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The Man in the Iron Mask
Years have passed since the Three Musketeers, Aramis, Athos and Porthos, have fought together with their friend, D'Artagnan. But with the tyrannical King Louis using his power to wreak havoc in the kingdom while his twin brother, Philippe, remains imprisoned, the Musketeers reunite to abduct Louis and replace him with Philippe.
1998 · Directed by Randall Wallace · 132 min · Adventure · Action · Drama · Screenplay in the scene database · 6 frames
Tagline
For the honor of a king. And the destiny of a country. All for one.
Plot
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 spoiling 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 in Versailles, 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 assassination plot. Sending Raoul to his death on the battlefront, Louis takes Christine as his mistress, and Athos, angered by the loss of his son, lashes out at the musketeer barracks, wounding some of the soldiers, and renounces his allegiance to the king. When D'Artagnan defuses a riot over the rotten food supplies and alerts Louis of the food that was distributed, Louis orders his chief advisor, Pierre, 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.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Randall Wallace
- Cinematography: Peter Suschitzky
- Edited by: William Hoy
- Music: Nick Glennie-Smith
- Production design: Anthony Pratt
- Produced by: René Dupont, Paul Hitchcock, Randall Wallace, Russell Smith
Cast
- Leonardo DiCaprio as King Louis XIV / Philippe
- Gabriel Byrne as D'Artagnan
- Jeremy Irons as Aramis
- John Malkovich as Athos
- Gérard Depardieu as Porthos
- Anne Parillaud as Queen Mother Anne
- Judith Godrèche as Christine
- Edward Atterton as Lt. Andre
- Peter Sarsgaard as Raoul
- Hugh Laurie as King's Advisor
Production
- Country: United States of America, United Kingdom
- Language: English, Italian
- Studios: United Artists, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, The Ladd Company, UAC
- Budget: $35,000,000
- Box office: $183,000,000
- Themes: mask, france, swordplay, loyalty, palace, bastille, sword fight, remake, royalty, rural area
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