What Classics did you see Last Week? (Apr 28-30/May1-4)

I saw this movie at the theatre and have rewatched it quite a few times whenever it's been on TV.



I originally typed up and posted this review on the original Classic Film Board over at IMDB2 on June 24, 2018 and decided I’d just copy & pasted it into here since my feelings back then probably haven’t changed much now (though it's probably not as 'refined' as it could be).

I've always liked Jeremy Irons (despite the fact that, to me, he will always be the voice of Scar from The Lion King. It's as iconic as James Earl Jones voicing Darth Vader, in my opinion, and I think it's wrong that they didn't get Jeremy Irons back to voice Scar for the unnecessary remake of The Lion King like they did with James Earl Jones. I'd say the both of them have two of the best voices ever). Yes, his voice has a sinister quality to it when the occasion calls for it, but this movie proves he can also play a good guy too - though I guess it's slightly more 'morally grey', considering the reveals about his character in this movie. 



I think Aramis might be my most consistently favourite character in each version of The Three Musketeers story I've seen. With the other characters, I have an actor from one version that I've liked the best, but I haven't necessarily liked other versions of the characters quite as much. What I especially liked in this movie was his relationship with Porthos. They argue, annoy each other and Aramis even seems blasé about Porthos' 'Woe is me'/suicidal feeling sorry for himself attitude - but it's clear that Aramis does indeed care about Porthos (just like he cares about the others too). Their first scene together is with Porthos trying to get Aramis to stop praying and instead focus on enjoying the women he barged in with. It's funny just how irritating Porthos is to Aramis, their conversation regarding breasts is quite amusing and although 'fart jokes' are a bit on the nose, it still works here (thanks to Aramis trying to keep calm...but failing).



I think both characters have a real 'brother-like' vibe to them, which I enjoyed.

The Porthos character usually winds up being the 'comic relief' in most of the versions I've watched, and he is indeed funny here...but I like that Gérard Depardieu gets to play some serious moments too. I think his 'comedic' moments were required, though, as the film would've been exceptionally bleak without them. Probably the funniest scene with him is when he tries to hang himself (feeling useless and old), but Aramis has sawed the beam and so it snaps when he jumps...though it brings down the rest of the barn on top of him. I like Aramis' 'tough love' attitude towards Porthos.



Like with Jeremy Irons, I feel as though I've enjoyed Gabriel Byrne for pretty much ever. I can't explain why, but I just find something 'likable' about him in every performance I've seen of his (yes, even when he played the Devil in End of Days). I find his interpretation of D'Artagnan endlessly fascinating in this movie. When we're first introduced to him, he seems like the perfect Captain of the Musketeers. He's clearly respected by all (including the people, when he manages to defuse a situation with rioters), he's devoted to the King (despite the King being undeserving of such devotion/loyalty) and is very 'by the book', following the 'rules' even if he might feel conflicted about them. 



I like how he's able to talk to the rioters, reason with them, admit they're right about the spoiled food the King's distributed to them and is genuine is his promise to speak to the King about it. At the same time, he is very loyal to the King - almost frustratingly so, when everyone else can see just how bad Louis is, but D'Artagnan refuses to turn on him. His devotion is his greatest strength, but also his 'weakness' in a way. He starts off greeting Athos like the old comrades they are, and you can see how they were such good friends, but it's not long before the King causes a rift between them and we see them on opposite sides. While I 'get' the anger Athos feels and I understand his questioning D'Artagnan's loyalty to such a horrible King, I also kind of respect D'Artagnan for feeling that he cannot break his oath to protect the King (even though you sort of wish he wouldn't be so protective of him and would've let that assassin do his job - though that sword throw through the fountain was pretty awesome). D'Artagnan has his principles/'moral code' and he stands by that, which I think deserves respect. At the same time, it was a relief when at the end he sided with his old comrades - it's just too bad it took so long.

Although we only gets hints of his relationship with Queen Anne, I think both actors did what they could with what they were given. One frustrating thing about this movie is that it feels like there's been a film or two that's come *before* this one which we haven't seen (although I guess they did this movie figuring most people already knew the gist of The Three Musketeers story and therefore just assumed we could guess at what had come prior to this film). I would've loved to have seen a Three Musketeers movie with all these actors, given the history we know they all had between them thanks to the references they made. 



I must say, the Queen seemed very...without emotion during her first scene, but I liked her more once she was interacting with her son she didn't know she still had. The scene where she's seated beside Philippe and is overwhelmed with joy at being reunited with the son she thought she'd lost, but is unable to show that emotion because then the jig would be up, is quite a good moment. There's so much time the two of them lost and they were both so eager to catch up...but sadly they're not given the chance to before things go awry.

It's probably around about this time I should talk about the character of Philippe. I wasn't a Leonardo DiCaprio fan when this movie came out. Others seemed to be 'wowed' by him, but I wasn't. However, I really liked his dual performances here. Philippe was such a kind soul. I think it was very easy to feel for his character right from the start. Even when Aramis comes into his cell (disguised as a fat man and somehow carrying a dead guy on the front of him under his clothes - which sounds/seems ridiculous, but I just went with it, to be honest), Philippe is apologetic for how he appears in the iron mask - and I found I was instantly able to get a handle on his personality - that he always apologised, even when he had no reason to (I could identify with this, as I tend to do that a lot myself). 



I liked that they acknowledged that sunlight would hurt Philippe's eyes once he got his first taste of freedom (so many movies/shows have characters who've been sheltered for long periods of time, and once they finally get outside...there's no adjustment to the light required - they're just instantly fine with it). And I will give Leo credit for being willing to look like the wolfman once the mask was finally removed and we got our first look at his face.



I found the most important relationship Philippe had in this movie was with Athos. Clearly poor Philippe had felt rejected/unwanted/unloved for a good percentage of his life, and all he could wonder was "Why?". So it made a certain kind of sense that he'd latch onto Athos as father-like figure and wish to do him proud/be loved by him. Of course, Athos only had revenge on his mind after the death of his son, Raoul. I felt especially bad for Philippe when he'd think he'd done something wrong, or would unintentionally remind Athos about losing his son. Given how sheltered Philippe had been, it was no wonder his social skills weren't the best. He just felt like someone who needed protecting and I hated seeing him treated badly by anyone. Kudos to Leo for being able to play such a kindhearted character believably whilst at the same time playing the exact opposite of that with King Louis.

Speaking of...talk about a real bastard! He was just such a manipulative, selfish, evil, conniving jerk (to put it politely). From the moment he sees Christine (the woman Raoul is about to ask to marry him), he makes it his mission to 'have' her. The fact that he immediately decides to have a unicorn/pig race to get Raoul away from Christine, then forces her to where he wants her with the sprinklers, shows just how cunning/manipulative he is. He then silences the one who tries to kill him (who begs that he feed his people) by viciously stabbing a dagger into his chest and you see the King's ruthlessness.

Of course, the clear indicator of just how nasty he was came in the form of him having Raoul called back to fighting and purposely putting him on the front lines - which had the desired effect, thus getting him out of the way. Though his evilness did lead to one amusing (albeit morbidly so) scene - after he's been told by Hugh Laurie's character that the people are starving, Louis' solution is to give them food that is spoiling (which Hugh Laurie's character makes a point of). After the situation with the rioters, which D'Artagnan defuses, Louis pretends the first he's hearing about the food being spoiled is when D'Artagnan informs him of it. He then proceeds to strip Hugh Laurie's character of his position, give it to another and tells them to execute Hugh Laurie's character for distributing rotten food. The look on Hugh Laurie's face (and the guy who's just been promoted to his position giving him a pat on the shoulder - which is of little comfort) really said it all. Quite a funny moment - though you can't help but feel sorry for the guy.



And then, after slamming the door shut, he reopens it to say...



I was impressed with just how differently Leo played both his roles. He really did make the two characters feel like completely separate people despite looking exactly the same (though Philippe was, at first, understandably paler). Louis really was a hissable villain in this movie, and I loved it when the plan was put into action - which led to Louis receiving a well-deserved knockout punch to the face delivered by Aramis (whose "It's judgment day.", before delivering the knockout blow, is cheer-worthy). I've found myself getting a bit sick of montages in things for a while now, but I always enjoy the one in this film which features the Musketeers teaching Philippe how to act like Louis. It had the right amount of humourous moments sprinkled throughout, I thought.



Porthos was amusing with his advice ("Fart whenever you wish!"), and I enjoyed all the parts of the montage, but the shoe^ part was unexpected, yet funny (though Philippe was right to laugh at them, as they do look pretty ridiculous). I liked seeing Athos and Philippe bond. Which brings me to...



I found that John Malkovich's Athos wasn't particularly likable for a fair amount of the film (despite understanding why he was acting the way he was). However, I did enjoy the relationship he developed with Philippe. Obviously, he did grow to care for him like a second son (despite claiming nothing could ever replace Raoul), but he was clearly still dealing with his loss and lashing out at D'Artagnan for getting between him and his revenge against Louis, so he tried to be patient with Philippe, but once he brought up his son being dead, Athos lost it. I felt so bad for Philippe there (more than I did for Athos, funnily enough). He didn't mean to cause Athos pain. Quite the opposite, as he so obviously wanted to please Athos. I also felt sorry for him when Athos was telling him to be cruel and all the things Louis was - as that so wasn't who Philippe was, nor who he'd ever want to be.



I did like, though, that when Philippe was recaptured, we saw just how much Athos cared about him as he floated away on the boat. But I'm getting ahead of myself (apologies for this review being a bit all over the place/not addressing the events of the movie strictly in chronological order).

The masquerade ball was one of the highlights of the film. Not only did it look great, but I loved the Musketeers freaking Louis out by dancing around and showing him flashes of the iron mask his brother had been imprisoned in. 




Admittedly, that^ second GIF has a little something extra added to it that wasn't actually in the film - but it gets across the gist of Louis' reaction to seeing the iron mask seemingly everywhere in the crowd. His "I distinctly saw a mask!" and his dancing partner's "Well, duh. It's a masquerade ball."-type of response amused me. Speaking of his dancing partner...while everyone was seemingly obsessed with Christine, this was the woman who caught my eye in the movie...



Getting back to Phillippe and Athos for a moment - I really liked when Philippe was about to make his first appearance as the King and he gave Athos a hug. Clearly he was nervous, but he composed himself. Athos' line, "You have the heart of a King.", was quite effective - especially when combined with the music that was played as Philippe stepped out. This is probably as good a time as any to mention how much I LOVED the score for this film. There were a few memorable themes played frequently throughout the movie, and I thought they added a lot. There was the 'heroic'-sounding theme, then the one played that I just mentioned (which had a more upbeat version that played throughout the training montage), one for D'Artagnan and the Queen, and all of them just worked, I thought. They were very effectively used and made the scenes they were used in all the more memorable. There was even a very sad version of one of the themes used towards the end.

Anyway, the most frustrating thing about the scene was that Philippe couldn't help but be the kind soul he was when he helped the woman who tripped in front of him. Then the way he dealt with Christine (who'd found out Louis was behind Raoul dying) was the moment where D'Artagnan twigged to the fact that it wasn't really the King. Actually, he'd seemed suspicious even *before* this, but it was that moment where I think he knew for sure something was seriously up with 'the King'. While it did show how intelligent D'Artagnan was...you kind of wished in this instance he hadn't been, as it just ruined the plan completely. It was especially sad when he put his sword to Philippe's throat and threatened him if the others hurt Louis (even sadder was Philippe calling out to Athos as he's dragged off the boat at his brothers' behest, as he'd finally tasted freedom and it was so cruelly/quickly taken from him. Plus, he'd become fond of Athos most of all and was no doubt relying on him to save him from being taken).



I enjoyed that^ scene where we finally got to see the brothers interact. For the time, that split-screen was pretty good FX-wise...and I still thinks it's not 'bad' at all. I liked that D'Artagnan tried to reason with Louis and to spare Philippe anymore torment. But, sadly, Philippe made the fatal mistake of telling the person who hated him most what he didn't want him to do - ie. put him back into the mask/prison he'd spent so much of his life in. One thing I've learned is that you never tell someone who hates you what you *don't* like, as they will use that against you and do exactly that which you *don't* want. And it just proved what an evil person Louis was (as if any further proof was needed) - the fact that Philippe begged for death, and was willing to forgive/thank him for it, over going back into the mask...but Louis refused and instead sentenced him to more of that same torture. 



Louis really was a petty, petulant King. I hated seeing Philippe returned to his own personal Hell in the mask. Though, as he said later, he wore the mask...it did not wear him - which might've sounded 'silly' to some people, but I think it actually showed just how strong/resilient Philippe was (when you might not have thought him capable of such when first looking at him).

I thought it was a great hero moment when the Musketeers banded together to rescue Philippe (including D'Artagnan). They seemed to accept that they were quite likely going to their deaths, but did it anyway (and looked great while doing so, in their old black uniforms). I liked them putting their swords together - as that's something I've seen in every version - and the fact that Philippe looked to D'Artagnan and he allowed him to join in.



I can't remember if I saw the reveal of D'Artagnan being Philippe's father coming or not when I first saw the film, but when rewatching...I did see that Gabriel Byrne's performance hints at it earlier (especially when Athos tells him he doesn't know what it's like to have/lose a child). So good on him for playing some subtle foreshadowing there.

I thought the scene with the four Musketeers (and Philippe) charging all the rest (and Louis) was a stand-out scene. Again, the music made it all the more effective. And I hate overuse of slow-mo, but I felt it was utilised well in this scene. 



What was great about it was not only our heroes' bravery, but that the rest of the Musketeers really *didn't* wish to kill these men they looked up to and held in high regard. The shots of them closing their eyes/looking away so that they would miss hitting their 'targets' was pretty effective, as was the (mostly) unharmed heroes emerging from the gunsmoke.

Of course, Louis - the jerk - had to ruin things by trying to kill Philippe...and instead ended up killing D'Artagnan, who stepped in front of the knife to save his son. Even after that, he still told Philippe not to lash out at his brother (which was the only time we ever saw Philippe get violent). Kudos to both Gabriel Byrne and Leo for making D'Artagnan's death scene effectively sad. The music also helped. What I especially appreciated was that a side character - Lieutent Andre (played by Edward Atterton, who I'm used to seeing play bad guys - or dying...or both - in things) - actually got to have his moment to shine when he put his sword to Louis' throat and told him how, all his life, all he ever wanted to be was D'Artagnan. You messed with the wrong person, Louis! Anyway, it was at least somewhat satisfying that Louis got stuck in the mask and was delivered a well-deserved throat-punch to shut him up when he tried to claim he was the real King (after Philippe assumed his identity again - talk about a swift wardrobe change between their two characters). Though it didn't bring back D'Artagnan, so it was still a sad ending - especially with the cut to his grave and everyone dressed in black. I agreed with Athos when he said (regarding D'Artagnan) that 'He was the best of all of us'. He might've had his faults/flaws, but he truly was an honourable man.

I'm glad the Musketeers got to walk off being saluted and respected. Also the fact that it seemed like Athos might've been open to Philippe's request to love him like he was his son and he'd love him like he was his father in return. I'm still annoyed that Jeremy Irons'/Aramis' voice-over said that Louis was eventually pardoned and left to live a quiet life - he didn't deserve such leniency...but I guess the point was not to hold onto anger, and to learn to forgive.

This felt like a classic action/adventure movie, and I think it's really underappreciated. I've enjoyed watching it each and every time I've seen it and it's one of my favourite movies with the Musketeer characters (as well as these actors). It's just a very enjoyable movie, in my opinion.

9/10