The Three Musketeers

Rating:
Summary: Superb and historically faithful
Review: The praise heaped on the splendid retelling of "The Three Musketeers", its cast, crew and director are all well deserved, to be sure. However, the lion's share of credit should go to George MacDonald Frasier, who lovingly translated the long, dense original novel to a cinematic form that is both intensely entertaining and startlingly faithful to the source material. Frasier is the author of the "Flashman" historical novels as well, and fans of the 3 & 4 Musketeers are well advised to take a flyer on Flashy. Much of the same mixture of scrupulous history and unscrupulous comedy can be found there.

Rating:
Summary: Buckle Your Swash for this Wonderful Adventure-Comedy
Review: This is one of those movies I just don't get tired watching. And every time I do watch it (having first seen it in the theater at age 8), I find myself overlooking the appalling, horrific conditions of 17th century France to wish I were one of these capable, independent, honorable, heroic, and really totally cooly dressed men. As so magically portrayed by the screenplay, the costuming, the cinematography, and actors, the story was and remains totally enthralling. It just looks like so much fun, despite the dangers.

From the enthralling slow-motion opening credits, with their evocative title fonts and matching yet almost haunting sound accompaniment, you know you are in for a thorough well-done and promising film.

The women look absolutely fantastic, every single one of them, even the hand maidens, even (most) of the peasant women. Most of the men also look fantastic in their meticulously recreated costumes, especially the musketeers. Whether the costuming and overall placement of the movie is historically accurate I am not qualified to address, but the look and feel of the film is consistent throughout and deeply, richly presented. A great deal of this comes from the cinematography, the film treatment and other technical details as well, further testament to the expertise of these filmmakers.

Attention to detail is precise and meticulous throghout the film. This is best shown with interior shots, such as the book carousel in the musketeer captain's office, the games of chance inside the cabaret/club, and D'Artagnan's dank lodgings. The portrayal of contemporaneous technology is also very well-done, as shown by the periscopes (with its upside-down rendering of the image), the lift outside the musketeer captain's office, and the Queen's servant-driven carousel.

The fight scenes are exhilarating and earthy, with rapiers and foils used as clubs and even thrown as distractions, with good old fashioned hand-to-hand mixed in very well. The debonair swordplay of the traditional, Fairbanks-era swashbucklers is absent; the fights are staged to communicate to the viewer that all fighters are consummate swordsmen. The fight settings also are inspired, ranging from a convent courtyard, a laundry, a crowded roadside tavern, and the inspired lantern-illuminated pitch-black of a nighttime country road.

The story is surprisingly complex; its Macchiavellian twists require some attention. The film does move along well enough without a full understanding of the details of the plot, but is much better enjoyed if one knows the characters' motivations and goals.

The comedic aspects of the film are probably the most endearing and best-remembered. There is plenty of physical slapstick, such as D'Artagnan jumping out of a window onto a rising work platform, assassins dropping blindly from a tree, Porthos' post-duel sliced hat, etc. Taking the comedy a step further are the short, anonymous asides by extras and fringe characters. This is best illustrated by the hilarious passageway mutterings of the dwarves (just observed in the previous scene with trays of food fastened to the tops of their heads), with one of the little guys muttering something about punching someone in the throat. This technique is highly reminiscent of the street-scene asides so well done in the film adaptation of the Broadway comedy "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To The Forum." Both the physical comedy and the asides come together near the end, with the palace servants muttering, "He tore our carpet" after D'Artagnan unsucessfully attempts the traditional swashbuckling pull-the-rug-out maneuver during his attempt to enter the palace.

I strongly recommend this film to anyone and everyone, especially those with a taste for a less-than-serious approach to adventure. The film is great, great fun. For anyone who has seen and enjoyed this film, I strongly recommend the original novel by Alexandre Dumas, which is available as an FTP online.

Rating:
Summary: A great comedy-swashbuckler.
Review: This movie adds to Dumas' book, the one thing it lacked: humor. The whole story is treated as a bit of a farce and it is the better for it. Good acting, spectacular fights and great sets and an excellent score make this one a pleasure to watch, even after you have seen it a dozen times. The Three Musketeers is the first in a series of three movies made by Richard Lester and his team and in my opinion it is the best. While the next two are quite good, the story necessarily becomes darker and looses the lightheartedness of this first one. A spectacular piece of work.

Rating:
Summary: A Spectacular Action/Adventure-Comedy- A Must See
Review: This movie has it all: action, adventure, comedy. The cast is outstanding and it brings out some of the best performances in some individuals careers like Michael York, Rachael Welch, and Richard Chamberland. The direction by Richard Lester is excellent.

Based on the Alexandre Dumas novel, this film is the best adaptation ever. It is so far superior than the "brat pack" version with Sutherland, Curry, and Sheen, that one wonders why another version was even attempted.

The story begins with D'Artagnan setting off to be a musketeer. He ends up being an embarrashment and has three duels, with the The Musketeers, played by Oliver Reed, Chamberland, and Frank Finely (Finely, in my opinion, gives the best performance in the movie). Because of the Cardinal's guards, the four unite and soon, they are friends going off to England to save the Queen's honor and stop the evil plot of Cardinal Richelieu (played by Charleton Heston).

This movie is a true blast and is followed up by "The Four Musketeers" where Milady (played by Fay Dunaway) tries to bring the ruin of D'Artagan.

Rating:
Summary: A Spectacular Action/Adventure-Comedy- A Must See
Review: This movie has it all: action, adventure, comedy. The cast is outstanding and it brings out some of the best performances in some individuals careers like Michael York, Rachael Welch, and Richard Chamberland. The direction by Richard Lester is excellent.

Based on the Alexandre Dumas novel, this film is the best adaptation ever. It is so far superior than the "brat pack" version with Sutherland, Curry, and Sheen, that one wonders why another version was even attempted.

The story begins with D'Artagnan setting off to be a musketeer. He ends up being an embarrashment and has three duels, with the The Musketeers, played by Oliver Reed, Chamberland, and Frank Finely (Finely, in my opinion, gives the best performance in the movie). Because of the Cardinal's guards, the four unite and soon, they are friends going off to England to save the Queen's honor and stop the evil plot of Cardinal Richelieu (played by Charleton Heston).

This movie is a true blast and is followed up by "The Four Musketeers" where Milady (played by Fay Dunaway) tries to bring the ruin of D'Artagan.

Rating:
Summary: Clean, clear reproduction with few extras
Review: This sumptuous production has been underserved in previous video and TV versions. This DVD allows the viewer to clearly see previously muddy visuals (especially in the sequence where D'Artagnan chases the Duke in the rain) and to hear all the clever asides that Richard Lester threw in. However, you will find few extras; a commentary from Lester would be terrific.