Verdict
Summary
Arriving at a time when big budget pirate movies were out of fashion, Swashbuckler is a fun enough adventure with everything you’d expect of a movie of its type, everything except a treasure hunt, and it’s very much a precursor to more famous movies that came later, namely Polanski’s Pirates, Cutthroat Island, and the Pirates of the Caribbean films. This one works simply because Shaw and Earl Jones made a good team, and though Shaw died a few years later, you’d never guess that he was in ill health with all his running around and sword fighting. He looked good in his late forties here, and he made a dashing pirate hero. The score by John Addison is good, and director James Goldstone kept things moving along briskly.
Plot:
An infamous pirate makes a deal with a young woman who needs help rescuing her father, who is in a dungeon.
Review:
A nobleman is thrown into the dungeon of an evil Lord named Durant (Peter Boyle, typically despicable), and the man’s daughter Jane (Genevieve Bujold) seeks the help of someone who can do the impossible: Seize Durant’s stronghold and rescue her father from his dungeon. Who could possibly be up to such a task? Red Ned Lynch, of course! Red (Robert Shaw in one of his final performances before passing away two years later) is the most notorious outlaw pirate in the Caribbean, and he scoots around in his ship with a bunch of scallywags and his sidekick Nick (James Earl Jones), whom he just rescued from execution in a massive public display of daring that enrages Durant and his minion Major Folly (Beau Bridges), a dolt and a thorn in Red’s side. When Red accepts Jane’s proposal, there’s no stopping him from laying siege to Durant and his scuzzy troupe of deviants and rescuing her father from his endless dungeons.
Arriving at a time when big budget pirate movies were out of fashion, Swashbuckler is a fun enough adventure with everything you’d expect of a movie of its type, everything except a treasure hunt, and it’s very much a precursor to more famous movies that came later, namely Polanski’s Pirates, Cutthroat Island, and the Pirates of the Caribbean films. This one works simply because Shaw and Earl Jones made a good team, and though Shaw died a few years later, you’d never guess that he was in ill health with all his running around and sword fighting. He looked good in his late forties here, and he made a dashing pirate hero. The score by John Addison is good, and director James Goldstone kept things moving along briskly. Puerto Vallarta locations filled in for the Caribbean.
Kino Lorber brings Swashbuckler to Blu-ray, and I’m happy to swap out my Universal DVD for this upgrade. The film looks solid in high definition, and special features include a new audio commentary by film historians, a making-of feature, and a trailer.
