VIDEO SEVERAL CUTS ABOVE.

Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor

Michael York is off to Europe to play the Musketeer D'Artagnan again. It's a role he's done a few times before. The first time was in Richard Lester's glorious ``The Three Musketeers'' in 1973 and then in the 1974 sequel, ``The Four Musketeers,'' which have been packaged into a marvelous two-disc DVD set.

This time the stage-trained, English-born York, who now lives in Southern California and is known for such films as ``Romeo and Juliet'' (the 1968 Franco Zeffirelli version), ``Cabaret,'' ``Logan's Run'' and the ``Austin Powers'' trilogy, will play an older D'Artagnan in ``La Femme Musketeer,'' which also stars Gerard Depardieu, Natassja Kinski and John Rhys-Davies. But York quickly notes, ``I get to swashbuckle and ride once again as in days of yore.''

In Lester's first two Musketeer films (he made one in 1989 called ``The Return of the Musketeers''), York played the young, naive adventurer D'Artagnan, who leaves the peaceful French countryside to make his mark as a swordsman in Paris. It is a city filled with political intrigues, as the king, Louis XIII, is merely a puppet and the real power lays with Cardinal Richelieu (splendidly portrayed by Charleton Heston).

Many - myself included - consider the two films among the greatest adventure pictures ever made. The reasons are numerous:

First, there's Lester (``A Hard Day's Night''), a sometimes overlooked director. His visual wit and freewheeling sensibilities are exhilarating in these movies. (By the way, someone thought of casting the Beatles as the Musketeers, but that was long before Lester was brought on board.)

Then, there is George McDonald Fraser's script. The author of the ``Flashman'' novels (Lester later made one into a film that bombed) brought his own offbeat sense of humor to the oft-told story from the novel of Alexandre Dumas (pere). Michel Legrand contributed a magnificent score - this despite, as he notes in a documentary on the DVD, having only 10 days to do it.

And then there is the superb cast - Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain and Frank Finlay as the three Musketeers (D'Artagnan becomes the fourth); Raquel Welch as comic, sexy Constance, seamstress to the Queen (Geraldine Chaplin), who's in love with the duke of Buckingham (Simon Ward); Faye Dunaway as Milady de Winter, Richelieu's lovely spy; and Christopher Lee as Rochefort, the Cardinal's deadly sword.

Which brings us to another reason the films shines: the sword fights. As York says, ``Dick Lester really liked his actors to be on camera doing stuff rather than using stunt men.'' Because the film featured a lot of fights, ``One was rehearsing them when one wasn't filming them,'' he adds.

In a 1999 conversation with director Steven Soderbergh, Lester told him that, before filming, he found that early-17th-century swordsmen tended to hack rather than parry the way they do on stage or in most films. ``Lester wanted us to get down and dirty,'' recalls York. No doubles were used for the main actors, who wielded real swords. Reed, Lee and York received wounds to prove it. And the late Reed, apparently, took his instructions to heart, terrifying some of his opponents, according to Lester.

The now 80-year-old Lee notes on the DVD documentary that he was the oldest of the group at the time but was the best swordsman. (He's still handling one in the form of a light-saber in the latest ``Star Wars'' episode). Yet, once when he was facing Reed, he found an unrehearsed blow heading for his head but managed to avoid it.

``I said, 'Oliver, this is not real, you know; this is amovie,' '' Lee recalls.

By the way, the fact that there were two films encompassing the Dumas novel was a surprise to the cast. They were supposed to be making one film, but shooting finished a mere two months before the producers had it booked into theaters in five countries. A decision was made to make the first half into part one. Many of the cast members weren't pleased, feeling they should be paid for two films. (Hollywood contracts were changed after that.) However, looking back, many of them appear satisfied, perhaps realizing they were part of two great films.

And York even praises the decision as brave. ``If one hadn't worked, they could have been left with a turkey.''

``The Complete Musketeers,'' which includes ``The Three Musketeers'' and ``The Four Musketeers'' (Anchor Bay) lists for $34.98 on DVD.

In the wake of success

Funeral parlors have been used to comic purpose before, such as in the 1965 film ``The Loved One,'' based on the Evelyn Waugh novel. But Alan Ball, the former sitcom writer who went on to win an Oscar for the ``American Beauty'' script, has actually taken death to a new, comically surreal level (or is it depth?) with his HBO series ``Six Feet Under,'' the first season of which is being released on DVD.

Set in Pasadena, or someplace Pasadena-like, the series focuses on two brothers - Nate Fisher (Peter Krause) and David Fisher (Michael C. Hall) - who inherit the family business from their father, Nathaniel (Richard Jenkins), who has died unexpectedly when the family hearse is broadsided by a bus. He, however, quickly returns as an apparition, which should tell you something about the show's sensibilities.

``Six Feet Under,'' like ``American Beauty,'' is a sharply realized look at family in all its glorious dysfunction, while being both poignant and humorous. Besides its trenchant writing, the series has an excellent cast, including France Corny as Ruth, the tough matriarch, and Lauren Ambrosia as Claire, the floating younger sister. Rachel Griffin, who seduces Nate and becomes his love interest, has proven to be a scene stealer.

The four-disc DVD set includes commentary from Ball. If you haven't seen it, you've missed one of the few worthwhile shows on television.

``Six Feet Under: The Complete First Season'' (HBO) lists for $99.99 on DVD.

Where the skies are so blue

Lots of people fell in love with ``Sweet Home Alabama,'' which was a hit at the box office and is likely to be a hit on DVD. Directed by Andy Tennant (``Ever After''), the film stars Reese Witherspoon as Melanie, an up-and-coming fashion designer in New York City who is engaged to Andrew (Patrick Dempsey), a politico and son of the city's mayor (Candice Bergen). The problem, sigh, is that she is still married to her childhood sweetheart, Jake (John Lucas), who won't sign the papers for their divorce.

So Melanie hightails it back to the state in the film's title to tell her parents of her impending marriage and get Jake's autograph. Now, if you can't see where this plot is going ... just remember Dorothy clicking her heels and saying, ``There's no place like home.''

Some people may take offense at some of the film's dumb Southern stereotypes - like Confederate flags - which are, in the end, supposed to be quaint. But since this is supposedly a silly romantic comedy, such playful jabs are grating. After all, the idealized version of the Middle Ages in ``Ever After'' is fine, because it was long ago and we can ignore that it was dirty and brutal and life was short because the film is a fairy tale.

But Alabama was governed by George Wallace barely 30 years ago, and the idea - even in Tennant's eccentric Alabama - that the patrons in a redneck bar are going to easily accept an openly gay African-American stretches credulity.

``Sweet Home Alabama'' (Buena Vista) lists for $29.99 on DVD.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1) FRANK FINLAY, left, OLIVER REED, MICHAEL YORK and RICHARD CHAMBERLAIN in ``The Three Musketeers''

(2) JOSH LUCAS and REESE WITHERSPOON in ``Sweet Home Alabama''

(3) MICHAEL C. HALL, left, and PETER KRAUSE in ``Six Feet Under''