DVD
Review | Complete Musketeers, The Written by:Kage
Alan
It was a movie with a running time so long that
they had to break it up into two separate films, which resulted in a
number of lawsuits from the cast who believed they should have been
paid for two features. That does make sense, but it’s a wonder nobody
thought to question the length when they saw the script. Hmm… Well,
the same production team who would later bring us the “Superman” films
also struck gold with this wonderfully entertaining adaptation.
When country boy D’Artagnan (Michael York) arrives
in Paris with dreams of serving the King, it doesn’t take more than a
couple of hours before he’s challenged to three duels. His
challengers? Athos (Oliver Reed), Aramis (Richard Chamberlain) and
Porthos (Frank Finlay). A skirmish with Cardinal Richelieu’s (Charlton
Heston) men soon unites the three into four and the group finds
themselves trying to foil the Cardinal’s plan of destroying the queen by
unveiling her love for the Duke of Buckingham (Simon Ward) and battling
with his (Richelieu’s) main henchman, Rochefort (Christopher Lee).
Throw in a beautiful and clumsy maiden, Constance de Bonancieux (Raquel
Welch), and a femme fatale, Milady de Winter (Faye Dunaway), some
fantastic sword fights and a ton of humor and the filmmakers came up
with a major hit.
“The Four Musketeers” was released a year later and
benefited from having the same cast and crew intact for what would be
billed as the Musketeers second outing. The Cardinal, Rochefort, and
Milady de Winter are up to no good again as they hatch a new plan to rid
the world of the Duke, Constance and those pesky Musketeers. Our
wisecracking heroes are forced to defend themselves again and again
while trying to foil all the evil plans. As in life, they win some and
lose others and also get hurt in the process. That’s one of the things
I respect most about these films; the heroes aren’t invulnerable.
Fortunately, the killing and blood is kept to a minimum and only used to
compliment a scene, never to overwhelm them. Once again, humor is found
in abundance here.
Anchor Bay has released “The Complete Musketeers”
in a beautiful Widescreen transfer (a full screen one is included, but
we won’t discuss that). Picture quality is a major improvement over the
old VHS transfers and looks as if it might have been made far more
recently than it actually was. Audio quality is quite zesty sounding as
well and Michel Legrand and Lalo Schifrin’s musical scores are
magnificent. Extras on the first disc include a brand new 23-minute
documentary titled “The Saga of the Musketeers (Part 1)” that contains a
plethora of interviews (not to mention some very interesting remarks
about Raquel Welch) and behind-the-scenes footage, a vintage 7-minute
piece made during the filming called “The Making of The Three
Musketeers”, a trailer, TV Spot, 4 radio spots, an extensive Poster &
Still Gallery and some in-depth cast and crew information.
Extras on “The Four Musketeers” includes the
25-minute “The Saga of the Musketeers Part Two”, a trailer, 3 TV spots,
5 radio spots, another extensive Poster & Still Gallery and the same
cast and crew information found on the first disc. The true shining
feature on this disc set, though, is the new 2-part documentary Anchor
Bay produced. This is where the company really shows just how much
interest and pride they take in their releases. The only feature these
films are missing is an audio commentary, which would have been
wonderful in terms of hearing the memories flow. The documentaries
pretty much make up for that, though.
If there’s one nitpicky item I have, it’s that “The
Four Musketeers” ends a little too pat and with feelings a little too
high considering what the principal characters had gone through. Now,
there was one additional outing for most of the cast in 1989 called
“Return of the Musketeers”, but that’s only available on VHS. Perhaps
Anchor Bay will pursue acquiring that title if this one does well.
Trust me, folks, they don’t make them like this anymore. This is good
solid adventurous fun and an absolute pleasure to sit through!
