The Mask of Zorro is a 1998 action film directed by Martin Campbell, and stars Antonio Banderas with Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Stuart Wilson. In over 80 years since the creation of the Spanish masked swordsman, Banderas was the first Spanish actor to ever portray Zorro, although his character is not Spanish but a Mexican-born Californian. Hopkins portrayed the original Zorro, Don Diego de la Vega who was popularized by Guy Williams on the Disney TV series, Zorro.
This epic, filmed in Mexico and Orlando, Florida, was both a box office success and critically acclaimed. The Legend of Zorro, a sequel also starring Banderas, Zeta-Jones and directed by Campbell, was released in 2005, but is largely considered inferior to the original.[1]
The Mask of Zorro, like its sequel The Legend of Zorro, weaves several historical figures and incidents into its narrative. Alejandro is the fictional brother of Joaquin Murrieta, a Mexican outlaw killed by California State Ranger Harry Love, portrayed here as Texas Army Captain "Harrison Love", in 1853. (The film takes place more than a decade earlier.) Similarly, there is a character called Three Fingered Jack although the real person was a Mexican named Manuel Garcia rather than an Anglo-American. The opening sequence is set during the aftermath of the Mexican War of Independence, and a war between the United States and Mexico is alluded to. Too early to be the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848, this may refer to the Republic of Texas' continual conflicts with Mexico.Alejandro tells Montero that he came to California via Paris, Lisbon, and San Francisco, though in 1841, San Francisco was still Yerba Buena. (The name change didn't occur until January 1847.) An original ending on the DVD includes an appearance by Antonio López de Santa Anna, who appears familiar with the Zorro legend, and Montero's plot concerning Californian gold (and its climactic concealment) foreshadows the California Gold Rush.
Diego uses the name Bernardo when posing as the new Zorro's servant. In numerous Zorro books, Diego had a mute servant (later re-imagined in Isabel Allende's Zorro: A Novel as an equal) named Bernardo. Both Zorros conceal their costume under a priest's robes, a tactic used in numerous Zorro-related works. Diego's hacienda has a secret passage in a walk-in fireplace, which has also appeared in previous films. Esperanza de la Vega, Diego's wife, is not Lolita Pulido, the first woman he married, though Esperanza is alluded to in the epilogue of Allende's novel. Allende would continue the Campbell-directed Zorro films' practice of portraying historical figures interacting with fictional protagonists in her novel.
The Zorro silhouette that bookends the film, as well as the action-packed opening scene, recall popular James Bond film structures. (The Mask of Zorro's director Campbell had directed 1995's GoldenEye, the first Bond film starring Pierce Brosnan, and would later direct 2006's Casino Royale, which did the same for Daniel Craig; Campbell performed a similar service for Antonio Banderas in this film.)
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