Come, Chauncy, we must. . .bustle
Sunday, March 27th, 2011 09:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rolanniHey, there's going to be a(nother) remake of The Three Musketeers. With a sword-fighting Queen leaping from the balcony of Versailles in court dress in order to take part in a melee. Oh! And an airship. Um, what?
All in Glorious Three-Dee so you're right there in the middle, though without a sword, because, presumably, the audience of this film will have no honor to defend.
Does that seem mean-spirited? Here, judge for yourself
This will make the fourth remake of The Three Musketeers since I started paying attention to them. For me, the definitive version is of course the York-Reed-Finley-Chamberlain 1973 extravaganza. Yeah, I know. What can I say? I was 21 and in love.
Then we had the Truly Awful 1993 edition with all the Hot Young Studs of The Moment -- Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, &c, which not only Made No Sense, completely subverted the text when it did, and also had lousy swordfights.
Then in 2001 there was The Musketeer, which made the 1993 edition look like a work of art.
You'd think they'd stop trying, since the editions keep getting worse, but I guess the lure of a free! story! from a dead author is too great to resist.
All in Glorious Three-Dee so you're right there in the middle, though without a sword, because, presumably, the audience of this film will have no honor to defend.
Does that seem mean-spirited? Here, judge for yourself
This will make the fourth remake of The Three Musketeers since I started paying attention to them. For me, the definitive version is of course the York-Reed-Finley-Chamberlain 1973 extravaganza. Yeah, I know. What can I say? I was 21 and in love.
Then we had the Truly Awful 1993 edition with all the Hot Young Studs of The Moment -- Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, &c, which not only Made No Sense, completely subverted the text when it did, and also had lousy swordfights.
Then in 2001 there was The Musketeer, which made the 1993 edition look like a work of art.
You'd think they'd stop trying, since the editions keep getting worse, but I guess the lure of a free! story! from a dead author is too great to resist.
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no subject
Date: 2011-03-27 01:25 pm (UTC)The Musketeer was just...well...we watch it in this parts for comic relief, because it's so bad we have to either laugh or cry. It was very much a part of the fad for wire-fu.
This? This looks to be trying to take advantage of the steampunk fad, and my oh my, they seem to have a gone a bit overboard. *fans* They try so hard, bless their money-grubbing hearts.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-27 01:51 pm (UTC)Porthos: "The Cardinal keeps his coach well stocked. Would either of you care for a glass of wine?"
Athos (screaming): "Porthos! We're being chased by the Cardinal's Guards!"
Porthos (looking over his shoulder): "Why so we are! Something in a red, then." [disappears back into interior of coach]
Beyond that, the 1993 version has nothing to recommend it.
The 1973 and 1974 versions directed by Richard Lester, though: In addition to Michael York, Oliver Reed, Frank Finlay, and Richard Chamberlain, we have: Charlton Heston in the best role of his later years as Richelieu; Faye Dunaway being murderously beautiful as Milady DeWinter; Raquel Welch doing physical comedy and doing it well (who'd have imagined it?) A triumph on all levels, it was.
There is a little-known third film with the majority of the 1973/1974 cast, released in the US on video as "The Return of the Musketeers," and again with Richard Lester directing a George MacDonald Fraser screenplay, this time based on Dumas' novel Twenty Years After. Not quite as good a film as the originals, but then, neither was the Dumas sequel quite as good as the first D'Artagnan novel. Still, if one has the completist bug...
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Date: 2011-03-27 01:53 pm (UTC)I also loved the Disney version in the 90s. Believe it or not, kind of a seminal movie for me.
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Date: 2011-03-27 03:06 pm (UTC)Didn't go look at your link; 3D makes me queasy even if it's a GOOD movie. But I must admit there's a certain dark humor in imagining arming the theater audience with swords before they proceed to the 3D movie. Though they aren't in the original, and I like the original, it seems like the addition of airships and sword-fighting queens could still be a plus ... but jumping from the balcony in court dress seems highly unlikely to end in anything but landing badly though perhaps amusingly, fully entangled in court dress.
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Date: 2011-03-27 04:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-27 03:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-27 03:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-27 05:29 pm (UTC)Lana Turner ... Lady de Winter
Gene Kelly ... D'Artagnan
June Allyson ... Constance
Van Heflin ... Athos
Angela Lansbury ... Queen Anne
Frank Morgan ... King Louis XIII
Vincent Price ... Richelieu
Keenan Wynn ... Planchet
John Sutton ... The Duke of Buckingham
Gig Young ... Porthos
Robert Coote ... Aramis
Kelly was a very athletic D'Artagnan, as I remembere.
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Date: 2011-03-27 10:49 pm (UTC)(He probably was playing for a competing studio, le Sigh)
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Date: 2011-03-27 11:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-27 05:25 pm (UTC)Checked on IMDB. There are at least 31 versions of Three Musketeers (some animated, some tv series, some foreign language) dating back to 1903. Very popular story for adaptation.
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Date: 2011-03-27 06:25 pm (UTC)Everyone has their comfort movies. Mine involves Oliver Platt looking confidently snarky. :>
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Date: 2011-03-29 01:07 pm (UTC)I think that my two favorite Oliver Platt roles are as Hector Cyr in 1999's "Lake Placid", and as Paprizzio in the 2005 film version of "Casanova". I suspect I may have low tastes. :-)
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Date: 2011-03-27 06:33 pm (UTC)Or Sacre Bleu!
Not gonna see it - didn't see The Musketeer either.
3D is waaay over-rated and let's face it, they can't fit in
everything that's in the book, so why bother?
The only redeeming feature about the 1993 version was that they
got the 'frat boys with swords' attitude right.
I sometimes think Dumas invented snark.
Lauretta@ConstellationBooks
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Date: 2011-03-27 06:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-28 02:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-27 10:43 pm (UTC)There was one episode where the inventor-guy built a submarine, and a bunch in which our heroes were working to foil the schemes of the evil Cardinal Mazarin, many involving a mysterious coven of some kind. Unfortunately, the scripts were neither campy enough to work as pure fantasy nor strong enough on character development to overcome the innate wackiness of most of the plots.
The new film shows distinct signs of going in much this same direction only with a much bigger SFX budget....
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Date: 2011-03-27 10:50 pm (UTC)This new version again looks like it might be amusing if you ignore the Three Musketeer's part of it. I can actually imagine a fun early steampunk swashbuckling story from the late 17'th century. I can't visualize it as the Three Musketeers though. Ah well something to rent and have popcorn with.
It's just entertainment ... if it's not that it's nothing ,,,,
Date: 2011-04-01 02:49 am (UTC)musketeers
Date: 2011-03-27 10:51 pm (UTC)fun without end version. All else is dreck, and dog hurlings. This does not sound like an improved version. What, are they going to stick in Keira Knightly?
Snort.
musketeers
Date: 2011-03-27 10:58 pm (UTC)Nanette
I do concede the point that Oliver Platt was a grand thought for the later version, but I like him in anything.
Re: Porthos "The Pirate"
Date: 2011-04-01 02:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-27 11:45 pm (UTC)Unless, perhaps, they're Eleanor of Acquitaine ..
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Date: 2011-03-28 02:26 am (UTC)Medieval film trivia: what actor played Henry Plantagenet at two different periods in his life in two different films?
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Date: 2011-03-30 12:28 am (UTC)Oh DRAT!! I should know this ... Richard Burton? No ... Drat! I shall research ...*goes to research*
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Date: 2011-03-30 03:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-31 12:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-31 04:00 am (UTC)I have had people try to tell me that the O'Toole in Lion in Winter cannot possibly be the same actor as the O'Toole in Becket.
O'toole ?
Date: 2011-04-01 03:00 am (UTC)No they are right ... the O'Toole in "Lion in Winter" is the one that was in "High Spirits" and the O'Toole in Becket is the one that was in "Creator" (snark!!!)
Seriously tho ... His latest foray onto the silver screen "Katherine of Alexandria" is currently in post-production.
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Date: 2011-03-28 01:00 am (UTC)Looking forward to the new 3 Musketeer movie. Looks like the core cadre from the Resident Evil movie franchise is onboard. The martial arts should be better any of the previous versions. Milla Jovovich doesn't really need a stunt double. As for the other aspects of the movie, we shall see.
FYI the director is Milla Jovovich's hubby.
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Date: 2011-03-28 05:34 am (UTC)I was never able to get more than half a chapter into the the Dumas. But oddly I hung on every! single! repetitive! hilarious! word in Steven Brust's fantasy adaptation The Phoenix Guards.
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Date: 2011-03-28 01:25 pm (UTC)