Monday 1 February 2021

The Mask of Zorro (Martin Campbell, 1998)

Twenty years after he was betrayed and imprisoned, Zorro aka Don Diego de la Vega (Anthony Hopkins) escapes from prison when his enemy Don Rafael Montero (Stuart Wilson) returns to California.


When his brother dies in a skirmish with the bloodthirsty Harry Love, robber Alejandro Murrieta (Antonio Banderas) thirsts for vengeance. But he is in no shape to take his revenge.


Stumbling into Diego, Alejandro has an opportunity to take his vengeance, and become a hero to the people.


With the younger man under his wing, Diego plans to foil Rafael's scheme to re-take California, and reconnect with his daughter Elena (Catherine Zeta-Jones), who has grown up believing that Rafael is her father.



Sometimes it takes writing about something to really clarify how you feel about it. Sometimes you cannot be bothered going back to re-write. Such was my state of mind after posting my Wonder Woman 2 review. 


It also rammed home how disinterested I am in most big budget movies. I think the last recent movies I genuinely enjoyed watching were Steel Rain, and The Hunt for Red October - solid stories that were well made and did not feel like all the humanity and nuance had been machined out of them. 


Another one of those recent viewings was The Mask of Zorro


The first thing that struck me on this viewing was how practical and stripped-down the movie was, stylistically. I was set on edge during the title sequence (which I love), but the decision to add a feline roar as the title blazes across the screen feels like something out of a different kind of movie. 


That moment aside, I was struck by how earnest the film is - and how un-showy the filmmaking is. There is no slo-mo, rapid-fire MTV-style editing or anything to stick it in the nineties (except for that roar at the beginning).


This might have something to do with the names on the film’s credits. Two of the writers were Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, who would go on to write most of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. 


The film is directed by Martin Campbell, which is probably the reason for the film’s robust, no-frills thrills. Mask of Zorro was his follow-up to GoldenEye and Campbell brings a similar approach to Zorro that he did to 007. The new element is the story, but Campbell and his collaborators stage that story with a sense of classic Hollywood filmmaking and showmanship.


For a movie made long after the end of the swashbucklers, the restraint to avoid contemporary cinematic ideas is striking.


The filmmakers seem to recognise what made those movies great, and tries to present the familiar conventions in ways that rely on similar style choices (such as shooting sword fights wide in extended takes) with the added flare of modern technology.


There are plenty of great swordplay and acrobatic stunts, which are shot in extended wide shots. The fact that Zorro wears a mask means that these sequences can go longer, with repeated flips and jumps for stunt performers who alternate with Banderas, who brings a great sense of agility to his sword-work.


The swordplay was the work of famed swordsman Bob Anderson, who worked on Star Wars, Princess Bride and the Lord of the Rings. The scenes that really stood out were the horse chase, in which Zorro jumps from horse to horse, dispatching each rider. In the final stage of this sequence, Zorro stands astride two horses. I had completely forgotten about the sequence before this viewing.


This is fantastic stunt work captured in a real environment. If you are underwhelmed by the weightlessness of current blockbusters, Mask of Zorro might be up your alley.

 

The other set piece that made me sit up was the dance sequence. The camera stays wide and moves around the performers. I cannot speak on their dance abilities but by avoiding excessive editing you really get a sense of their building chemistry. 


It makes for a fun echo of the film’s most famous scene, the duel between Zorro and Elena in the stable. It is difficult to balance multiple tones in a single scene, but the filmmakers structure the duel as a meet-cute, as the combatants counter the others' moves. The scene is a good example of Campbells' approach to comedy - there are no leering camera angles or unnecessary mugging. He lets the laughs build naturally rather than undermining the tension of the duel.


In past reviews I have spoken of the physical economy of the leads in Martin Campbell’s other movies. Watching Banderas in this, I think he might be the best actor for Campbell’s style.


I think of the scene when Harry Love displays Alejandro’s brother’s head while Alejandro is disguised  as a nobleman. Campbell takes a lot of his style from Sergio Leone - the slow build and the emphasis on the performers eyes (just check out the extended stare-offs in Casino Royale). Banderas can smoulder like no one else, and in this sequence his smile is like a bomb ticking down to zero.


In the role that brought her to wide attention, Catherine Zeta-Jones is fiery and witty, although I wish she got some more to do. For a long time I thought Zeta-Jones was latinx. Watching it now, her accent clangs. She is good in the role, but she should have followed Stuart Wilson’s lead and spoken in her ordinary voice.


There is one scene which I did not quite understand - when Elena meets her old maid, the woman has to be translated in order for Elena to understand her - I wondered if this was meant to be a specific dialect that was specific to California? If you know, comment below.


 As Alejandro's mentor, Anthony Hopkins is... effective? As with Zeta-Jones, it is another case of a non-Latin actor in the role. There is also some questionable makeup on him in the early sequences - I could not tell if it was to make him look younger, or brown face to make him look Latin. Hopkins is fine, but there was something missing from the performance - I could have used a little more eccentricity. He comes across as a bit stoic, but I guess he needed to be considering the characters' motives and function as a straight man for Banderas. Well there, I talked myself around.


Apparently, Sean Connery was cast in an earlier version of the project, which would have posed similar issues although it would have been cool to watch the original James Bond working with the best latter-day Bond director. 


This movie also benefits from some fun villains.


Late in the day, Stuart Wilson replaced Armand Assante as the villainous Don Rafael, and he is great. Probably most well-known as the villain in Lethal Weapon 3, Wilson brings a note of upper class snobbery to the role. There is a whiff of humanity to him, a desperation that makes him even more craven to achieve his goals. It is too bad Campbell never cast him in his Bond movies - he is a fun evil Brit.


Matthew Letscher is not as memorable, but he is well-cast as Harry Love. Love is really despicable, and  Letscher brings an.icy smugness to the role that makes his ultimate comeuppance really satisfying.


James Horner delivers the rousing score. He re-uses the same suspense motif that I can remember being in Wrath of Khan and Troy (check out the track ‘The Greek Army and its Defeat’) to hear it at full strength. The main romantic melody of the score serves as the basis for the end title song ‘Spend My Lifetime Loving You’, sung by Marc Anthony and Tina Arena. This song weirdly stuck in my head for years, so it was nice to hear it in its original context.


The movie is not deep but there is a vague thematic undercurrent to the historical context. It feels like an attempt to tie the characters more directly to their home's future in the United States (which would be developed in the sequel, The Legend of Zorro). The film is filled references to a  new California - Elena was born here and reconnects with her roots, while Diego dies and is replaced by Alejandro, who is a fictional brother of real-life Californian outlaw Joaquin MurrietaMurrieta was known as the 'Robin Hood of the West'. 


Effectively, the film is rebooting Zorro as a genuinely man of the people rather than a sympathetic member of the upper classes. In this respect, Banderas' Alejandro feels like a spiritual sibling to Daniel Craig's Bond in Campbell's Casino Royale - a man who knows how to navigate the world of wealth and leisure, but is not tied to it. 


I am not sure whether this is intentional or not (Banderas's casting fudges the issue), but the handover of the Zorro moniker from Hopkins to Banderas feels like a handover of the role from the line of Anglo actors who played the role in the past. 


A throwback to the swashbucklers of old, Mask of Zorro does not need to be viewed as homage to be enjoyable. In fact, twenty years after its release, it is a great example of practical action adventure filmmaking that can stand toe-to-toe with modern-day blockbusters.


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