D'artagnan and Three Musketeers (TV Mini Series 1979) Poster

(1979)

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8/10
Classic
alnu-930-9822844 September 2012
It IS the best screening of Dumas's novel so far. Russians have a certain decency and respect to classic masterpieces and this piece of work does not fail this rule. A strong emphasis on the friendship between the musketeers and a strong sense of honor that bears the marks of pure hearts , both enough to provide the power to fight and the power to love. It is a must see, especially since I don't believe the Hollywood or any other cinema school for that matter is able to come with a better mise-en-scene.

I was somehow forced to write down this review as the latest one that I saw here was an insult to the art behind this movie. I'm sick and tired of watching the yearly laboring pains of classic stories depictions. This story has no need to be put into the present days , no need for gang dialogues, no need for the Hollywood cliché.

It is one of the few most screened stories of the history and anyone mocking its epic should feel that mockery turning against him a thousand times stronger.
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9/10
Real classic movie - surely worth to see!
sdrannikova5 February 2005
It's a great movie. And of course it's a bit old-fashioned for nowadays. But I really, really love it. And I haven't seen better Three Musketeers movie up till now. Though I've seen a lot. Music, songs, lyrics, actors, director - everything is just fitting greatly together to make it a really classic movie which will be still loved after so many years. And the songs they still sing and everybody, literally everybody in Russia knows the songs and even the quotes by heart. It is sometimes funny and sometimes really romantic and sometimes a bit naive film. And its surely worthwhile to watch! Boyarski (D'Artagnian) still lives in St. Petersburg and still terribly popular, especially for his role in this movie. I've seen him lately walking on the bank of Moika river - in black long coat and a black huge hat... and still with his mustache...
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9/10
A classic
Neffys22 October 2002
I was 4 when I saw this movie (or should I say serie) for the first time. I still watch it, after 20 years. The songs are great, and brings a little extra to it. I love the characters, I compare every other movie of the three musketeers with this one. No-one beats it. I think it´s the best and most well made movie of this famous book.
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10/10
Best Russian classic so far
NatBat11 March 2002
This particular movie, unlike many others of its kind, shows a deep and long lasting friendship, respect and love. I have seen this movie countless times and undoubtedly will watch it again. This movie doesn't age. Its characters stay with you forever. After seeing this version of "The Three Musketeers" I cannot watch any other. They all seem to lack the most imprtant thing, the one that the author wrote the book about - friendship. Most movies of this kind concentrate on the fighting and numerous stunts. I read "The Three Musketeers" and all the books that followed it numerous times. It makes me laugh when I watch American version of this movie. In "D'Artanyan" the cast is superb. The actors match their characters perfectly. The storyline follows the book, which is what I can't say about Anerican version. Growing up, my friends and I dreamed of meeting such D'Artanyan some day.... The movie was partly shot in the city where I used to live and it's true-streets became dead when the movie was shown. The next day, kids in school tried to re-enact the scenes. This movie relates the life in those times, just like the book.
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10/10
A classic..
lenkam9927 May 2003
I love this movie. Ever since I was a kid in Russia, I enjoyed watching this movie. Now, I really want to own a copy but can't find it anywhere. Although I am not a fan of musicals, the songs from this movie really take me back to the fun times of childhood. I haven't met a person yet who hasn't enjoyed this movie. It is a classic, and other Musketeer movies don't match it.
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10/10
Mr Duma would be ultimately pleased
AndreiPavlov16 June 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Quite fortunately I've found the official DVD with this trilogy in one of our stores for a very funny price. It is one of my most successful buys to be sure.

The film itself is brilliant. It connects the power of music, singing, costume design, and powerful performance of all the actors. As far as I remember the original book, our production follows the novel in a very strict and attentive manner (e.g. the scene of the execution is here - compare to the lame American Walt-Disney version where the woman - you should know who - is jumping off the cliff instead of being beheaded).

The songs are so memorable that I cannot just wash them from my memory - and I don't want to.

The range of the emotions in this movie is simply vast: from silly clownish slapstick to tragic anxiety and woe. The songs and music never interfere but help the action to go smoothly and delicately. The whole story may seem a bit childish (the main characters survive in any situation and kick villains' asses quite often) but it never gets pathetic. And this is a sign of quality.

The film is free from blood (though I like the punched and scratched look of D'Artagnan's face in the beginning of the film - right after his foolish and cocky running-about) and there is no other mature material. At the same time the content is very serious and not to see that solemn layer below the music and lyrics is a rude mistake.

Mr Mikhail Boyarsky is the best D'Artagnan (I don't give a damn about the "notorious" age inconsistency). Just have a look at the drastic change of his character after the second episode. Mr Venyamin Smekhov is the best Athos and so on and so forth. Everybody is in the right place playing the right role and doing it rightly. And, just to add, I like the depiction of Cardinal Richelieu - he's simply amazing. While this position (Cardinal) was never intended in Christianity, it deserves such witty mockery. Bravo to Mr Aleksandr Trofimov! I wish such masters as Mr Charlie Chaplin, Mr Buster Keaton, and Mr Norman Wisdom could have seen this movie. I am quite certain that they would have loved it. One of our unbeatable classics. Right now I'm humming the melodies of this adventure gem...

10 out of 10 - the best musketeers ever. Thank you for attention.
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Not great, but I am still looking for a better musketeer movie
SMalamud30 September 1999
I am not a huge fan of musical comedies, musical action films or musical romances, and this movie is all of it in one. One should expect the characters to break into a song at any time during the movie as it is basically a filmed operette, loosely wrapped around the famous novel by Alexandre Dumas. Think 'The King and I' in Russian. Nothing unusual, however, for many Russian movies of the time. Songs were probably the only and the best sound effect available to Soviet directors back then.

However, in this particular movie everything fits in pretty nicely. Boyarsky's good looks (I dare anyone to find a better D'Artagnan in any film), Tabakov's silliness as Louis XIII, even Terekhova's acting as Milady. Credit is due to Yungvald-Khilkevich for putting it all together. The songs, written just for the movie, fit perfectly into the plot, and have become Russian classics, instantly recognized by anyone even now, 20 years later (pun intended).

The action sequences are quite good, the cinematography is beautiful, Porthos is lovable, Constance is a knockout. What else do you want from a musketeer movie?
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10/10
One for all and all for one
imikhaylov20 July 2001
I was born when this movie came out, so I saw it much later. Some times even now in my twenties I take out that film and watch it. The movie is very simple; it is about good and evil, adventure and misfortune. The whole romanticism with being a hero, a true hero. It is an absolute escape from the reality, but that is what it supposed to be.

Even now when we go camping with my friends we always sing the memorable songs from this movie.

The silliest and most ironic part about the movie is the duet between de'Treville and d'Artagnan, where de'Treville sings, "How old are you my child?" and d'Artagnan (Boyarski with huge mustache and is about 30-35) answers back, "I am 18 years old!" That is the greatest silliness.
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10/10
fantastic movie
elnina82 April 2006
This is one of the best movies I've ever seen. I suppose that's the very best way to put it.

The Three Musketeers is about a young man who sets out to earn his living as a musketeer. At the very beginning his letter of recommendation is stolen by a cardinal's "employee" and D'Argtagnan can't become a musketeer immediately. He meets three friends and has many adventures.

This movie is amazing. There's lots of laughter and excitement. The actors are phenomenal. I love this movie and I've seen it more than 30 times. If you're going to watch something, watch this.
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8/10
A fantastic Russian version!
FromBookstoFilm18 February 2007
Warning: Spoilers
SPOILERS I saw this movie back in the early 1980's and loved it and just I recently watched the DVD. This adaptation closely followed the book. Wonderful performances by all particularly the actors playing Athos,Porthos,Aramis,D'Artagnan,Cardinal Richelieu and Milady de Winter. This version and the two sequels that followed rivaled the Richard Lester Musketeer Trilogy of the !970's and 1980's. Whenever I watch a film I check to see if the film remains to the original novel and this passed the test with flying colors. This movie had wonderful music and I really felt for the Athos character. I think this portrayal of Athos was the closest portrayal yet to the character. A goodhearted nobleman betrayed,ruined and driven to drink by a deceiving woman he had married who he thought was a perfect beauty,perfect angel only to discover she was a branded criminal,thief,con-artist liar,seductress and mistress of a defrocked priest who later but not intentionally re-enters his life as spy courtesan assassin Milady de Winter.This portrayal of Athos rivals the portrayals of actors Oliver Reed and Van Heflin as Athos in the 1973 and 1948 films. D'Artagnan may have been too old for the role but what a great performance! This film version's Milady de Winter really showed the deceiving and deadly character of Milady. That Milady could hold her own against the Musketeers and she really was their worst enemy. She didn't tremble in fear of the Musketeers.She stood up to them.Defeated Aramis and Porthos and shot D'Artagnan during the chase scene.This Milady was very athletic jumping out of window and onto a horse. Something no other Milady in any other version had done!The performance rivaled Faye Dunaway's and Emmanuelle Beart's Milady in the most recent adaptation. At times the character shows a soft beauty who as the picture progresses becomes more and more of a hardened calloused character. I love this film and I recommend it and the two sequels that followed. My favorite scene is the chase scene towards the end of the film reminds me in many ways of the chase scene in the Richard Lester's Four Musketeers but I like this one much better! Anyone who wants to see other faithful full adaptations from the beginning of the story to the end please see 1948,1961,1974,1999 and the 2005 versions.
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1/10
Absoule garbage TV
fubared121 June 2013
Possibly the worst 'mini-series' of all time. In fact, I was only able to make it through the first 20 minutes before having to shut it off entirely. Absolutely everything about this is bad, from total lack of direction using cheap hand-held camera work to the most dreadful music ever written. All the 'actors' are dubbed, there is no live sound recorded, and the voices that are there are all terrible actors. The muzak makes elevator trash sound like Mozart by comparison. And it's accompanied by some sort of really cheaply made synthesizer. The costumes were apparently designed for some community theatre production by amateurs. The sets are cheaply made from cardboard cutouts. And worst of all it's exceedingly DULL, even for the short time I watched it. How this ever got the rating it did is totally beyond my compression, unless they were all from Russian voters. If you want to check out for yourself how bad it is, it's available on you tube.
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10/10
The best Duma adaptation, if you like musical.
Pretender-527 September 2007
To put it simple, from my point of view this is the best A.Duma's / 3 Musketeers adaptation on screen ever, of course if you like musical.

This movie seamlessly blends the action and adventure of historical movies, with great spirit of classic 'D'Artagnan's ' tale and great, great taste of music and songs which blend in.

You get a movie with unexpectedly fresh and charming characters, lots of fun and humor and great songs.

This is one of the best movies of the Russian 'Soviet' era.

Of course a non-Russian speaking person (even with subtitles) would be hard to get a full at this movie, but the only with I have is that somebody actually do release this on DVD with English dubbing and subtitles.

People who love music movies and movies like ORIGINAL CHARLIE AND CHOC FACTORY etc - most probably be able to enjoy it....

Really a cult classic.
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10/10
One of the best adaptations
deahomemqueri14 August 2020
The Russians know how to adapt Alexandre Dumas' books very well, they know even better than Hollwyood. Your writers are better. Unlike The Three Musketeers (1993 and 2011), The Musketeer (2001), this is a film that has a good script and that adapts the story very well. Like Uznik zamka if (1988) it is a much better adaptation of the count of monte Cristo, different from the 1922, 1934 and 2002 versions made by hollywood with mediocre scripts.
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Russian Musketeers
dorukaelp27 December 2014
Russian film adaptation of the Dumas' classic Three Musketeers is not the best of Soviet cinema. It definitely shows why it falls short while building up the story in the first half an hour. Characters are cartoonish. Story is of typical and acting is stagey -typical to the Soviet comedies of the time-. There is no interesting camera work or editing. Not all the musical scores are topping the charts, some of them are off key and offering mismatching tones for the song.

Of course its important to analyze the film in the right context, namely neutralization of the cultures and censorship in Soviet era. Film takes Dumas' worldwide known story and easily adapts it to a Russian speaking apolitical(!) France. Unsurprisingly, this simple story and plain adaptation wins the hearts of the ex-Soviet nations. Hence its high rating.

Unfortunately there are not many good things to tell about Russian D'Artanyan. I'm not sure if i would recommend this film to people who are not interested in Dumas' works or Soviet cinema. So don't get hyped by the high rating, in the end its an overrated TV film.
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4/10
Interesting costume musical from the USSR
DrMiguel-DeLeon12 February 2024
I'm fairly certain I've seen all the iterations of the Dumas classic up to 2022. All the others combine action and comedy, as did the novel. Props to the Soviets for attempting this story, told in more detail than Hollywood's versions. It's colourful and eye-catching, but slight on action and corny of the comedy. The poor acting is surpassed in badness only by the wooden cinematography. Costume and set design are good, as is the singing -- and I would guess the director comes (like probably all the cast) from the theater, since that's the feel of it.

It's a must for fans of the story, and fans of Soviet cinema, and a pass for everyone else.
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"The Three Singing Musketeers"? - Why not?
scribbler-216 March 2001
A properly light-hearted adaptation of A. Dumas' book, with a lot of singing, dancing, fencing and prancing around.

What's bad about this movie, is that it's ultimately brainless and looks like it was made for 8-year-olds, or something, but this is why I still remember it in the first place - because I first saw it when I was about that age. (True, this is just the age when people normally read the book). Another disadvantage is that the characters don't look like Frenchmen at all - and don't even attempt to, except D'Artagnan and possibly Athos. These two arguably do have something "French" about them.

What's good about this movie is that it offers no angle to the wind, and you can take it in like a glass of beer - you're through before you even know it.

One more thing, the film was obviously made under a strong influence of "CJ Superstar", which shows especially in the fact that Aramis is the spit and image of Ted Neeley (with a goatee) - looks like him and sings like him, though I can't say if that's good or bad.

Score it 3/10.
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