The Three Musketeers is a 2023 British swashbuckler film produced by Signature Entertainment and directed by Bill Thomas. It is inspired by, of course, Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers.
The Kingdom of France is in turmoil and a new, naive King finds himself manipulated by the evil Cardinal Richelieu (James Cosmo). With a corrupt commander of the royal guard by his side, the Cardinal employs the expertise of the devious and wicked Milady de Winter in a plot to bring down the monarchy and drag the country into war. As France burns, the Cardinal is poised take control.
All that stands between them and victory are the remnants of the King's Musketeers, an elite group who swore loyalty to crown and country. Above all else, the Musketeers will stand against the odds to foil this deadly plot.
It was released Direct to Video on March 13, 2023. Not to be confused with the French diptych that came out theatrically the same year (three weeks later for the latter's first part, actually).
This film provides examples of:
- Adaptation Deviation:
- The novel's plot with the Race Against the Clock to bring the Queen's diamonds back from England doesn't occur here.
- Richelieu gets a hefty dose of Adaptational Villainy and outright tries to bring down the monarchy and usurp the throne, while he serves the King (his own way) in the novel.
- Adaptational Diversity: Besides the half-blind Rochefort, a semi-staple since the 1970's, the film features a black D'Artagnan and an Indian Milady.
- Adaptational Villainy: Richelieu outright tries to bring down the monarchy, while he serves it in the novel.
- Adapted Out: Constance Bonacieux (D'Artagnan's Love Interest), Queen Anne and the Duke of Buckingham are nowhere to be seen in this version.
- Age Lift: An ambiguous case. By the time of the novel, Richelieu was in his 40s. Here he's portrayed by James Cosmo, who's in his 70s, but the novel states that Richelieu is Younger Than They Look.
- Ambiguous Situation: Though in his 40s historically, the original book made note that Richelieu was prematurely aged, making his a case of Younger Than They Look, making it unclear if that is just as much the case here or, due to the fact that James Cosmo was 76, he is an example of an Age Lift.
- Disabled in the Adaptation: Following previous adaptations, Rochefort wears an eyepatch.
- Evil Old Folks: Richelieu is a good margin less ambiguous than usual in his evil plans here, and he's also significantly older, presuming he is not just as prematurely aged as his literary counterpart.
- Eyepatch of Power: As with some previous versions since Christopher Lee started the trend in the 1973-1974 film version, Rochefort is one-eyed and wears an eyepatch.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: Richelieu, from a minister who served King Louis XIII in Real Life to an outright Evil Chancellor who wants to take over the kingdom for himself.
- The Mockbuster: A low budget production that came out suspiciously close to the big budget French one.
- Race Lift:
- D'Artagnan, who's implied to be a white man from Gascogne in the novel (so was the historical one), is black here. Amusingly, some scholars believe that some aspects of the literary d'Artagnan's life were lifted from that of Dumas' mixed-race father, who himself had black ancestry.
- Milady de Winter is also implied to be white in the novel (she's blonde, even), and here she's played by Preeya Kalidas, who's of Indian descent.
