Rent The Three Musketeers (1973)

Sheer Swashbuckling Fun - The Three Musketeers review by GI

There's been many adaptations of Alexandre Dumas' famous novel but this has to be the most original, fun and stylish. Director Richard Lester infused the story with farce, almost pythonesque in order to create a humorous swashbuckling adventure film that will have you laughing as much as any good comedy but all the while caught up in the sheer excitement of the story. The cast are mightily impressive from established film stars like Oliver Reed, Charlton Heston, Frank Finlay, Richard Chamberlain, Faye Dunaway, Michael York, Christopher Lee and Raquel Welch to support actors like Simon Ward, Roy Kinnear Geraldine Chaplin and Spike Milligan. Creating a superb vision of 17th Century France with it's dirty streets, beggars, taverns and with duels, sword fights grittily enacted this is so much fun that it is arguably one of the best films based on this novel. The story remains familiar in that young country boy D'Artagnan (York) heads off to Paris to join the King's musketeers and realises to qualify he must fight duels as often as possible. He is befriended by three established musketeers who are rebellious and find fun in fighting the soldiers of the nasty Cardinal Richelieu (Heston). When D'Artagnan becomes embroiled in a plot to humiliate the Queen he calls on his friends to help. In essence this is a historical caper movie, full of intrigue and romance too. A great film which along with it's sequel is fantastic fun and definitely a must see film if you've never seen it.