Lawrence Ellsworth 
Cinema of Swords [EPUB ebook] 
A Popular Guide to Movies about Knights, Pirates, Barbarians, and Vikings (and Samurai and Musketeers and Gladiators and Outlaw Heroes)

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 culturewhether Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings or Star Warsswashbuckling 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.