Sfida d'onore

How many films are about fencing? Very very few. The Princess Bride, Three Musketeers and Zorro, etc. are often listed as such but that is not fencing. That is sword fighting. This film is about sport fencing. It is set in a real fencing club or salle, with the old school roll up grounded strips circa early 70's and includes many scenes of fencing, including group and individual lessons along with electric epee fencing. In addition, there are scenes of the armory room and the rows of stored weapons in the club. If you are looking for a film loaded with fencing, this is really it.

Sure, the fencing leaves something to be desired and the acting varies especially among the student fencers. The fencing in the movie is fairly realistic. Fencing now is more wild, faster and athletic. But nearly 30 years ago it was more controlled which is shown in the bouts. Eric Roberts, a non-fencer, does a pretty good job anyhow even mixing French commands with English in his lessons. F. Murray Abraham, who is in really good shape in this film, also impresses during a few scene where he is taking a saber lesson and epee fencing. There are a few hokey scenes and two love stories tacked on, one of which is used to help show how one how the maestro, a former champion, is grooming his top student to become like him - driven to win at all costs with no feelings for others. The brutality of Roberts during his lessons with his top students - he often wacks them with the side of his weapon's blade when they foul up - is not unheard of. This was very commonly done among the old European coaches to their students. Corporal punishment for mistakes during a lesson got the point across quickly to the students.

The fencing equipment and uniforms are correct. F. Murray's fencing outfit is a bit dated. He wears an old school waste length (pre electric scoring) saber jacket, a really old Castello or Santelli mask and brown knickers. But he does get it done. There is a funny scene if you catch it. When F. Murray is shown crossing the busy NYC street to go to work a the salle as the janitor, he is carrying a blue Adidas shoe-box. Thereafter he is shown wearing the very old style Adidas fencing shoes in nearly every scene, even while he is just the janitor in the club and later when he is coaching the new students.

It is a bit predictable with the final fight scene, but it ends well. If you want a movie that is about the sport of fencing and a lot of it. this is about your only choice. There is the foreign movie The Fencer that came out a couple years ago. Have not seen it.

This movie fascinated me from the very beginning. It revolves around the sport of fencing, but the plot has little to do with fencing and more to do with crime & punishment, retribution and forgiveness, and the meaning of success. Eric Roberts plays a skilled but haughty owner of a fencing school, just like his dear old (deceased) dad. F. Murray Abraham is the mystery man, who is apparently making a new start in a new town and who applies to be a fencing teacher at the school. Although Roberts quickly discerns that Abraham is not "up to snuff" for a teacher and hires him as a janitor, Roberts fails to recognize the inevitable result of years away from a sport that requires daily attention. Over the course of the film, Roberts & Abraham flesh out their characters nicely as the viewer discovers who Abraham really is while watching Roberts' character discover himself and finally learn a lesson that was stunted by tragedy in his boyhood. Like any movie about a sport, I'm sure there were fencing "flaws," but it was believable enough to me to make watching it intriguing (and sometimes tiring!). There's quite a lot of action for this movie that only has 3 sets, too! Get a bag of popcorn and settle in for a good flick.

Normally, I like Leonard Maltin and can sympathise with his reviews but he seems to have watched a different film here entirely. It is not really a revenge story, "by-the-numbers" or otherwise. There is a man with a mission here but cheap vengeance isn't his goal. The leads do an excellent job of portraying antagonistic personalities coming slowly to the boil in the claustrophobic world of the fencing salon as the characters evolve. And they do evolve.

As for Errol Flynn doing it better, that is a fatuous comment in the extreme. Apart from his swordfight on the beach with Basil Rathbone in "Captain Blood", his fencing always looked very stagy to me. The last fight in "By the Sword", by contrast, is the single most vicious fencing combat I've ever seen. It is the only time I have ever had the impression that the combatants actually intend to kill one another. A brilliantly choreographed sequence.

By the Sword has depth to it that I seldom see in film. It also displays a morality play, skillfully embedded in the story that make this one of my all time favorites. I recognize that By the Sword will not be for everyone. It was not made with the cookie cutter approach.

There is exactly one group of people who will watch this film more than once: fencers. And even we wince. So much of this story is anathema to *everything* fencers hold dear: honor, romance and SAFETY!

No maestro worth the name would encourage any kind of deliberate roughness such as is exhibited in BtS.

Neither would anyone imagine a choreographed dance routine with pirouettes. THE HORROR!

But beneath the ugly scum of detail, there *is* a story...who is Suba (excellently underplayed by F. Murray Abraham), and why does he come to the Maestro's studio? Why does he think he can teach fencing? Oh, and we get to see the lovely Mia Sara in a tight fencing uniform, a small bonus.

It's not the best film, no. It's far from the worst. Do not expect to see real Olympic style fencing; for that, go to the next competition nearest you!