is on the page. Possibly the best thing about their relationship is the way that their romantic love connects to the familial love between grandfather and grandson in the frame story through that one iconic line: “as you wish.”
6. Edmond and Mercedes (The Count of Monte Cristo, 1934)
The image of a swashbuckling romance carries with it the idea of the lovers enjoying a happily ever after. But not every love affair must be happy to make for a good story, and a tragic romance needn’t deprive a swashbuckler of a sense of high adventure and escapism. Edmond Dantès and Mercédès seem destined for wedded bliss at the beginning ofThe Count of Monte Cristowhen a conspiracy of jealousy and fear sends the young sailor to 14 years imprisonment without trial. Bad for them, but great for generations of readers and audiences as Dantès acquires friends, riches, a new identity as the titular count, and a thirst for vengeance complicated by Mercédès’ marriage to one of his enemies, and the involvement of her son in his intrigues.
It should be noted that the 1934 film ofThe Count of Monte Cristoisn’t the purest adaptation ofAlexander Dumas’s novel. There, time cannot heal all wounds, and Dantès and Mercédès have no path back to happier days. Granting them a happy ending does take away some flavor from the story. But besides being a first-rate effort by underappreciated writer-directorRowland V. Lee, this version particularly benefits from fine casting.Robert DonatandElissa Landimake an adorable couple in the opening scenes, giving the film a real sense of loss when they’re separated. And if the ending had to be changed, this pair’s love is heartwarming enough that I can grant them happiness at the expense of Dumas’s finale. For this adaptation, at least.
5. Athos and Milady (The Three Musketeers, 1973, and The Four Musketeers, 1974)
Dumas’s lovers won a reprieve from Rowland Lee inThe Count of Monte Cristo, but producerIlya Salkindand directorRichard Lesterwere unsparing when they adaptedThe Three Musketeersinto a two-part film in the 1970s. True to the novel, d’Artagnan’s lover Constance meets a tragic end at the hands of Milady de Winter (Faye Dunaway). Yet it’s Milday’s relationship with the musketeer Athos that packs the most narrative punch.
To call that relationship a “romance” is a stretch; before the events of the film, Athos fell in love with Milady and married her, only to discover her criminal past. Dishonored and disillusioned, Athos goes about in melancholy, believing his wife hung dead by his own hands; Milady, a wicked soul before and after her marriage to Athos, becomes a ruthless spy in Cardinal Richelieu’s employ.Oliver Reedcuts a grim and broken figure as Athos throughout both films, while Dunaway holds her own alongside fellow villainsChristopher LeeandCharlton Heston.
Richard Lester had a penchant for comedy that sometimes works against Dumas’s story. But the final confrontation between Milady, Athos, and the rest of the musketeers is deadly serious. There’s not much about Milady to inspire sympathy, but the sight of all our heroes conducting a kangaroo court is still unsettling. While the scene may not be fun, it does provide Athos and Milady with a dramatic resolution and proves that swashbucklers can have a very dark edge to them.
4. Alejandro and Elena (The Mask of Zorro)
This is a film that proves the value of good chemistry. While the script forThe Mask of Zorrois solid, giving Elena substance and her love for the newZorroAlejandro Murrieta meaning for the story, it isn’t anything too out of the ordinary for a good adventure yarn. But withAntonio BanderasandCatherine Zeta-Jonesin the roles, their passion comes alive in a way few swashbucklers before or since have achieved. The sparks may fly farthest in the wild hacienda dance or the sexually charged stable sword fight (good luck gettingthatpast a studio C-suite today), but the two play off one another just as well in the quieter moments. Their first real encounter, when a hiding Zorro is mistaken for a priest in a confessional, has a wonderful arc to it; beginning as a comedy scene, it ends as something tender, a real building block for those later moments.
Both characters are tied to the original Zorro, Don Diego (Anthony Hopkins); his ultimate, bittersweet blessing of their union leads into one of the most satisfying bookends I’ve seen in a movie. Banderas and Zeta-Jones, accompanied byJames Horner’sgorgeous music, leave the audience with such a beautiful sense of romance that it’s no wonder TriStar and Amblin chased after a sequel for them. Too bad they never found one – that I care to acknowledge, that is.
3. Will and Elizabeth (the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy)
Captain Jack Sparrow may have taken the world by storm, but technically speaking, the protagonist of the initialPirates of the Caribbeantrilogy isKiera Knightley’sElizabeth Swann. ScreenwritersTed ElliottandTerry Rossiohave said as much, and also named Elizabeth their favorite character. While this gave Knightley plenty to do in the part, her romance with Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) is among the more traditional elements ofThe Curse of the Black Pearl, culminating in the type of happy ending you might expect to find in a pirate venture from the 1940s. It was all very sweet, but it’s not too surprising people took more notice of Captain Jack’s spice.
The sweetness turned spicy when the sequels explored what comes after “happily ever after” for Will and Elizabeth. Beginning with the disruption of their wedding, the complications thrown their way are initially external or, if interpersonal, humorous (it’s implied inDead Man’s Chestthat the closest they’ve come to consummating their affair is fencing lessons). But byAt World’s End, there’s a collapse of trust between them as their goals and responsibilities shift. Jack’s machinations inadvertently put Will and Elizabeth back on the same path for the climax, and dammit if that maelstrom wedding doesn’t put a smile on my face every time I see it. Whether the bittersweet finale they get in the third film matches the happy ending from the first in value will depend on the viewer, but for me, it’s a very satisfying answer to the challenge of carrying on a classical romance past its classical resolution.
2. Robin and Marian (The Adventures of Robin Hood, 1938)
Sean Connery, Disney’s animated fox, and evenKevin Costnerhave their fans and their merits, but there has yet to be a Robin Hood film to surpass Warner Bros.’The Adventures of Robin Hoodfrom 1938, or an actor to surpassErrol Flynnas the king of the swashbucklers. Whatever the man’s exploits in life – and they could allegedly be quite awful – his screen persona as a dashing, reckless, yet at heart heroic adventurer charmed and delighted legions of filmgoers throughout the 30s and 40s. For romance, he was often paired with the wonderfully talentedOlivia de Havilland, and the two had marvelous chemistry together.
Robin Hood, the most elaborate of all their screen outings as a team, makes the most of that chemistry. De Havilland’s Maid Marian may not be the most active incarnation of the character, but she does have a clear arc. Her romance isn’t there for the sake of it; it’s through her relationship with Robin that Marian comes to see the harm caused by Prince John. Love follows after justice here, and Marian indirectly alerts Robin and King Richard to John’s attempted usurping of the crown. As for Flynn’s Robin, he is jesting and gentle in turns with Marian, both in coaxing her to the truth and in wooing her. It’s chaste, the wooing, but very endearing.
1. Peter Blood and Arabella (Captain Blood)
Ask me for the best classic swashbuckler, and I wouldn’t hesitate to nameThe Adventures of Robin Hood; the combination of elements produced movie magic unmatched as a complete experience. But I’d be hard-pressed to argue that the earlierCaptain Blooddoesn’t have the better plot, or more opportunities for Flynn and de Havilland as actors. Peter Blood is probably the most nuanced of Flynn’s swashbuckling heroes, moving from apolitical physician to embittered slave, amoral pirate to awakened patriot. Flynn hits every note perfectly, and watching the film now, it’s almost impossible to believe that it was his first starring vehicle.
De Havilland’s Arabella isn’t quite as dimensional, but it is a different sort of character than she would later play inRobin Hood. Throughout the beginning of the picture, she’s the dominant figure in the relationship, constantly getting Blood out of trouble with her uncle the governor. The circumstances that first put them together – she buys him at auction – are hardly an auspicious beginning to a romance, and the dynamic between them is more tense than in their later films together. But that makes for a more exciting and complex love affair for this swashbuckler, one that has to work for a happy ending. It’s another element whereCaptain Bloodarguably outshines its successor.
