Top 20 Best Musketeer Movies. Part 1 (Topic)

The most popular historical novel in the film industry is considered the trilogy by Alexandre Dumas "The Three Musketeers", which, in addition to the book of the same name, included two more volumes: "20 years later" and "Viscount de Bragelon or 10 years later" ... During the time of the cinematography, over 120 films were shot based on the three-volume edition, the best of which we will discuss in our top.

But, before discussing the films, it is worth passing through the summary of the present novel "The Three Musketeers" and its two sequels.

The Three Musketeers, a novel by A. Dumas

In "The Three Musketeers" a young Gascon d'Artagnan arrives in Paris in order, like his father, to become a Musketeer. There he meets the three bullying musketeers Athos, Porthos and Aramis. He hires a servant, and is drawn into the court love affairs of the Queen of France - Anne. First, he helps to arrange a meeting between her and the English minister, the Duke of Buckingham, and then he has to gallop to England in order to return the diamond pendants presented to the Duke of Anne of Austria to the base, because of which the king could convict her of a kind of treason.

On the way, friends of the Musketeers help him and puts a spoke in the wheels of Milady, the ex-wife of Athos (as it turns out later), and now - Lady Winter, the wife of a certain English nobleman. The pendants were successfully delivered, d'Artagnan collects his wounded friends on the way to England, and then searches for his beloved - Constance, the haberdasher's wife and queen's castellan, because of whom he, in fact, got involved in all these adventures.

Everything would be fine, but Milady takes up arms against d'Artagnan, who lowered her in front of Richelieu and Buckingham. Being imprisoned in the dungeons of the prison tower as a traitor, she pulls over to her side the jailer and Buckingham's close friend named Felton. She turned his head to such an extent and damaged the "cuckoo" that he lets her go, and he goes to Buckingham's ancestral castle and kills him.

Milady stays in France and poisons Constance. For all this, and for much more, now four musketeers (d'Artagnan, at last, was granted the cloak of the musketeer) catch her and chop off her head, using the services of the executioner, whom Milady once also shit well into the soul.

It all ends with the cardinal personally granting d'Artagnan the rank of lieutenant of the royal musketeers.

"Twenty Years Later" - the continuation of the adventures of "The Three Musketeers"

Here friends get together again, but, first, they find themselves on opposite sides of the barricades. They have long ceased to be musketeers and while Athos and Aramis are trying to rescue the Comte de Beaufort, the leader of the local troublemakers, from prison, d'Artagnan and Porthos are trying to prevent this.

But the friends quickly reconcile, after which they are sent across the strait, where they unsuccessfully try to save the English king from the gallows, whom Oliver Cromwell did hang. Someone Mordaunt prevented them, as it turned out, the son of Milady, who had been executed by them. This type turned out to be that weird one and almost sent our daredevils to the next world on the way to France, filling the schooner on which they sailed with gunpowder. But the ending turned out to be somewhat unexpected for him. The drunkards, former musketeers, set him on fire and managed to dump him from the ship, sending Mordount to feed the fish.

"Viscount de Bragelon or ten years later" - the end of the trilogy

The tale is about the son of Athos Raoul (aka Viscount de Bragelon) and about how bad Louis IV is. He beat off his beloved from the son of the Comte de la Fer and began to play tricks with her to the fullest.

The Musketeers gathered once again to take part in the struggle between Minister No. 1 Fouquet and Colbert, aiming to take his place. Aramis, who is also a bighead in the Jesuit order, with the help of Porthos, changes Louis to Philip, his twin brother, languishing in the Bastille in an iron mask. But d'Artagnan rescues poor Louis, who, nevertheless, had to be in his brother's shoes for a whole day. After poor Philip, they are exiled to the island of St. Margaret forever.

The book ends with Porthos dying saving Aramis. Athos died after learning that Raoul had exposed his chest to bullets at the front. D'Artagnan was torn to pieces by a cannonball at the moment he was presented with the marshal's rod.

And now let's see what the "adaptist scriptwriters" wrote there. Also, we remind you that the rating of the tape by KinoPoisk is indicated at the end of the title.

1. D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers (1979), mini-series (USSR) 8.14

This masterpiece of Soviet cinema, staged according to the first part of the trilogy, was watched by everyone, without exception, not only in the countries of the former USSR, but also abroad, as stated by the incredibly high rating of this film on IMDb - 8.0.

The musical, and this is it, since all the characters now and then try to sing something in the film, turned out to be far from the novel, but all the key events of The Three Musketeers are described in it. But the tape, even blown up to a mini-series, did not fit a bunch of details. Here the Musketeers do not have servants, Porthos does not have his sponsor-mistress, a very interesting person, after the story with the pendants, d'Artagnan did not have to travel and collect his wounded friends in cities and villages, and indeed, everything is somehow unnecessarily crumpled. But compared to other adaptations, this painting can be considered a masterpiece of "script-adaptation" art.

Much is missing in the tape, but there is no gag, and for this a huge plus for our scriptwriters, adapters, as well as people who wrote lyrics for songs. We learn a huge amount of useful information from them.

2. The Three Musketeers (2014), TV series, Season 1 (South Korea) 7.77

Although this masterpiece is considered a kind of Korean adaptation of the French "Three Musketeers", the series has very few parallels with the source. Events unfold in 1636, at the time of the 14th year of the reign of King Ying Jong.

The local d'Artagnan, whose name is Paddalhian here, leaves for the capital of Hanyang to participate in the tournament and break into the local elite troops. As it turns out, even in his youth, he fell in love with a girl who has now become the wife of a local prince and, in combination, the local incarnation of Athos.

And, despite the fact that the series has a truly transcendental rating, not everyone will like it. It is clear that only drama lovers voted for this masterpiece. Normal people would not give more than five to this naive nonsense.

The main question also remained open: what did the local "musketeers" use to make hats?

3. The Three Musketeers: Queen's Pendants (1961) x / f (France, Italy) 7.41

The only film about the three Musketeers, where Rochefort, at first, almost got it over the head. It is also noteworthy that Milady here not just drove past in a carriage, stopping to exchange only a few words with Rochefort, but went to his hotel. Here d'Artagnan did not stay "ill" from his wounds, he did not break his sword, moreover, he immediately got a servant of Planchet, although according to the book he hired him for the money granted to him by the king for the fight with the guards and the victory over de Jussac, then yes, much later.

In the novel, Planchet met him spitting from the bridge and watching the circles from spitting on the water. Right there Planchet, one might say, found it himself. It is also noteworthy that here Milady did not cut off Buckingham's pendants, but wanted to steal them from his safe. Strange huh? And what are the French "adapters" guided by?

4. Four Against Cardinal (1974), Feature Film (France) 7.35

The film is a sequel to The Four Musketeers of Charlot (1973). The previous picture (in our top - in 8th place), in which the popular at that time in France comedian group "Charlot" starred in the role of the servants of the Musketeers, tells about how the Musketeers helped their servants to return to the Queen her pendants, which she thoughtlessly presented Buckingham.

Yes, the heroes are servants. If not for them, the Musketeers would have been stabbed or hanged long ago. And the queen gave Buckingham not a pendant, but a necklace, which at the last moment was thrown around her neck from the balcony by the same resourceful servants.

5. Iron mask (1962), film (France, Italy) 7.34

The most popular in cinema are the first and third books by Dumas about the three Musketeers. And this tape, judging by the title, is based on the final novel of the trilogy.

In this interpretation, Louis' twin brother, for some reason, is called Anji, and not like Kirkorov. The king's brother's mask, imprisoned in a tower on a remote island, was removed and worn by anyone, whenever. At least his girlfriend, the daughter of the local "governor" (or who is there?), Easily opened it and kissed the guy. What is the meaning of such an iron mask has remained a mystery.

Then the cunning brother of the king himself escaped from the tower. The escape was so naively arranged that one wonders who could have thought of such a thing? All the guards did not look in the direction of the tower because there this daughter of a local noble nobleman was naked taking sea salt baths. She also brought her Anji a long rope.

Anyone went to him, whenever he wanted and brought anything, took off his mask ... No comment.

6. The Man in the Iron Mask (1998), feature film (1998) 7.31

A more recent interpretation of the third book about the Musketeers, in which DiCaprio himself starred in the role of twin brothers Louis and Philip (King of France and his brother). The film was shot very well and colorfully. But the script is so wretchedly stupid that there are no words. It turns out that here the Queen of France Anne of Austria and d'Artagnan are lovers, and the twins Louis and Philippe are d'Artagnan's children. How do you like this?

But United Artists and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer didn't stop there. Athos' son, Viscount de Bragelon, who is also called Raoul here, has a friend, for some reason, not Louise, but Christine. Why the scriptwriters didn't like the name "Louise" is not clear. Athos here, as it turns out, plays the violin, like some Sherlock Holmes. Christina is forced to surrender to the king, since she has nothing to support her family, after the death of Raul, who committed suicide by throwing himself under bullets on the front line, learning that the king now does not get off his girlfriend. Such "men" in France lived in the 17th century. Nonsense, and nothing more.

By the way, DiCaprio was awarded the only Golden Raspberry for this film. The jury did not like the film duet Ludovic-Philippe, whose performer was the great actor.

7. The Three Musketeers: Milady's Revenge (1961), film (France, Italy) 7.29

The film is a direct sequel to the movie "The Three Musketeers: Queen's Pendants" (1961) with Gerard Barre, who is in our top ranked third place. There, the action ended with the Musketeers successfully helping Anna of Austria turn a date with Buckingham. They will immediately have to help return the pendants presented by the queen to the duke.

Some points are confused here. According to the book, the cardinal himself summoned d'Artagnan to him, and the Chevalier immediately leaned against the cardinal to tell him everything he thought of him. According to the book, and in other films, d'Artagnan has never been in prison. And then - still sitting. And no one else rescued him from there, but Milady herself. In the book, their acquaintance happened completely differently and was introduced to them by her husband's brother, Comte de Vard, whom d'Artagnan almost chopped off his ears in a duel.

In general, those who wish will see this film as something completely new. But, at the same time, and not without suspensions.

8. Four Musketeers Charlot (1973), film (France) 7.23

Servants of the Musketeers, performed by the artists of the comic group "Charlot", rule to the fullest with their masters the Musketeers. As shown in the film, if it were not for the valiant Planchet, Mousqueton, Grimaud and Bazin, their masters would have been razed on the ruins of the monastery where the Musketeers had appointed a duel to d'Artagnan.

Fans of comedy versions - welcome to view. For example, naive viewers of the former USSR once enjoyed the films "The Four Musketeers Charlot" and "Four Against the Cardinal".

9. The Man in the Iron Mask (1977), film (UK, USA) 7.05

An interesting version, in which there is Louise-Francoise de La Baume Le Blanc, that is, Louise de Lovelier, but there is no her beloved son of Athos, Raoul, that is, Viscount de Bragelon. In general, only the elderly d'Artagnan appears in the book, taking the side of Colbert. Together they decided to replace Louis with Philip's wives.

They are confronted in the film by the first minister Fouquet and a certain Chevalier Duval, played by Ian Holm, a biorobot from the first Aliens. It was interesting to see him in the role of a "sword".

The film begins with how the adult Philip was awakened by no light or dawn and taken to the Bastille. For what? Why did he not live for himself before, but now "was subjected to such sharp criticism from the authorities"? How did he not know who he is and what he is in his entire life?

And, oddly enough, Louise, who hated the king, fell in love with his double. And, of course, she played along with the intriguers d'Artagnan and Colbert ...

10. The Musketeers (2014-2016), TV series, 3 seasons (England) 7.02

Alexander d'Artagnan is carrying a petition to the king that Gascony is not happy with the taxes imposed on her by his royal highness. On the trip he is accompanied by his son, d'Artagnan Jr. When a couple of travelers decide to spend the night at a roadside hotel, they are attacked by some types in masks and in the form of musketeers, and they kill their father. Before committing a murder, the killer is called "Athos".

Spiteful (heh, of course) d'Artagnan Jr. vows to find this Athos and take revenge. And he finds it very quickly. Only, it turns out that he was framed, and now Athos, Porthos and Aramis are teaming up with a young Gascon to figure out the goats that substitute the Musketeers.

The series was filmed very soundly and on a grand scale. The gags, of course, are complete. Although, if you look at it, everything in this series is sheer ad-libbing. But you can take a look.

The only thing that spoils the series is such ridiculous and naive moments, as in the case of Athos' setup. Well, how can you take seriously the words of a murderer who, committing a crime, yells loudly: “Remember, and tell everyone! A musketeer named Athos did it! ”Without removing the mask from his face? To a sane person, this should say the opposite, that is, just about the fact that the musketeer Athos has nothing to do with it. But there are not enough sane people here. It is regrettable that the king of France is not among them.

Conclusion

Let's stop at the 10th film for now. Let's continue next week, but for now, you can safely revise the films on the list. They are certainly not outright nonsense, it is clear that people tried. A little less naive ...

But, what kind of historical film would do without naive twists? After all, it seems to everyone that then people both loved and behaved softer, more intelligent, and more decent. All of them were people of honor to the marrow of their bones and noble in heart and soul.

Well, we will try to refute these misconceptions in the next article, but for now all the best to you, and more cool films!

The Topic of Article: Top 20 Best Musketeer Movies. Part 1.
Author: Jake Pinkman