\u201cAll for one, and one for all!\u201d The immortal catch-cry is bellowed by a beloved group of Frenchmen in very large hats, moments before they engage in valorous swordplay. The Three Musketeers have been a cultural mainstay since 1844, and there have been countless screen retellings of their adventures since as far back as 1903.<\/p>\n
So why not supercharge this exceedingly well-trodden tale with a duology of films; crammed with kinetic swordplay, long takes, and sets so filthy you can practically smell the streets of Paris?<\/p>\n
In 2023, that\u2019s exactly what we got. The Three Musketeers: D\u2019Artagnan (Les Trois Mousquetaires: D\u2019Artagnan) was what the saga had been begging for \u2013 a big-screen adaptation with genuine cinematic heft, incredible production, and a steadfast devotion to the source material. With a whopping \u20ac70m budget and director Martin Bourboulon at the helm, it swiftly became France\u2019s biggest box-office hit of the year.<\/p>\n
The titular trio \u2013 Vincent Cassel as Athos, Pio Marma\u00ef as Porthos, and Romain Duris as Aramis \u2013 are somehow fully realised the moment they appear on screen; deeply careworn and likable. Meanwhile the central hero, D\u2019Artagnan, is played with youthful vigour and lust for adventure by Fran\u00e7ois Civil.<\/p>\n
Fran\u00e7ois Civil (right) as the central hero D\u2019Artagnan. Photograph: Ent-movie\/Alamy<\/p>\n
The story itself is a tale of derring-do and political intrigue: a power struggle is under way in 17th-century France, between the scheming Cardinal Richelieu (\u00c9ric Ruf) and Captain de Tr\u00e9ville (Marc Barb\u00e9). Tr\u00e9ville is captain of the musketeers \u2013 the brave, swashbuckling guardsmen of King Louis XIII (Louis Garrel) \u2013 and the cardinal is using every tool in his arsenal to bury Tr\u00e9ville, destroy the musketeers, and run France from the shadows.<\/p>\n
It opens on D\u2019Artagnan en route to Paris to become a musketeer. In his possession is a letter of recommendation, a dream of becoming a hero, and an urge to fight anyone who so much as looks at him wrong. Almost immediately, he wanders headfirst into one of Richelieu\u2019s plots \u2013 and a whole world of trouble.<\/p>\n
But before D\u2019Artagnan can carry out any actual musketeering, he accidentally lands himself in a duel \u2013 to the death \u2013 with all three musketeers, leading to perhaps the funniest and most action-packed sequence in the film. The fracas sees D\u2019Artagnan adopted by the Musketeers as one of their own, and soon they\u2019re embroiled in a plot by Cardinal Richelieu to catch Queen Anne (Vicky Krieps) in a secret tryst with the Duke of Buckingham (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd). D\u2019Artagnan also swiftly falls into the orbit of Constance Bonacieux (Lyna Khoudri), whose role in the cardinal\u2019s plot proves to be more than it seems at first glance.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The utterly thrilling two-and-a-half-hour film ends with a deeply moreish cliffhanger. But this was always planned to be a two-part saga, and in December of the same year, The Three Musketeers: Milady was released to thunderous critical acclaim. A sequel? In the same year? Magnifique!<\/p>\n
Picking up where part one left off, this bombastic follow-up zeroes in on the true villain of the piece: the brilliant, devious, and incredibly complex Milady de Winter, played by Eva Green. Milady proves more than a match for the musketeers, who, thanks to Richelieu\u2019s cunning plot to pit the Catholic King Louis against the encroaching Protestant threat, are stretched too thin to respond swiftly enough to avert disaster.<\/p>\n
The action set pieces from the first film are stunning, even balletic, but this time around there\u2019s a gear shift towards the operatic. There\u2019s one particular sequence where Tr\u00e9ville and his musketeers carry out a daring night raid on a fortress held by the rebels. It\u2019s rare for period pieces to buckle this much swash, but Bourboulon and company don\u2019t put a single foot wrong. It\u2019s superb.<\/p>\n
\u2018A sequel? In the same year? Magnifique!\u2019 The Three Musketeers: Milady was released shortly after The Three Musketeers: D\u2019Artagnan. Photograph: Ben King\/Path\u00e9<\/p>\n