The Three Musketeers (1993)

Produced by Walt Disney Studios and loosely based on the Alexandre Dumas père epic 'cloak and sword' romance novel, "The Three Musketeers" is a lighthearted action / adventure flick plenty of humor with a good cast of (then) young stars, some of them coming from previous collaborations such as "Young Guns" or "Flatliners".

Director Stephen Herek ("Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure"; "The Mighty Ducks") and the screenwriter David Loughery ("Dreamscape"; "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier") gave it a modern twist to some of the dialogue and situations and the result is a fresh take on an all time classic, a 'popcorn flick' that entertains without insulting the audience.

The characters are colorful enough; the humor works; the pace is frantic and the action sequences are mostly, well done, the movie never gets boring and the cast delivers appropriate performances, from the over the top cheesy villain of "Mr. Rocky Horror Picture Show", Tim Curry as the malevolent Cardinal Richelieu to the more serious in tone, but way effective, Rebecca De Mornay as Milady de Winter.

Chris O'Donnell & Gabrielle Anwar, fresh from their breakthrough roles alongside Al Pacino in Martin Brest's "Scent of a Woman", play respectively D'Artagnan and Queen Anne of Austria, with Hugh O'Connor (the young Christy Brown in "My Left Foot") as her husband, King Louis XIII of France. O'Donnell displays well on-screen the reckless Gascon who dreams to be an honored Musketeer like his late father.

Charlie Sheen and Kiefer Sutherland, together again after "Young Guns", play the (not so) religious Aramis and the regretful Athos, with Oliver Platt stealing all the Three Musketeers' scenes as the flamboyant 'bon-vivant', Porthos. Sheen got the top billing due to his star status back in '93, but his character is the emptiest in story arc and the Musketeer with less screentime (and less memorable, too).

Michael Wincott, forever the 'baddie' ("Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves"; "The Crow"; "1492 - Conquest of Paradise") is once again, excellent portraying an evil character as Captain Rochefort.

Julie Delpy's role as Constance is too small for even get some consideration and Paul McGann in the dual role of the D'Artagnan's fellow Gascon with a feud, Girard and one of the Cardinal's guards, De Jussac plays both differently as if it were not the same actor.

In short, if a viewer wants to watch a more sober, closer to the book and much longer adaptation of this all time classic, should check the Salkind's produced epics of the 70's directed by Richard Lester and starred by Michael York as D'Artagnan; Oliver Reed as Athos; Richard Chamberlain as Aramis; Faye Dunaway as Milady De Winter and Charlton Heston as the Cardinal, if not, and just want to spend less than 2 hours of pure escapism, this version is the one to get.

Fans of movies such as "Young Guns", "The Rocketeer", "The Mummy" or "The Mask of Zorro" will appreciate this unpretentious, but entertaining flick.

Fmovies: All right, let's get down to brass tacks here. What does the 1993 adaptation have in common with the source novel? Practically nothing. (What else did you expect from a Disney film?) The characters' names are the same, the character traits remain to a lesser degree. And...well, that's about it.

Now, I love the novel. As a relatively sophisticated reader/movie goer, I know I should really take the movie to task for removing pretty much all of the depth and color of Dumas's story and interpreting everything in basically the most cartoonish and two-dimensional manner possible. I really should.

But...

I just can't let this movie go. It's a rollicking, fast-paced swashbuckler with a decidedly old-fashioned feel. The use of vibrant color, the grand and elaborate sets, the simple yet energetic action sequences; I'm reminded of a sweeping adventure film MGM might have made in the forties or fifties.

The cast is particularly strong, and all the actors seem to be having a ball in their roles. Kiefer Sutherland is perfect for the brooding Athos; Charlie Sheen is wry as the pious Aramis; and Oliver Platt chews the scenery as the arrogant, eccentric Porthos. Chris O'Donnell, as the ambitious D'Artagnan, interjects himself quite ably into the group dynamic, and the four leads develop great chemistry with one another throughout the film. Tim Curry and Michael Wincott soar to great heights in their cartoonish villainy, and Rebecca De Mornay is alluring and tragic as Lady DeWinter.

Michael Kamen's score is romantic and bombastic and triumphant--perfect for the tone of the film. Heck, I even like the Rod Stewart/Bryan Adams/Sting collaboration, "All For Love," that plays over the credits--clearly calculated to help the soundtracks sell copies, but dammit, I still believe in their sincerity! (Well, maybe sincerity is too strong a word.) The Three Musketeers, inaccurate an adaptation though it may be, is still a fast-paced, lighthearted thrill ride like you just don't see too often anymore. I hate wrapping these reviews up, so I'm just going to stop here. Bye.

I am aware that there is a book of The Three Musketeers, but I haven't read it, so it doesn't matter...what matters is the film itself.

Now, as I have made absolutely clear in the summary above, there are a few movies that are so good that I feel like re-watching them as soon as the credits role. And as I have made clear blahdeblahdeblah...this is one.

The atmosphere is mad and more fun than a barrel of chimpanzees on LSD. The underground dungeons with flaming torches and people sticking their arms through the sardine-like grids and the eeeeeeeeeeevil villains who are shown as ruthless from the word go, are textbook cheese, and just what is needed in this film.

Straight away, we are thrown into the action, with some very pleasant surprises. Chris O Donnell as the hotheaded D'Artagnian, Keifer Sutherland as the (fairly) straight-headed Athos, Oliver Platt as the bonkers but ingenious Porthos (with tricks up his sleeve that come out of nowhere such as a triple-bladed dagger), Charlie Sheen as the religious Aramis, the beautiful Julie Delpy as lady-in-waiting constance, Tim Curry and Michael Wincott as the classic bad guy double-act (with evil villain and secondary baddie with eyepatch), even Paul McGann in a hilarious double-role, sometimes playing a leader in the Cardinal's guard, but mostly playing a wuss who has it in the neck about his sister's 'honour' with D'Artagnian (and was clearly never breastfed by his mother). Not to mention the hilarious mullet that Hugh O Connor sports as the king of France!

The entire film consists of swinging thin swords about, jumping onto moving carts and up and down walls while swinging said swords, meeting beautiful women, and with an exciting climax at the end. If you've read the book, good for you. I hope you enjoyed it. But if you're devoted to it, then avoid any contact with this film. It's action all out romp where the brain does not have to work hard, but just sits back, relaxes, and escapes. If you want deep 'real-life' and 'gritty' stuff, then forget it. This film has none of that. Good vs bad, simple as that.

I'll be honest, I deeply loathe, despise and detest Disney Fairy stories (though animations such as Toy Story and The Lion King get a thumbs-up from me). Having said that though, the mouse house do a damn fine line up in feel-good action romps such as this one and Pirates of the Caribbean, and if you disagree then dive head first into a hospital surgery bin.

The Three Musketeers fmovies. This is a very ordinary version of The Three Musketeers. Film versions of classic novels should at least bear some resemblance to the plot of the novel from which they are adapted, even if they are just pot-boilers intended for a family audience like this one, and not meant to be taken too seriously. But this is a very loose adaptation indeed.

The acting is just up to the level required and the dialogue is a mix of pseudo-17th century and contemporary Americanisms which fail to convince the viewer that he/she is watching a picture set in 17th century France. Though the production is quite a handsome one, with the sets, locations, and costumes all nice to look at, the characters are not well-drawn, in particular those of Cardinal Richlieu, portrayed as an out and out villain, admittedly enjoyably, but with little depth, and D'Artagnan who is played as naive, arrogant and pompous and not as a particularly likable character.

Other comments stress that this is a Disney picture made for the family, but that should not save it from criticism. Compare it with Disney's Treasure Island, or Kidnapped, both much superior adaptations. Nor have they helped children understand the novel. Because it is so loosely based they would hardly recognise it as The Three Musketeers if the characters' names had been changed, though I do agree that film adaptations don't have to follow the source novel absolutely faithfully.

But is it entertaining? Yes and no. The villains are hiss-able, Aramis, Arthos and Porthos are sometimes entertaining, despite the questionable dialogue they are given, and Richlieu, though often over the top, has his moments. The action scenes are OK but not done with any great verve compared with the Richard Lester version. Milady does not feature as a really central character in the plot as she should and in fact many of the novels' characters do not appear in the film at all.

Read the book and see the 1973 version and forget this one if you are over 16.

This is what Swashbuckling is all about. It's not a book. It's Hollywood and it's a cartoon. That's what the writer, director and actors envisioned. It's what they portrayed. The basic triumph of good over evil, of justice over self-serving malice. Escapism! And in that light, it's brilliantly done. Come on, it's not a literary masterpiece, nor was it intended to be. It's every child's vision of The Three Musketeers. No different than Burt Lancaster in The Crimson Pirtate. Just plain fun! Have you ever known any real heroes? The archetype is men or women who laugh in the face of danger, give all for those who are weaker and have an attitude of irreverence for all they encounter. They don't think of themselves as greater than others. They just know what their responsibilities are, and they execute them. Sheen, Platt, Sutherland, and O'Donnell all act this out in expert fashion.

I particularly liked the evil performances of Rochefort (Michael Wincott) and Cardinal (Tim Curry). The rest of the cast includes plenty of A-list types such as Keifer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, Oliver Platt, Rebecca DeMornay, Gabriel Anwar, and Chris O'Donnell. There are more great one-liners in this movie than a Clint Eastwood film, a Sean Connery film, and a Arnold Schwarzenegger film combined. This movie is definately worth seeing and worth owning. Again, Tim Curry and Michael Wincott's performances really do it for me. Evil!