Jacques Tourneur's The Flame and the Arrow may be my all-time favorite swashbuckling film. It contains everything that I love about the genre: exciting action, charismatic heroes, despicable villains, and an overall sense of fun. This was a movie designed to entertain and it succeeds. The film was a breathe of fresh air after watching so many modern, bloated action blockbusters. It's nice to see a filmmaker who keeps his camera steady and refuses to unnecessarily edit during acrobatic action scenes. I had almost forgotten that there was a time when action leads had to be able to do actual stunt-work. Well, maybe not the actual actors. But it's nice to know that actual human beings were doing legitimate acrobatics and tumbling on-camera.
8/10
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