The Complete Musketeers

Spain - U.K. - Panama / 1973, 1974 Directed by Richard Lester Starring Oliver Reed, Michael York Raquel Welch, Richard Chamberlain Charlton Heston, Christopher Lee Color / PG THREE MUSKETEERS: 107 Min. FOUR MUSKETEERS: 107 Min. Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC / 2-disc set) Anchor Bay Entertainment

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		Review by Brian Lindsey

Three     8 Four     9     10

Flashing swords. Heaving bosoms. Dastardly plots. Heroes you can cheer. Finally, director Richard Lester's superb retelling of the oft-filmed Alexandre Dumas classic gets the home video treatment it deserves.     The companion films The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Four Musketeers (1974) were originally planned (and shot) as a single feature but were later divided into two separate movies released less than a year apart. This was actually a fortuitous move by the producers despite the resulting lawsuits filed by some of the actors. (They felt they'd been cheated by being paid only once for appearing in a single 3 hour-plus film. I bet ya Chris Lee was one of 'em.) Though both are suffused with the slapstick, madcap humor characteristic of Lester's work the two 'halves' are actually quite different in tone. The Three Musketeers is a joyous, action-filled romp with tongue planted firmly in cheek. The Four Musketeers, though possessing its share of humor, brings a decidedly darker, more serious aspect to the story than its counterpart. Together they encompass what is to my mind the very best film version of the Dumas novel, perhaps the most popular work of fiction ever published. Much of this is owed to screenwriter George MacDonald Fraser, author of the wonderful Flashman books. The perfect choice to adapt this story for the screen, he jettisons most of the novel's subplots but retains Dumas' spirit of adventure and intrigue intact.     Virtually every aspect of The Three Musketeers comes together in near-perfect harmony: the approach to the material, the production design and period detail, the music, the script, and (especially) the stellar cast. It follows the adventures of naive "country bumpkin" D'Artagnan (Michael York, Zeppelin) from his first arrival in Paris to his induction in the King's Musketeers. In between he gains loyal comrades, falls in love, makes powerful and dangerous enemies, fights in a series of brawling duels, and becomes embroiled in palace intrigue. Not too bad for a young upstart, dressed in rags, who first showed up in town with an empty purse and riding a swaybacked yellow horse! ("...Or perhaps it is a cheese with legs.") He's greatly aided by his newfound friends — brooding, world-weary Athos (Oliver Reed), the gregarious braggart Porthos (Frank Finlay), and Aramis (Richard Chamberlain), a dandy who hopes to become a priest should he ever give up brawling, gambling, and wenching. These veteran musketeers, with their motto of "One For All and All For One", show D'Artagnan that true comradeship is more valuable than any amount of treasure or elevated station in society. While earning the trust and respect of these worthy fellows with his blade, the headstrong Gascon (ebulliently played by York in a very physical performance) takes time to fall head over heels in love with Constance (Raquel Welch), the impossibly beautiful — and klutzy — young wife of his decrepit landlord, M. Bonacieux (the hilarious Spike Milligan). As dressmaker to the Queen of France, Constance has been acting as confidant and messenger to Her Majesty in the royal's secret love affair with the Duke of Buckingham (Simon Ward), prime minister of England. Thus she is targeted by the powerful Cardinal Richelieu (Charlton Heston), who wishes to embarrass the queen to further secure his grip on the reins of state. Though King Louis XIII might sit on the throne of France it is Richelieu who wields the real power. His word is Law. Louis (Jean-Pierre Cassel) is a complete idiot, an insufferable, pantywaisted twit, so it's up to his chief advisor, the Cardinal, to handle the dirty work of statecraft. This includes crushing a Protestant revolt at La Rochelle while preventing a sympathetic England from intervening on the rebels' behalf. He plans to strike at England through Buckingham and at Buckingham through the adulterous queen (Geraldine Chaplin). Constance must be squeezed for information and the duke compromised. Richelieu assigns the task to his two deadliest operatives, Count Rochefort (Christopher Lee) — "the Cardinal's living blade" — and the beautiful, seductive spy Milady de Winter (Faye Dunaway). Their plot is frustrated, however, as brave D'Artagnan and his three friends have pledged their swords and their lives to protect not only Constance but the honor of their queen.     Fun from beginning to end, The Three Musketeers is a boisterous action-comedy populated by a superb cast, winningly directed and marvelously scored. Though not exactly bending over backwards to maintain historical accuracy, the period detail of the film is marvelous. In this version the Paris of 1625 doesn't look like a Hollywood set. The streets are as shabby and filthy as the common folk that inhabit them. Our heroes aren't exactly champions of righteousness, either. Men of action with an infectious joie de vivre, they enjoy nothing better than risking all at the gaming table or tumbling into bed with an agreeable wench — when not perforating the Cardinal's guards, that is.     After a brief recap narration (by Frank Finlay's Porthos) The Four Musketeers picks up the second half of Dumas' novel, with D'Artagnan now officially enrolled in the king's service. His army besieging the rebels at La Rochelle, Richelieu is determined to prevent any meddling by the English before the city falls. He dispatches Milady de Winter to London with orders to assassinate Buckingham if necessary. But she has a price — carte blanche to dispose of D'Artagnan and "the slut Bonacieux" as she sees fit. Together with her lover Rochefort, Milady seeks the ultimate revenge on those who foiled her schemes in the past. Our heroes, in between dodging musket balls at La Rochelle, must once again outwit the Cardinal's henchmen to save the day. But this time the stakes are higher. And tragedy is in the offing.     The Four Musketeers is much darker than the first film. Main characters actually die. The price of victory is more than just a flesh wound and a few bruises. The film maintains a cheeky sense of fun but at a more subdued level. I actually prefer it for this reason, as some of the slapstick in The Three Musketeers goes a bit over the top. (You could say the first installment is more Marx Brothers than Flashman.) It's also capped by one of the greatest swordfights in movie history, when D'Artagnan and archenemy Rochefort square off mano a mano in their final confrontation. Michael York and Christopher Lee performed this grueling sequence without the benefit of stunt doubles, something that would never happen in our age of quick-cut editing and CGI. My chapeau is certainly doffed in respect.     As it is for the entire production. I absolutely LOVE these movies; have for 30 years. They've got it all — action, laughs, thrills and romance with a pinch or history thrown in for good measure. They're not perfect by any means but close enough for a choice Cuban cigar. The few missteps that are made never really detract from the fun. (As mentioned, for my tastes the slapstick antics are piled on just a tad thick in Three. The first film also sees a potentially interesting sequence — a swordfight at night — completely undermined by too much lighting. Four treats us to some less-than-convincing fake snow in one scene, while Richelieu's troops bombard La Rochelle with explosive cannonballs... a glaring anachronism for that period of warfare. The faux cannon don't recoil, either.) But in this case I'm not here to quibble. These are great movies, y'all. That old cliché — "They just don't make 'em like this anymore" — was never truer.

Anchor Bay serves up a wonderful package with its new 2-disc set. In terms of A/V quality the nearly flawless transfers are unquestionably superior to the old Fox Lorber single DVD editions. Both anamorphic widescreen (1.77:1) and full-screen versions of each film are included on the discs. The mono audio tracks are surprisingly full-sounding, especially in regards to the music, ambient sound effects and Lester's trademark ancillary dialog by characters 'on the margins'. Easily, this is the best the Musketeer films have ever looked and sounded on home video.     The set is loaded with great extras. Each disc comes with a photo/still gallery, a selection of trailers, TV/radio spots and well-written talent bios of Lester and the principal cast. Disc 1 contains a short promotional featurette, The Making of The Three Musketeers, which was shot at the time of production. The crown jewel of the extras is a much lengthier, recently filmed documentary, The Saga of the Musketeers, spread into two parts over both discs. Each part covers the individual films respectively, with the recollections of the participants intercut with numerous film clips. Weighing in with their thoughts and anecdotes are producer Ilya Salkind, executive producer Pierre Spengler, production designer Brian Eatwell, and actors Michael York, Frank Finlay, Raquel Welch, Christopher Lee and Charlton Heston. Though far from exhaustive, with a tendency to gloss over any negatives (the ill-fated 1989 sequel, The Return of the Musketeers, is barely mentioned), the documentary should prove a joy for fans. Lee, to no one's surprise, comes off as the surliest of the performers, openly bitching about his "modest" fee some 30 years later. He does have a point, though... For the swordfighting actors in the film (and Lee does a lot of it), this was obviously an incredibly arduous and exhaustive shoot. 3/10/03

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