Talking Captain Blood, The Pirates, and The Princess Bride for Swashbuckler Month
Resident Brendans Foley and Agnew have been chatting movies and sundries on the podcast “Make Me Watch It” for the past year and change after years of working the TWO CENTS beat, and decided to do something special for Cinapse’s March Swashbuckler Madness. Having long established a shared love for adventure and derring-do, we raise the Jolly Roger to a trio of buccaneer films that revel in high seas adventure and swordplay. Aside from simply enjoying movies where people in fancy clothes swing swords at each other all fancy-like, we were fascinated to examine how this sub-genre evolved from the page of pulp adventure novels to the silver screen. Not only did it prove a cornerstone for early Hollywood’s capture of public imagination, this potent combination made waves across international cinema as well.
Captain Blood was already the focus of the most recent TWO CENTS Column, and we go into spoilerific detail on why it’s assured its place in film history both for its own quality as well as for its near century-long influence on action and adventure films. We also cover South Korea’s The Pirates, a story of the great hunt for the Royal Seal of Joseon after it’s swallowed by a whale, and the unlikely team of pirate captain and bandit leader who cross paths in their pursuit. Finally, we go long on Rob Reiner’s The Princess Bride, a film that found a moderate audience on release only to evolve from cult favorite to bone-fide classic in the years that followed. Join us for a rollicking time of dashing rogues, swashbuckling seafolk, dastardly villains, and jovial giants in Episode 37: “Murdered By Pirates is Good.”
May the wind be ever in your sails.
