Swishing Swashbucklers Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Charge of the Light Brigade

"The Charge of the Light Brigade" (1936) was a movie telling the well-known story of the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War. Errol Flynn played the role of Major Vickers, who commanded a storm attack as revenge for a previous ambush. Olivia de Havilland played his love interest.
Errol Flynn was born in Hobart (Tasmania) in 1909. After having tried out various odd jobs, he finally started his acting career in 1933.
His first Hollywood success was "Captain Blood" (1935), in which he played Doctor Peter Blood, convicted of treason and sold as slave. He was sold to Arabella Bishop (role by Olivia de Havilland) and soon captured a Spanish invasion ship. So he turned buccaneer.
"The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938) is Errol Flynn's best known movie. Flynn played the title role, and Olivia de Havilland played Maid Marian.
In "The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex" (1939), Errol Flynn played the role of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex. Olivia de Havilland played the role of Lady Penelope Gray, and it was Bette Davis who played the female title role.
Why did I pick only four movies with Olivia de Havilland? Well, Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland were considered a magnificent duo on the silver screen. Privately they loved one another, but did not have a love affair: Olivia objected because Errol was still married.

Answer: Uma Thurman

All these actresses wielded swords and other blank weapons during these movies.
Uma Thurman (born 1970) played the protagonist, The Bride (whose name Beatrix Kiddo is only revealed in the second movie). On a final rehearsal for her marriage, she was attacked by her former colleagues and left for dead. But after being in a coma for four years, she awoke and went out for revenge...
Lucy Liu (born 1968) played O-Ren Ishii, a Chinese-Japanese contract killer. In the final scene of "Kill Bill: Vol. 1" The Bride and O-Ren Ishii used their swords for a duel in the snow.
Vivica Fox (born 1964) played Vernita Green, the first of her former colleagues The Bride paid a visit. The duel in the kitchen is remarkable: the two women try to kill each other whilst keeping very polite...
Chiaki Kuriyama (born 1984) played Gogo Yubari, a school kid armed with a ball-and-chain flail. She took on The Bride just before the showdown with O-Ren Ishii. 

Answer: Elizabeth Swann

Keira Knightley (born 1985) is an English actress.
She played Elizabeth Swann, the pirate captain of the "Empress" and later pirate king, in the movies "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" (2003), "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" (2006) and "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" (2007). At first her role was that of a teenage girl of wealthy descent, who happened to get entangled in pirate wars quite by accident. But during the movie series, Elizabeth Swann went over to the pirates and became one of the most formidable leaders of those outlaws, and the wife of that other great pirate, Will Turner (role of Orlando Bloom).
Elizabeth Bennet was the main role in "Pride and Prejudice" (2005) and Anna Karenina was the title role in a movie from 2012. Keira Knightley played both these romantic heroines.
Keira Knightley's role as Hélène Joncour was in the movie "Silk" (2007). Hélène Joncour was the wife of a French silk merchant and smuggler who fell in love with a Japanese concubine during one of his business trips.

Answer: Russell Crowe

During the fifties and the early sixties, movie theatres showed one sandal movie after another. The abundance of epic movies set in ancient Greece and in Roman times ended about 1965, with movies such as "Cleopatra" (1963) and "The Fall of the Roman Empire" (1964). But 2000 saw a revival of the genre, with the aforesaid "Gladiator".
"Gladiator" told the story of the Roman general Maximus who fell in disgrace and was sold as a gladiator. After several combats, he was pitted against the Roman Emperor Commodus in person.
Russell Crowe (born 1964) played Maximus, and Joaquin Phoenix (born 1974) had the role of Emperor Commodus.
Jack Huston (born 1982) played the title role in Timur Bekmambetov's movie "Ben Hur" (2016).
James Purefoy (born 1964) had the role of Mark Anthony in the TV series "Rome" (2005-2007).
Michael Fassbender (born 1977) starred as Quintus Dias in "Centurion" (2010).

Answer: Dustin Hoffman

Dustin Hoffman (born 1937) may seem an incongruous choice for such an evil character as Captain Hook. Hoffman is better known for playing the role of an amiable guy, maybe a bit clumsy in social situations (see for instance his roles in "Kramer vs. Kramer", "Rain Man", "The Graduate" and even the scenes in male attire in "Tootsie"). But yet he made a fine performance.
Robin Williams played Peter Banning, the grown up Peter Pan.
Bob Hoskins was in the movie too, as Mr. Smee (Captain Hook's boatswain).
Phil Collins (the musician) had a role as Inspector Good, the policeman investigating the abduction of Peter's children.

Answer: Antonio Banderas

Antonio Banderas (born 1960) was the Zorro we're looking for. In the 2005 movie he played Don Alejandro de la Vega (with the alter ego of Zorro), who promised a nice life without any violent adventures to his wife Elena (role by Catherine Zeta-Jones). But as mysterious villains became active in a plot that might harm the future of California and its inhabitants, Don Alejandro had to put on his black cape and black mask once again.
Anthony Hopkins played opposite Antonio Banderas in the previous movie, "The Mask of Zorro" (1998). Here Don Alejandro had to learn the trade from Don Diego, played by Anthony Hopkins.
Douglas Fairbanks (1883-1939) and Guy Williams (1924-1989) had already portrayed the character of Zorro: Fairbanks in two movies from 1920 and 1925, Williams in the TV series that ran from 1957 until 1961.

Answer: Yes

There is indeed a 1933 movie named "The Three Musketeers", in which the musketeers have been updated to French Foreign Legionaries, and their names have been altered too. The musketeers Clancy, Schmidt and Renard were joined by the American lieutenant Wayne (role by John Wayne) to fight a mysterious villain known as El Shaitan.
Besides the title, this movie shared also the famous motto "All for one, and one for all" with the original novel. But all the rest was quite different to what Dumas intended.

Answer: Star Wars

The "Star Wars" franchise started in 1977 with "Episode IV: A New Hope" (at that time, the episode number was not yet mentioned). The episodes IV - VI were released in the movie theatres between 1977 and 1983, followed by a prequel trilogy (episodes I - III) in the period 1999-2005. The sequel trilogy (episodes VII - IX) started in 2015. The story is roughly the same in each of the trilogies: the sole government falls for the "dark side" (people who do evil), and a small rebel force will engage the evildoers.
The highly trained warriors of both sides control "the Force", which enables them to perform paranormal activity (telekinesis, mind control, precognition...). However, they don't only use these psychic talents to fight one to another, but they also wield the light sabre: a contraption designed as any fencing weapon, but with a blade that consists of pure energy and thus can be far more devastating. Contrary to an ordinary sword, a light sabre will never become dull, and it can never be broken.
According to the Star Wars franchise, it takes someone skilfully trained or highly talented in "The Force" to use a light sabre. Most common soldiers can't master a light sabre and have instead to rely on blasters (high energized guns).

Answer: He is blind

Almost every Japanese is familiar with Zatoichi: a low-ranked person in the 1830s (socially just a bit better off than a slave), who lost his eyesight during childhood. As an adult, Zatoichi gained a living as a masseur and gambler. But few suspected him to be a grandmaster on the sword, and those who found out could nevermore tell anyone...
The character Zatoichi (literally: blind man number one) was created by novelist Kan Shimozawa (1892-1968). The actor Shintaro Katsu (1931-1997) played the role in 26 movies between 1962 and 1989 and in a long TV series (1974-1979).
Takeshi Kitano (born 1947) played the title role in the movie "Zatoichi" (2003), for which he also wrote the screenplay. He directed the movie himself, too. At the movie festival in Venice, "Zatoichi" won the Silver Lion and was nominated for the Golden Lion in the category Best Director.
One-armed fighters do appear in various movies - think about Captain Hook, for instance. Fighters without any legs are very rare. Being deaf is not a very inconvenient handicap for sword fighting, except if an enemy would creep up from behind.

Answer: Toshiro Mifune

Kurosawa (1910-1998) was nicknamed "The Emperor" and was voted the best non-American director by the American magazine "Entertainment Weekly". Kurosawa directed about thirty movies, and for more than half of them he cast Toshiro Mifune as the leading actor. (Only Takashi Shimura appeared in more of Kurosawa's movies).
Toshiro Mifune (1920-1997) starred in "Seven Samurai" as the one who mastered the most sake. He added to the movie a slightly more humourist touch. Mifune also portrayed Toranaga in the TV miniseries "Shogun" (1980).
Ken Watanabe (born 1959) is in the western movie world probably best known for his role in the fantasy "Inception" (2010).
Shin'ichi Chiba (born 1939) has starred as Hattori Hanzo, the sword maker, in "Kill Bill: Vol. 1" (2003) and "Kill Bill: Vol. 2" (2004).
Noriyuki Morita (1932-2005) was not a Japanese actor, but an American from Japanese descent. He starred in the "Karate Kid" series (1984, 1986, 1989 and 1994).