Fight Clip Club: 4 Musketeers

All for one, and one for Christopher Lee

I thought of this fight last week when in conversation on Substack, where I asked what fight I should cover next for Fight Clip Club, as I had run out of super exciting ideas myself. Christopher Lee came up, and as he’s one of the best cinematic swordfighters in history, I thought I should bring this fight to the Club, as I must confess I don’t know how well known this movie or this particular fight is, for a layperson. We fight guys have watched it (or at least this fight) over and over—it’s fight goals for a lot of us, even to this day, but I don’t know how obscure this might be for a ‘normie.’

What makes it so good as a model swordfight is in its phenomenal performance as well as production value. It’s extremely well acted, and it’s so refreshing to see period-accurate weapons and costumes used the way they would be. The rapier with the dagger in the off-hand, the way our hero’s blade gets broken by a swift move with the parts of the dagger that are made to do this, when the blade is safe to touch with gloves on and when it cuts through, and especially the pain of the wounds and the fatigue levels are brilliantly portrayed. 

And then there’s that shot of the two fighters circling each other within a pool of stained glass light, in the church? Chef’s kiss. Here, let me show you: