I Watch Films: The Mask Of Zorro

 

The Mask Of Zorro

In the final days of Spanish California masked hero Zorro intervenes to save some peasants who are being executed by firing squad. It’s a trap. The governor has two final bits of business; distributing land to the dons (nobles) before the Mexican revolutionaries arrive; and finally killing Zorro. Two lads spot the trap and help him, in return Zorro gives one a medallion.

Returning home to his wife and daughter Zorro (Anthony Hopkins) is revealed to be Don Diego de la Vega. However the governor ambushes him there, the two were rivals in love for his wife. They fight, the wife is killed, de la Vega imprisoned and the daughter taken by the governor for his own.

Twenty years pass. The governor and his beautiful daughter (Catherine Zeta Jones) return from Spain. The lads, now grown up, are bandits running a scam; they’re caught by Captain Harrison Love, the governor’s American chief henchman and one is killed.

Love visits the prison where de la Vega is being held, but he’s unrecognisable. Knowing the governor is back, he escapes, encounters the surviving lad (Antonio Banderas) who is out for revenge. The two team up, de la Vega training him in sword-fighting, spectacular stunts, and also in acting as a gentleman, allowing them to infiltrate the governor’s mansion to discover his plan. Both of them are distracted by the beautiful daughter for different reasons.

If you don’t know Zorro, he wears a mask and fights with a rapier and a whip. He’s Robin Hood, but Spanish and sexy. He’s an inspiration for Batman (in the original comic – and other versions – Bruce Wayne has been taken to see a (different) Zorro film when his parents are killed. SPOILERS for Batman.)

I say sexy and other people have suggested it’s a horny film; Banderas and Zeta Jones have a fight in which he systematically strips her of her clothes. Maybe sensual is a better way to describe it; Hopkins handles his whip in a training sequence that is definitely about him, an older man, establishing his potency and superiority over a younger man. Or maybe horny is the right word?

Watch This: A fun film about swordfighting, and also love
Don’t Watch This: People writing Z with a rapier and wearing masks does nothing for you