The Man in the Iron Mask (1998 film)


The Man in the Iron Mask is a 1998 American action drama film directed, produced, and written by Randall Wallace, and starring Leonardo DiCaprio in a dual role as the title character and villain, Jeremy Irons as Aramis, John Malkovich as Athos, Gerard Depardieu as Porthos, and Gabriel Byrne as D'Artagnan. The picture uses characters from Alexandre Dumas's D'Artagnan Romances and is very loosely adapted from some plot elements of his 1847-1850 novel The Vicomte de Bragelonne.
The film centers on the aging four musketeers, Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and D'Artagnan, during the reign of King Louis XIV and attempts to explain the mystery of the Man in the Iron Mask, using a plot more closely related to the flamboyant 1929 version starring Douglas Fairbanks, The Iron Mask, and the 1939 version directed by James Whale, than to the original Dumas book. Like the 1998 version, the two aforementioned adaptations were also released through United Artists.

Plot

In 1662, France faces bankruptcy from King Louis XIV's wars against the Dutch Republic, which have also led to widespread famine. Though the country is on the verge of a revolution, Louis continues to spend money on the war and time seducing women. The three musketeers have gone their separate ways; Aramis has become a priest, Porthos an alcoholic brothel owner, and Athos a violinist living with his adult son, Raoul, who aspires to join the Musketeers. Only D'Artagnan has remained with the Musketeers, now serving as their Captain.
Aramis learns that the Jesuit order has declared Louis's wars unjust and blame him for the hunger and outrage. Louis instructs Aramis to hunt down and kill the Jesuit leader. Elsewhere, Raoul prepares to propose to his fiancée Christine Bellefort. Louis immediately sets his sights on Christine, but faithful to Raoul, she resists his affections. A Jesuit assassin attempts to kill Louis but is killed by D'Artagnan. Louis immediately plots to seduce Christine by having Raoul sent to the battlefront. D'Artagnan visits Athos to warn him of the danger Raoul faces, but Raoul arrives and informs his father he has been recalled to the front because Louis desires Christine. Athos is furious that the King is enough of “ a dog and a coward” to put his son’s life in danger so he could be free to seduce his son’s fiancée who will mean nothing to him once he’s had his way with her. Raoul resolves to go immediately because he will not risk making Christine a widow nor consider himself a coward. Athos warns D'Artagnan that if Raoul is harmed, then Louis will become his enemy. D'Artagnan tells Athos he will speak to Louis about Raoul.
Angry Parisians attack the Musketeers when they are fed rotten food, but D'Artagnan calms the crowd and says he will speak to Louis about the famine. Louis assures D'Artagnan he will deal with the matter, and that Raoul will return soon from the war. Instead, Louis orders his chief adviser executed for distributing the rotten food, and orders that all rioters are to be shot. Raoul is killed in battle by cannon fire; upon learning of his son's death, Athos attempts to kill Louis but is stopped by D'Artagnan, and goes into exile. Louis invites Christine to the palace and coerces her into being his mistress.
Aramis summons Porthos, Athos and D'Artagnan to a secret meeting in which he reveals that he is the Jesuit leader and has a plan to depose Louis. Athos and Porthos agree, but D'Artagnan refuses to betray the king. Athos angrily swears to kill him if they cross one another.
The three musketeers enter a gloomy island prison and smuggle out a prisoner locked in an iron mask, taking him to the countryside, where Aramis introduces him as Philippe, Louis's identical twin brother. On the night Louis and Philippe were born, King Louis XIII ordered Aramis to take Philippe away to live in the countryside, with no knowledge of his true identity, in hope of avoiding dynastic warfare between them. Their mother Queen Anne was told that Philippe died at birth, but once her husband revealed Philippe's existence to her and Louis on his deathbed, she wished to restore Philippe's birthright. Louis, now king and too superstitious to have his brother killed, had Aramis imprison Philippe in the iron mask to keep his identity secret. Aramis's plan now is to redeem himself and save France by replacing Louis with Philippe. The musketeers begin training Philippe to replace Louis, while Athos develops fatherly feelings for him.
At a masquerade ball, the musketeers lure Louis to his quarters, switch him with Philippe and try to escape with him. D'Artagnan uncovers the ruse after Christine accuses Philippe with evidence of Louis's role in Raoul's death and is not rebuffed. He takes Philippe to the dungeons, where his men confront the former musketeers. They trade twins, but Louis has Philippe recaptured as the musketeers escape. D'Artagnan is shocked to learn who Philippe is and begs Louis not to kill him, as does Anne. Louis refuses, and after Philippe pleads with Louis to kill him rather than put him back in the mask, Louis does exactly that. He orders D'Artagnan to bring him the severed heads of Athos, Porthos and Aramis or Louis will have his head. Meanwhile, Christine commits suicide by hanging herself outside Louis's bedroom window.
D'Artagnan contacts his friends for help in rescuing Philippe from the Bastille. Louis, who suspected D'Artagnan would help them, ambushes them at the prison. Though he offers D'Artagnan clemency in exchange for surrendering, D'Artagnan refuses, revealing to his friends that Louis and Philippe are actually his sons from an affair with Queen Anne. They charge at Louis and his men and are fired upon; their bravery compels the soldiers to close their eyes before firing and all miss. Louis attempts to stab Philippe but wounds D'Artagnan fatally. Philippe attacks Louis but stops when D'Artagnan reminds him that Louis is his brother. Athos asks D'Artagnan's forgiveness, realizing his loyalty to Louis was out of fatherly devotion to his son. D'Artagnan dies in his friends' arms.
D'Artagnan's top lieutenant, Andre, angered by his mentor's death, swears his men to secrecy and sides with Philippe. He and the Musketeers switch the twins' places again and lock Louis in the iron mask. Philippe orders Louis locked away and names Athos, Porthos and Aramis as his royal counsel. At D'Artagnan's funeral, Philippe admits to Athos that he has come to love him like a father, which Athos reciprocates. Philippe later issues Louis a royal pardon and sends him to live peacefully in the countryside and goes on to become one of France's greatest kings.

Cast

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. Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte is the stand in for all the scenes that are supposed to be Versailles, although in the book, the switch between Louis and Philippe happens at Vaux-le-Vicomte. Vaux-le-Vicomte, the prototype for Versailles, was historically built for Nicolas Fouquet, Superintendent of Finances for Louis XlV.
In some versions, the switch takes place at a real and actual event the "fête de Vaux", a famous party for the unveiling of the new château. The party was attended by Louis XlV, who realized that the king's own palace was seen as inferior to the new château of his non-royal finance minister. The famous fête led to the downfall of Fouquet and the building of Versailles.

Differences between versions

The novel and the filmed versions of the tale have some differences in how they portray the royal twins and the plot to switch them.
In Alexandre Dumas's The Vicomte de Bragelonne, although the plot to replace King Louis XIV with his twin brother is foiled, the twin is initially depicted as a much more sympathetic character than the King. However, in the last part of the novel, the King is portrayed as an intelligent, more mature, and slightly misunderstood man who in fact deserves the throne - and the Musketeers themselves are split, Aramis siding with the prisoner, D'Artagnan with King Louis, and Athos retiring from politics entirely. D'Artagnan, foiling the plot of the others, is tasked with capturing his friends, who have taken refuge in a fortress in Bretony: he resigns his command, knowing that he will be arrested and his subordinate will open fire anyway. Without D'Artagnan's command and his tactical knowledge of his friends-turned-foes, Aramis's fortress refuge is taken by the king's men but at great loss of life, while Porthos dies in a heroic last stand and Aramis escapes to take political asylum in Spain D'Artagnan explains himself to the King, and is pardoned and restored to his position, and told that if he wants the final promotion he was on the point of earning, he had better go and win it on a foreign field: in the later war against Holland, he is finally awarded promotion to the supreme command, only to be killed while reading the notice of his promotion at the siege of Maastricht.
In the 1929 silent version, The Iron Mask starring Douglas Fairbanks as D'Artagnan, the King is depicted favorably and the twin brother as a pawn in an evil plot whose thwarting by D'Artagnan and his companions seems more appropriate.
In the 1998 film, the King is depicted negatively while his twin brother is sympathetically portrayed. D'Artagnan's loyalties are torn between his King and his three Musketeer friends. He is also revealed as the father of the twins, as well as being dedicated to the interests of France.
Finally the 1998 film shows a clear inspiration from the biblical story of King David and Uriah in dealing with Raoul's fate, which lacks in the novel.

Historical inaccuracies

Many historical persons and events depicted in the film are heavily fictionalized, as declared in an opening narration.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 32% 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% based on 18 reviews.

Accolades

The film was nominated for the Best Original Score for an Adventure Film by the International Film Music Critics Award.
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 in the film.

Soundtrack

Music for this film was written by English composer Nick Glennie-Smith. Figure skater Alexei Yagudin became a gold medalist skating to this music in the 2002 Winter Olympics. He won with the program The Man in the Iron Mask, based on the movie soundtrack.
  1. "Surrounded"
  2. "Heart of a King"
  3. "The Pig Chase"
  4. "The Ascension"
  5. "King for a King"
  6. "The Moon Beckons"
  7. "The Masked Ball"
  8. "A Taste of Something"
  9. "Kissy Kissie"
  10. "Training to Be King"
  11. "The Rose"
  12. "All Will Be Well"
  13. "All for One"
  14. "Greatest Mystery of Life"
  15. "Raoul and Christine"
  16. "It is a Trap"
  17. "Angry Athos"
  18. "Raoul's Letter"
  19. "The Palace"
  20. "Raoul's Death"
  21. "Queen Approaches"