MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

davefaux-03371 This movie suffered, IMO, from being sandwiches between "Jaws" (with Robert Shaw) and "Star Wars" (with the voice of James Earl Jones). It moves along at a quick pace with great sword work, snappy lines, and amazing performances from one of the best ensembles of talent ever put together on the screen. Red Ned's character development has layers (from "I'm a pirate," to "I'm an Irishman," to "Revolutionaries, pirates . . . we're all men"), Genevieve never looked better, and the look JEJ gives Peter Boyle is punctuated by one of the best social justice lines this side of the Seventies. You CANNOT go wrong with this movie!

moonspinner55 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 (an odd dollop of kink is added, along with a threat of castration, to modernize the scenario). Still, Lang 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). Except for a horse cart full of bananas, director James Goldstone doesn't go in for campy laughs--the movie is a fairly straightforward pirate adventure--and yet "Swashbuckler" failed to resurrect the genre as "The Three Musketeers" resurrected Dumas in 1973. Philip H. Lathrop's cinematography (particularly his outdoor aerial shots) is a major asset, and yet a lot more style and gloss was required to put this thing over the top. ** from ****

CromeRose Elliott Kastner, the Executive Producer of this movie, was unfairly disliked by many people in his day, which I believe is what led to many of the critics panning this film (who cares what they say? I like to think for myself). Elliott was a great producer and an amazing entrepeneur, and he was just doing his thing like many others in Hollywood during his heyday. He was one of the most successful independent producers of all time so he must have been doing something right, and perhaps many of the people who disliked him did so out of jealousy. I saw this film for the first time recently and just have to say well done! Robert Shaw is the best pirate ever and James Earl Jones is incredible as his equal, and best friend. It's wonderful to see him so young and full of vitality! Peter Boyle is perfectly over-the-top and what can anyone say about Beau Bridges except Bravo! The film is a rollicking good time with some of the best sword fighting and stunts ever seen in a movie -- the stagecoach off the cliff beats any CGI any day of the week. I think Cutthroat Island (which is not bad in itself) is a ripoff of this film, and even Zorro with the incomparable Tony Hopkins and Catherine Zeta-Jones borrowed a little from the scene where Robert Shaw starts cutting off Genevieve Bujold's clothing in a sword fight. Watch the making of featurette on the DVD and you'll see James Earl Jones come close to serious harm while doing one of the stagecoach stunts. It's incredible. All in all, the critics should leave this movie, and Elliott, alone! Bravo!

Daniel R. Baker There are some movies where stupid things happen in order to give us thrills, chills, or tears. Swashbuckler is not that kind of movie. This is a movie that is just stupid, without any payoff gained by being stupid.You want to know how it's stupid? Try lines like, `I have one master; his name is Darkness.' Then, to make the line even worse, don't deliver it in the over-the-top, cackling manner of someone who might be insane enough to really believe it, but instead in Peter Boyle's flat Pennsylvania accent.The movie's idea of excitement is to match larger than life heroes not against larger than life villains, but against useless stumble bums who could have been defeated by any jerk with a pocket knife. The movie's idea of romance is simply to display Genevieve Bujold's body, with no emotional exchange of any kind going on between her and Robert Shaw. The movie's idea of humor is to have Robert Shaw and James Earl Jones sit on rocks and tell each other bad limericks.The portrayal of women in Hollywood action movies has not been an uninterrupted forward progression, as Genevieve Bujold proves here. Her principal job is to be held hostage by the incompetent villains. She is given a sword a few times, but she is useless with it. If Bujold had taken on Maureen O'Hara in any of her roles from The Black Swan, At Sword's Point, or Against All Flags, O'Hara would have taken about five seconds to run her through.It is a crying shame that there are so few good pirate movies out there. The 1990 and 1950 versions of Treasure Island are about the best there are. Pirates of the Caribbean and Cutthroat Island are silly, but genuinely fun. Beyond that, even the so-called classics of the genre have little to recommend them: The Black Swan has a revolting hero, and Captain Blood is rendered bearable not by Errol Flynn's most wooden performance, but by the energetic villainy of Basil Rathbone. But even The Black Swan and Captain Blood look great compared to Swashbuckler.