The Three Musketeers (1973)
Grade: 78
There have been many film versions of the Alexander Dumas classic, but Richard Lester may have directed the best one. A great looking movie, the costumes, sets and cinematography are also backed up with an excellent cast, a solid script, and some good slapstick and action scenes.
The story takes place in renaissance France. Young, energetic D'Artagnan (Michael York) leaves home to seek his fortune as a swordsman. He makes friends with three musketeers: world-weary Athos (Oliver Reed), comically arrogant Porthos (Frank Finlay), and chivalric Aramis (Richard Chamberlain). Their enemy is aristocratic schemer Cardinal Richelieu (Charlton Heston), who plots to prove the infidelity of the Queen (Geraldine Chaplin) to the King (Jean-Pierre Cassel) to increase his own power. The Queen's lover is Englishman Duke of Buckingham (Simon Ward). Racquel Welch plays the Queen's handmaiden. Faye Dunaway is entertainingly evil as Milady, who along with proud Rochefort (Christopher Lee) is part of Richelieu's intrigue against the Queen.
As you might expect, there are many swashbuckling scenes. Lester does his best to give them variety, changing the sets for each swordfight. One takes place in a forest at night, another by a windmill, another in a tavern, another by a castle among fireworks. Comic slapstick is cleverly mixed among the tragedy of injury and death by the sword.
While the Musketeers fight for France, the King, and the Queen's honor, they do have other interests. D'Artagnan is obsessed with Welch (who can blame him?) while the others are not above gambling and plundering. Their adventurous and fearless spirit is charming in this more cynical age.
Perhaps "The Three Musketeers" is too plotty, with an overabundance of characters. Perhaps the slapstick could be more effective at times, and perhaps the King is just too stupid. The setting seems more like England than France, since so many of the cast are Brits (Reed, York, Finlay, Lee, etc.). These complaints are more than compensated for the quality of the direction, sets, costumes, cast and screenplay.
"The Three Musketeers" had a sequel, "The Four Musketeers", which was released in 1975. It was no problem to reassemble the cast, since the two films were made at the same time. This resulted in a lawsuit when the sequel was released, since the cast had only been paid for a single film. "The Return of the Musketeers" (1989) was an unsuccessful second sequel reuniting much of the original cast.
briankoller@usa.net http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html http://www.epinions.com/user-briankoller
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