D’Artagnan arrives in Paris trying to find his attackers after being left for dead, which leads him to a real war where the future of France is at stake. He aligns himself with Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, three musketeers of the King.
There have been many big-screen iterations of Alexandre Dumas’s “The Three Musketeers,” most notably, the 1973 live-action film starring Michael York, Charlton Heston, and Raquel Welch, as well as the 1993 adaptation starring Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland, Chris O’Donnell, Oliver Platt, Tim Curry, and Rebecca De Mornay. Paul W.S. Anderson (“Event Horizon,” “Resident Evil”) threw his hat into the ring with a loose adaptation starring Matthew Macfadyen, Logan Lerman, Ray Stevenson, Milla Jovovich, Luke Evans, Mads Mikkelsen, Orlando Bloom, and Christoph Waltz, but it was not as well received as its two predecessors.
Now, French filmmaker Martin Bourboulon, the son of French film producer Frédéric Bourboulon, who produced the 1994 film, “Revenge of the Musketeers,” brings us “The Three Musketeers – Part I: D’Artagnan,” a terrific two hours of swashbuckling entertainment and excellent character development. It stars François Civil, Vincent Cassel, Romain Duris, Pio Marmaï, and Eva Green.
The movie opens with D’Artagnan (François Civil), a young man from Gascony, on his way to Paris to join the Musketeers of the Guard. En route, he comes across a young woman who is in the throes of being kidnapped by a mysterious older woman and her henchmen. He steps in, killing some of the men, but the older woman shoots him and leaves him for dead. Having survived the confrontation, he continues to Paris and meets with Capitaine de Tréville (Marc Barbé), the commander of the Musketeers. He gives him a letter from his late father, who knew Tréville, and he informs him that he will write him a letter of introduction.
Afterward, he recognizes one of the henchmen who tried to kill him in the street and gives chase but accidentally bumps into and inadvertently offends the three musketeers, Athos (Vincent Cassel), Porthos (Pio Marmaï), and Aramis (Romain Duris). Each demanding a duel with him, he meets with them in a secluded wooded area, but before they can fight to the death, Cardinal Richelieu’s guards intervene and attempt to arrest them for illegal dueling, but the four men take them on and kill them all. The three men admire D’Artagnan for his fearlessness and become friends, but King Louis XIII of France (Louis Garrel) hears of the battle and reprimands them for their actions.
When Athos is accused of killing a young prostitute and sentenced to death, the remaining musketeers and D’Artagnan band together to try to save their friend. When D’Artagnan sees the body of the young woman, he quickly realizes it is the same woman he tried to keep from being kidnapped. The three men comprehend that something bigger is going on in the corridors of power, including a rebellion from Protestant rebels at La Rochelle, and vow to uncover the truth and exonerate Athos of the crime he is being charged with.
“The Three Musketeers – Part I: D’Artagnan” is a co-production between France, Germany, Spain, and Belgium, and the dialogue is entirely French, with English subtitles. Eva Green, who plays the mysterious lady, is the only English actor in the film, and even she speaks French, with only a few scenes in English. The action is masterly, and the sword-fighting scenes are exhilarating. The movie was shot entirely on location in France, including the Louvre Palace, the Hôtel des Invalides, the Castles of Fontainebleau and Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Fort-la-Latte, and Chantilly.
Vincent Cassel, typically always cast as the bad guy, plays the aging Athos with sophisticated coolness and a calm demeanor. As the remaining Musketeers, Pio Marmaï and Romain Duris infuse the film with enthusiasm and immediate likability. François Civil, as the young D’Artagnan, is engaging from the first shot, and you can’t help but applaud his courage and desire to want to be a Musketeer. The entire cast is terrific in their respective roles, and cinematographer Nicolas Bolduc shoots the movie utilizing majestic wide shots comprising some stunning locales. In contrast, the action scenes are thrillingly shot.
The film was shot back-to-back with “The Three Musketeers: Milady,” the second and final part of the story, which will be released in the U.S. in 2024. While the preceding Three Musketeer movies were fun, I never developed an affection or affinity for them. However, “The Three Musketeers – Part I: D’Artagnan” has revitalized my interest and love for Alexandre Dumas’s story and the characters. I eagerly await Part II.
As an aside, in one scene during the movie, Queen Anne of France (Vicky Krieps) is pheasant shooting and engaging in conversation when she shoots down a pheasant. As the bird falls from the sky, you can hear the Wilhelm Scream, a stock sound effect used in several films and TV series. I thought it was hilarious that this sound effect was used for the death of a bird when it is typically injected into a scene when a man is falling to his death.
Now Playing in Select Theaters
