Here for the first time is a book that defines the historical adventure movie, one of the most enduring and mythically significant American film genres. Despite the popularity of historical adventure since the early days of filmmaking, never before has this Hollywood genre been analyzed in a comprehensive manner. Adventure's array of subgenres--swashbucklers, tales of pirates, the sea, exploration, and the building of empires--are discussed in films as diverse as "Robin Hood," "The Three Musketeers," "Rob Roy," "Zorro," "The Count of Monte Cristo," "The Buccaneer," "Mutiny on the Bounty," "Captain Horatio Hornblower," "The Charge of the Light Brigade," "Gunga Din," and many more.