Well, I see that the reviews for this are all over the place. Some people praising it, others panning it, and no discernible clever-stupid divide (unlike some films on here, where all the reviews of one opinion are full of spelling mistakes and bad punctuation and grammar, and the other side has all the intelligently written stuff).
So here's my two penn'oth on this film. Firstly - for the people who say it's not as good as the originals, of course it isn't. But that doesn't mean it's no good at all. Far from it. It's still the same crew, and the same, definitive, cast - apart from the characters who aren't with us anymore - although Jean-Pierre Cassel does make a cameo appearance as Cyrano de Bergerac!
One thing that nobody else has done on here is compare it to the book. If you look at the reviews for the Three and the Four Musketeers, everybody is falling over themselves to say how closely they stick to the book. This film, on the other hand, does make some big changes to the book "Twenty Years After" on which it is based - possible spoiler alert here, decide for yourself.
Firstly - and most significantly, in the book, the chief villain, Mordaunt, is Milady de Winter's SON. In here, we have her daughter Justine, who as somebody else said, does seem a bit more 20th century than the original, Faye Dunnaway (sp?). Secondly, in the book, Athos' son Raoul was mentioned, and had a very small part - but did not have any influence on the events in the story. His appearance served as an introduction to him in readiness for the Vicomte De Bragelonne trilogy. In the film, his part is built up - enabling him to have a minor romance with Justine (how predictable is that!).
Also, moreover, in the film, Aramis walks out on the others after they discover they were on opposite sides. This doesn't happen in the book - although I did hear somewhere on here that Richard Chamberlain expressed a lack of interest in this film, possibly after Roy Kinnear was killed. So they probably had to rewrite the script to incorporate it. And they didn't quite cover everything - (spoiler ahead) when Rochefort tells Justine the names of the Musketeers, he starts with Aramis, and she acts like she recognises the name. And yet, Mazarin only gives her the names of D'Artagnan, Porthos and Athos. Woops!
Oh yes - that's another thing. In the film, Justine is Rochefort's child, but that was an necessary consequence of the economies made in the original films. But yes - Aramis is away for large chunks of the film, which is probably what caused Raoul's part to be increased.
So - this film is based on the book, but doesn't stick rigidly to it. But in this case, it's not entirely a bad thing. I have read the entire Musketeers saga: The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, The Vicomte De Bragelonne, Louise De La Valliere and The Man In The Iron Mask - and let me tell you, not one of those sequels has anything like the same oomph as the original book. Under the circumstances, I think that all concerned did a very good job. 7/10 for effort - no, 8/10. It is the definitive cast, after all!
So here's my two penn'oth on this film. Firstly - for the people who say it's not as good as the originals, of course it isn't. But that doesn't mean it's no good at all. Far from it. It's still the same crew, and the same, definitive, cast - apart from the characters who aren't with us anymore - although Jean-Pierre Cassel does make a cameo appearance as Cyrano de Bergerac!
One thing that nobody else has done on here is compare it to the book. If you look at the reviews for the Three and the Four Musketeers, everybody is falling over themselves to say how closely they stick to the book. This film, on the other hand, does make some big changes to the book "Twenty Years After" on which it is based - possible spoiler alert here, decide for yourself.
Firstly - and most significantly, in the book, the chief villain, Mordaunt, is Milady de Winter's SON. In here, we have her daughter Justine, who as somebody else said, does seem a bit more 20th century than the original, Faye Dunnaway (sp?). Secondly, in the book, Athos' son Raoul was mentioned, and had a very small part - but did not have any influence on the events in the story. His appearance served as an introduction to him in readiness for the Vicomte De Bragelonne trilogy. In the film, his part is built up - enabling him to have a minor romance with Justine (how predictable is that!).
Also, moreover, in the film, Aramis walks out on the others after they discover they were on opposite sides. This doesn't happen in the book - although I did hear somewhere on here that Richard Chamberlain expressed a lack of interest in this film, possibly after Roy Kinnear was killed. So they probably had to rewrite the script to incorporate it. And they didn't quite cover everything - (spoiler ahead) when Rochefort tells Justine the names of the Musketeers, he starts with Aramis, and she acts like she recognises the name. And yet, Mazarin only gives her the names of D'Artagnan, Porthos and Athos. Woops!
Oh yes - that's another thing. In the film, Justine is Rochefort's child, but that was an necessary consequence of the economies made in the original films. But yes - Aramis is away for large chunks of the film, which is probably what caused Raoul's part to be increased.
So - this film is based on the book, but doesn't stick rigidly to it. But in this case, it's not entirely a bad thing. I have read the entire Musketeers saga: The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, The Vicomte De Bragelonne, Louise De La Valliere and The Man In The Iron Mask - and let me tell you, not one of those sequels has anything like the same oomph as the original book. Under the circumstances, I think that all concerned did a very good job. 7/10 for effort - no, 8/10. It is the definitive cast, after all!