The Man in the Iron Mask

1998 "For the honor of a king. And the destiny of a country. All for one."
6.5| 2h12m| PG-13| en
Details

Years have passed since the Three Musketeers, Aramis, Athos and Porthos, have fought together with their friend, D'Artagnan. But with the tyrannical King Louis using his power to wreak havoc in the kingdom while his twin brother, Philippe, remains imprisoned, the Musketeers reunite to abduct Louis and replace him with Philippe.

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

Stream on any device, 30-day free trial Watch Now

Trailers & Clips

Reviews

AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks
ShangLuda Admirable film.
AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
John Brooks This is just as bad as my title sounds. Just a terrible equation. Cast full of great actors, really all great actors I mean: Jeremy Irons, Depardieu, Gabriel Byrne, Malkovich, DiCaprio... and neither of them can even make this lift above the ground an inch. It's incredibly dull, flat, utterly predictable, tedious... every action scene is like a caricature of an action scene, every dialog a caricature of a dialog, everything is cheap, rushed, from start to finish, the one-liners, the constant stares into the camera/long pauses between lines attempting the dramatic... in many places, if not the whole thing, it looks like a film which screenplay/story was thought out some night by some bored film people who just wanted something to make to merely entertain their then idly bored selves. Really. It's so badly made it's immediately beyond credible and confirms its atrocious global quality throughout. It's a little bit like a joke if you will. Oh, and the plot twists. This is really just one of those films that are so bad they're entertaining.
Filipe Neto In this film, based on a novel of Alexandre Dumas, king's musketeers seek to replace the ruthless French king for a twin brother of him, that people don't know and that has been kept secret by state reasons. Directed by Randall Wallace, which also provides the script, has the participation of Leonardo DiCaprio, Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, Gerard Depardieu and Gabriel Byrne.The script is good and makes an interesting adaptation of the novel. Initially, I had few expectations about the film due to Randall Wallace, who was involved in the disaster that was "Braveheart". In fact, this film is low in historical accuracy, but Dumas also invented quite in his own novel. The recreation of the court environments, costumes and sets, on the other hand, seemed to me more in line with historical reality and also fill the expectations of the audience, showing the splendor of the Sun King's court. Maybe Wallace has taken some positive lessons from "Braveheart" after all. The action scenes were interesting, and the swashbuckler style sword fighting's deserves a positive note. Leo DiCaprio was at the highest level and showed great talent, having to make two characters deeply antagonistic. Depardieu was not bad but not surprised except in humor. His character is the funniest and the actor was perfectly able to play with it and make him funnier. John Malkovich, Gabriel Byrne and Jeremy Irons incarnated the deepest and psychologically demanding roles, having made an inspired performance and showing great ability to collaborate with each other. After all, they are all veterans and established actors, they don't have to prove anything to anyone. The soundtrack accompanied the film faithfully and fulfilled her role with style.Not being, nor by far, one of the best movies I know about this historical period, this film doesn't frustrate the expectations of the public and give him what he wants: fencing, old-fashioned chivalry, dances, the luxury of Ancient Regime and a story that combines, in the right measure, history, romance, drama and action.
Robert J. Maxwell The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas! All for one and one for all! Who can forget them? Their names are carved into our collective memories -- D'Artagnon, Athos, Paramus, Dopy, Goofy, Donner, Blitzen, and Rudolph! In this story, helas, the four musketeers are aging, like gunfighters, and have gone their separate ways. Gabriel Byrne, as D'Artagnon, remains in service, devoted to King Louis XIV. (That's Louis the Fourteenth, also known as The Sun King; cf., The Beatles.) Jeremy Irons as Aramis has become a Jesuit priest who doesn't much like the king. John Malkovich is Athos, whose much loved son, Raoul, the king has sent off to war to be killed, in order to have his way with Raoul's fiancée. Athos is pretty bitter. Gerard Depardieu is the comic Porthos, the wine-swilling lover of life who despairs as aging cripples his diverse enthusiasms. "I'm going to hang myself as soon as I'm sober." All of the musketeers are well served by the players.But who is this king anyway, the one that everybody dislikes so much except D'Artagnon and the assorted terrified subjects? The population at large is not so obsequious. They're starving and the king sends them rotten fruit that's been rejected by the army now fighting Holland.I'll tell you who the king is. He's Leonardo DiCaprio, that's who. He's not only a cruel and selfish king but the poor guy, no matter which of two opposing roles he plays -- the sneering king or the pathetic waif -- looks and sounds like a recent graduate of some high school in St. George, Utah. A huge hole appears on the screen whenever he speaks. He turns the Musketeers into the Mouseketeers.The plot is too twisted with intrigues and mixed identities and the like. It can't be described in detail. DiCaprio plays twin brothers. One is the evil king and the other is the nice man in the iron mask, who is liberated and substituted for the bad king. It gets pretty tense and enjoyable, watching people sneak around, grieving and plotting. One particularly delightful moment has the bulky Gerard Depardieu in a hay stack. His head emerges from the straw and he moans, "Ach, it's no good. I can't do it anymore." And then the head of a pretty young lady arises from the hay and reassures him. Depardeiu shakes his head. Another pretty face appears from under him. Then a third.The action scenes are fun, combining ancient matchlocks with period smallswords. None of the actors have any skill in fencing so the scenes are subject to speedy editing and a lot of brute force is used. No guts or gore, however.It's an old-fashioned adventure yarn with a budget as lavish as the decor of the palace. It's strictly a commercial enterprise with no attempt at naturalism or genuine tragedy. The original music by Nick Glennie-Smith is imitation baroque, so as not to be too alien to modern ears. The lighting and photography are in the bright classic style, and never mind the candelabras. None of it was shot at Versailles but the impression is effective. The editing challenges no one. The camera wobbles not.
Lammasuswatch OK, if you're a stickler for accuracy in retelling French history, you're going to have problems with this film. The same goes for anyone who wants a script close to the content of Dumas' book. There are quite significant deviations from both.Having said that, the story that this movie DOES tell is logically consistent, satisfying and inspiring within itself. (And actually possibly an improvement on Dumas' last Musketeers novel, which rather gets lost along its way at times. And isn't exactly history either!)In fact, the first time I saw this movie on its cinema release I rated it as one of my favourite films, and it still is one of my favourite escapist or inspiring movies. It was never going to be an award winner, or a "most important story" told in film. But the story does have a significant moral to it, there are 'journeys of discovery' made by various characters, the authentic music and settings are great, the acting (from such a skilled cast) is mostly excellent and the last 15 minutes are especially inspiring and heartstring-tugging.Of the principal actors, Gabriel Byrne and Jeremy Irons shine. They are totally convincing, with Byrne really showing his capabilities. And the pleasure of hearing Irons deliver his lines is almost worth the price of admission to any of his films. Depardieu is mainly the comic relief, but he does it well. Leonardo DiCaprio, who when this film was released was one of my least favourite actors of all time, pleasantly surprised me by showing that he could act after all, managing to convey two very different but related characters pretty convincingly. John Malkovitch I know as a great actor, but often in this film I found him the least convincing of any of the main characters, definitely the odd man out. Much more than DiCaprio, his broad American accent just doesn't seem to fit with all the other surroundings. Or was it because he seemed to be half-asleep when delivering some of his lines?Other reviewers have similarly talked about the weird mix of accents, with supposed French characters voicing British, American and rather pronounced Franglais accents. It was only distracting for me after several viewings - I don't particularly recall this on my first viewing, which left me enthralled. For all except perhaps devoted linguistic pedants the willing suspension of disbelief should suffice, and the accents question certainly doesn't detract from letting good actors tell a good story. The Musketeers are supposed to represent an inspiring ideal of loyalty to one another, and to an ideal France in the form of its King. This film certainly expresses the disappointment of many of the people already with the excesses and abuses of royalty and nobility which would lead to the French Revolution about 125 years later. Athos voices the common dream, "...that one day we would finally be able to serve a king who was worthy of the throne". Unfortunately, few of the kings of France up to this point (and beyond) would qualify for this description. Nor, in reality, would Louis XIV despite the feel-good voice-over at the end.But the real history is not the point. Did you worry about the reality of "The Adventures of Robin Hood" or "Raiders of the Lost Ark"? Real truths about the human condition are told in fiction, rather than non-fiction. And by the last "All for One, One for All", most viewers will be moved and wanting to cheer along with the Musketeers.