Post by A.G. on May 12, 2009 15:55:33 GMT -5
Before Metal Gear... before living in US... I was a HUGE fan of the Russian Three Musketeers movie. It was simply amazing. Doing some research on the subject, it is also the most accuate of all the movies to the original novel. There are also 3 sequels spanning 30 years, all with the original cast! A first in the world of cinema.
Movie SAGA
1978 - d'Artagnan and Three Musketeers
1992 - Musketeers Twenty Years Later
1993 - The Secret of Queen Anne, or Musketeers Thirty Years Later
2009 - The Return of the Musketeers, or The Treasures of Cardinal Mazarin
The first movie was practically spot on with the novel, though it added a lot of singing, almost making parts of it a muscial. Those songs became as iconic in Russia as the Star Wars theme in America. In fact, this Saga is about the closest thing to Star Wars impact that Russian movies ever had. The characters and the actors are iconic.
"20 Years Later" is also rather faithful to the second novel. There are major differences with the last 2 films though. The third novel is actually a 3-part novel in itself with "The Man in the Iron Mask" story being the most famous chapter. The third Russian movie touches upon most of the plot points, but does differ. One of the biggest differences is that the Musketeers do not die at the end of the movie, unlike the book.
The new film came out in February of this year. It has an original plot, but the begining parts do touch on on the ending of the third novel, showing the Musketeers' deaths.
Characters
d'Artagnan - Young and eager protagonist.
Athos - The oldest and wisest of the group.
Porthos - The "big guy". (My favorite. No other movie has a good Porthos!)
Aramis - The best swordsman, priest, and ladies man.
Here are some clips from various movies in the series:
1978 - A fight scene from the original movie. Check Porthos in action at 3:20! That's pretty much my style of fighting!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9MQZe16MpA
1992 - My favorite song from the Saga comes from "20 Years Later". It's about honor.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwGnd6lIw8s
2009 - Part 1 (yes, already on YouTube... gotta love Russian piracy!) of the latest movie. It's easily the weakest in the series, but acts mostly as nastalgia for the fans. It also is filmed 30 years after the first movie and with original cast! At 3:48 you see the deaths of all the Musketeers:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfcvltRPu7g
I knew how Porthos dies in the book, so I always wanted to see it. I finally got my chance. The main difference between the movie deaths and the novel, is that Aramis actually lives. He's the only one of the 4 that survives. In the movie, he is the second one to die, stabbed by Porthos's son!!!
Anyway... this was probably my first "big thing" to be into when I was a kid. Currently I'm working on a big drawing of the original cast. I'll put up the image once it is done.
Comments?
