Žanr: Drama
Format: DVD
Poreklo: Strani

By the Sword ( film)

By the Sword is a 1991 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`

Plot

Roberts plays Alexander Villard, 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`.[3] Abraham plays Max Suba, 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`,[4] 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.
Cast and crew

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.)

Bill Conti composed the score. Conti had won an 1983 Oscar for the score to The Right Stuff, and is famous for the themes for the 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 work with the Chicago Hope episode Leave of Absence, he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series in 1996.

Directed by Jeremy Paul Kagan
Produced by Marlon Staggs,
Peter E. Strauss
Written by John McDonald,
James Donadio
Starring F. Murray Abraham,
Eric Roberts,
Mia Sara
Music by Bill Conti
Cinematography Arthur Albert
Edited by David Holden
Distributed by Hansen Entertainment
Release dates October 7, 1992 (FR)
May 14, 1993 (USA)
Running time 91 mins.
Language English