The Man in the Iron Mask (1998 film)

In 1662, the Kingdom of France moves toward revolution, facing bankruptcy from King Louis XIV's wars against the Dutch. The young and callous King Louis redistributes spoiled food supplies from the army to his starving citizens, and instructs former Musketeer Aramis to find and kill the unknown leader of the renegade Jesuits seeking to assassinate the king. At a palace festival, Louis attempts to seduce Christine Bellefort, the fiancée of Raoul, son of former Musketeer Athos, while D'Artagnan, captain of the king's guard, foils a Jesuit assassin. Sending Raoul to his death on the battlefront, Louis takes Christine as his mistress, and Athos renounces his allegiance to the king. When D'Artagnan defuses a riot over the rotten food supplies, Louis orders his chief advisor to be executed and future rioters to be shot. Aramis summons Athos, D'Artagnan and former Musketeer Porthos for a secret meeting, revealing himself as the Jesuits' leader with a plan to depose Louis, but D'Artagnan refuses to join them. Athos, Porthos and Aramis infiltrate the Île Sainte-Marguerite prison and free a prisoner wearing an iron mask, whom Aramis reveals to be Philippe, Louis's identical twin brother. To avoid dynastic warfare when Queen Anne gave birth to twins, King Louis XIII sent Philippe to be raised in the country without knowledge of his true identity, telling the queen that the child had died. On his deathbed, the king informed his wife and son of Philippe's existence; fearful of losing his throne, Louis XIV forced Aramis to seal Philippe in the iron mask and imprison him for life. Wishing to redeem himself and save France, Aramis informs Anne of his plan to replace the cruel Louis with the benevolent Philippe. With mere weeks to tutor Philippe in courtly life, Athos, Porthos and Aramis subdue Louis during a masquerade ball at the palace, as Philippe assumes his brother's identity and returns to the festivities. Christine publicly confronts the king for his role in Raoul's death, and D'Artagnan realizes the ruse when Philippe treats her with kindness, in stark contrast to the heartless Louis. D'Artagnan and his men intercept Athos, Porthos and Aramis in the dungeons, rescuing Louis as the trio escape, but Philippe is captured. After learning Philippe's identity, D'Artagnan begs Louis to spare his brother, and Louis returns Philippe to prison in the iron mask, while Christine hangs herself. D'Artagnan summons Athos, Porthos and Aramis to help rescue Philippe from the Bastille, where they are ambushed by Louis, who offers D'Artagnan clemency in exchange for his surrender. D'Artagnan refuses, revealing to his comrades that he is Louis and Philippe's biological father, having long been in love with Anne. The four former Musketeers charge as the king's guards open fire, but their bravery compels the soldiers to deliberately miss. Shielding Philippe from Louis, D'Artagnan is fatally stabbed, while his protégé Lieutenant André turns against Louis, as Philippe again takes his brother's place as king. Philippe ascends to the throne under Louis's identity, naming Athos, Porthos and Aramis as his closest advisors and holding a funeral for D'Artagnan. Rumored to have issued his brother a royal pardon, permitting Louis to live out the remainder of his life in peace, Philippe ultimately becomes one of France's greatest kings. ==Cast==

• Leonardo DiCaprio as • King Louis XIV, the tyrannical King of France who bankrupts his nation into oblivion to satisfy his lavish lifestyle • Philippe Bourbon, The Man in the Iron Mask and Louis's twin brother, who shows more compassion and benevolence • Jeremy Irons as Aramis, a veteran musketeer and clergyman, secretly leading the Jesuits, and also serves as the film's narrator • John Malkovich as Athos, a retired musketeer and former nobleman • Gérard Depardieu as Porthos, an aging ex-musketeer and former brigand who is now suicidal • Gabriel Byrne as D'Artagnan, a veteran musketeer, now Louis's personal bodyguard and Captain, but secretly Louis and Phillippe's father • Anne Parillaud as Queen Anne of Austria, the Queen of France, Louis and Phillippe's mother, and D'Artagnan's lover • Judith Godrèche as Christine Bellefort, Raoul's fiancé whom Louis sought to make his mistress • Peter Sarsgaard as Raoul, Athos's son who yearns to be a musketeer • Edward Atterton as Lieutenant André, D'Artagnan's second in command • Hugh Laurie as Pierre, Food Distributor and Chief Advisor to King Louis XIV • David Lowe as Advisor to King Louis XIV ==Production==

In this version, the "man in the iron mask" is introduced as prisoner number 64389000, based on the number related to his namesake found at the Bastille. The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte acts as the primary residence of the king because Versailles was still early in its construction and years away from Louis establishing residence there. ==Reception==

Box office The film grossed $17 million in its opening weekend in second place at the US box office behind Titanic, another film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. It eventually grossed $56 million at the box office in the United States and Canada, and $126 million internationally, for a total of $183 million worldwide. Critical response On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 32%, with an average rating of 5.5/10, based on 41 reviews. The site's critical consensus states: "Leonardo DiCaprio plays dual roles with diminishing returns in The Man in the Iron Mask, a cheesy rendition of the Musketeers' epilogue that bears all the pageantry of Alexandre Dumas' text, but none of its romantic panache." On Metacritic, it has a score of 48 out of 100, based on 18 reviews, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on a scale of A+ to F. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2½ stars out of 4. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote that while the "production values are not lacking... Wallace, in his first try at directing, has been unable to unify the film's disparate elements. There's swordplay and tragedy, slapstick and romance, lots of DiCaprio for all those teenage girls--there's everything but a consistent style. And events are handled so broadly it's not surprising to learn that the director's inspiration was the Classics Illustrated version of the Dumas novel he read as a youth." ==Accolades==

The film was nominated for the Best Original Score for an Adventure Film by the International Film Music Critics Award (IFMCA). Depardieu was nominated for the European Film Academy Achievement in World Cinema Award for his role as Porthos. DiCaprio won a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screen Couple for his interactions as twins. ==Soundtrack==

The soundtrack was written by the English composer Nick Glennie-Smith. The soundtrack has been used as backing for figure skating routines by Olympic figure skaters, such as Alexei Yagudin. ==References==