The Three Musketeers

Avoid this DVD Version! Get the newer release
Filmed in 1973, the one that began it all. The book was actually split into two movies to fit all the plot! This is the first half of the book. An amazing, star-studded cast, great attention to detail and it's funny to boot!

Let's see. Oliver Reed as Athos, Richard Chamberlain as Aramis, Frank Finlay as Porthos, Michael York as D'Artagnan. Christopher Lee, Raquel Welch, Geraldine Chaplin, Faye Dunaway. Just about every performance is amazing.

This has the REAL plot - not the entirely made-up one Disney foisted on us. D'Artagnan is cheating on his landlord with his landlord's wife. The Queen of France is cheating on her husband, the King, with the Duke of Buckingham. The cardinal is trying to gain power of France. The Musketeers gladly steal food and cheat when necessary. It's a rough world out there!

The attention to detail in the film is simply amazing. From the stunning costumes, to the silver-and-white ball at the end, to the interiors of the buildings, to the food they...

Why can't Fox-Lorber do it right?
Richard Lester's The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers deserved a state of the art transfer, in correct aspect ratio, a director's commentary, and a full range of access features. Fox-Lorber didn't even bother to give us the correct aspect ratio!

The film is presented in a 1:66 that lops off information from what may have been a 1:85 image. This is unbelievable!

Richard Lester's The Three and Four Musketeers together comprise one of the most memorable films of the 1970's. They are as fresh now as they were in their original theatrical release. They deserved the kind of treatment that The Criterion Collection has given other acknowledged classics. They certainly deserved better than the miserable results that Fox-Lorber has served up.

If you are as offended by what Fox-Lorber has done as I am, then let me urge you to write to them and voice your complaints.

Excellent Movie--Disastrous DVD
Although several other reviewers have pointed out the aspect ratio problems with the Fox-Lorber version of this DVD, I wanted to add my own comments on the off chance that it will convince others to avoid buying, or even renting, this version.

This is one of my favorite movies, and after seeing it hacked to pieces on network TV, I couldn't wait to show my kids a classic treatment of a classic book. Initially we were disappointed in the sparseness of the DVD itself: No subtitles; what seemed to be a monaural soundtrack; and no commentary or additional features such as trailers, promos, or background on the film.

But then we started watching and even my kids realized that we were watching a widescreen movie with the left and right portions of the image cut off. This wasn't even pan-and-scan. This was an outrageously lazy transfer from widescreen to standard format showing only the center of the horizontal image. And there are these mysterious black bars above and below, as if...

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