The Fencer

When I first heard about this film, I was rather apprehensive about its portrayal of fencing. Too often such films fall prey to unrealistic swordplay, or to relegating the fencing to some metaphors and maybe a lunge every now and then.

Not so with this movie. Not only are the lessons portrayed in a realistic way, the tournament itself had the feel of an actual tournament and the actions executed looked like they were supposed to. I did notice the modern scoring system was used, but I assume this is so as not to confuse the viewer; the old system kept track of hits scored against a fencer, and as such the numbers would be reversed.

History-wise, it gave a good picture of the time period and the perils in which Soviet citizens found themselves.

In my eyes, the only 'weak point' would be that the underdog story is a rather standard one, but I honestly didn't feel that it detracted from the movie at all.