By the Sword (film)

By the Sword is a 1991 film starring F. Murray Abraham and Eric Robertsas world-class fencers. Directed by Jeremy Paul Kagan, this is the first
feature film about fencing.cite web
url=http://onfilm.chicagoreader.com/movies/capsules/1526_BY_THE_SWORD.html
author=Jonathan Rosenbaum
publisher=Chicago Reader
title=By the Sword
accessdate=2007-04-25 ] Although some reviews of its 1993 U.S. theatrical release noted favorablythe lead acting and action sequences, the screenplay was considered "terrible". The film was rated R by the MPAA.

Plot

Roberts plays Alexander Villard, a former fencing champion who runs ahighly competitive fencing school. One of his students describes him as,"a freak who thinks he's living in the fourteenth century".cite web
url=http://www.timeout.com/film/68687.html
publisher=timeout.com
title=By the Sword
accessdate=2007-04-25 ] Abraham plays Max Suba, an ex-convict who introduces himself as afencing instructor. Villard initially gives him a job as a janitor,but in time Suba recovers his lost form and shows that he can fence.Villard has Suba to practice with a student to demonstrate a point.Villard is "arrogant but not unkind",cite web |url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19930514/REVIEWS/305140301/1023
author=Roger Ebert
title=By The Sword
date=May 14, 1993
accessdate=2007-04-25 ] and eventually gives Suba a chance to teach, assigning himthe beginning students.

While Villard takes an unforgiving approach, encouraginga student to injure an opponent to win, Suba takes a more subtleapproach, encouraging students to turn their own weaknesses intoa strength. Following this advice, one of Suba's beginning studentsscores against Villard's prize fencer during a school competition.Flashbacks further develop the conflict by revealing how Suba hadkilled Villard's father in a fencing duel. The film climaxes in adramatic duel between Villard and Suba.

Cast and crew

Infobox Film
name = By the Sword
director = Jeremy Paul Kagan
producer = Marlon Staggs,
Peter E. Strauss
writer = John McDonald,
James Donadio
starring = F. Murray Abraham,
Eric Roberts
music = Bill Conti
cinematography = Arthur Albert
editing = David Holden
runtime = 91 mins.
amg_id = 1:131795
imdb_id = 0101524The film's featured stars are Abraham and Roberts as Suba and Villard.Abraham had won an Oscar for his work in "Amadeus" in 1984, and Roberts had been nominated for
Best Supporting Actorin 1985. The film also credits Mia Sara as Erin Clavelli and
Christopher Rydell as Jim Trebor, both students at the fencingschool. Mia Sara is best known for her role as Ferris Bueller'sgirlfriend 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 areplayed by Doug Wert and Stephen Polk. In her second filmappearance, Eve Kagan plays Villard's daughter. (Her firstappearance had been in 1989, in a film also directed by Kagan.)

Bill Conti composed the score. Conti had won an 1983
Oscar for the scoreto "The Right Stuff", and is famous for the themes forthe movie "Rocky" and "For Your Eyes Only".The score was performed and recorded by classical Guitarist Angel Romero.

Jeremy Kagan was a prolific television director. For his workwith the Chicago Hope episode "Leave of Absence", he won an
Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series in 1996.

Release

Although made in the U.S., the film was released in Franceunder the title "Par l'épée" in October 1992. [cite web
url=http://www.cinemotions.com/modules/Films/fiche/23002/Par-l-epee.html
publisher=cinemotions.com
title=Par l'épée
accessdate=2007-04-25 ] It was shown in U.S. theaters in May 1993, and found its wayto VHS in 1994 as a Columbia Tristar home video.

Reception

The film has received nearly opposite reviews. Roger Ebert says "the movieadds some supporting characters in order to show us things about fencingthat we didn't know", yet another reviewer finds theminor characters "unnecessary" and "thinly drawn", so "the film sufferswhenever the plot focuses on them".cite web
url=http://www.thespinningimage.co.uk/cultfilms/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=1010&aff=13
publisher=thespinningimage.co.uk
title=By the Sword
accessdate=2007-04-25 ] Although Chicago Reader critic Jonathan Rosenbaum says the film "suffers from overdone, mannerist performances by the two leads", another reviewer says "the key to this film resides in the performances by Eric Roberts and F. Murray Abraham". The film develops Suba's character in particular, revealing a past that "he seems unable to completely let go of."Ebert says of the lead actors: "they create characters much more interesting and dimensional than this thin screenplay really requires."

The most consistent point noted in review is poor screenplayand directing. New York Times critic Vincent Canby callsthe screenplay "nonsense", saying bluntly: "the screenplay is terrible, full of unfinished subplots and lines that appear to announce its essential aimlessness."cite news
author=Vincent Canby
publisher=New York Times
title=Review/Film; Fencing as Metaphor for Honor and the Lack Thereof
date=October 22, 1993] Regarding one of the more important subplots, a critic wrote: "Sadly, Kagan a routine television and film director adds nothing to the intriguing notion of a man who's spent half his life in prison returning to the scene of his crime."cite web
url=http://www.channel4.com/film/reviews/film.jsp?id=101688
publisher=Channel4.com
title=By The Sword
accessdate=2007-04-25] Although one critic calls the many flashbacks "a further directorial flourish", they are still at best an "interesting ideathat isn't really successfully pulled off." While the action sequences are "well handled", Canby says "the drama is fraught with anticlimax." Overall, the plot is full of "sports clichés",could "as well have been about croquet",and is "a little too neat and obvious to really carry the material." As one review puts it:"Right down to the painful fencing-to-disco-music routine,this is embarrassingly fab."

References

External links

* [http://www.impawards.com/1991/by_the_sword.html Internet Movie Poster Awards.com]
* [http://reel.com/movie.asp?MID=6776 Reel.com]
* [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/by_the_sword/ RottenTomatoes]