Crossed Swords: Sexy Film Swashbucklers

It's not easy being a sexy swashbucker. In addition to being able to swing a sword, they have to move like an acrobat, and they have to do all this while keeping their demanding outfits looking good (do you have any idea what it's like to iron ruffles using 19th century technology?)

And yet, even with all those challenges, we've seen a number of big screen swashbucklers who were very appealing to watch, sometimes moreso than their movies. Here are some of our favorites:

Logan Lerman, Matthew Macfadyen, Ray Stevenson and Luke Evans, The Three Musketeers

Sure we've seen The Three Musketeers before, but when were they able to move like this, flying through the air, parrying blows while balancing on rooftops and shooting cannons at a rapid-fire pace? The mix of wire harnesses and flying rapiers makes an already-speedy battle even more dizzingly breathtaking and increases the "dashing" factor by quite a bit.

Antonio Banderas, The Mask of Zorro

The masked crusader known as Zorro was a man of Spanish descent, but it took 78 years for Hollywood to make a Zorro movie where he was actually played by a Spaniard. They certainly found a man who could look good even when most of his face is covered by a mask.

Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, Oliver Platt and Chris O'Donnell, The Three Musketeers

There have been plenty of versions of the Musketeers, and in the 90's we got a blockbuster that reunited Charlie Sheen and Keifer Sutherland, who last worked together as Wild West outlaws in Young Guns, along with then-It Boy Chris O'Donnell.

Christopher Atkins, The Pirate Movie

You're most likely to find The Pirate Movie on the movie shelves that include copies of Xanadu, Mommie Dearest and The Lonely Lady. At least this musical comedy had Christopher Atkins (another former It Boy who never lived up to the hype. These swashbuckling movies are dangerous to a film career) in his usual various states of dress and undress, to distract us from noticing that The Pirate Movie is pretty much what you'd expect to see when Hollywood decides to reimagine The Pirates of Penzance with the guy from The Blue Lagoon, and the daughter from that soap opera where every episode was a very special episode. If only producers decided to wait a few years to make The Pirate Movie, they could have saved a lot of money by just ordering the men's costumes from an International Male catalog.