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That seems a bit harsh. Legolas Send a noteboard - 14/09/2011 07:35:56 PM
I don't know why Hollywood even bothers with films like that instead of leaving them to the French (of course, unlike the rest of the world the Americans just don't see many foreign movies shot in other languages, at least in movie theaters, perhaps in a large part thanks to Hollywood not wanting them to as a great deal of subtitled foreign films are available in the US on DVD).

Because the Three Musketeers are popular enough that they mean something to people whose familiarity with France and French history is otherwise quite limited? People who don't care about most of the considerations a French audience would have, and who might be more turned off than interested by such factors, or by the French language. If French classics - or classics in any other language - were to be off-limits to anyone wanting to make a non-French adaptation (movie, TV, theater,...), they wouldn't remain classics in the rest of the world for very long.

Besides, how is it different from Hollywood depicting American stories or settings in an equally distorted way?
The whole notion of French characters (or other continental European characters) played by Americans/Brits is totally silly and verge on parody (at best) or arrogance (at worst), as silly as if you filmed a bunch of French actors in Texas and tried to sell to an american audience they're real Americans and the fact they all speak French in the movie is "just a convention" (no matter how great or entertaining the movie... it would be awful the same way an American production of Dumas is), or if you tried to pass Tom Cruise as a German officer (oh wait... they did to pull that one off too... great success.).

Obviously an American movie of a Dumas story is unlikely to be as good as a French one, and similarly for analogous situations. But that doesn't mean such a movie can't have any merit. I haven't seen Inglourious Basterds, and I have no desire to, but some people certainly think it's a good movie in its way. Movies like Amadeus and Gandhi were found deserving of Oscars despite the fact that they had British or American protagonists depicting iconic heroes of other countries, with the language issue present as well in Amadeus as well. And Gone With the Wind somehow managed to become one of the most popular movies of all time despite its sacrilegious notion of casting Brits as Scarlett and Ashley.
The French movies based on Dumas (especially on the Three Musketeers) aren't so great (it's become a cliché to say so, but d'Artagnan is probably one of the hardest character of French literature to pull off on screen, and it's widely believe no actor so far has really succeeded - there's even an essay about it somewhere), but the American movies based on Dumas' books (and all other movies with American actors pretending to be French) are all (so far) simply atrocious to watch and I bet the new one is the same or worse (it will be hard to "top" the memorable performance of Di Caprio as Louis XIV, though I hesitate between that one and Jason Schwartzman as Louis XVI in the movie by Sofia Coppola which could have been good fun had she filmed it with French and European actors as the worst/most hilarious example).

Don't believe I've seen any Three Musketeers movies actually, but it seems entirely possible to me to have an American Three Musketeers movie that is quite decent. Marie Antoinette was a somewhat strange movie, but definitely a long way from bad - and it taught an international audience about French history, instead of limiting itself to France and a handful of Francophiles abroad.
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The Three Musketeers (2011) - 13/09/2011 09:34:25 AM 850 Views
Oh dear. I may not survive this. *NM* - 13/09/2011 01:34:33 PM 188 Views
I plan to... - 13/09/2011 09:51:33 PM 491 Views
are there French actors who would lower themselves to an America Film? - 14/09/2011 02:49:53 PM 429 Views
Gerard Depardieu? *NM* - 14/09/2011 10:58:16 PM 189 Views
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The "lower" was mostly a joke - 15/09/2011 01:45:59 AM 569 Views
Re: The "lower" was mostly a joke - 15/09/2011 04:28:36 AM 453 Views
I explained to you why a majority of America would not be comfortable. - 15/09/2011 01:27:19 PM 432 Views
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anime usually STARTS weird and uncomfortable *NM* - 15/09/2011 09:39:01 PM 189 Views
That seems a bit harsh. - 14/09/2011 07:35:56 PM 611 Views
I am confused... - 14/09/2011 09:46:45 PM 401 Views
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Can I ask why? You've got me curious. - 14/09/2011 10:33:57 PM 488 Views
Are you really trying to make me argue both sides of the argument in one thread? - 14/09/2011 11:04:50 PM 461 Views
Where's the fun in only arguing one side? :p - 14/09/2011 11:10:05 PM 420 Views
I had no idea Scarlett and Ashley were played by brits *NM* - 14/09/2011 11:01:06 PM 197 Views
And not just any Brits... Leslie Howard died on some sort of mission for his government in the war. - 14/09/2011 11:08:26 PM 403 Views
I don't care much about the nationality of actors - 14/09/2011 11:51:57 PM 446 Views
+1 *NM* - 15/09/2011 01:47:30 AM 164 Views
Re: That seems a bit harsh. - 15/09/2011 01:54:45 AM 566 Views
Ok, if Orlando Bloom is a cackling over-acting villian, I may have to see this. - 13/09/2011 10:03:06 PM 450 Views
lol!! *NM* - 14/09/2011 02:43:21 PM 194 Views
Haven't seen it yet, but... - 14/09/2011 02:17:02 AM 575 Views
Man, it's been a long time since I read "The Three Musketeers". - 15/09/2011 05:16:06 AM 526 Views

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