The Three Musketeers Film Retrospective

The Three Musketeers Film Retrospective All for one, and one for all! Welcome to WatchMojo.com and today we’re taking a look back at the original story and the most popular adaptations of “The Three Musketeers.” “The Three Musketeers” is an iconic tale of swordplay, loyalty and adventure. It was written and serialized by French author Alexandre Dumas in 1844. The story is set in the seventeenth century, and follows the journey of the young and poor D’Artagnan as he ventures to Paris to join the king’s personal bodyguards, known as “The Musketeers of the Guard.” Soon enough, he is challenged to a duel by each of the three greatest Musketeers to have ever lived. This trio is made up of Athos, Porthos and Aramis, who happen to be best friends. Each of these characters is dramatically different from the others: Athos is older and more enigmatic. He is seen as a father by the other two. Porthos is portrayed as sincere, trusting and outgoing, with a love of wine and women. Finally, Aramis is unfulfilled, but determined. It is these personalities that have played a major role in the success of this series. D’Artagnan himself is loosely based on a real-life historical figure who once served King Louis quatorze as the captain of the Musketeers. In Dumas’ tale, he is portrayed as a confrontational youth with an astounding intellect. D’Artagnan eventually befriends the trio, and ends up joining their struggle against the pathologically egotistical holy man Cardinal Richelieu. This villain is also based on a historical figure of that period: like his real-life counterpart, Richelieu abuses his position of power as an important minister of King Louis the thirteenth. In the story, the team learns that the Cardinal’s plans extend beyond attaining power: he hopes to expose the Queen’s love affair in order to ignite a war with England. In the infancy of cinema, Hollywood chose to adapt this story along with its beloved characters more than once. These films accurately depicted this style of knight, with their wide-brimmed hats and high boots. They were also the first soldiers who fought on horseback who carried muskets. There were several silent versions of the story. However the most famous from early cinema was 1921’s adventure that starred Hollywood’s first action hero, Douglas Fairbanks. Soon after, Technicolor brought about several adored retellings of the story. The most notable of these was the 1948 MGM Studios epic that starred Gene Kelly. In 1973, the story was retold as a comedic and raunchy tale, complete with an A-list cast that included Michael York, Oliver Reed and Raquel Welch. Despite the liberties the film took with the source material, that film proved memorable for showcasing Christopher Lee as an iconic villain from the series named Rochefort. This character was a fellow musketeer who betrayed his brothers to Richelieu. For his interpretation of this knight who fell to the dark side, Lee ignored previous performances and gave the character an eye patch, facial scar and vicious sneer. Walt Disney Pictures eventually released its own blockbuster adaptation. This 1993 film starred Chris O’Donnnell as D’Artagnan, Kiefer Sutherland as Athos, Charlie Sheen as Aramis, Oliver Platt as Porthos and Tim Curry as Cardinal Richelieu. Hollywood then began to loosely adapt other Alexandre Dumas stories. One of these was “Le Vicomte de Bragelonne,” which came to be known as “The Man in the Iron Mask.” The most memorable version of this story was 1998’s hit that starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich and Gérard Depardieu. There have also been countless animated entries, parodies and bizarre attempts to bring the Musketeers to the silver screen since the early 1900s. Some have been truly unusual, such as 2001’s “The Musketeer,” which was presented in the style of an Asian action movie. “The Three Musketeers” has proved to be a Hollywood staple that has been reinvented for countless new generations. This long-running film tradition continued in 2011 with Paul W.S. Anderson’s 3D interpretation that starred Ray Stevenson, Christoph Waltz, Orlando Bloom and Milla Jovovich.