The Return Of The Musketeers -1989- Info

Billed as a rollicking adventure set 20 years after the original, The Return is a film of stark contrasts: it is simultaneously a nostalgic victory lap and a tragic epitaph. To understand the film, one must look beyond the plumed hats and sword clashes into the real-world drama that haunted its production.

The film is loosely based on Dumas’ 1845 novel Twenty Years After . The story picks up in 1649, with the once-inseparable quartet now scattered by time and politics. D’Artagnan (Michael York) remains a lieutenant in the King’s Guard, serving the calculating Cardinal Mazarin. The Return of the Musketeers -1989-

The plot kicks into gear when Mazarin tasks D’Artagnan with reuniting his old comrades to protect the monarchy against the rising tide of the Fronde (a series of civil wars in France) and the looming threat of Oliver Cromwell in England. The Original Cast Returns Billed as a rollicking adventure set 20 years

The cast was devastated. Michael York described the set as becoming a morgue. Oliver Reed, who was Kinnear’s close friend, was so distraught that he threatened to quit and reportedly fell off the wagon. Richard Lester was emotionally shattered and effectively retired from feature filmmaking for the next 30 years. The story picks up in 1649, with the

Yet the film ends, appropriately, not with a dirge, but with a toast. The four men (and the ghost of Planchet) raise their cups. They have saved the kingdom. They have lost their youth. They have buried a friend. And they still say, with a tear and a smile: “One for all…”