Fromclassicbookstofilm Review of The Three Musketeers

The Three Musketeers (2013)

Fairly faithful adaptation.A Must See!!!

[7/10 · 16 December 2013]

The reason I gave this a seven out of ten is because of miscasting and adding unnecessary elements to the original story line .Sorry to say D'Artagnan and Constance were miscast physically but not as bad as the most recent American versions of The Three Musketeers.The acting of Rinal Mukhametov and Anna Starshenbaum was fine.Ekaterina Vilkova's Milady de Winter was well played.She was for the most part a classy Milady especially compared with the most recent portrayal by Milla Jovovich.Ekaterina Vilkova who is very attractive who physically is a mix between Michelle Pfeiffer and Calista Flockhart had one two many different hair colors in the movie.She was brunette in the carriage scene when D'Artagnan first sees her.A redhead or strawberry blonde in most scenes and a blond in her barnyard barn scene.When Athos played by Yuri Chursin pulls a gun on her she pulls a weapon to and after he steals her letter from the Cardinal she shoots at him from Dovecot Inn window.The King,Queen,Cardinal Richelieu and the Duke of Buckingham and Count de Rochefort were cast with actors approaching middle age and middle age but fine performances.The lovers Anne and the Duke of Buckingham were played by actors who resemble Jeremy Irons and Helen Mirren.Which is strange because Mariya Mironova looks like a brunette good looking younger version of Helen Mirren who I believes real last name is Mironova.Could this woman be a relative? Konstantin Lavronenko who plays the Duke of Buckingham bears a resemblance to English actor Jeremy Irons.What I appreciate in this story is all the characters except for the Musketeer lackeys are kept in the story.Milady de Winter's handsome antagonistic brother-in-law Lord de Winter played by Alexei Norobyov is in this version as are Madame de Coquenard,the lover of Porthos and her elderly husband Monsieur Coquenard and Aramis' mistress the Duchess de Chevreuse.Also on board Captain de Treville,Bernajoux,Kitty the Maid,O'Reilly the Jeweler of Buckingham and John Felton,the Puritanical fanatic a lover of Milady de Winter and assassin of the Duke of Buckingham and the Executioner of Lille.Ekaterina Vilkova and Yuri Chursin stole the show.The drunken Athos telling D'Artagnan about his marriage to a beautiful village girl and the sister of a priest.In this version First departure from the book and not in other versions Milady and John Felton were flirting with each other at the ball where she stole the studs from Buckingham.Second departure Athos goes looking for his wife and hears moaning from his stables and finds his wife having sex with an unknown to him ex-lover.He runs the lover through grabs her and hangs her from the tree.Before he hangs her she laughs at him.The adultery in the horse stables never happened in the book or in other versions.Third departure from the book Felton kills Buckingham's servant first right in front of Buckingham before murdering Buckingham.Fourth departure from the book the Duke of Buckingham's body is brought by boat propped up for Queen Anne to see and unknown to her a repentant Cardinal Richelieu and Count de Rochefort then decides its time to do away with Milady de Winter.Fifth departure Milady meets with Richelieu instead of Rochefort on the way to kill Constance.Sixth departure from the book Richelieu tells Rochefort they need to dispose of Milady after she instigates the death of the Duke of Buckingham and Milady overhears the conversation.Seventh departure from the book and other versions Rochefort comes to Athos his enemy to stop the now common enemy Milady de Winter.The murder scene of Milady by Constance has been used in other versions she is stabbed to death.Eighth departure after Milady kills Constance she goes back to Château de le Fere.Athos with D'Artagnan,Porthos,Aramis and Lord de Winter all go to Château de le Fere. Milady shocks the servants and village people by showing up at Château de le Fere.The servants uncomfortably serve her.Athos shows up Milady greets him.He goes in they sit at the table,talk old times and have a drink and still love each other.Departure nine from the novel and other versions after Milady and Athos drink.She allows herself to be judged and executed and is not ashamed of her crimes.Each Musketeer and Lord de Winter tell her her crimes and Milady is proud of herself she and Athos kiss and embrace and then goes proudly to her death even pulls back her hair for the executioner.From then on the story falls back into place.For people who love Athos/Milady story lines this is the version for you but it could have been better if they hadn't had the horse stable scene.Scenery,sets and costumes seventeenth century authentic and gorgeous.All in all a good version and fit for any Musketeer fan collection.Can't wait for the BBC 2014 Musketeers and U.K filmed in France 2014 Three Musketeer prequel The First Musketeer-The story of Athos,Porthos,Aramis,Milady before D'Artagnan and for Musketeer fans out there 31 countries are planning to remake the Three Musketeers since it is now public domain.Enjoy this version I sure did.Didn't agree with it but I did like it!