Cinema of Swords is a history guide and love letter to over four hundred movies and
television shows featuring swashbucklers: knights pirates samurai Vikings gladiators
outlaw heroes like Zorro and Robin Hood and anyone else who lives by the blade and solves
their problems with the point of a sword. Though swordplay thrives as a mainstay of current pop
culture-whether Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings or Star Wars-swashbuckling was if anything
even more ubiquitous during Hollywood's classic period from its foundations in the Silent Era
up through the savage bursts of fantasy films in the '80s. With this huge cinematic backlist of
classics now available online and on-demand Cinema of Swords traces the roots and branches of
this unruly genre highlighting classics of the form and pointing fans toward thrilling new
gems they never knew existed. With wry summaries and criticism from swordplay expert Lawrence
Ellsworth this comprehensive guidebook is perfect as a reference work or as a dazzling
Hollywood history to be read end-to-end.
