All For One and One For All: A Review of The Three Musketeers

Let me acknowledge right off the bat that I have a long-standing crush on Kiefer Sutherland. So anything that he's in automatically attracts me to it. 

This version of The Three Musketeers was released by Disney Studios in 1993. It should come as no surprise to anyone that this was marketed as a family movie, and strayed quite a bit from both the original novel and earlier screen adaptations. The violence and graphicness of some of the fighting in the story was toned down so the movie would receive a PG rating. 

That said, this movie is a good one to develop enough curiosity to read the original Alexandre Dumas novel - I know I did after viewing it. 

The story begins with D'Artagnan (Chris O'Donell) on the run from the brothers of a girl he was involved with. D'Artagnan is on his way to Paris to join the Musketeers, which his father used to be a member of. 

Before he gets there, the evil Cardinal Richelieu disbands the Musketeers, choosing to have his own guards in charge of protecting the King instead. This is, of course, all a ruse for him to put himself into power. 

There are three Musketeers who don't fall for Richelieu's charade: Athos (Kiefer Sutherland), Aramis (Charlie Sheen), and Porthos (Oliver Platt). 

D'Artagnan manages to get on the bad side of all three of them in short order after reaching Paris, not realizing he has picked a fight with Musketeers. As he prepares to duel with them, the Cardinal's guards try to arrest the errant Musketeers and D'Artagnan proves his worth by fighting with them. Unfortunately, he is later captured by a second band of guards and taken prisoner. 

When D'Artagnan is in prison, he learns of Richelieu's treachery to the King. When D'Artagnan refuses to divulge where the wayward Musketeers are, he is sentenced to death. 

Athos, Aramis, and Porthos stage a spectacular escape for D'Artagnan just as he is about to be beheaded. He tells them what he knows of Richelieu's plan. They set off to stop the unknown courier from delivering the message of betrayal to the King's enemies in England.

The movie strays far from the original novelization, which after reading it, I found to be so much better. However, this is a movie aimed at pre-teens and early teens. If it grabs their interest enough that they end up picking up the novel, it has succeeded. 

I totally enjoyed this movie. Oliver Platt as Porthos seems to be having the most fun of anyone throughout the film. He hardly seems to be taking himself seriously throughout the film. This is a direct contrast to Charlie Sheen, who I found tedious as the former divinity student turned Musketeer Aramis. Kiefer Sutherland does a decent job as Athos. I thought his scenes with Rebecca DeMornay (who portrays Lady DeWinter) were the best scenes of the movie. The rest of the time he mostly seems to be moping around and getting drunk. Chris O'Donnell does a decent job as the young D'Artagnan. 

I thought that casting Tim Curry as Richelieu was a masterpiece! He, along with Michael Wincott as Rockefort do a marvelous job as the villains. Practically every scene Curry is in is played for a laugh and I thoroughly enjoyed this performance. 

The script could've been written better, but again, I felt this was not aimed at an adult market. The action scenes are decent and it's a coherent story. The soundtrack to this movie is one thing that is absolutely superb! Watch this with your kids and together maybe you'll generate enough interest for them to pick up the book!