Word: swordplayers
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...death. As usual, Holland, who writes refreshingly taut prose, dispenses with the ponderous plots and pageantry of the genre: her people matter much more than their costumes. By substituting mental thrust and parry for the metal kind, she proves that there can be more to historical thrillers than swordplay and seduction...
...first round of swordplay brought the Crimson a 6-3 lead, spearheaded by John Chipman's triumph in the sabre division and a tough comeback victory by Eric Mandelbaum in the foil. From that point there was no looking back...
...Viola and Sir Andrew, both of whose foils fly into the air at the opening engagement en quarte, and, later on, wind up in a single hand. Farcical fencing is no easy trick to pull off, and Patrick Crean deserves great credit for his meticulous staging of all the swordplay, both satiric and serious...
...Romping. Lester's film has all this and more-sophisticated satire, opulent costumes, crashing swordplay, and a feast of historical fact-noblemen sniff clove-studded oranges as they walk through grimily Hogarthian streets; the King plays chess on a lawn-drawn board, with the palace dogs his four-footed chess pieces. Within this lovingly recreated world, Lester's musketeers are off and romping through an audacious barrage of pratfalls, sight gags, tottering demises and improbable acrobatics reminiscent of silent comedies...
Weaver's final duel with Macduff is much too tame, particularly for those who saw Christopher Plummer's breathtaking swordplay in Cyrano recently. At the end, he pulls out a dagger and seems about to commit suicide when he falls off a parapet; suicide is something no real Macbeth would entertain...