By the Sword (film)
| By the Sword | |
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Promotional Poster
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| Directed by | Jeremy Paul Kagan |
| Produced by |
Marlon Staggs Peter E. Strauss |
| Written by | John McDonald James Donadio |
| Starring |
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| Music by | Bill Conti |
| Cinematography | Arthur Albert |
| Edited by | David Holden |
| Distributed by | Hansen Entertainment |
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Release date
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Running time
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91 minutes |
| Country | United States France |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $6,220 |
By the Sword is a 1991 American sports action film starring F. Murray Abraham and Eric Roberts as world-class fencers. Directed by Jeremy Paul Kagan, this is the first feature film about fencing. Although some reviews of its 1993 U.S. theatrical release noted favorably the lead acting and action sequences, the screenplay was considered "terrible".
Alexander Villard is a former fencing champion who runs a highly competitive fencing school. One of his students describes him as "a freak who thinks he's living in the fourteenth century".
Max Suba is an ex-convict who introduces himself as a fencing instructor. Villard initially gives him a job as a janitor. With time, Suba recovers his lost form and shows that he can fence. Villard has Suba spar with an ambitious student to demonstrate a point. Villard is "arrogant but not unkind", and eventually gives Suba a chance to teach, assigning him the beginning students.
While Villard takes a ruthless approach, encouraging a student to injure an opponent to win, Suba takes a subtler approach, encouraging students to turn their own weaknesses into strengths. Following this advice, one of Suba's beginning level students scores against Villard's prize fencer during an in-school competition. Flashbacks further develop the conflict by revealing how Suba had killed Villard's father in a fencing duel. The film climaxes in a dramatic duel between Villard and Suba.
The film's featured stars are Abraham and Roberts as Suba and Villard respectively. Abraham had won an Oscar for his work in Amadeus in 1984, and Roberts had been nominated for Best Supporting Actor in 1985. The film also credits Mia Sara as Erin Clavelli and Christopher Rydell as Jim Trebor, both students at the fencing school. Mia Sara is best known for her role as Ferris Bueller's girlfriend in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
Elaine Kagan plays Rachel, Suba's romantic interest. Brett Cullen, who has appeared in Lost and The West Wing, plays fencing instructor Danny Gallagher. Other students are played by Doug Wert and Stephen Polk. In her second film appearance, Eve Kagan plays Gallagher's daughter. (Her first appearance had been in 1989, in a film also directed by Kagan.)
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