I bought this videocassette in August; I think we might have already have it somewhere in the media library, but I picked it up because it was cheap, and because I can never really be sure aside from putting some actual effort into creating and maintaining a catalog, whether we actually have have a film on home media or only think have which will then catch me by surprise when I want to watch a movie. Well, we have have it now. Maybe twice.
So: In the early 1800s, a Spanish don acts as Zorro, the hero of the people of Mexico. The evil governor of California prepares to execute three random peasants as a trap for Zorro, but he dashes in, rescues them all, marks the governor with the Z, and rides off. However, the governor suspects the don and moves to arrest him, which results in the doña’s death. The don is imprisoned, and the governor takes his infant daughter back to España.
Twenty (some) years later, the governor returns; an American soldier pursues two Mexican thieves and kills one, and his brother vows revenge. The don escapes prison using the Count of Monte Cristo trick, and stops the (drunken) brother from seeking ill-timed revenge on the American soldier and trains him up to be the new Zorro. Oh, and the daughter and the new Zorro kind of fall for each other even though she thinks he’s a bandit. Which he is, but he’s doing it for the good of the people.
The film stars Antonio Bandeiras, Anthony Hopkins, and Catherine Zeta Jones, who might be almost as pretty as my beautiful wife. We talk a lot about how modern films strip-mine old intellectual properties, but this late 20th century film also mines old IP. Zorro started out as a pulp story and got film treatment several times, including portrayals by Douglas Fairbanks and Tyrone Power in the early part of the century. I remember watching the Tyrone Power version on television with my sainted mother sometime in the 1970s. But why weren’t we complaining about it in 1998 when this film came out? Because it featured a compelling story, interesting characters, a competent-but-not-girlboss woman character, and basic filmmaking competence (well, maybe more than competence). Modern strip-mining of the old IPs tends to lack all of these things.
This is the kind of film I can imagine actually watching again, and not just hoarding for the next generation. Or the estate sale flippers.
