The Man in the Iron Mask
Short description
The Man in the Iron Mask follows the aging musketeers Athos, Porthos and Aramis, who have long since stopped fighting side by side. France suffers under the harsh rule of King Louis XIV, who lives in luxury while much of the country goes hungry. The king keeps a secret prisoner locked away in the Bastille, a man whose face is hidden behind an iron mask. When the king's cruelty becomes intolerable, the three former comrades plot to free the prisoner and use him to end the tyranny. Their old friend D'Artagnan, now a loyal captain in the king's service, stands in their way, leaving the musketeers unsure where his allegiance lies.
Released in 1998, the film was directed by Randall Wallace, who also wrote the screenplay, making it his first feature as director. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio as both King Louis XIV and the masked prisoner, with Gabriel Byrne as D'Artagnan, Jeremy Irons as Aramis, John Malkovich as Athos, Gérard Depardieu as Porthos and Anne Parillaud as the Queen Mother. On a budget of about 35 million dollars, it earned roughly 183 million worldwide. Audience scores are modest but favorable, at 6.5 on IMDb from around 190,000 votes and 6.7 on TMDB; the critics' rating of 5.5 from 41 reviews is lower than both.
What's left behind the scenes
- Filming of the movie primarily took place at the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, a French estate where Louis XIV actually resided during the construction of the Palace of Versailles.
- Alexandre Dumas, père (1802-1870), the author of the novel that served as the literary source for the film, wrote about a mysterious prisoner of the Bastille who, on special occasions, wore a leather mask for two years between his imprisonment and death. The idea that this was the face of someone resembling a member of the royal family belongs to a historian from the mid-18th century and was first put forward approximately 70 years after the events described.
- A portrait of Louis XV hangs in the apartments of Louis XIV, despite the film's events taking place approximately fifty years before his birth.
- In the scene where the captain of the musketeers pleads for Raoul, d'Artagnan sits in the presence of the king, an act of audacity that would have been punishable by immediate execution.
- The king's ball takes place in the Main Salon of the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte. In reality, this hall remained empty only from the mid-20th century onwards. Before that, the Main Salon contained various furnishings, including children's furniture.
- Filming took place from April 28 to July 1997.
- D'Artagnan's death does not match the description in his biography: in Dumas' novel 'The Vicomte de Bragelonne, or Ten Years Later,' D'Artagnan died on the battlefield.
- At the end of the film, it is stated that Louis XIV was remembered as the most generous of kings. This 'statement' is usually received by the French with a good deal of humor: in France, it is believed that, despite his political genius, Louis XIV was a cold and despotic ruler who sacrificed the needs of the people to his own adventurous projects.
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