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From the Salkind's producers and director Richard Lester a marvelous adaptation of Alexandre Dumas's venerable classic cloak and dagger novel. We are in 1500's France. It's the history of the gascon D'Artagnan (Michael York), new musketeer that is earned, the trust of Athos (Oliver Reed), Porthos (Richard Chamberlain) and Aramis (Frank Finlay) and of the Queen of France (Geraldine Chaplin) for which it recovers the necklace given to her lover English Duke of Buckingham (Simon Ward). D'Artagnan and the musketeers makes to fail the plot for to compromise the Queen, giving let-down to Cardinal Richelieu (Charlton Heston) and to perfidious Milady (Faye Dunaway). Unconventional and amused adaptation of the novel of Dumas, signed from George MacDonald Fraser, that it stirs gag exited from the slapstick tradition (D'Artagnan passes under a tree: they jump twenty persons down and nobody succeeds to take it) to realistic notations able to destroy heroic mythology of the book of Dumas (not is a crash in which the duelists they respect the rules); the film was turned in Spain with to the successive "The Four musketeers-The Revenge of Milay" (exited but the following year). This movie is a super-production realized with funds Panamanians in which they melts perfectly the thoughtless sense of humour and calligraphic reconstruction of age; the costumes are wonderful than women hair styles. The Lester's direction gives to movie a pleasant climax free and easy that balances the visceral intensity of the story placed in this violent and dangerous historic period. This show was a funny mix of action, adventure and comedy; He respires a welcome breezy spirit adventurous watching the vicissitudes of D'Artagnan and her fellows between duels with swords, betrayals, conspiracies and love affaires. The choreography of the battles and duels by William Hobbs is marvelous and Michel Legrand's score also combining elements of authentic Renaissance music is a solid and right job for this film. The all-star cast is a very shining list of major stars of the 70's including Christopher Lee as grim Compte Rochefort, wonderful Raquel Welch as Constance Bonaciuex, Spike Milligan as her comic husband, Roy Kinnear as Planchet, Simon Ward as the Duke of Buckingham, Jean-Pierre Cassel as Louis XIII. All the players gives the stunning performances especially Michael York as superb D'Artagnan, Oliver Reed as charismatic Athos and great Charlton Heston in a unusual for him role as the evil Cardinal Richelieu. He was clever deliciously treacherous without overacting. There are the amusing performances by Frank Finlay as fun-loving hedonist Porthos, an absolutely comic Spike Mulligan but especially by amazing Raquel Welch as York's beautiful, but clumsy love interest. The splendid Raquel never was a great actress but was known mainly for her provoking beauty; here surprisingly she demonstrates a unsuspected comic talent; she's certainly in her finest role. On the other end of the spectrum is an icy Faye Dunaway as the calculating and seductive wicked and vicious Milady.
"The Three Musketeers" was scripted, contracted and filmed as one enormous movie, but was divided into two features to be released 8 months apart. The Salkinds are afraid of the movie's too long duration; for the film's commercial success had been better to have two movies shortest. Salkind's flippant decision to split their show into two features causes few problems to the tale's unity but this choice he showed winning because "The Three Musketeers" and the sequel "The Four Musketeers: Milady's Revenge" were been triumphs for Lester and the Salkind's. The split works quite well although same incongruities (Faye Dunaway's presence as the evil Richelieu's accomplice is the most lopsided, hardly showing up in the first movie and dominating the second); but finally the two chapters of the story have different tones, with a meet fun tone of the first giving way to more serious plot developments in the second when Milady tries to take one's revenge towards D'Artagnan and the musketeers.
The Lester's Musketeers films are very and original fine entertainments.
score 8/10
seanmallory-1 26 April 2005
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1067963/ |
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30-11-2019 13:18:12
