The Three Musketeers (1973)
Indisputably the best adaptation of The Three Musketeers
ever committed to celluloid, this film actually began life as
a potential vehicle for (no joke) the Beatles. Thankfully, their
involvement did not come to pass. Instead, the producers settled
on the closest thing to a perfect cast, for each of the actors
playing the Musketeers extracts the sharp individualism of their
characters with both class and distinction.
Michael York carries the role of D'Artagnan from bumbling country
bumpkin to deadly leading man with both vigor and passion. The
rough-hewn Oliver Reed makes an appealing Athos, Richard Chamberlain
invests Aramis with smooth elegance, and the comedic Frank Finley
provides many laughs as the foppish Porthos. Raquel Welch turns
in a tremendously funny performance as D'Artagnan's bimboish
love Constance, while Faye Dunaway oozes vanity and malice as
the wicked Milady de Winter. We are also treated to a darkly
sinister Rochefort in the person of Christopher Lee. But Charlton
Heston gives the best performance in the film as Cardinal Richelieu,
portraying the corrupt cleric with refinement and graceful menace.
Directed by Richard Lester (Superman II) the film manages
a razor sharp balance between camp and drama, and composer Michel
Legrand wraps the production in a clever, period-flavored score.
Imaginative set pieces are featured throughout the film, and
the action scenes resonate with ferocity (such as the sword fight
in the palace laundry and the duel between Athos and a malicious
drunk amidst the treacherous mechanisms of a windmill). The film
also addresses the crudeness of 17th-century life (witness the
bystander who gets in the way of a chamberpot being dumped from
above), yet reminds us that not much has changed since then,
for people still love, quarrel, kill and play tennis.
Infinitely better than the 1993 "brat pack" re-make (or the recent The Musketeer), this film will inspire, enthrall, and entertain, in a way that few films in this genre ever do.
Paul Andrew MacLean
© 2002 
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LadyJanet@RenaissanceMagazine.com