The legend of Zorro

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Movie
German title The legend of Zorro
Original title The Legend of Zorro
Country of production United States
original language English , Spanish
Publishing year 2005
length 129 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
JMK 10
Rod
Director Martin Campbell
script Roberto Orci
Alex Kurtzman
production Laurie MacDonald
Walter F. Parkes
Lloyd Phillips
music James Horner
camera Phil Meheux
cut Stuart Baird
occupation
chronology

←  Predecessor
The Mask of Zorro

The Legend of Zorro (Original title: The Legend of Zorro ) is an American adventure film from 2005 by director Martin Campbell with Antonio Banderas in the lead role. The film is the sequel to The Mask of Zorro from 1998.

action

California , which was previously controlled by Mexico , is now administered by the US military under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo . In 1850, the Governor of California called on the people to vote on whether the country should join the United States as the 31st state . In San Mateo , the bandit McGivens tries to steal a box of ballot papers, but Zorro is able to prevent it. He briefly loses his mask, but none of the bandits could see him unmasked and so everything seems fine to him. However, he was secretly observed by two people, Harrigan and Pike, who discovered his true identity and went to see his wife the next day. Behind Zorro is Don Alejandro de la Vega, who leads a civil life for outsiders with his wife Elena and son Joaquin. Since it will be three months before the elections in all of California are over, Alejandro does not want to keep the promise made to his wife and does not want to give up his dangerous life as Zorro yet, which annoys his wife.

To his surprise, the next day, Alejandro was visited by Phineas Gendler, a lawyer who presented him with a divorce suit on behalf of his wife. Three months later, Alejandro lives separately from his wife in a hotel. Alejandro's cheeky son Joaquin thinks his father is a weakling and admires Zorro all the more, but doesn't know that Alejandro and Zorro are one and the same person.

When Alejandro attends a party of the French Count Armand, to his amazement he finds his former wife Elena at his side. The two already know each other from their school days together in Spain. During his research as Zorro, he comes across a seal with the inscription Orbis Unum , which belongs to the brotherhood of the Knights of Aragon. Harrigan and Pike kidnap Alejandro in San Francisco and reveal themselves to him as agents of the Pinkerton detective agency who work on behalf of the US government. They explain to him that Elena works for the US government as a spy who is supposed to spy on Armand. News has been intercepted that Armand is said to have developed a new weapon that can destroy the United States. The divorce from Alejandro and the ensuing connection to Armand was not Elena's free will, she was urged to do so by the two agents, as they otherwise threatened to expose Zorro.

The new weapon turns out to be nitroglycerine , which Armand has made from soap at his winery. In the upcoming civil war , he wants to support the southern states by distributing his explosives to the Confederate Army , which is then to defeat the northern states .

The explosives are already being loaded onto a train when Armand finds out about Elena's espionage. Armand forces Elena and her son to accompany him on the train. Zorro manages to catch the train, his family is freed and the explosives explode along with the train and Armand. Alejandro and Elena finally marry again and Joaquin now knows that he is Zorro's son.

background

  • Originally, the plot of the film should be told in retrospect by Zorro's son Joaquin. In addition, the film should begin with (the meanwhile adult) Joaquin, writing down his experiences. The end then showed Joaquin how, as the successor to his father, he puts on the Zorro costume, rides off and his visibly aged parents watch him. This version of the film met with resistance from those in charge of the studio, as it would have ruled out a possible sequel with Antonio Banderas in the leading role and an aged Catherine Zeta-Jones would no longer have a place in another film adaptation. The scenes with the grown-up Joaquin at the beginning and as the new Zorro at the end have therefore been deleted.
  • Cinematographer Phil Meheux made a guest appearance in the film as he stood in for a missing actor. As Lord Dillingham, he plays the brotherhood member who contradicts Armand and is then killed.
  • Steven Spielberg and Robert Rodriguez declined to direct the film, finally, as in The Mask of Zorro, Martin Campbell took over the direction. Spielberg was involved in the film as executive producer , which he was in the 1998 film adaptation.
  • The actors Pedro Armendariz jr. and Tony Amendola were already seen as Dons in The Mask of Zorro and reappear in the sequel in other roles: Armendariz as Governor of California and Amendola as the strict religion teacher Father Quintero.
  • The film carried the working titles The Mask of Zorro 2 , Zorro Unmasked , Zorro 2 and The Return of Zorro during the period in which it was made , until the final film title The Legend of Zorro was chosen.
  • When Zorro discovers the map of America in Armand's Hacienda, the villa is referred to as the Hacienda du Comte de la Fere . This is a reference to The Three Musketeers , where Athos' real name is also Comte de la Fere .
  • Antonio Banderas also dubbed the Zorro-like Puss in Shrek 2 from 2004 in the original English .
  • Filming began in July 2004. The film was mainly shot in San Luis Potosí . In addition, scenes were created at Weta Workshop in Wellington and at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City .
  • Production costs were estimated at around $ 75 million. The film grossed around US $ 142 million in cinemas around the world, including around US $ 46 million in the United States.
  • The movie was released in the US on October 26, 2005, and in Germany on October 27, 2005. The film was released on DVD on March 28, 2006.

Reviews

“You want to entertain at all costs, without unsettling you or even straining you. Therefore the historical and socio-political benchmarks of the legend are reduced to a minimum; the fun factor dominates the action. The title of the film is as arbitrary as it is misleading, because the legend of Zorro is not dealt with any further here. […] In order to ensure that largely harmless children's entertainment is offered here, the script has taken on a lot of traditional doctrines . Because in this absurd Zorro version the enemies do not come from a corrupt ruling class, but come from abroad. "

- Jörg Gerle in film-dienst 22/2005

“A film of the quality of a staple food: Martin Campbell's coat-and-sword variation“ The Legend of Zorro ”is filling, but also bland. There are lots of nice action scenes, but Antonio Banderas in the main role remains awkward. "

- Barbara Schweizerhof in Die Tageszeitung

"The sequel to" The Mask of Zorro "turns out to be a superfluous and inflated contribution to the" Zorro "topos, which lets its hero fight on two fronts. [...] The political allusions make the action film, conceived as harmless entertainment, just as uncomfortable as the plot, which is calibrated to clumsy action and exaggerated jokes.

- Lexicon of international film

Awards

  • At the 2006 Young Artist Awards , Adrian Alonso won the Best Actor Actor (age 10 or younger) category, and the film was also nominated for Best Family Feature Film - Drama .
  • The film was nominated for a Golden Reel Award 2006 from the Motion Picture Sound Editors in the category Best Sound Editing in a Feature Film.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for The Legend of Zorro . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , October 2005 (PDF; test number: 104 010 K).
  2. ↑ Age designation for The Legend of Zorro . Youth Media Commission .
  3. ↑ Bonus material on the DVD
  4. ↑ Filming data in the IMDb
  5. ↑ Box office Mojo gross profit
  6. ↑ The Legend of Zorro. In: Zelluloid.de. Archived from the original on January 16, 2017 ; accessed on September 22, 2018 .
  7. ↑ a b The legend of Zorro. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed September 22, 2018 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  8. ↑ Film review by Jörg Gerle  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / film-dienst.kim-info.de
  9. ^ Film review by Barbara Schweizerhof