“The Three Musketeers” (1993)

The movie entitled “The Three Musketeers” (1993) was released in cinemas by Walt Disney Pictures.

The cast of characters were played by Charlie Sheen, Kiefer  Sutherland, Oliver Platt, Chris O’Donnell, Tim Curry, Gabrielle Anwar and Rebecca De Mornay among others. The film, which was based on the novel by French author Alexander Dumas, can be considered in the genre of action and comedy.

Arthos (Sutherland), Aramis (Sheen) and Porthos (Platt) are members of the Musketeers who serve as the trusted guards of the King of France. Cardinal Richileu (Curry) is the powerful, manipulative and arrogant minister who serves as an adviser of the king. There were times the cardinal crossed the lines in making decisions in behalf of the king. A recent situation involved the disbanding of the musketeers which the latter learned later. The king voiced his objection to this, because the musketeers are also his friends, but the cardinal was able to defend his justification in the decision to disband the group. The cardinal has his own guards.

D’Artagnan (O’Donnell) is a young man who wants to join the musketeers and was surprised with the news that the group was disbanded recently. Arthos, Aramis and Porthos refused to follow the order of the group’s dissolution and vowed to continue serving the king whatever happens. The young man met the three separately who challenged him to a duel at the designated time and place after having respective misunderstandings with them.

The young man got the major shock of his life when he learned that the men who challenged him in three separate duels turned out to be know each other because they are the musketeers whom he idolizes and wants to join them. But, being a musketeer is easier said than done. Fortunately, the young man’s several meetings with the three turned out to be fruitful because these served as tests for him to become a reliable, responsible and worthy musketeer. His late father was a musketeer himself.

“The Three Musketeers” and D’Artagnan fought against the guards of the cardinal on several instances because the musketeers refused to be cowed by the abuses of the cardinal in the corridors of power. They later learned that Richileu is the brain child of a conspiracy which involves himself as a traitor to France and its king. The cardinal wants the king to be assassinated by one of the former’s guard. The source of this information is a woman named Milady De Winter (De Mornay), who was the former love of Arthos. She killed herself the after the confession she made to Arthos. The Queen of France (Anwar), the king’s wife, is one of the innocent targets of the conspiracy of the cardinal.

The leader of the guards of the cardinal was a former musketeer who was expelled from their ranks because of conduct of unbecoming a musketeer. The cardinal got him to be the leader of his guards whose ranks rose to many personnel. Realizing the major treat posed by the cardinal and his guards against France, its king and queen and its people, the three musketeers asked for help from their inactive colleagues throughout the country by sending messages to regroup again. The messages also contain their motto: “All for one, one for all.”

With this action undertaken successfully by teamwork, the cardinal and his men were defeated. The cardinal tried to escape the country by boat, but Arthos posed as a boatman and knocked out the cardinal who was later arrested. After the threat was stopped, the musketeers were activated formally again by the King of France. With this development, D’Artagnan became finally a full pledged musketeer. The young man later learned from the three musketeers that if one of the musketeers’ life is threatened, the others will help him. They help each other during times of crisis and problems.

The above chosen images that were used for this feature post as our visual aids were taken from the following selected online resources as our materials for our references:

• en.wikipedia.org
• fanpop.com
• youtube.com

That’s all for now.

Until the next feature post.

Happier Days Ahead To All Of Us!

Three Strange Bedfellows: Unlikely Allies Of 007

This online piece is written in connection with the celebration of 60 Years of James Bond, 007 (October 5, 1962) in Cinema.

In the 25 films which were about James Bond, 007, the fictional MI-6 (British Secret Service) secret agent created by author Ian Fleming, he met allies and encountered enemies on his several adventures. As of this writing, six actors played the role of Bond, James Bond in these said films.

However, there were 007 flicks where the secret agent worked with unlikely allies in the duration of his respective missions. For this feature post, we take a look at the three of them who appeared in their respective movies with their corresponding actors who portrayed Bond.

1. Marc Ange Draco (Gabriele Ferzetti) “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” (1969) – Draco made an offer to Bond (George Lazenby) with a large sum of money to marry his daughter Tracy (Diana Rigg) who is a wayward child. Bond refuses the offer and continued to court her in a whirlwind romance which later resulted in their marriage. But, Tracy was killed after their wedding by a female associate of Blofeld (Telly Savalas), the head of SPECTRE. Draco is the head of the Union Corse, a major crime syndicate based in Europe and was a big help to 007 in locating Blofeld. When Tracy was captured by Blofeld, Bond enlisted Draco and his men to attack Blofeld’s headquarters in the mountain covered by snow in Switzerland. Tracy was rescued and the headquarters destroyed. Before its total destruction, 007 was able to photograph the locations of the nations of the world where Blofeld will spread (thru twelve selected ladies from different races he used in his experiments) the diseases he developed against agriculture.
2. Milos Colombo (Topol) “For Your Eyes Only” (1981) – The character who likes to eat pistachios was a former smuggling partner of Aris Kristatos (Julian Glover), a Greek businessman and intelligence informant. He is also a former resistance partner of Kristatos during the Second World War.  He is called “The Dove” in the Greek underworld who assists Bond (Roger Moore whose date of birth is October 14, 1927) in his mission. Previously, Bond was captured by Colombo who recorded secretly the conversation between 007 and Kristatos who tried to frame Colombo. Together, Bond and Colombo (with his men) raided the opium processing warehouse of Kristatos. Later, the two with Melina Havelock (Carole Bouquet) and Colombo’s men, climbed successfully a monastery on an abandoned mountaintop. Bond, with their help, was able to retrieve a weapon system being used by the British Government to communicate with its nuclear submarines.A KGB Senior Officer is also interested in the weapon system and wants 007 to give this to him. 007 threw this to down the mountain and told the KGB officer the word “Detente” because they both don’t have it.
   
3. Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane) “GoldenEye” (1995) and “The World Is Not Enough” (1999) – A  Russian gangster and a former KGB officer whom Bond (Pierce Brosnan) encountered previously during the days of the Cold War. Through him, 007 arranges a meeting with his rival gangster named Janus (Sean Bean) who was formerly known as Agent 006. 007 learned the real background of his former colleague agent from Zukovsky from the first mentioned movie. In the second movie, he was seek out by Bond for intelligence information about a certain terrorist and a group of men who attacked 007 and Elektra King (Sophie Marceau) who was a former hostage of the said terrorist. It turned out that per the former KGB officer’s revelation, the terrorist and the former hostage are allies actually. Elektra later captured Bond, but he and his men rescued 007. However, Zukovsky was shot and killed by Elektra who thought Bond cannot kill her. It turned out that she was wrong in her judgment and 007 killed her.  In real life, Coltrane, died on October 14, 2022. He was an excellent character actor when he was alive.
   

The above six chosen images which were used on this online feature post about movies as our visual aids were taken from the following selected online resources as our references:

• jamesbondwiki.com
• tradingcarddb.com
• mi6-hq.com
• youtube.com

That’s all for now.

Until the next feature post.

Happier Days Ahead To All Of Us!

 

Treasures And Anger And Happiness

For this feature post, this blogger would like to give a few spaces for the following pair of quotations to reflect for their meanings:

1. “What you keep in this world, those are your earthly treasures. What you give away in this world, those are your heavenly treasures. Remember to love and care for others because one’s life is not for oneself alone. Treasures are all in the heart, which is full of goodness and love.”
2. “Make your anger so expensive that no one can afford it and make your happiness so cheap that people can almost get it free.”

The chosen images that were used for this feature post were taken from the following selected online resources as our references:

• youtube.com
• en.wikipedia.org

That’s all for now.

Until the next feature post.

Happier Days Ahead To All Of Us!

“Maynila 1970: Panganib Araw At Gabi”

DIRECTOR CESAR “CHAT” GALLARDO

RUDY FERNANDEZ

PHILLIP SALVADOR

MARIANNE DELA RIVA

BETH BAUTISTA

EDDIE GARCIA

ANITA LINDA

CHITO PONCE ENRILE

“Maynila 1970: Panganib Araw At Gabi” was a movie released from the Philippines in 1979. The genre of the movie can be categorized as action and drama.

This was first shown in selected cinemas of the country and later in television channel RPN 9 during the early 1980s as prime feature and later morning feature presentations in its broadcasts.

The cast of characters were played by Rudy Fernandez, Phillip Salvador, Marianne Dela Riva, Beth Bautista, Eddie Garcia, Anita Linda, Chito Ponce Enrile, Ingrid Salas and Robert Rivera among others.

The film was directed by Cesar “Chat” Gallardo.

The early 1970s in the Philippines can be described as chaotic times because of the continuing rise of the student activism in the capital city of Manila. Crimes were also on the rise.

The characters played by Fernandez and Salvador have their respective fathers as policemen. Their fathers (played by Ponce Enrile and Garcia) who are veterans at the Manila Police Department (MPD) are also longtime friends. This make the two characters second generation friends.

The two lead characters, together with a common friend played by Rivera, entered the Manila Police Academy as their preparation to join the police force. They learned the theories and concepts of being a policeman. They also learned practical applications of these theories and concepts. They also learned to shoot and martial arts and related hand to hand combat.

The two characters can be considered as a study in contrast. Fernandez entered the academy through the intervention of his father because the latter wanted him to get away from his friends who are bad influences. Salvador’s reason was to follow the footsteps of his father who is his role model.

The donning of the police uniforms of the two was again a study in contrast.

Fernandez’ character did not change for the better. He used his position as a policeman to do illegal activities. He is still a notorious gambler who was burdened with debts in large amounts of money. Because of this, he and his wife played by Bautista is always in dire straits. To pay his debts, he joined criminal elements in their robberies where he gets the share of the loot on the spot.

He was later suspended in the police force but he did not surrender his badge and service pistol. Things got worse when he was arrested, together with his friends, by law enforcers from the Philippine Constabulary – Criminal Investigation Service (PC-CIS) in a restaurant where he will meet a person to receive bribe in a large amount of money. The person he will meet turned out to be a bait by the CIS and the money that was given to him was a “marked money.” He was expelled from the police force.

Without a job and source of livelihood, he turned out to stealing even his family. He stole the wedding ring given by his father to his mother. When his father-policeman learned what he did, he was very angry and for the first time, his father laid his hands on him.

Salvador’s character put to his heart and his mind seriously his career as a policeman. When he apprehended a man who went “amok”, his act was reported in a newspaper. The news was read later by his wife played by Dela Riva and asked him why he did not tell her about it. He said it was his duty. He was later promoted to a higher rank when he foiled the operation of a robbery gang.

He was given also an award and commendations from his superior officers. His policeman-father is very proud of the achievement of his son. His father is taking care of his mother played by Linda who is becoming sickly lately.

The characters played by Ponce Enrile and Garcia are like brothers who protect each other and confide to each other.

It was later revealed that the latter is keeping a mistress (Salas) for several years. The mistress wants him to leave his wife and stay with her for good. He rejected this proposal several times and this was always the cause of their arguments. In their latest argument which turned out to be a heavy one, she shot him with his very own service pistol. He managed to get away from the home of the mistress even if he is wounded.

By chance, the characters played by Ponce Enrile and Rivera were on night patrol and saw him. The wounded policeman whispered something to the former’s ears before he died finally. The older policeman told the younger one that they would make it appear that he died in the line of duty. The younger one was surprised naturally. The reply of the older one was that the younger one must not ask questions and keep the matter secret.

But that secret could not be kept for so long because during the wake, Rivera’s character told Fernandez’ character (who was then still with the police force) the real event that had happened. In one of their conversations when Fernandez’ character was already out of the police force, he told this to Salvador’s character which shocked the latter. By that time, his mother had already died. But Garcia’s character was a policeman whose brand of enforcing the law is fair to everybody.

In one of his patrol duties with Ponce Enrile’s character, he issued a traffic violation  ticket to a young man for over speeding. The young man introduced himself as a son of a congressman, but he issued the ticket just the same. The policeman told him gently that as a son of an elected official, he should be a good role model to others.

In the movie’s closing scenes, the two lead characters, who became estranged from each other because of their opposite philosophies in life, almost killed each other. Fernandez’ character (now officially dropped from the rolls of the police force) went to Salvador’s character’s house and challenged the latter to a gun duel. Fortunately, the  model policeman defended himself, used a wiser, reasonable and better judgment  and wounded slightly only his friend. Fellow policemen from the MPD responded to a call made from the neighborhood. One of the said policemen was Ponce Enrile who again reminded his son of his (the son’s) misdeeds and told him that this situation must serve as a lesson for him as he is being taken by the policemen in the patrol car as the ending credits roll.

The images that were used for this feature post were taken from selected online resources (Inquirer.Net; pep.ph; Facebook; gmanetwork.com; geni.com) as our materials for references.

That’s all for now.

Until the next feature post.

Happier Days Ahead to All of Us!

“Bad news travel fast” Plus Three

Hello Dear Readers!

It is break time once again for the following four best proverbs as our feature post from the usual articles of this blog:

1. “As you sow, so shall you reap.”
2. “Bad news travel fast.”
3. “A bad workman always blames his tools.”
4. “Be just before you are generous.”

The images that were used for this feature post were taken from the following selected online resources as our references:

• flicker.com
• youtube.com

That’s all for now.

Until the next feature post.

Happier Days Ahead To All Of Us!