Invaderbank
The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
Zlatica
One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
Juana
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
Jimmy L.
A very fun silent film. Full of action and excitement. Great sword fights and other feats of derring-do.The legendary Douglas Fairbanks stars as the charming and mischievous masked avenger Zorro. Like Batman and Robin Hood, Zorro operates outside the law to fight injustice. Zorro fights the oppression of an unjust government. Like Batman, Zorro lives a double life, acting the lazy rich boy to conceal his true hobbies.Fairbanks is impressive doing his own swashbuckling stunts. THE MARK OF ZORRO is truly one of the earliest action-adventure films, and it's still loads of fun to watch.This movie started it all for Zorro. The success of this film, based on a 1919 story by Johnston McCulley, led to more stories, more films, a TV series, etc.What's not to like about Zorro?This is a very entertaining watch. Even if you don't like silents, you might enjoy this. Recommended. 8/10
Steffi_P
In justifying his placement of Douglas Fairbanks among his "five greats" of cinema, the British director Michael Powell said, "His personality is in every foot of film he made. He was our first ballad-maker. Our first conjuror." A worthy assessment, but it was not until Mask of Zorro, five years and thirty-odd pictures into his career that he achieved that status and a reputation that persisted long after his death.Up until this picture, Fairbanks was known purely as a comedy actor, popular and successful in his own right, but far from being a legendary genius like his pal Charlie Chaplin. His speciality, the one thing that really set him apart from his contemporaries, was blending physical comedy with his extreme athleticism. With The Mark of Zorro he revitalised his screen persona simply by reversing the pattern. Now the acrobatics were the main attraction and the comedy was the embellishment. But this is not simply an action flick with a bit of comic relief to spice up the "quiet moments"; the action sequences are simultaneously exciting and funny, and in fact there is very little comedy outside of the fights and the chases.The Zorro fable is now very much in the public consciousness, but it was this version, adapted from an obscure short story, which made the character famous. It's been remarked that he can be seen as the first superhero – a weak and unassuming man who dresses up to become a dashing, confident and indomitable warrior, as do Batman, Spiderman and the like. Almost all Fairbanks' swashbucklers (and even some of his comedies, especially The Mollycoddle) feature some kind of transformation from wimp to wonder, but Zorro is different in that he is a disguise that Fairbanks's character puts on and takes off. There's a key difference here between this and the 1941 Tyrone Power version. Power is given a more developed backstory, and is actually shown inventing the foppish Diego out of necessity, while his Zorro is a disguised version of the real Diego as he was back in Spain. In 1941, the fop Diego is the creation whereas Zorro is the real man. In the Fairbanks version however, it's implied that the fop is Diego's real personality, and Zorro is an act he has to put on to become everything he wishes he was. And I think it may have been this aspect which attracted Fairbanks to the story. He was himself not an exceptionally attractive man, but he achieved charisma through the roles he adopted.The director here is Fred Niblo, one of the exceptional craftsmen of the silent era, although his style does show the extent of Cecil B. DeMille's influence over film form at this point. Like DeMille, Niblo makes use of "Rembrandt" lighting, close-ups of hands, feet and faces to define characters and set scenes, and tight control over pacing and rhythm from scene to scene and shot to shot. The latter comes in very handy in giving the action sequences the right punch, a good example being the first entrances of Diego and Zorro which are played for their element of surprise. Crucially, Niblo is able to direct mass action, making the grand finale effective, striking that all-important balance between comedy and excitement.After the resounding success of Mask of Zorro, Fairbanks would abandon his contemporary comedies to concentrate on a series of period swashbucklers, eventually donning the costume of all the great romantic heroes. The pictures that followed this one would be grander and more polished, and would contain far more depth in terms of story and characterisation. However, the Mark of Zorro, while weaker on many levels, does have a pace and directness that makes it one the most watchable of all Fairbanks features.
mlraymond
As beloved as the 1940 Tyrone Power version is, this prototype of all Zorro movies is a must see, even for viewers who don't usually watch silent films.The movie makes up for its lack of aural excitement by staging the sword fights as rousing, comic duels, rather than deadly encounters. Who can forget the image of the black clad Zorro sitting cross legged on a tavern table, eating from a bowl of nuts with one hand, while fending off Sergeant Gonzales with his right? Zorro's dashing escapes and clever tricks are definitely played for comedy in most scenes. Douglas Fairbanks, Senior also plays Zorro's quieter moments with a rascally humor as well. In one memorable scene, he climbs over the garden wall of a beautiful senorita and kisses her, much to her surprise. When she slaps him, he laughs heartily. This seems to me the essence of Fairbanks in one image. The movie doesn't play everything for laughs, however. The villains are dastardly and wicked in an old fashioned melodrama way, and many romantic and adventure scenes are played completely straight. But it is the image of the masked, cigar smoking, laughing Zorro taunting his enemies, though outnumbered twenty to one ,that remains with me. Fairbanks also has a fine comic turn as the insipid, ineffectual fop Don Diego, pretending to admire Sergeant Gonzales' boasts that he'll show that bandit, if he can ever find him. Noah Beery Senior is a marvelous Gonzales, rowdy, boisterous, hard drinking, crude and macho. He makes a great comic villain for Zorro to oppose, while Robert McKim has a more serious bad guy role, as the lecherous soldier who attempts to steal the heroine's virtue, and is soundly defeated in a duel by the enraged Diego. A delightful musical score accompanies the movie, with tango rhythms and tender romantic themes. This is a true classic, that deserves to be seen by all lovers of adventure movies and dashing, romantic heroes coming to the rescue of beautiful ladies.
tfrizzell
The amazingly athletic Douglas Fairbanks was the first man to play Zorro on the silver screen in this legitimate silent-era masterpiece. Fairbanks does his best to win the girl (Marguerite De La Motte) and keep the people of California safe from evil military officials Noah Beery and Robert McKim. Eventually Fairbanks learns that the only way he can stop the evil tyranny is to rally the rich landowners to join him and take back the land that is rightfully theirs. The exciting chase sequence near the film's finale is still a sight to behold over 80 years later as Fairbanks does death-defying stunts to elude the bad guys. Followed by a slightly better remake in 1940 and several other versions in more modern years. For some reason Zorro films just work so well on the silver screen. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
