Looking for the greatest swashbuckler movies? Well, you aren’t alone. Dashing rogues, expert swordsmanship, always a damsel in distress – these are the hallmarks of the swashbuckler picture, the mother of all action-adventure genres. But, with so many swashbuckler films in the canon of world cinema, which of them stand the test of time?
Often spun from English folklore or French literature, swashbuckler movies usually entail valiant rogues who don’t hide from the shadows but instead fight for freedom (either theirs or a whole nation’s) in broad daylight. The heroes of swashbucklers are experts in European fencing and happen to be adept gymnasts, which makes you wonder exactly where they learned to hone their footwork without an Olympic balance beam. Because of their roots in historical literature, most swashbuckler stories are period pieces, set in eras of tremendous societal change.
But most important to the swashbucklers are their hearts. They are romantics at their core, often falling in love with the wrong person and fighting for a better world so that they might live happily ever after. Swashbucklers are like fairy tales, in a way, but with a lot more style. From Robin Hood to those famed Musketeers, here are the 32 greatest swashbuckler movies ever made.
32. Van Helsing
Year: 2004
Director: Stephen Sommers
When you think “swashbucklers,” you probably think of Robin Hood and Zorro before you think of Van Helsing. Most of the best vampire movies usually depict the famed vampire hunter as an elder academic. But in Stephen Sommers’ big and noisy 2004 movie, the title hero, Van Helsing, becomes a dashing gothic ranger loaded with ridiculously sick weapons (including a modified crossbow). Hugh Jackman takes a break from his run in the X-Men franchise to lead this period action-horror, opposite Kate Beckinsale. Van Helsing is dumb fun but scratches the itch for those looking for spookier thrills than the usual swashbuckler movie offers.
31. Cutthroat Island
Year: 1995
Director: Renny Harlin
Cutthroat Island has dubious recognition as one of the biggest disasters in Hollywood history. The 1995 movie, which revolves around a woman (Geena Davis) racing against her uncle (Frank Langella) to find treasure, notoriously endured a troubled production akin to a pirate ship in mutiny: multiple (and costly) script rewrites, a crew of nearly two dozen who abandoned Harlin over a dispute, and injuries sustained by its stars including Davis. That critics panned it, and it failed to make any splash at the box office was sea salt in the wounds of those who made it. But Cutthroat Island has aged shockingly well over the years, offering old-fashioned Hollywood spectacle and escapist romanticism that hit like a cannonball blast.
30. Three Musketeers
Year: 2011
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
There have been countless movie adaptations of Alexandre Dumas’ enduring D’Artagnan novels. 2011’s Three Musketeers is perhaps the least popular of all, being panned by critics for what they saw as another big-budget popcorn fare with little new to offer. But Paul W.S. Anderson, best known for video game movies and casting his wife Milla Jovovich in everything he works on (here, she plays Milady), gives the 19th-century adventure some much-needed 21st-century pizazz. Luke Evans, Ray Stevenson, and Matthew Macfayden also make an entertaining trio as uniquely masculine Musketeers.
29. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Year: 1991
Director: Kevin Reynolds
When Kevin Costner was riding high as Hollywood’s biggest star, just after Field of Dreams and Dances with Wolves but before The Bodyguard, he became the legendary Robin Hood, who returns from the crusades to find that the Sheriff of Nottingham (Alan Rickman) is scheming to take the throne of England for himself. While Costner caused a minor kerfuffle over his refusal to adopt an English accent and selected to use his American speaking voice instead, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is a handsome if unambitious production that retells the Robin Hood story for a modern period in Hollywood. Though it comes off too stiff for a swashbuckling picture, Prince of Thieves, no doubt appeals to those who spend way too many summers at Renn Faires.
28. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Year: 2006
Director: Gore Verbinski
After bringing pirates back to Hollywood with the 2003 hit Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, its cast and director Gore Verbinski reunited for the 2006 sequel Dead Man’s Chest. While Dead Man’s Chest doesn’t reach the same creative heights as its predecessor, its dark undercurrents introduced by tentacled deep-sea villain Davy Jones (Bill Nighy, in mesmerizing VFX makeup that hasn’t aged a single day) give it atmosphere and scope few swashbucklers ever achieve. Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, and, of course, Johnny Depp – whose Captain Jack Sparrow desperately tries to cheat death from the Kraken – return for a second round that didn’t delight critics but entertained its fanbase. Dead Man’s Chest boasts some of the most memorable scenes fans still adore. It’s so much more than a jar of dirt.
27. The Scorpion King
Year: 2002
Director: Chuck Russell
Spinning off from The Mummy films, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson leads in his breakout movie as the formidable Mathayus, an ancient brawler and last survivor of his people who rises to become “The Scorpion King” in pre-pyramid Egypt. It’s truly no wonder how Dwayne Johnson wound up one of the biggest movie stars of all time, as the wrestler-turned-actor successfully lays the smackdown as a big screen swashbuckler with infinitely more protein than the Errol Flynns and Douglas Fairbankses before him. While The Scorpion King spawned its own franchise of lesser sequels, the first with “The Rock” has the most muscle on its bones.
26. The Crimson Pirate
Year: 1952
Director: Robert Siodmak
Billed as “The Robin Hood of the Seas,” Burt Lancaster makes the ocean run red in The Crimson Pirate as Captain Vallo, a pirate leader whose plan to infiltrate and betray the rebel leader “El Libre” in the Caribbean, goes up in smoke when Vallo meets the ravishing daughter of El Libre, Consuelo (Eve Bartok). The Crimson Pirate is quintessential Golden Age goodness, an escapist affair that makes the most of a swoon-worthy Lancaster and a drop-dead Bartok who fall in love against lush backdrops of Caribbean villages and endless oceans. If you want to see where Disney got its cues for the original Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyworld, look no further.
25. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Year: 2010
Director: Mike Newell
The awkward optics of Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead role aside, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time just barely passes the bar as a wholly entertaining action movie that throws it back to the cinematic swashbucklers of yore. Based on the acclaimed 2003 video game (itself a reboot of the landmark 1989 PC game), Gyllenhaal stars as Dastan, the adopted son of ancient Persia’s king who goes on the run in search of a dagger that grants access to the Sands of Time, a tool to turn back time. While dismissed by critics as a simple-minded blockbuster, Prince of Persia’s got style in spades.
24. The Return of the Musketeers
Year: 1989
Director: Richard Lester
15 years after helming The Four Musketeers, director Richard Lester picks up where he left off in his popular adaptations of Alexandre Dumas’ famous D’Artagnan Romances. Closely mirroring the premise of Dumas’ 1845 novel Twenty Years After, The Return of the Musketeers sees the dashing swordsmen reunite to save the life of King Charles I (Bill Paterson). But it’s not as easy as it sounds, as the Musketeers have drifted apart and suffer from personal animosities that keep them from being the heroes they were. Full of quick-witted humor and equally quick swordplay, The Return of the Musketeers proves there’s nothing old-fashioned about old-fashioned heroes.
23. Scaramouche
Year: 1952
Director: George Sidney
Never turn your back on Scaramouche, who will not do the fandango. Based on Rafael Sabatini’s 1923 novel and a remake of the 1923 film version, Scaramouche tells the story of André Moreau, who seeks revenge on the swordsman Noë, Marquis de Maynes (Mel Ferrer) for killing his best friend. Upon joining a theater troupe where he portrays the classic clown Scaramouche, Moreau trains with his old rival’s fencing teacher to exact his revenge. Full of swordplay, wordplay, and horseplay, Scaramouche is a Technicolor delight that lives up to the novel’s opening lines: “He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.”
22. The Iron Mask
Year: 1929
Director: Allan Dwan
In the early days of talkies and movies synced with sound, The Iron Mask disarmed audiences with sequences featuring audible dialogue and a synchronized score with a theme song. But beyond all that novelty is Douglas Fairbanks, who returns from 1921’s The Three Musketeers (directed by Fred Niblo) as D’Artagnan in this adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ The Vicomte de Bragelonne: Ten Years Later. When King Louis XIII’s queen births twin sons, one of them is imprisoned in an iron mask, leading D’Artagnan and the now-retired Musketeers to rescue him. Fairbanks is in tip-top form as D’Artagnan in a true classic of the Golden Age.
21. The Mark of Zorro
Year: 1940
Director: Reuben Mamoulian
Much has been said about the 1920 film The Mark of Zorro, which turned Douglas Fairbanks into a star in his portrayal of the vigilante outlaw of old Spanish California. But the 1940 remake, which stars Tyrone Power in the lead role, has etched its own legacy in cinema and popular culture, not the least of which is canonically inspiring Bruce Wayne to become Batman. While there’s no touching the Fairbanks classic, Tyrone Power exhibits verve in the now-verbal role, with his Don Diego, a quick-witted rogue in a way that makes it clear where the quippy Marvel superheroes got their cues from. The final sword fight between Power and Basil Rathbone (as Captain Esteban Pasquale) is also an all-time great sword fight in cinema history.
20. The Three Musketeers
Year: 1973
Director: Richard Lester
While it nearly starred The Beatles, Richard Lester’s The Three Musketeers remains a mostly faithful retelling of Alexandre Dumas’ landmark 1844 novel, albeit with more laugh-out-loud hijinks for fun. True to Dumas’ book, the movie follows young D’Artagnan (Michael York), who meets and then befriends the three musketeers (played by Oliver Reed, Frank Finlay, and Richard Chamberlain) during a tumultuous period in historical France. It’s hard to imagine the Liverpool rockers in breeches and holding rapiers, which is why it’s for the better Lester’s film recruited real actors like Richard Chamberlain, Oliver Reed, and Frank Finlay to be the all-for-one. It is also perhaps the definitive movie interpretation of Dumas’ stories, at least until Martin Bourboulon released his duology decades later.
19. Stardust
Year: 2007
Director: Matthew Vaughn
In this glittering action-adventure fantasy based on the Neil Gaiman novel, Stardust follows a young man named Tristan (Charlie Cox) from an English town that unknowingly borders a world of magic. Hoping to impress his crush, Tristan tries to obtain a fallen star, only to find the “star” is an enchanting young woman (Claire Danes) being pursued by witches and self-serving princes who seek her power. Although Stardust failed to draw a big enough box office, it has wound up a cult classic thanks to its charming romance and storybook sensibilities in a way that is strikingly reminiscent of The Princess Bride.
18. Krull
Year: 1983
Director: Peter Yates
Sure, it’s a bit “We have Star Wars at home,” but Krull is a cult ’80s classic that strives to fuse science fiction and swashbucklers in a way not even George Lucas imagined. Director Peter Yates helms this space fantasy adventure where Ken Marshall stars as Colwyn, a prince who fights to save his bride, Princess Lyssa (Lysette Anthony), from the clutches of alien invaders. But before he can do that, he must retrieve a fabled weapon called “The Glaive.” More medieval than Excalibur and more kitschy sci-fi than Star Wars or Flash Gordon, Krull is endearingly derivative in a way you can’t help but respect.
17. The Sea Hawk
Year: 1940
Director: Michael Curitz
Errol Flynn is in his element as Captain Geoffrey Thorpe, the dashing privateer who captures a Spanish vessel carrying Spain’s ambassador and his beautiful niece, Doña Maia (Brenda Marshall). After being captured and enslaved in a Spanish galley, Thorpe escapes and embarks on a final mission to win his freedom. The Sea Hawk isn’t the most memorable collaboration between Flynn and director Michael Curitz. But it is effortlessly entertaining as a big screen escapade into the historical rivalry between England and Spain that unfolded on the high seas.
16. Robin Hood: Men in Tights
Year: 1993
Director: Mel Brooks
Unlike some other Robin Hoods, Cary Elwes can speak with an English accent. Robin Hood: Men in Tights is the work of comedy auteur Mel Brooks, who imprints his unique brand of slapstick satire and anachronistic gags onto the swashbuckler genre. Just two years after Kevin Costner played a comically miscast Prince of Thieves, Elwes shows Hollywood how it’s done with a swaggering Robin Hood who woos Maid Marian (Amy Yasbeck) and hangs with Achoo (Dave Chapelle) while toppling the reign of terror of the false king, Prince John (Richard Lewis). Though a farce at heart, Robin Hood: Men in Tights doesn’t cease to impress. It’s simply worth all the noise.
15. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
Year: 2007
Director: Gore Verbinski
Messy, bloated, and oppressively long – they just don’t make them like they used to. The third entry in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, sees the world’s pirates strike up an uneasy alliance to rescue Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and wage a final battle with the East India Trading Company. Being the most expensive movie ever made at the time – with an eye-watering budget of $300 million – At World’s End was simply too big to fail, even if critics and fans alike were not taken hold by its overwhelming crisscrossing stories and grim tone. But in hindsight, the movie’s grand scale, operatic vision, and time-tested visual effects make it more a gem than a relic of late 2000s Hollywood.
14. The Count of Monte Cristo
Year: 2002
Director: Kevin Reynolds
Just as Alexandre Dumas’ Three Musketeers has seen countless movie adaptations, so too has his 1844 novel The Count of Monte Cristo. Jim Caviezel stars as the guiling sailor Edmond Dantes, whose plans to marry Mercedes (Dagmara Dominczyk) are interrupted after he’s betrayed by his jealous friend (played by Guy Pearce). In prison, Edmond swears revenge and, upon escape, transforms into a wealthy noble to satisfy his vengeance. While Kevin Reynolds’ movie makes plenty of changes to the books, which enrage the Dumas faithful, The Count of Monte Cristo is a solid costume revenge epic.
13. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Year: 2022
Director: Joel Crawford
A legacy sequel to a forgotten spin-off from the Shrek series seemed like a long shot to be an Oscar contender. Yet 2022’s Puss in Boots: The Last Wish saddles up to the challenge, bringing back Antonio Banderas’ swashbuckling tabby cat for a surprisingly deep story about trauma and wellness (while still being appropriate for families). Set long after the events of Shrek, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish picks up from 2011’s Puss in Boots to follow the title hero (Banderas), who seeks to restore eight of his nine lives through the magical Wishing Star while racing other creatures after the same prize. With a distinctly Spider-Verse-inspired art style, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish dusts off an old story to unearth something entirely new.
12. The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
Year: 1958
Director: Nathan H. Juran
Its image of an adventurer battling sword-wielding skeletons endures to this day. The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, which kicked off Columbia’s Sinbad series based on Middle Eastern folktales, follows the title hero Sinbad (Kerin Mathews), whose wedding to Princess Parisa (Kathryn Grant) is interrupted by a sorcerer, who casts a spell over Sinbad’s would-be bride and promises to undo it after Sinbad retrieves a lost lamp. With revolutionary visual effects by the legendary Ray Harryhausen, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad is irremovable as an effects feast for the eyes.
11. Baahubali: The Beginning
Year: 2015
Director: S.S. Rajamouli
When Hollywood fell out of love with swashbucklers, Indian filmmakers took up the baton to unleash countless new action-adventure tentpoles that live up to the genre’s chivalric spirit. In 2015, director S.S. Rajamouli shepherded Baahubali: The Beginning, at the time the most expensive Indian movie ever made. The story follows Shivdu (Prabhas), a free-spirited man raised by rural villagers who discovers his royal heritage. RRR fans will find plenty to love in Rajamouli’s own Baahubali, with cranked-up heroics and comic book physics that feel infinitely more real than Hollywood’s plastic tentpoles because of the sincere heart at the root of it.
10. The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan and The Three Musketeers: Milady
Year: 2023
Director: Martin Bourboulon
Just when you thought the 2020s had fallen out of love with rogues wielding rapiers, in comes French filmmaker Martin Bourboulon to breathe fresh life into Alexandre Dumas’ stories. In this new two-part adaptation of the Three Musketeers story, Bourboulon’s The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan follows the young protagonist (played by François Civil) who meets and aligns with the Three Musketeers (played by Vincent Cassel, Romain Duris, and Pio Marmaï) to ensure a future for France. The sequel, The Three Musketeers: Milady, more closely follows Eva Green’s Milady, as France faces the threat of British invasion. Bourboulon’s handsome duology closely adheres to the revolutionary spirit of Dumas’ storytelling, making it one of the finest versions of The Three Musketeers ever put to screen.
9. The Black Pirate
Year: 1926
Director: Albert Parker
Douglas Fairbanks is in his prime in The Black Pirate, a 1926 release that arguably set the foundations for all buccaneer blockbusters that followed. Fairbanks stars as a nobleman who survives a pirate attack and swears revenge against its crew. He adopts the identity of “The Black Pirate” for himself and gains their trust before revealing his true identity. One of the most important movies of the silent film era, The Black Pirate sees Fairbanks relish in the pageantry and pizazz of his craft. Before Tom Cruise and Jackie Chan, there was Douglas Fairbanks, sliding down ship sails with a sword – a stunt that’s been often imitated but never replicated.
8. John Carter
Year: 2012
Director: Andrew Stanton
While a science fiction movie on paper, 2012’s John Carter is a swashbuckler at heart, and not even a miscast Taylor Kitsch can change that. Produced by Disney with the hopes of launching a new franchise, the wildly expensive John Carter – adapted from Edger Rice Burroughs’ pulp novels and directed by Andrew Stanton – follows a Confederate veteran who finds himself displaced to Mars, where he gets caught up in a planetary civil war. Lynn Collins co-stars as Dejah Thoris, the Princess of Mars. Though John Carter flopped in an astonishingly big way, the movie enjoys a devoted cult fanbase who relish the movie’s pulp aesthetics and grand romanticism. In the same year that Marvel’s The Avengers broke records, John Carter was the dirge for swashbucklers to officially yield the floor.
7. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Year: 2003
Director: Peter Weir
Peter Weir’s Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World did not successfully launch a franchise based on Patrick O’Brian’s 20-book Aubrey-Maturin series. That’s a shame because imagine what 20 whole movies of Russell Crowe soaked with salt water could do for the swashbuckler genre. Set during the Napoleonic Wars, Master and Commander chronicles the friendship between Royal Navy mates (played by Crowe and Paul Bettany). Though it misfired at the box office, a cult audience now salutes Master and Commander for the overlooked genre classic it is.
6. Captain Blood
Year: 1935
Director: Michael Curitz
Errol Flynn, in one of the finest movies of his prolific Golden Age era career, stars as Dr. Peter Blood, a physician who is captured and enslaved in the Caribbean. Upon his escape, he becomes a feared pirate who challenges the authority of colonial governance and falls for the beautiful Arabella (Olivia de Havilland). Hoping to win Arabella, who is the niece of a governor, Blood must reluctantly use his buccaneer talents to defend England from the French. Captain Blood launched Flynn’s stardom, banking on the then-unknown actor who shouldered America’s anxieties during the Depression as a man who loses it all before winning it all.
5. The Mask of Zorro
Year: 1998
Director: Martin Campbell
Zorro long ago made his mark, but in 1998, Martin Campbell revived the famous Spanish swordsman in the legacy sequel/reboot The Mask of Zorro. Antonio Banderas stars as Alejandro, a lowly thief who takes up the mantle of Zorro from a retired Don Diego (Anthony Hopkins) to carry on his legend. Foreshadowing both the revival of swashbucklers (with blockbusters like Pirates of the Caribbean) and the imminent rise of superheroes, The Mask of Zorro entertains as popcorn movie perfection thanks to direction by Campbell, a ravishing Catherine Zeta-Jones (as love interest Elena Montero), and expert swordplay choreographed by Bob Anderson, whose fingerprints would later be all over the Lord of the Rings movies.
4. Peter Pan
Year: 1953
Director(s): Hamilton Luske, Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson
Yo-ho, yo-ho – is the pirates’ life for you? The landmark Disney animated classic Peter Pan is still full of fairy magic even now, long after its original release in 1953. Based on J.M. Barrie’s 1904 play, the movie follows several London siblings who are whisked away to Neverland by the mischievous flying spirit Peter Pan, where they encounter other children who’ve never grown up and pirates who risk smiling at crocodiles. Though its depictions of Indigenous Americans are regrettable, Peter Pan is hard to ignore as a movie that popularized pirates for generations of children. And fans of Once Upon a Time have the show to thank because there’d be no hunky Hook without it.
3. The Princess Bride
Year: 1987
Director: Rob Reiner
It is, dare we say, inconceivable to imagine a world without The Princess Bride. From director Rob Reiner and based on William Goldman’s 1973 novel, The Princess Bride tells of servant turned rogue Weasley (Cary Elwes) who rescues the beautiful Princess Buttercup (Robin Wright) from an evil prince (Chris Sarandon). The whole movie is framed as a bedtime story told by a grandfather to his sick grandson (Fred Savage), whose icy cynicism towards a corny love story slowly thaws. A swashbuckler in spirit, The Princess Bride proves a good romance never goes out of style. It’s also one of the best comedy movies ever made, so the film is a must-watch.
2. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Year: 2003
Director: Gore Verbinski
Once upon a time, an expensive movie based on an old animatronic ride at Disney’s theme parks was deemed a risky gamble. In hindsight, it’s a stroke of genius. In 2003, Gore Verbinski gave grit and gravity to the old Pirates of the Caribbean ride with Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, a lavish old-school swashbuckler with top-tier production value and skillful filmmaking. The movie revolves around the rescue of Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley), the daughter of a governor, by a notorious pirate, Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), and a swordsmith (Orlando Bloom) with pirate blood of his own. Along the way, they learn of a supernatural curse that keeps the damned crew of the Black Pearl unnaturally alive. Whether it’s your first watch or one millionth, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl keeps its shine like stolen Spanish gold.
1. The Adventures of Robin Hood
Year: 1938
Director: Michael Curitz
It’s impossible to put into words how much Errol Flynn, as Robin Hood, changed everything. The actor was godsent to play rogues with a flair for the theatrical, and no character embodied that archetype more than the legendary outlaw of English folklore. A seminal blockbuster, Flynn is in arrow-sharp shape as Robin Hood, who returns from the crusades to cease the oppression by Prince John (Claude Rains) over the land. A textbook case of an actor and material working in sync like few movies ever do, The Adventures of Robin Hood is owed flowers by everything that’s come after it, from Star Wars to Prince of Persia and beyond.
