Μύ Antonio Banderas has "sword in hand and tongue firmly in cheek" for this sequel to The Mask Of Zorro, which re-teams him with Catherine Zeta-Jones and director Martin Campbell. It sees the legendary swashbuckler pitted against Rufus Sewell's villainous Count, but many were dubious about the marriage-in-trouble subplot. In the end, it only recouped about half its $80m budget.
Behind The Mask
Evidently, most of the money was spent on making the stunts bigger and brasher, although in a featurette that goes behind the scenes on the Mexican set, Banderas assures us, "This movie is made with blood, money and sweat!" Campbell adds to this saying that the Spanish thesp is "a better swordsman than any of the stuntmen" and there's rehearsal footage to prove it. Of course CZJ also got in on the act this time, putting her renowned dancing skills to good use.
Undoubtedly, the most challenging set piece was the speeding train finale, which gets a separate focus. Basically it involves a really expensive train set (courtesy of WETA Workshop in New Zealand) lots of blue screen and Sewell comically faking the effects of G-force. There's a little more about the use of blue screen in a featurette on visual effects, but at just over five minutes, it's not too edifying.
Although nobody has to flip a wagon or jump a train at Armand's Party, this turned out to be a very costly sequence. As you'll see in another behind-the-scenes featurette, freak thunderstorms flooded the set causing extensive damage. Besides the frenzy of having to tart up and herd hundreds of extras like cattle, the production was thrown into chaos. And in the middle of it, Campbell barks through his megaphone, "I want everyone enjoying themselves!" (Note: you can see more rehearsal footage from this scene, and the winery fight, in a multi-angle featurette.)
Written On The Wind
Campbell talks about battling the elements and other challenges of mounting a big action picture in a commentary shared with cinematographer Phil Meheux. It tends to get a little too technical at times (unless you know what a "gyroscopic control head" means) and between that it's mostly fluff - "Oh, she was good, remember her, what's her name?" etc. Still, Campbell does confirm what some of us already suspected about the drunken horse scene - it was ripped off from Cat Ballou (1965).
Four deleted scenes include a bookend sequence that finds an older Joaquin (son of Zorro and Elena) narrating the story. But as Campbell reveals in an optional commentary, the studio wanted this cut because it hinted that Banderas was passing the torch and therefore nixed the possibility of him and Jones returning for another sequel. Since The Legend Of Zorro didn't recover its cost at the box office, it's perhaps academic, but on DVD at least, this makes passable entertainment for a rainy afternoon. (Sodden party extras notwithstanding.)
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