Come, Chauncy, we must. . .bustle

[rolanni]

Hey, 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.

Comments

[oneminutemonkey.livejournal.com]

Just to be perverse, the definitive version for me was the '93 version you so dislike. I know they took extreme liberties with the text; I actually hadn't read the original until after I saw the movie. But still. It was ... fun. Fast-paced, daring, swashbuckling, energetic. The characters had great chemistry, the fight scenes were exciting, the quips witty and banter snappy. There was just something about the way the elements came together that resonated perfectly, and ever since, it's been one of my favorite movies.

Everyone has their comfort movies. Mine involves Oliver Platt looking confidently snarky. :>

[aspidites.livejournal.com]

I do love me some Oliver Platt - I think it was a tossup whether I went to see the 1993 version for him or Kiefer Sutherland. But the film still paled in comparison to the 1970's pair.

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. :-)