Stephen Herek’s fairly mediocre 1993 version of The Three Musketeers didn’t have much going for it really, with the fairly unlikely combination of Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland and Oliver Platt playing the triumphant triumvirate and Chris O’Donnell as D’Artagnan, though Tim Curry is as great as you might imagine as Cardinal Richelieu.
Aside from Curry, perhaps the film’s greatest asset is its wonderful score by Michael Kamen, the first of three five-star efforts he wrote for the director. It was a couple of years since Kamen wrote his beloved score for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, but he had to do that one in a real hurry – he had a little more time on Musketeers and his second grand swashbuckler of the 1990s is very much on the same musical level.
Kamen wanted the score to feel period-appropriate and there are some interesting instrumental choices throughout, though it largely remains in the traditional orchestral (and choral) Hollywood wheelhouse. The exception is the big song “All For Love”, a typical Kamen 1990s rock ballad which is very enjoyable (and very anachronistic), belted out with no stone left unturned by three musical musketeers Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart and Sting. It’s a nice song, though didn’t come close to recreating the success of Robin Hood’s big hit.
There are loads of great themes packed into the score (indeed it’s one of the composer’s most thematically-rich efforts). There’s just a hint of the score’s main theme at the start of the opening cue “The Cavern of Cardinal Richelieu” on the extended album (it was edited out for the original album) but that track’s focus is on brooding orchestral-and-choral action and suspense. The exciting action piece “D’Artagnan” introduces that character’s noble theme.
The main theme (the leading melody from the song) gets its first fully developed appearance in “D’Artagnan Meets Constance”, though the focus of the piece is more on some more rollicking dramatic material, full of trademark Kamen touches. And then we hear the wonderfully baroque love theme of sorts in the first half of “God’s Often Busy”, before Kamen develops the piece into a delightful scherzo.
“D’Artagnan Meets the Musketeers” opens with another lovely, bouncy scherzo, then the composer goes through a series of variations on the main theme before we get a welcome return of swashbuckling action material in “The Ruins Fight”. It’s quite an understated track, but I love “Cardinal and Milady”, with its very intricate orchestration helping to convey some real dramatic weight.
The score’s pièce de résistance – indeed, one of the highlights of Kamen’s whole career – is the glorious “Carriage Chase” (called “The Cardinal’s Coach” in its abridged form on the original album). Frantic, breathlessly exciting action music is even better because of how bright and colourful it is – and how brilliantly melodic. Kamen became very well-known for his very taut action style in Die Hard and the rest – and he was great at that, and you can hear the very distinctive brass sound of that score at times in this – but this sort of thing, so expansive and just pure fun, is such a treat.
Another action stunner is the delightful “Cannonballs”, all bright and brassy and bouncy. On the flip side, there’s a gorgeous melody at the heart of “Talk of Love”, with a trademark Kamen oboe solo particularly moving. The same instrument highlights “D’Artagnan and Milady”, a piece shot through with melancholy, and very moving for it. (Interestingly, late on in the piece is the genesis of a theme Kamen would go on to use – in a very different guise – to great effect in 101 Dalmatians.)
Kamen packs in a load of action cues as the film builds up to its conclusion, starting with “Ship Fight”, based on the same swashbuckling theme as the earlier “Carriage Chase” and almost as good as it. I just love the fanfare that opens “Musketeer Montage” – so grand in its brilliant Hollywood take on period thrills; the piece is paired with “Spotting the Guns”, a much darker stretch of drama, but also very impressive (I like the use of timpani to build the tension).
There is desperate tension in “Race to the Gun”, the whole brass section getting quite the workout, which becomes all-out-action as it segues into “Courtyard Battle” – this spectacular piece is the pick of the previously-unreleased ones. The battles aren’t over though because from here we go straight into “Saving the King / Throne Room Battle”, which opens very dark (there is some unsettling dissonance on offer, including a choral element) before the heroics begin.
And still there’s more! There’s real propulsion to “The Musketeers Search for the King”, punctuated by a really lovely elegiac passage for strings, and then in “Porthos and Ugly / D’Artagnan Defeats Rochefort” the now-familiar pattern continues as deep, dark ominous tones gradually give way to dashing thrills and spills. Everything culminates in the stunning, rousing finale “The Fourth Musketeer”, the main theme soaring away like nobody’s business in an epic finale to a fantastic film score.
While it perhaps doesn’t have anything quite as spectacular as Robin Hood’s overture, nor a love theme quite as exquisite as that score’s, I have to say that The Three Musketeers is arguably an even better listen than that more celebrated effort – it’s such a well-rounded score, without a dull moment even when the 100-minute score is heard in full on Intrada’s new album. The original album was a great presentation of the highlights, including some wonderful edits within cues for listening benefit, but the full score is a must-have for fans of this wonderful, much-missed composer, or indeed fans of wonderful 1990s film music in general.
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