What? A Black Musketeer ?

[FredPuli43]

In the new drama about the Three Musketeers, shown on the BBC, one of the three, Porthos, is black, by Jove ! This is political correctness gone mad ! It is sheer multi-cultural tokenism ! Surprised if none of you haven't noticed (one in particular)

Is this not important ? (Well, it isn't to me, but there we are) It may be a sign that black people are beginning to pass without comment, whatever their job.

What do you think?

[ummmm]

I didn't notice and I watched them being interviewed on the BBC!!!

[FredPuli43]

Dumas's own father was born in Haiti. His father's mother was a black woman. Don't think that the Three were written as having one black man in the trio though.

[supersuezy24]

I don't see what the big deal is with one of them being black..Surely the storyline is more important.

[FredPuli43]

More interesting to me is that they are called musketeers but never seem to use muskets!

[jno]

well, you seldom see the Grenadier Guards using grenades either. Anyway, the originals of the musketeers were known as the Black Musketeers, I believe, but that was from the colour of their horses, not their skin.

The last versions of the musketeers I saw were played by dogs. Black men are no problem.

[FredPuli43]

Thought I was on to something. Porthos was loosely based on Isaac de Porthau, a black musketeer. Unfortunately, the 'black musketeers' were a company of musketeers; another was the 'grey musketeers; who were so named after the colour of their horses, black, not because they were black. So no clue there, and there is no suggestion that Porthos was black.

[FredPuli43]

Well,yes, the Grenadiers used to be soldiers armed with grenades but this specialist job went when more modern weapons became more important in warfare. The Three Musketeers prefer the sword, an old weapon succeeded in warfare by the more modern musket

[jno]

I'm not sure how efficient firearms were. I remember the brilliant Richard Lester films, written by George Macdonald Fraser with attention to historical plausibility: there's one sequence in which a firing squad takes ages trying to load their ungainly weapons while their target, Christopher Lee, becomes understandably testy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFWst8c_Cvk

[pastafreak]

Considering the series bears little resemblance to the original book...it's not meant to except for having the same characters...then making one protagonist black should be no surprise.

Also...I'm sure the producers/writers decided that swordplay is far more visually exciting and dramatic compared to a musket.

[Mamyalynne]

.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7T6X89XO9Q

[supersuezy24]

Crap, on my phone and out of touch. Sorry everyone xx

[supersuezy24]

Sorry, on the wrong thread, can someone report my comments so they are deleted, need to learn how to properly work this phone. Sorry :(