5.0 out of 5 stars
Richard Lester's Three Musketeers, May 24 2012
If this is not the best film adaptation of one of the world's great stories, it's hard to imagine what could be better. Richard Lester is faithful to the story, both in narrative and feel. This is two full movies in one, a fact that apparently got the director in trouble, and the second is darker in feel than the first, exactly as with Dumas's novel. Some of the most swashbuckling men available play the musketeers, and who wouldn't love Charlton Heston as Cardinal Richelieu or Raquel Welch as Mme Bonacieux? The visual feel and handling of action is marvellous - while the swordplay is great, d'Artagnan and friends are just as likely to drop their opponents with a kick to the crotch, wet laundry or a winebottle. Forget Batman and see some real superheroes.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
NEW LIONSGATE SET HAS THE EXACT SAME DISC CONTENT AS THE ANCHOR BAY SET (BUT CHEAPER AND IN A STURDIER CASE), Jun 3 2010
Yes, rejoice one and all, for this new Lionsgate edition of, The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers have the EXACT same disc content as the Anchor Bay collection (except for a duller silk screen on the discs, light grey with etched writing) same menus, same extras (the new making of documentary actually says, Anchor Bay presents) but in a two disc plastic case (the size of a single disc case) with no chapter card (where as I believe the Anchor Bay set had the chapter lists inside the cardboard, flip open style case, with the plastic disc holders that tended to make you almost brake the discs trying to unlock them) but who ever uses the chapter search cards anyway.
So this is the set to get if you're looking to purchase these movies.
Hope this helps :)
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Incomplete Musketeers, Sep 15 2003
By A Customer
This is the best version of Dumas' "The Three Musketeers", not only by virtue of the cast and script -- it also, despite the heavy doses of slapstick, is the most faithful to the novel. At the time it was a daring move to have one long movie released as two. In retrospect, it was a bad idea, since the movies should be seen as a whole. Seen as two, they make up a slapstick ("The Three Musketeers") and a dark drama ("The Four Musketeers"). Seen together, the two blend well as one.
Richard Lester, who is an interesting if not always good director, does a superb job here. He handles the slapstick well, and he and the writer Geo. MacDonal Fraser (yes, the "Flashman" guy) do a great service by not only making each sword-fight scene interesting, but keeping them individual (there's a sword-fight on the ice in "The Four Musketeers" that has to be seen to be believed).
In 1989, fifteen years after these movies, the same cast, director and writer came together again for an abbreviated, single-film version of "Twenty Years After" called "Return of the Musketeers" (it's too bad Roy Kinnear and Oliver Reed are gone so they can't do "The Man in the Iron Mask"!). This film is not included, but it's a small loss. It's interesting to devotees of the original movies, but not necessary viewing for everyone.
The cast of "The Complete Musketeers" is awesome. Michael York, years before he was Basil Exposition, was a the promising young actor of the time. The three musketeers (Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain and Frank Finlay) are wonderful (although one may carp about Finlay's Porthos). And though it was the movie that proves she could act, Raquel Welch, the reigning sex goddess of the day, also has her more prominent assets on display in low-cut bodices. Christopher Lee, who has recently added "Star Wars","Lord of the Rings" and Mervyn Peake's "Gormenghast" to his credits, here makes a threatening Rochefort. Charlton Heston, Faye Dunaway and the rest are uniformly excellent. This is one of the best movie treats of the 1970s.
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