The Three Musketeers (1993)

The Three Musketeers produced by Disney (1993).

Plot: While the movie makes a reasonable attempt to follow the very good plot by Dumas, it varies. Milady de Winter is a more pitiable victim of the system than evil seductress. Porthos is a world-traveling pirate. The Cardinal remains the antagonist, but slips into deliberate megalomania. Also, the Louis looks like a girl, but he and his older wife love and trust each other anyway. The resulting movie is questionable.

Genre: Action, Three Musketeers, Movie

Reading Level: Rated PG

Similar Titles: Zorro, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Count of Monte Cristo

Personal Thoughts: The movie is one of those that did overwhelmingly good in the theater but, years later, makes viewers question why they liked it. Once the hype dies down, the merits of the movie have the opportunity to come into focus and, unfortunately, this movie's merits are questionable. To be fair, the cast choice seems mostly reasonable and the music is inspiring. However, the changes from the novel do not add to the story, like a good movie manages. Instead, they trivialize it.

Two particular character changes especially shatter the dimentions offered by a more conventional following of the novel: Milady de Winter and King Louis. The choice to cast King Louis as a feminine man is desquiting. Granted, in the novel he proves he acts more like a boy than a proper king, but why make him so effiminate? It just distracts from the plot and makes the audience cringe instead of feeling sorry for the kid. The second, and more damaging change comes from the change in Milady de Winter. While making a sympathetic villainess is typical for the 90's, it does not serve the movie well. In the novel, de Winter is evil, and really, really good at it. Like the best villains, such as Voldemort, Cruela De Vil, The Joker, and Moriarty, she is a complete pleasure to hate. Readers observe her with morbid fascination as she schemes, succeeds, and succumbs throughout the novel. Yet, in the movie, she flops, figuratively and literally. While she plans on performing infamous acts, the audience is told, rather than shown, what she is capable of. When her history with Athos is revealed, she becomes overly sympathetic. She then promptly jumps off a cliff. So besides making Athos out to be a jerk, her overall influence in the movie is poor. As a result, the villain torch passes to the Cardinal, who proves to be an unlikeable and only moderately convincing antagonist.

Movies can and, occasionally, should vary from the source material. However, when variety comes merely for the sake of change rather than enhancing the audience's experience, it makes the plot, characters, and themes of the movie fall flat (no pun intended).