Wednesday, April 8, 2020

FTM 534: THE MASK OF ZORRO

Patrick and JB always wear masks.



Download this episode here. (32.9 MB)

Listen to F This Movie! on Spotify and on Stitcher.

Also discussed this episode: Frankenstein: The True Story (1973), Star Wars (1977), Godspell (1973), The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974), War of the Worlds (1953), Leave Her to Heaven (1945), Downhill (2020), Onward (2020)

22 comments:

  1. Fantastic podcast, gentlemen (though I'm not quite finished yet). This is one of my all-time favorite movies, and I showed it for my birthday marathon last year (does everyone involved in this community have those? lol). I'm loving your conversation on how this movie gets so many things right that most blockbusters today get wrong. I had a thought that these days I love (some) big movies in spite of their effects, and never because of them. There are so many older movies I love for their effects and stuntwork, and that's hardly ever the case anymore. What a bummer.

    You know what else is missing from blockbusters today? Fucking sword fights. I was actually watching part of the first Pirates of the Caribbean last night, and you are so right that that is the most comparable modern movie to Zorro. I kept thinking about how AWESOME swashbuckling sword fights are and it sucks so bad how rare they are these days.

    I'm hoping some big changes to big movie making are right around the corner, but who knows. Thanks for the podcast guys!

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    1. Totally agreed on sword fights, but, as I recall, the swordplay in the first Pirates was pretty bad, all quick cuts in dim lighting. The multi-party sword duel on the beach/church/wheel in Dead Man's Chest, however, was excellent - long takes in full sunshine. Indeed, I think that's true of those first two movies generally - the photography and general production on Pearl is drab and gloomy, whereas Chest is bright and colorful. Likely a matter of a big budget increase, as finding sufficiently untouched tropical locations can't be easy, and certainly isn't cheap. IMHO, Chest is both an excellent flick as well as the series' only good entry. I've never liked Pearl because the villains' objective - to regain their mortality - is a good thing for everyone involved, but the protagonists spend a mind-numbing 143 minutes trying to stop it. (True, Chest is even longer, but it's got properly hissable villains, and so much more story all around.)

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  2. I love the little resurgence this movie has gotten in the past month from Netflix. I saw this a bunch of times as a young lad, since it is probably my mom's favorite movie. I watched it for the first time in maybe 15 years during a quarantine marathon a few Saturdays ago and, yeah, it really holds up. This could have something to do with the fact that the movie that followed it was Hobbs and Shaw. A movie so phony and immature, it only amplified how mature, patient and earnest I find Zorro. I do have some quibbles with the movie (it could use a bit of trimming and Bandares does kind of just gaslight Catherine Zeta-Jones every chance he gets) I really liked it. Thanks for another great show guys, stay safe.

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    1. Confrontational flirtation in movies can be an awkward subject in our aspiringly enlightened age. "No means no" is an excellent guide for real-life conduct, but, in theatrical/cinematic contexts, "no sometimes means yes" brings conflict into flirtation, which is inherently more dramatic, and thus potentially more entertaining, than watching two people discovering they like each other in precisely equal measures at each step in their interaction. In The Mask of Zorro's case, Elena would almost certainly dismiss Alejandro outright if she knew all along he was both dirt-poor and trying to ruin her father. After all, it's not as though she's shown to be especially forward-thinking, or unconcerned with her social status - just the opposite, in fact. Without some degree of confrontation on Alejandro's part, it's extremely unlikely they'd end up together.

      We don't condem Indiana Jones for murdering that show-off swordsman in Raiders rather than doing the noble thing by attempting to run from the confrontation; indeed, we laugh and cheer him on. Granted, most people don't shoot people in real life but do engage in flirtation, so it's probably fair to apply different standards to screen flirtation and violence. I'm not at all saying one should never criticize confrontational flirtation on screen, but I do get kind of antsy when it's broadly assumed to be an artistic failing. ;)

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    2. Lol its a very minor quibble. I get that its a trope of the genre (not to mention a trope for bad boys everywhere) and I do enjoy watching the 2 hottest people on Earth get together. But at the end when Hopkins is like "you marry that girl bro" I'm just shocked. She hasn't even seen his DVD collection yet, she doesn't know what she's getting into! But thats Imperial California for you.

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  3. Huzzah! Great feature selection. ;)

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  4. The story of JB paying money to rent a movie he owns is the best thing I've heard all day.

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    1. lol Right after he talked about it I ran upstairs to tell Stefanie. She also thought it was hilarious.

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  5. I don't think I've ever seen Mask Of Zorro, but I've certainly heard it often praised here, and I've been wanting to watch it for some time now.

    Funnily enough, last night was my pick for family movie night (we have a rotating pick). When it's my pick, I'll sometimes propose 3 titles, and let the kids decide. Last night I suggested either Zorro, Alita or Inception (all new to my kids, with only Zorro being new to me).

    We very much enjoyed Alita. So, long story short, I'm going to save this podcast for future listening, and the next time my pick comes around, we're watching The Mask Of Zorro!

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  6. As noted by YouTube's Patrick (H) Willems, the Netflix stream (as well as my Movies Anywhere purchased stream) omits the movie's opening text, probably due to difficulties with subtitling to other languages (text on top of text).

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    1. Thats interesting, I wonder why they would cut this? It must have been deliberate, it's not like they're cutting for time. My only guess would be that, it might upset the Spanish government? I guess? It would have been useful. About halfway through I started wondering if I had missed some dialog explaining who exactly Santa Anna was. In the end I concluded that they trusted the audience would be familiar with the players in the Mexican revolution and that I was just a big dummy. This is a relief.

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    2. Like I said, I suspect it's a subtitling issue: if you're watching with non-English subtitles, you'd have to put subtitles above the existing text, which could be unreadable, or make an alternate video stream. This way, they can be lazy and use the same video stream for every language.

      Trivia: in a deleted ending available on DVD/Blu, Santa Anna actually shows up at the end. But, yeah, this introductory paragraph, while not absolutely crucial, is important. :)

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  7. I've been practicing social distancing for a few years now. And i still have a job, so my routine barely changed. Work during the weekday, movies the rest of the day

    Also, did you mention a non-specialized blu-ray of star wars?

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  8. Yes, I trotted it out to compare to the new 4K Blu-Ray. Original column is here:
    http://www.fthismovie.net/2015/11/the-overlook-star-wars-de-specialized.html#more

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    1. I need to download this. I think i know what i'm doing tonight

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    2. Found the stuff. Not a simple download, but it's going. Thanks JB.

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  9. There was a 1980s Saturday morning cartoon Zorro series done by Filmation, and a 1990s live action tv series on The Family Channel (prior to Disney or Fox acquiring the channel) between Zorro The Gay Blade & The Mask of Zorro.

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  10. Captains Log: Don’t know how long I’ve been in my house. At this point not sure if I’ve ever been outside of my house. Continuing the isolation. Today received a transmission from 2 strange individuals. They were discussing someone called BanZorro. Don’t know what the fuck they were talking about but was happy to hear people still talk. Out

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  11. Stuart Wilson and Anthony Hopkins' characters are both Spanish-born Europeans living in Mexico, without a drop of indigenous American blood between them. For all we know, Alejandro has no indigenous ancestry either, despite being born in Spanish Mexico (which becomes independent Mexico after the opening sequence). Maybe it's not ideal, but is it really capital-P Problematic for Brits to play ethnic Spaniards?

    Also, two-thirds of The Lone Ranger's writers, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, are two-thirds of The Mask of Zorro's writers. (They also have story credits on The Legend of Zorro, which shares several very similar themes and story points to The Lone Ranger.)

    Finally, The Lone Ranger made $$89m domestically and $171m abroad, making it the third highest-grossing Western of all time - unadjusted for inflation, of course. It was a massive bomb because Disney decided it should have a budget of production budget of $250m for some reason. For a movie about a guy who rides a horse and shoots things and sometimes punches people.

    Anyhow, great podcast! Though surely James Horner's score deserves a shout-out, as well. :)

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    1. Absolutely agree. Banderas is not Hispanic either, but 100% European. It's ridiculous when SJWs decide to fight fights that don't exist for other people who aren't even offended.

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  12. Knowing JB's affection for Columbo, I must chime in and say that Ross Martin was a lifelong friend of Peter Falk's - his summer-camp counselor in fact! In addition to The Great Race, they shared the screen in an excellent early Columbo ep, with Martin as a particularly scummy television art critic.

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