The Mask of Zorro (1998) is an American action film directed by Martin Campbell, and stars Antonio Banderas, Anthony Hopkins, and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

A sequel starring Banderas and Zeta-Jones and directed by Campbell titled The Legend of Zorro was released in 2005.

Plot summary

In the early 19th century, the Mexican army is on the verge of liberating its country from Spanish colonial rule. In the area of present day California, the cruel and ruthless Spanish Governor Don Rafael Montero is about to be overthrown by the advancing Mexican Army. In a last ditch effort to trap his arch-nemesis, the masked swordsman Zorro (Hopkins), Montero lays a trap. The trap is thwarted with assistance from the local peasant population who see Zorro as their champion. Particularly helpful were two orphan brothers, Joaquin and Alejandro Murrieta.

However, Montero is able to surmise that Zorro is really Don Diego de la Vega, a Spanish noble living in California whom the governor thought to be his ally. Montero attempts to arrest de la Vega at his home later that evening. In the ensuing fight, de la Vega's wife is killed, his house is burned and his infant daughter, Elena, is taken by Montero to be raised as his own.

De la Vega remains imprisoned for the next twenty years until the day Montero returns to California and comes looking for him. De la Vega seizes an opportunity to escape from prison, intent on killing Montero at the first possible chance, but retreats when he sees Montero has brought Elena (Zeta-Jones), now a beautiful young lady, with him to California.

De la Vega soon encounters a now-grown Alejandro Murrieta (Banderas), whom he recruits and trains to become Zorro. Posing as a visiting Spanish nobleman, Alejandro infiltrates Montero's inner circle. Bitter over the murder of his brother by Montero's minion, the sadistic American Captain Love, he learns that Montero has been operating a secret gold mine known as El Dorado using the peasants and petty criminals as slave labor. His goal is to buy California from Mexico (using gold that really already belongs to Mexico) and establish himself as California's leader.

De la Vega convinces Elena that she is his daughter, not Montero's, and the two along with the new Zorro destroy Montero, Love and their grandiose plan. De la Vega dies after defeating Montero, and is given a grand funeral. Alejandro and Elena later have a son and settle in California. Zorro returns as the defender of California.

Goofs

• Montero speaks of Mexico's War with the United States that was becoming "costly", however early in the real war the territories of California quickly fell to U.S. forces and Montero would have had little time to concoct and implement such a grandiose plan. Montero could have aluded to Mexico's earlier war with the Republic of Texas that lasted much longer and would have fit better into the plot and chronology of the movie. This would explain the peaceful presence of a U.S. Officer on Mexican soil as America would not yet have entered the war and given time for Zorro to help America annex California in the second film.

• When Zorro is taken away in the prison wagon, the lights of a large city are clearly visible in the background to the left of the screen.

• Elena has a nylon zipper on her dress in the last scene. Zippers were not used in the 1840's and nylon was not used for this purpose until after WWII.

• When Don Rafael Montero shows a gold bar to the other Dons, he holds it only with two fingers and shows no signs that it's heavy. A gold bar this size would be much too heavy for anyone to hold like that.

• Alejandro tells Montero that he came to Mexico via Lisbon and San Francisco. In 1841, San Francisco was still Yerba Buena. The name change didn't occur until January, 1847.

• The Mexican flag appearing in the headquarters when Zorro is fighting the soldiers has the red and green areas reversed.

• During Alejandro, Joaquin, and Three-Fingered Jack's hold-up of the soldiers, the larger of Joaquin's two pistols swaps from his left hand in one shot, to the right hand in the next camera angle.

• In order to accomplish the effect of Elena's dress falling off from being sliced up by Zorro, a thin wire was attached to the dress to yank it off when the director called action. In the film, it is quite obvious that the dress is being torn off by a wire rather than simply falling off by itself. Additionally, the back of Elena's dress opens, which causes the upper half to fall, exposing her upper body, and then her skirt crumbling. Note that actress Catherine-Zeta Jones tried to cover for this movement by moving her arms slightly to suggest the fragility of the mutilated dress.

• After being undressed by Zorro, Elena is seen wearing a kind of long underwear, colored a light blue, that covers her below her hips. In the next long shot where she is covering her cleavage with Zorro's hat, her "underwear" changes in style, coloring and fabric.

• When Zorro snatches his hat away from the naked Elena, who is using the hat to cover her breasts, his hand in the close up is not wearing a glove even though he was wearing gloves throughout the entire sequence and can be seen wearing them as he exits.

External links

1998 films | Films shot in Mexico | Estudios Churubusco films

Die Maske des Zorro | La máscara del Zorro | Le Masque de Zorro | La maschera di Zorro (film 1998) | Maska Zorro