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coNrusrNc enough that Thp Three Musketeers has four musketeers, but every movie version actually has five: The stor/s^
four, plus the real-life sword master who trains the actors. And so, for the latest re-

It's

"having one of the principals do his own stunts made lthe filmmakers] very weird from an insurance point of view."
Under Anderson's instruction, actors be-

make, let's hear

it for

gin with slow-motion choreography, then

gradually build up to real-time movements. For Musketeers that process took a month, and Anderson, to his delight, found his students eager learners. "Chris O'Donnell became very athletic and gymnastic," he says. "Kiefer Sutherland got really wrapped up in his role-he couldn't wait for the sword action to happen. Charlie Sheen was very precise, very technical. And they couldn't have picked anybody better than Oliver

Athos, Porthos,

Aramis, D'Artagnan...and Anderson.

That's Bob Anderson, the ?l-year-old former British Olympic fencer and coach, who for the past 40 years has taught the likes of Enol Flynn, Sean Connery, and Mandy Patinkin the art of parry and thmst. Anderson not only staged the light-saber
duels

n Thp Em,pire Strikes Bacle and Re-

EPEE

celrrR:

Anderson coaches

turn of thn Jed;i,he actually donned Darth

Vader a^rmor for the fighting scenes.

0'Donnell (left) and ilichael

llincott

"That's not very well known," Anderson says. Vader actor David Prowse explains that he did his own swordplay in Star Wars,but when the movie became a hit deserving of sequels,

Platt for Por"thos. He's a fun man, with a whole bag of tricks and gimmicks." But Anderson's students rarely take up the sport seriously. "Actors almost never d.o,,' he says. "They enjoy the make-believe." Louece

-Frank