1263 The Three Musketeers / The Four Musketeers: Two Films by Richard Lester

[cdnchris]

So after actively avoiding these films for decades I watched the first last night again through Criterion's disc and was pleasantly surprised it still held up rather well, if not perfectly; my childhood at least wasn't destroyed. Some of Lester's comic bits are a bit eye-rolley now (as I feared, since I got the same from Superman II), and the swordfights come off a bit more clumsy than I remember (not sure if it's the choreography or camerawork that's contributing to that), but I had fun with it. It was a bit of a trip, though, as I figured, how certain scenes some how stuck with me subconsciously. This image would pop up in my head through the years of a guy being stuck on a giant wheel going around and being stabbed by someone as he came back down, which horrified me obviously, and low-and-behold, it was this film!

I can see how I never noticed this wasn't a complete film, though, as it does have an ending that works, and it was enough for me at the time (though it's funny that I do recall seeing the sneak-peak of the next entry. I guess I figured it never came out? Not sure).

[Petie53]

Watched the first movie last night in my home theater. Sorry but very disappointed. I realize the movie was released in 1973 but compared to others from that time frame the video and audio quality are really poor. 5 years prior the movie 2001 was released in 5.1 audio and the soundtrack and video quality were stunning. This movie has a monaural soundtrack and virtually no low frequency content. The 4k video quality is barely better than dvd. Really felt I was watching a Chinese knockoff disk.

I can accept the video quality but the audio made the movie feel like I should just have used my tv speakers. Was really looking forward to this release but this gets put into my once and done collection.

[MichaelB]

The 70mm Cinerama production 2001: A Space Odyssey was a really extreme outlier and in no way is a sensible or indeed realistic yardstick for comparison purposes. If you want to draw a more meaningful Kubrick comparison, do it with A Clockwork Orange or Barry Lyndon, the films that immediately bookended The Three Musketeers... both of which were in mono.

But there was nothing unusual about that. The fact is that virtually all 1970s films before the advent of Dolby Stereo (which didn't really take off until the turn of the 1980s) were mixed and presented in mono, the tiny handful of exceptions being large-scale blockbusters given 70mm blowups and roadshow presentations, and a much smaller number of films that used the four-track magnetic surround process (Nashville, Suspiria), although very few cinemas could play those as intended and most people would have had to watch them in mono - I was one of them; I didn't get to hear Suspiria properly for literally decades!

You mention 5.1, but that configuration wouldn't be introduced for another six years - and the man who introduced it, Walter Murch, had no choice but to mix his 1974 aural masterpiece The Conversation in mono, as that was all that was realistically available to him (despite it being directed by the man who made The Godfather, it was always regarded as a "small" film).

I don't have this disc, so can't comment first-hand, but this is the AV Forums review of the StudioCanal disc (picked because they're usually pretty solid):

The English 2.0 mono track is a fine listen. Fidelity on both the dialogue and the wonderful music by Michel Legrand sounds rich and vibrant, with no harshness, boxiness or sibilance issues noted at all. The mix gives solid prioritisation to the dialogue so that its never muffled, however the balance with the score never wavers from near perfection.

And here's CineOutsider:

The Linear PCM 2.0 mono soundtracks are in very good shape, being clear, free of obvious signs of wear or damage, and boasting an impressive tonal range for a mono track, particularly in the robustness of the bass and high treble elements of the respective scores.

...which confirms suspicions that that's precisely what StudioCanal was aiming for: an accurate reproduction of what 1973 audiences would have heard. And Criterion, being a conscientious, historically-aware label, has clearly respected this, and I assume they've just ported the audio across as supplied - it clearly wasn't broken so didn't need fixing.

In all seriousness, what else should they have done?

[MichaelB]

As for 2001, it obviously wasn't originally presented in 5.1, but what current Blu-ray/UHD releases appear to have done is use the five surround tracks to reproduce as closely as possible the original Cinerama six-track surround mix, with the subwoofer very occasionally being pressed into service to add a modicum of oomph.

But it's the same basic curatorial process at work here as with The Three Musketeers in that it's consciously striving for world-premiere authenticity, not ahistorical revisionism.

[Walter Kurtz]

The Complete Musketeers digipak(actually semi-complete I guess) was the first dvd I ever bought while I was in high school. The Criterion release is light years better. Probably the distance from Earth to Alpha Centauri.