ON GUARD (2002), dir. Philippe de Broca

“On Guard” doesn’t exactly re-invent the swashbuckling adventurer, but it’s entertaining in a big-budget movie-ish kind of way. The film stars a very Depardieu-looking Daniel Auteuil as Lagardere, a roguish swordsman who goes from outlaw to hero, discovering friendship, honor, and love along the way.

Written and directed by Philippe de Broca, “On Guard” practically threatens to sweep us away with its magnificent scenery and sense of grown-up intrigue. Lagardere is initially hired to assassinate his rival, the Duke of Nevers (Vincent Perez), who is master of an invincible fencing technique that involves running through an opponent’s forehead (apparently, there is a weak point). After sparing his life, Nevers reveals he has an heir whom he did not know about until recently, and hires Lagardere to accompany him into the countryside to visit both the child and its mother.

The pair bond during the course of their journey, the lord growing to admire his social inferior’s rise from poverty: Born a bastard, Lagardere was raised as a circus acrobat, where he honed his considerable fencing skills. The Duke eventually knights him, and when it looks like some masked men on horseback are going to ambush them, teaches him the devastating Nevers Attack. Unfortunately, even that is not enough to ward off tragedy, and Lagardere is left responsible for Nevers’ infant daughter, whom he names Aurore and raises as his own until the day justice can be served.

It takes about 14 years for the day of retribution to arrive; however, that’s about par for the course with any sword-fighting movie where vengeance is the driving motivator. The refreshingly simple plot is buoyed by near-operatic performances by Auteuil and his cast-mates: indeed, Auteuil not only has some of the same shaggy dog qualities as Depardieu, but like that famous French actor, attacks his role with fire and passion. On the other hand, the main villain, a scheming cousin of Nevers’ who wants the family fortune all to himself, is rotten inside and out and near-irredeemable by film’s end. The Count Gonzague (Fabrice Luchini) not only plots to cheat and/or kill his relatives, but bilks the public through a non-existent colony abroad, surrounds himself with scarred killers and hunchbacks, and when ultimately cornered, won’t even face Lagardere like a man.

Meanwhile, Aurore has grown into a beautiful, strong young woman (played by Marie Gillain), raising the question: if the man whom you thought all your life was your father turned out not to be that, what would you do? Some may find the answer creepy; some may view it as merely an example of impossible romance, which befits a movie where characters seemingly wear their hearts on their sleeves. Personally, I think de Broca is trying to provide a counterpoint to Gonzague, a rat born to a noble house. By contrast, Lagardere, who arrived in the world with little in the way of advantages, gets the opportunity to sit pretty because he does the right thing.

“On Guard’s” old-fashioned moral code goes hand-in-hand with an old-fashioned shooting style. In an age where swordfights can be chopped up to near-indecipherable results in the editing room, here they are shot in long, continuous takes from a distance, so the viewer really gets to see the fluid movements of participants. Unfortunately, filming them this way also means there’s less of the frenetic energy swashbucklers like “Pirates of the Caribbean” have in abundance; even when de Broca punctuates with a foil through the noggin, the blood spurt is more like a period than an explanation point.

Overall rating: *** (out of ****)