The Four Musketeers

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DW L The second part of this two part movie (Three Musketeers is part one) is one of the best adventure movies ever made and certainly the best version of this classic story. The Four Musketeers has more at stake than part one and more from Oliver Reed in particular which raises the level. It is still fun and funny with a script by one of my favorite writers that has all kinds of things going on in the corners of the story, but it is the intensity turned up that makes this part a great experience. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/17/24 Full Review Matthew D A fine and funny sequel to The Three Musketeers. Director Richard Lester's swashbuckler adventure comedy The Four Musketeers (1974) is as funny and charming as The Three Musketeers (1973). Lester's sense of humor is outrageous with suggestive sex jokes, satire of the French elite with their frivolity, and insane action sequences and swordplay. The Four Musketeers looks amazing with striking wide shots from cinematographer David Watkin. His close-up shots are better than the first as are the magnificent sets in the palaces. Editor John Victor-Smith's cuts are faster paced and skillfully cut into a quickly paced 106 minutes. Writer George MacDonald Fraser added more of author Alexandre Dumas' characterization for Athos and Milady's romantic backstories this time around. The suggestive jokes are still hilarious and even more clever. I loved the Cardinal's meddling and Milady's fiendish schemes for vengeance. Composer Lalo Schifrin's film score is epic and exhilarating with enough playful melodies and serious motifs to capture all genres in The Four Musketeers. Michael York is funny and endearing as the idiotic young musketeer D'Artagnan, who is as dumb as he is illiterate. I like his bravery and full bodied sword thrusts in duels like York was really getting into these fights. Oliver Reed is serious, gripping, moving, funny, stalwart, and ferocious as musketeer leader Athos. You see his grief in Athos' alcoholism and his fury when faced with Milady. Reed is a fascinating and intense actor. Frank Finlay is nuts as the furious and uncouth musketeer Porthos in all his physical tomfoolery and amusements. Richard Chamberlain is fun as the fancy and sarcastic musketeer Aramis in his swift movements and quick wit. Jean-Pierre Cassel is a scream as the complaining and unbothered French King Louis XIII in all his regal majesty at court. Geraldine Chaplin is adorable as the serene and fastidious Queen Anne of Austria. I just loved getting to see her in these movies in all her pageantry and lovely gowns. All the silly apathetic rich festivities are hilarious! Faye Dunaway is still gorgeous as the pale and mischievous femme fatale Milady de Winter. Her scornful face, evil dealings, poisoned acid blades, and lustful looks are simply to die for throughout The Four Musketeers. Charlton Heston is excellent as the evil and greedy Cardinal Richelieu with plenty of threats and plots in his midst. Christopher Lee is sinister and fun as the dread Count De Rochefort. His frozen duel on ice with D'Artagnan is super cool and funny. Simon Ward remains amusing and charming as Queen Anne's secret lover The Duke of Buckingham. Raquel Welch remains voluptuous and hysterical as the comedic klutz queen's dressmaker Constance Bonacieux. Roy Kinnear is a riot as the rotund page Planchet. French actress Nicole Calfan is so cute as Milady's French maid Kitty, especially in her flirtatious scenes with York's D'Artagnan. In the end, The Four Musketeers is as charming as The Three Musketeers. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/30/24 Full Review isla s This is another swashbuckling film, the sequel to the earlier 'Three Musketeers' film of the early 1970s. This film features most of the same names, cast wise, except Spike Milligan isn't present (shame). There are some quite exciting and engrossing action based fight or battle scenes involving sword play, much as in the first film. There are some amusing scenes too, consisting of visual, slapstick style comedy. The plot is mildly intriguing and I thought it was pretty entertaining. Its an easy and enjoyable watch, this being one a sequels I would recommend. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member More slapstick than anything but, have you seen the incredible bunch of actors it has? Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review jordan m I was far less enamored with this one for reasons that are partially my own fault as I mistakenly assumed that the decision to split these two movies apart was done as sort of an afterthought and that if I believed myself to be a true cinephile then the proper viewing method would be to watch both films in one sitting. I was most certainly wrong as they ended and began both of them quite tidily with plenty of exposition to get one back into the swing of things to start this movie off. However, there was also an issue of uneven pacing here as they still clearly had intended to insert comedy but did it much less often in this half of the story despite there surely being opportunities for it. The swordfights didn't improve any over the previous iteration like they would have had they not filmed all of this material at once and they really seemed to slow the movie down quite a bit by the end. I think with more judicious editing they could easily have made a svelte 2.5 hour film out of these two discrete parts and the viewing experience would've been better for it. Still, they made satisfying use of the set pieces and I think I learned a valuable lesson watching this as it became clear that CGI cannot replace every type of effect, namely burning down a clearly expensive wooden set solely for dramatic effect. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Continues the story of the previous film but on a much grander scale visually and transitions it into slightly more serious tonality while fleshing out the characters and plot a bit more. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/20/23 Full Review Read all reviews

The Four Musketeers

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