If one can simply recall that movies are to take us away, whether from or to is personally specific, then it would take a profoundly negative person to think poorly of any well made and well acted movie. This is such a flick, decently focused relative to plot, well chosen costuming and locations, great cinematography . . . what more can you ask? If you want a 'film', with all its highbrow silliness, it's true you might not wanna go there with this one, but jeez, does anyone who only goes to 'films' even tell anyone else they know that they're painfully pretentious? This one has no pretensions, and since when is Genevieve in any state of undress a minus? Good entertainment, which is what I want when i spend money on a movie, and Swashbuckler delivers with aplomb.

JGS

Captain "Red" Ned Lynch and Nick Debrett, white and black pirate cohorts in 1718 Jamaica, oppose the evil Lord Durant, who has imprisoned the Lord High Justice and banished the judge's daughter; she enlists the pirates' help for 10,000 doubloons to kill Durant and rescue her father. Critically-drubbed pirate-package from producer Jennings Lang, who must have known Errol Flynn movies were no longer in vogue in 1976 and so adds an odd dollop of kink and a threat of castration to update the scenario. Lang has assembled a strong cast for the picture, including Robert Shaw (fresh off his triumph in "Jaws") as Lynch, Peter Boyle as the preening villain and Genevieve Bujold as the fencing damsel (who has a memorable swimming scene),and director James Goldstone doesn't go in for campy laughs, except for a horse cart full of bananas. Still, "Swashbuckler" failed to resurrect the genre as "The Three Musketeers" resurrected Dumas in 1973. Philip Lathrop's cinematography (particularly his outdoor aerial shots) is a major asset, but the old-fashioned spirit is sorely missing. ** from ****

Pirate Ned Lynch (Robert Shaw) and his gang (including James Earl Jones) help Jane Barnet (Genevieve Bujold) fight evil Lord Durant (Peter Boyle).

This film has a very bad reputation. Critics hated it and it was a financial disaster at the box office. I can't figure out why. It's not perfect but it's not horrible. The bad things in it: Shaws' Irish accent makes some of his dialogue unintelligible; the scripts dialogue is aimed at kids; the character of Cudjo (Geoffrey Holder) is introduced--and then disappears for an hour!; ditto with Major Folly (Beau Bridges); the treatment of Bujold is horrible (and she acts very lost in this movie); there are some really strange kinky touches such as Bridges almost being tortured, Bujold's pointless nude swimming scene and Durant's bath with a young boy and having Anjelica Huston in the film...and giving her NO dialogue!

The good: With the exception of Bujold the cast is having a whale of a time (Bridges especially is enjoying himself); it's fun to see Jones so young and full of life; there's plenty of action (with some great sword fights); it's very lavishly produced and there's a rousing music score by John Addison.

Basically it's a fun way to kill of 100 minutes--I was never bored.

This is one of Hollywoods many failed attempts to revive the pirate movie. Through the 1980s and 90s they gave us --"The Island", Polanski's "Pirates", "The Pirate Movie" and "Cutthroat Island". All big budget bombs. Maybe Hollywood should give up (I'm not counting "Pirates of the Caribbean"--that was not a movie-it was an ad for a Disney theme park.)

Worth catching.