xhonzi said:

We just watched the Lester/Salkind Three and Four Musketeers.

And the fight choreography... is weird. I'm not sure if it's intentional, or perhaps a bunch of actors refusing to take sword fighting lessons, but they are, to use the words of my wife, "total spazzes" in the fights. It's possible it's more realistic than the slick choreography of today's films... but it looks really random and that basically the good guys win out of sheer luck.

I LOVE the fight choreography in these movies. It's messy, and dirty, and you win out of sheer gusto rather than excellent choreography.

No doubt there are many master swordfighters throughout history, but I'm willing to wager that a good portion of swordfights were more like in these movies than they were like "The Princess Bride."