Apart from the lavish costuming and splendid cinematography, this film had a fairly by-the-numbers formula harking all the way back to the 'B' Western days of the Thirties and Forties. The masked hero aspect calls to mind The Durango Kid and the suave villain could have been any character actor to go up against the good guy. I couldn't help imagining Zorro (Antonio Banderas) as a Tex-Mex version of Batman, though the character of Zorro was created in 1919 by author Johnston McCulley, while Batman didn't appear on the scene till two decades later in 1939. So maybe you'd say Batman was the American super-hero version of Zorro.
With the benefit of hindsight, I guess you could say things never change. Here was a movie made in 2005 about events occurring in 1850, and the premise is that a globalist organization, The Knights of Aragon, is intent on diminishing the status of an emerging America. So with the looming threat of a Civil War, the dashing Count Armand (Rufus Sewell) determines that the best way to affect this plan is to provide the Southern slave states with a means to defeat the North and create chaos throughout the country. Back then, North vs. South, today it's right vs. left. And the beat goes on.
You know, as a kid watching television programs back in the Fifties, I can't tell you how many times nitroglycerine was used as a plot device to introduce an element of danger into the story. Mostly in Westerns, and you'd always end up with some 'safe' explosion to close out the story as the hero would save the day. What I couldn't figure out here was why a meticulous tactician like Armand had all those bottles of nitro dangling around in the railroad car in such a way that it wouldn't have taken much to smack into each other to blow the entire enterprise sky high. It wouldn't have taken a train crash to make it happen either.
Say, remember when Zorro and Elena (Catherine Zeta-Jones) crossed swords with McGivens' (Nick Chinlund) thugs. They used their weapons to slash their respective initials on the back side of one of the henchman's underwear. They made it look real 'E-Z'.
What gets me is that Zorro's very talented horse Tornado didn't merit a screen credit for his work in the film. He did quite the commendable job, and if he had an agent like Trigger or Champion, his name might be better known today.
With the benefit of hindsight, I guess you could say things never change. Here was a movie made in 2005 about events occurring in 1850, and the premise is that a globalist organization, The Knights of Aragon, is intent on diminishing the status of an emerging America. So with the looming threat of a Civil War, the dashing Count Armand (Rufus Sewell) determines that the best way to affect this plan is to provide the Southern slave states with a means to defeat the North and create chaos throughout the country. Back then, North vs. South, today it's right vs. left. And the beat goes on.
You know, as a kid watching television programs back in the Fifties, I can't tell you how many times nitroglycerine was used as a plot device to introduce an element of danger into the story. Mostly in Westerns, and you'd always end up with some 'safe' explosion to close out the story as the hero would save the day. What I couldn't figure out here was why a meticulous tactician like Armand had all those bottles of nitro dangling around in the railroad car in such a way that it wouldn't have taken much to smack into each other to blow the entire enterprise sky high. It wouldn't have taken a train crash to make it happen either.
Say, remember when Zorro and Elena (Catherine Zeta-Jones) crossed swords with McGivens' (Nick Chinlund) thugs. They used their weapons to slash their respective initials on the back side of one of the henchman's underwear. They made it look real 'E-Z'.
What gets me is that Zorro's very talented horse Tornado didn't merit a screen credit for his work in the film. He did quite the commendable job, and if he had an agent like Trigger or Champion, his name might be better known today.