Review of The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) by Private U — 24 Jan 2009

This was a movie that was generally forgotten about. however I'm not sure why. the cast is solid: Jeremy Irons is the presence and power that he always is, he's forceful, but not necessarily unlikeable (actually its a tribute to him to find that balance of force and likability that makes me never get enough of him).

Leo was truly fantastic, much like he was in 'Romeo&Juliet' unfortunately people took it to negative that he was taking classical roles that he got the reputation of being a bit of a "pretty boy" but that's simply not the case, he is a terrific actor that got a raw deal from critics and viewers who were put off by the craze that formed around him.

Malchovich, DePardieu and less known Peter Sarsgaard are all solid to round out the main cast (not bad to have those 2 "filling up spots") and hell, even Hugh Laurie is in it (who knew?). the story is a classic, and is the second part to 'the Three Musketeers', it does the original text justice in that it bring the story to the public eye the way many classical texts must be, lest we lose our foundations of our literary and poetic art.

for some reason the critics hated it, and it was never considered to be a successful adaptation of the story. however the pieces were there, and executed as well as you can plan. Had the stars aligned maybe this could be thought of as the best classical adaptation of our modern film making.

however, I believe a general disinterest and lack of knowledge of the story, not the quality of the film, is what doomed it to obscurity. perhaps it simply came too late to draw a spark of interest that the story so desperately needs.

this is the fate shared by many other classical adaptations, most notably Shakespeare of course, because many people are simply disinterested in the stories, and most of the rest are too averse to seeing classics put into a film to accept the,m, they would seemingly allow them to just fade away and hope the people will all of a sudden care without anything to spark their interest.

what a shame.