THE THREE/FOUR MUSKETEERS On Blu-ray From Criterion

 

Richard Lester's two-part adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' iconic novel may not be considered the best cinematic version of the tale by some, but I believe it is the most entertaining. Both THE THREE MUSKETEERS and THE FOUR MUSKETEERS get the Criterion treatment, with each film getting its own disc. (Nearly the entire project was made during 1973.) 

What makes this version of the MUSKETEERS stand out is director Lester's unique & quirky presentation of the material, and the monumental main cast ensemble, one of the best ever gathered together for a feature film, with the likes of Charlton Heston, Raquel Welch, Faye Dunaway, Michael York, Oliver Reed, Richard Chemberlain, Frank Finlay, Christopher Lee, and Simon Ward. 

Richard Lester and screenwriter George MacDonald Fraser had to straddle a fine line--if they injected too much comedy into the proceedings, audiences would not have taken it seriously, and if they had made a totally straight adaptation, it might not have found favor in the mid-1970s. THE THREE/FOUR MUSKETEERS are rollicking adventures, filled with panache, bravado, and plenty of Buster Keaton-like gags. 

The movies are also sumptuous-looking productions, and this Criterion release shows off their fine visual quality. Due to the mammoth cast and the swashbuckling humor, the work of cinematographer David Watkins and production designer Brian Eatwell haven't gotten the credit that they deserve. When one watches this Blu-ray, one notices the exquisite look of the overall films and the magnificent shot compositions. One also notices the Spanish locations, and the amount of detail that Lester in his crew put into the background of every shot. THE THREE/FOUR MUSKETEERS makes you feel as if you actually are in 17th Century Europe--there's a reality here that many "serious" historical films do not have. 

One also has to mention the many fight & stunt sequences (William Hobbs was the Fight Director). The sword fights have a raw, gritty, almost improvisational aspect to them (most of the main cast were injured at one point or another, and while watching the fight sequences, one understands why). The slapstick that sometimes comes out of the fights doesn't seem planned, it feels more like a natural progression of whatever is going on. 

Both THE THREE and THE FOUR MUSKETEERS are grand, epic, enjoyable classic adventures, and they both look and sound fantastic on this Criterion release. Both films are presented in their original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. 

The two main extras are a pair of multi-part documentaries on the making of the overall production. THE SAGA OF THE MUSKETEERS. which was put together in 2002, runs about 48 minutes, and it gives a decent account of how the films were put together, focusing on the recollections of many of the main cast members. The important thing about this documentary is that it provides on-camera interviews with a number of performers who are no longer with us, such as Raquel Welch, Christopher Lee, and Charlton Heston. 

The other documentary, by David Cairns, is titled TWO FOR ONE, and it is in four parts, and it runs about two and a half hours overall. It is more of a hardcore, inside baseball look at every part of the filming process for both features, and it's one of the best disc extras that I have seen in a while. It details the extremely complicated and grueling shooting schedule, a schedule compromised by the fact that most of the main cast were almost never able to be together at the same time. The documentary also features audio interviews with much of the major crew members, such as Lester himself, and it has plenty of behind-the-scenes gossip (needless to say, both documentaries provide plenty of anecdotes about Oliver Reed's off-screen behavior). 

The two documentaries also go into the then-controversial decision to divide the production into two separate films. This decision was not told to the main cast, and the result was that a number of agents and lawyers went after the Salkind family, the producers of the films. (The TWO FOR ONE documentary claims that releasing the project in two parts was something the filmmakers intended to do all along.) I can understand why the main actors wanted to get paid for two films instead of one, but looking at it from today's perspective I think having two films was the right choice. There's so many things, and so many little details, that need to be noticed in each of these films, and having everything be lumped together in a three-hour plus movie probably would have been overkill. Besides, each part of THE THREE/FOUR MUSKETEERS has its own proper beginning, middle, and end. (If this project had been released as one film, I'm sure a few things would have been edited out of it, so in a way you could say that Richard Lester got his own "director's cut".) The recent French-made MUSKETEERS big-screen adaptation is also in two parts, and it divides the story in almost exactly the same way as the Salkinds did. 

The two-disc set also comes with a booklet that has a very lengthy (and very well-done) essay by Stephanie Zacharek that discusses the overall project. An original trailer for each film is included, along with a very short promotional featurette from 1973 (the trailers and the featurette are not in very good condition). 

I was going to end this post by stating that THE THREE/FOUR MUSKETEERS are the types of films that just don't get made anymore....but I'm sure someone out there will counter that by asking "What about the all-star, multi-part Marvel films??" The difference between the MUSKETEERS movies directed by Lester and the Marvel Multiverse is that the latter has a corporate, assembly-line vibe to it, while the THREE/FOUR MUSKETEERS are fun-filled exciting romps that also have some very surprising dark aspects to them. If you want to know what crowd-pleasing, star-studded, big-time movie making was really like, watch THE THREE/FOUR MUSKETEERS.