You Are A Traitor To Your Country And Your Class!

Phew, ok, so it’s been awhile since I last worked on my gargantuan undertaking to cover (most of) the breadth of the Zorro mythos, but I guess that’s kinda fitting considering that I’m also skipping ahead nearly fifty years from the last part that I covered.

But first of all, for those who have no idea what’s going on here, gaze upon all previous installments, from the first Zorro novel, to the first Zorro movie, its sequel, and its remake. There, all caught up.

So, I skipped the far-too-friendly 1950’s TV show, and a few silly movies made in the interim–less because of any silliness than because I’ve really never seen any of that stuff all the way through. But eventually, after a long time, the franchise was dusted off and brought back to public life in the form of a major motion picture. Could such an old fashioned adventure succeed when portrayed in such a modern style?

Well yes. Yes it could. It actually did a damn good job.

1998’s The Mask of Zorro is meant to be a continuation of the overall Zorro myth, with its own embellishments and new ideas, but it also ends up coming across, all things considered, as a sort-of sequel to 1940’s The Mark of Zorro. Of course, for that to work, Diego de la Vega’s love interest’s name must change from the creepy-post-1955 Lolita to Esperanza, and we must believe that an aging Tyrone Power would grow into Anthony Hopkins. Alright, so it’s a bit of a stretch, but whatever.

Mask of Zorro does not rewrite the Zorro story to be more “modern,” instead it gives us our original Zorro, and then has him pass his mantle along to a slightly less traditional hero. Our new protagonist is also of the Latino lower classes that are generally oppressed in these stories, so that’s a nice touch, because we still have de la Vega there to provide us with all of that class-traitor stuff that I love so much.

After an opening that gives us a rousing appearance of the original Zorro, followed by some surprisingly effective heartbreak, we are taken twenty years forward, into the 1840’s, and introduced to historical figures Joaquin Murieta and Three Finger Jack, (who, it has been theorized, may have actually been part of Johnston McCulley’s original inspiration for Zorro in the first place) along with Joaquin’s fictional younger brother, Alejandro, who will become our new hero ’cause he’s the one played by Antonio Banderas. (Here’s another Joaquin Murieta link, if you’d like.)

This film is actually akin to Batman Begins (although not quite as insanely good) in that we’re presented with a new take on a legendary hero–one that gives us lots of character work and buildup before said hero even really, finally, almost mercifully, shows up. Similar to that Batman re-imagining, there is alot of work put into how our hero becomes who he is, although the most poignant moments are actually saved for the older, original Zorro, who had his entire life stolen from him on the eve of retiring from his adventurer’s life.

It is probably no surprise that Hopkins can hack the dramatic requirements of the role, but it’s worth pointing out that he does a damn good job as a weathered, but still witty and charming, swashbuckler hero. I could be wrong, but I get the feeling that he doesn’t get the chance to be that relentlessly likeable in the movies too often.

Some of the greatest fun that the movie delivers is when our two main characters (whose actors have the same basic first name, incidentally) are having their training montage. There’s at least one shot that’s ripped off almost exactly from one of those old Jackie Chan kung fu movies (either this one, or this one, I don’t remember) but that just helps to set the overall mood of cool shit mixed with some very funny character moments.

Catherine Zeta-Jones is also in this movie, and she’s ok. She does, unfortunately, make the first move towards the Kiera Knightly school of historical heroines who are given no good reason for why they can do well in a fight scene. I love it when a female character can hold her own, but in a historical setting, when said character is a noblewoman, (where are the commoner ingenues?) there needs to be some kind of explanation as to why. Ah well. One ridiculously silly flirtation/swordfight certainly doesn’t ruin a good film.

Now, this film’s villain, one Captain Love, (also vaguely historical) really is a good one, though. It’s pretty great when a movie’s one tall, blonde, blue-eyed, very American character is a completely contemptible villain. Like a golden-haired General Custer with a stick up his ass, the character seems like he should be the hero of an old cavalry picture, and is the only character who isn’t Latin in any sense. He’s also ridiculously evil and sadistic in that wonderful way that such a villain should be: all the sympathy is saved for the other (still pretty evil) bad guy. Also, in the setting’s long-ago days when most still used single shot flintlock pistols, Love carries an early revolver with a ridiculously long barrel. It’s a little silly looking, which offsets how dangerous he (and it) is very nicely.

As our hero, Banderas does a very good job. He takes his character from being the, clearly less competent, younger brother of someone important to being a near-mythical hero, all with a good deal of crassness, dash, and believability. Well, believability within swashbuckler action film rules… which works for me.

All told, The Mask of Zorro really was a very good attempt at presenting the genre to modern audiences. A wonderful marriage of current action movie flair and good ol’ adventure verve. Maybe that’s why it flopped when it came out. Paving the way for the next attempt at doing such a thing to go a little more out there, and, in my opinion, be a little less good and enjoyable. (And yes, I am talking about Pirates of the Caribbean, which was ok.) Unfortunately, for some reason, once the new Zorro movie finally warranted a sequel many years later (probably due to DVD sales) they made one of the worst movies I have ever seen. And I’ve seen some doozies. But I’ll get to that later.

The point is, I feel like alot of people didn’t know what to make of Mask… when it came out. Fans of older swashbucklers probably mostly felt that it was too modern and retreated into some “they don’t make ‘em like they used to, dad-gum it!” bullshit, while fans of modern action movies probably hadn’t realized yet how bad-ass swordplay can be, and so thought it would be quaint. Thankfully, I was (and am) a fan of both. So I was treated to some incredible swordfighting and adventure, some major spectacle, a rebirth of a classic hero, more real character work than any previous version of the story, and probably more “for the people” populism as well.