By the Sword (1991) on Netflix

Plot summary

Alexander Villard, a former fencing champion, runs a fencing school where the competition is fierce and the training is harsh; at one point he urges a student to injure an opponent in order to win. Max Suba, an ex-convict, comes to the school and presents himself as a fencing instructor. Villard takes him on as a janitor. Over time Suba regains the form he had lost, and Villard, who is arrogant but not unkind, has him spar with an ambitious student to prove a point before letting him teach the beginners. Suba's method differs from Villard's: he tells his students that what they cannot do well can be turned to their advantage. In an in-school competition, one of Suba's beginners scores against Villard's prize pupil.