Customer Reviews
Wonderful film - shame about the version! - By: M. Bunter, 18 Apr 2007 
This film (and the Four Musketeers) have to be amoungst my favourite films. Richard Lester's direction is wonderful, it looks ravishing, & the performances are excellent, with Reed being particularly good. It is a delight from start to finish.
But frankly, this version is a disappointment. It is little better than seeing it on video, with an OK print (although perfectly watchable). But it is the extras which reallly let it down. Where are the extras? Contrast this with the US release of both films as a set by Anchor Bay. They have 'The Saga of the Musketeers' - an excellent two part documentary on the films, together with 'The making of the Three Musketeers', trailers, TV & radio spots & a stills/poster galllery. It's not even much more expensive than buying the two Uk DVD's.
I have the US (Region 1) set, & its a delight. The UK releases are never more than OK. The films are wonderful, but frankly we've come to expect more than just the films (excellent though they are) - perhaps Anchor Bay could think about releasing the double version in the UK as well.
A classic telling of a classic story. - By: , 27 Jul 2003 Everyone knows the classic story, & it is told with a joy & verve in this film. The times are faithfully recreated, it's obvious the makers had a real passion for the era. So many little period details are clustered on screen you have to watch it many times to get the full enjoyment. The film feels like chaos, background action mixing with foreground, the characters on the fringes getting some classic lines as they watch the musketeers & cardinal's guards demolishing the scenery. The fight scenes are a world away from the clean stylised kung fu based scrapping so prevalent nowadays. Instead the duelling often degenerates into brawls, feeling much more real & human than anything before or since (except possibly for THAT scene in Bridget Jones!).
The stars of the film evoke their characters perfectly, from Faye Dunaway as the duplicitous Milady to Oliver Reed as the tortured Athos (a signature role for Reed). Michael York is perhaps a little old for D'Artangnan, but he carries the passionate naivety wonderfully.
The film is a fabulous blend of comedy & darkness, the two complementing & highlighting each other. It is a perfect adventure film & you should buy it now!
A Swashbuckling Masterpiece - Part 1 - By: Bob Manning, 02 Mar 2003 I first saw this movie on a Saturday afternoon with my three best friends, thirty years ago. We alll wanted to be d'Artagnan, but I guess the closest I came was Planchet...
I have no words to convey how much I love this movie & the follow-up, The Four Musketeers. Filmed back-to-back, they are perhaps the last great big-budget, super-cast adventure movies of the 20th Century. They portray 17th-Century France (and England) in terms far more realistic than Gene Kelly's 1948 production, if not entirely true to Dumas's novel.
Michael York is excellent as the young d'Artagnan, newly arrived in Paris with the expectation of following in his father's footsteps as a King's Musketeer. Along the way he encounters the villainous Comte de Rochefort (Christopher Lee), the musketeers Athos (Oliver Reed in possibly his best role), Porthos (the excellent Frank Finlay) & Aramis (a superbly tongue-in-cheek Richard Chamberlain) & most notably the manipulative Cardinal Richelieu (Charlton Heston) & finds himself emroiled in a plot to disgrace the Queen of France involving the Cardinal's agent, Milady de Winter (Faye Dunaway).
With the assistance of his friends & alllies, including his loyal & long-suffering servant, Planchet (the late Roy Kinnear) & mistress Constance (Raquel Welch in a perceptive comedic role), d'Artagnan embarks on a mission to retrieve the diamond studs from the Queen's lover, the Duke of Buckingham, & save the Queen's honour & that of France.
The resulting story by George MacDonald Fraser is, quite simply, a rollicking adventure (never thought I'd use that expression) that no-one should miss.
Latterday remakes such as Disney's Kiefer Sutherland - Charlie Sheen effort cannot hold so much as a match, let alone a candle to this epic.
I've waited since the advent of DVD for these movies to appear - extra features or not, they should be part of every collection.
Buy the movies, then read the book - I guarantee you'll be hooked...
