If you’ve read “The Three Muskateers” / “Les Trois Mousquetaires” written in 1844 about the swash buckling 1627 by Alexandre Dumas and August Maquet or seen “D’Artagnan”, the first of the trilogy, this is already on your “must watch” list.

If however, your childhood was free from daring and bravado, sword fights and great adventures, then there’s no time to be lost.

The script has been, shall we say, adapted to a modern audience. The femme fatale outshines her patron, Cardinal de Richelieu, in the fantasy that is this movie. Women will find her irresistible, if a little violent. Actually, very bloody and violent. She’s a woman who gets the job done and won’t be stopped by reality. She died at the end of “D’Artagnan”. She dies at the end of “Milady” but magically reappears to “kidnap” her son. I suspect, she’ll star in a third movie as well. Parts 1 and 2 were made together during covid, so I suspect there’ll be a long wait for part 3.

Played full bloodedly by Eva Green, Milady fights and swims through palace intrigue, wars and liaisons with the enemy. She marries and abandons her husband. But all that is almost background to the wars between the Republican Protestants and Monarchist Catholics in seventeenth century France.

Francois Civil, as D’Artagnan, holds our attention throughout with his seething rage and passion. Vincent Cassel, as Athos, draws us into a complicated life as the brother of the leader of the Protestant revolution, and husband to Milady.

Pio Marmai as Porthos introduces us to his new wife. But I’ll say no more. There are so many subplots, without reading the book, one can’t gather up all the threads and present them coherently. You’ll have to see the movie.

The book was presented to a world as a serial. The movie follows that genre.

Monochrome throughout, France and England are both presented as free of much colour, or joy. The King, Louis XIII, played by Lois Gerrel, wants peace and all around want war. The movie is dominated by fighting, with the very modern pistols and shot guns in use throughout. Never let facts get in the way of a good story.

There is a Babes in Arms session available at The Barracks on 6th June, on the release date. I recommend you get a babysitter and come alone. The fight scenes are loud. And you’ll miss too much of the plot with a babe in arms if they don’t sleep right through the full 114 minutes from about 11:20am when the advertisements finish until 1:14pm.

Book here for sneak previews: https://www.palacecinemas.com.au/movies/the-three-musketeers-milady?cinema=palace-barracks Or wait until the film is released on 6th June.

 

Kerry McGovern