A type of action film featuring a dashing swordsman or a similar adventurer and usually set either in medieval times or the 17th-18th century, when fencing was king. Errol Flynn was perhaps the perfect swashbuckler, sailing through the 1930s as Captain Blood and Robin Hood, charming ladies and undoing villains with his quick smile and quicker sword. The form flourished in the silent era as well, where Douglas Fairbanks reigned supreme in movies like The Black Pirate and The Mark of Zorro(1920). Rarely does anyone come to real harm in swashbucklers, despite all the sword play; usually bad guys are just thrown aside or bonked on the head with the hilt of the sword, except for the lead villain. The limited amount of actual violence may explain the swashbuckler's lack of popularity after the '30s, as World War II and sound film coincided to bring viewers real horrors first hand. The form never really revived, despite fitful attempts in the '70s (The Three Musketeers), '80s (The Pirates of Penzance), and the '90s (The Man in the Iron Mask, The Mask of Zorro).
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