Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

The Three Musketeers Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov November 15, 2011

Richard Lester's "The Three Musketeers" (1973) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Optimum Home Entertainment. Most unfortunately, there are no supplemental features on the disc. In English, with optional Spanish, Japanese, German, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish subtitles for the main feature. Region A/B "locked".

Constance and D’Artagnan

Seventeenth-century France. The young and very naive D’Artagnan (Michael York, Cabaret, Logan's Run) heads to Paris where he hopes to join the royal guards. Along the way, he is snubbed by Rochefort (Christopher Lee, The Skull, The Man Who Could Cheat Death), Cardinal Richelieu’s (Charlton Heston, Ben-Hur) best swordsman, and scorned by Milady de Winter (Faye Dunaway, Bonnie and Clyde, Network), a dangerous beauty. D’Artagnan attempts to defend his honor but only manages to break his sword.

In Paris, the young man borrows a new sword from an old friend of his father and runs into the half-drunk Athos (Oliver Reed, Paranoiac, Tommy), who challenges him to a duel. He also annoys the extravagant Porthos (Frank Finlay, Othello, Gumshoe) and his suave friend Aramis (Richard Chamberlain, The Music Lovers, The Last Wave), who also decide to cross blades with him. However, when a few hours later the men meet to defend their honor, Cardinal Richelieu’s guards appear and attempt to arrest them. During the scuffle, D’Artagnan impresses the three musketeers so much that they befriend him.

D’Artagnan also lucks out and meets the beautiful Constance de Bonacieux (Raquel Welch, Fantastic Voyage, Bedazzled), the Queen’s (Geraldine Chaplin, Doctor Zhivago, Cria Cuervos) confidante, who spends the night with him and steals his heart. Convinced that he has found the love of his life, D’Artagnan vows to always love and defend Constance -- or at least when her much older husband, M. Bonacieux (Spike Milligan, The Bed Sitting Room), isn’t around.

Meanwhile, Cardinal Richelieu decides to expose the Queen’s secret affair with the Duke of Buckingham (Simon Ward, Young Winston) to strengthen his influence in the Louvre. He convinces King Louis XIII (Jean-Pierre Cassel, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie) to throw a lavish ball and have the Queen wear a special jewel necklace, which she has secretly given her lover as a token of her love and affection. Cardinal Richelieu also sends Milady de Winter to London to steal two jewels from the necklace so that even if the Duke of Buckingham manages to return it on time the Queen would still be embarrassed and her infidelity revealed.

After King Louis XIII announces the ball and his desire to see the necklace, the Queen writes a desperate letter to her lover and gives it to Constance. She entrusts the letter to D’Artagnan, who immediately heads to England, followed by the three musketeers.

Director Richard Lester’s adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’s famous novel is a lavish and energetic film that blends comedy and period action quite well. The dramatic duels, in particular, are wonderfully choreographed and executed.

The film’s style -- which is defined by an impressive emphasis on detail, brisk tempo, and technical efficiency -- pays homage to the great French swashbuckling films from the 1950s, and specifically Christian-Jaque’s Fanfan la tulipe (1952) and André Hunebelle’s Le bossu (1959). Also, the dialog is often similarly witty and hilarious.

The only major weakness of the production pertains to the authenticity of the characterizations. In Dumas’s novel, the musketeers have weaknesses and dangerous secrets that are now ignored. Chamberlain’s Aramis, in particular, has little in common with the complex character from the novel. Also, York’s D’Artagnan is demoted to a naive simpleton driven primarily by his instincts, not his intellect as is the case in the original novel and the sequels Twenty Years After and The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later.

The Three Musketeers Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Richard Lester's The Three Musketeers arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Optimum Home Entertainment.

Viewers expecting a fresh new high-definition transfer for this quite entertaining film will likely be disappointed because the one used by the British distributors appears to have been struck from a dated source. However, this is not to say that there are serious flaws with it; rather, there are inherited limitations that could have been avoided if a new high-definition transfer was struck specifically for the Blu-ray release. The relatively good news is that partial corrections to cover these limitations and make the film look sharper and smoother have not been applied.

There are traces of filtering throughout the entire film, but they are clearly not as damaging as they could have been. The most severe examples are during the majority of the panoramic daylight scenes (see screencapture #3) where detail and contrast have clearly been affected. Many of the close-ups, however, are quite easy to tolerate (see screencaptures #16 and 17). Color reproduction is also decent, though some of the whites and light blues are occasionally too soft, while the blacks appear crushed. Overall, however, the color scheme is certainly more satisfying than that of the Anchor Bay R1 DVD release (unfortunately, I do not have in my library the R2 double-pack Optimum Home Entertainment released to compare). Finally, edge enhancement is never a serious issue of concern. There are no large cuts, damage marks, or stains to report in this review. (Note: This Blu-ray disc is Region A/B "locked". Therefore, if you reside in North America you will be able to play it on your player. For the record, there is no problematic PAL or 1080/50i content preceding the disc's main menu).

The Three Musketeers Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are three audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, Spanish DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, and German DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. For the record, Optimum Home Entertainment have provided optional Spanish, Japanese, German, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish subtitles for the main feature.

The English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track is quite good. Some of the more elaborate action scenes in the film have clearly benefited as the audio boasts that familiar crispness and fluidity all good loseless tracks deliver. There are no serious balance issues with legendary composer Michel Legrand's music score or problematic audio dropouts and distortions either. The dialog, however, is not always easy to follow (some of the fake French accents and pronunciations could be problematic for some viewers), which is why optional English subtitles should have been included.

The Three Musketeers Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Most unfortunately, there are no supplemental features to be found on this Blu-ray disc.

The Three Musketeers Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Richard Lester's The Three Musketeers is not an entirely faithful adaptation of Alexandre Dumas's classic novel, but it is a very entertaining one. It has a terrific cast and it is quite beautifully lensed. In my opinion, it is clearly better than the newest adaptation by Paul W.S. Anderson. The Blu-ray disc herein reviewed, courtesy of Optimum Home Entertainment, could best be described as a budget release. The technical presentation is not overly impressive, but this is likely the best treatment the film will see. If you enjoy it, look around for a good deal before adding it to your collection.