The Man in the Iron Mask
The cruel King Louis XIV of France has a secret twin brother who he keeps imprisoned. Can the twin be substituted for the real king?
- Director:Randall Wallace
- Genre:Action | Adventure | Drama | History
- Runtime:132 minutes
Cast
Leonardo DiCaprio : King Louis XIV / Philippe
Jeremy Irons : Aramis
John Malkovich : Athos
Gérard Depardieu : Porthos
Gabriel Byrne : D’Artagnan
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France is under the reign of the militaristic King Louis XIV (Leonardo DiCaprio), who is bankrupting the country with his unpopular wars. When starving peasants in Paris start to riot for food, he responds by ordering his chief advisor, Pierre (Hugh Laurie), to send them rotten food – although he later unjustly orders Pierre executed for this. Meanwhile, the King wallows in hedonistic luxury and seduces a parade of women. The legendary three musketeers have retired from their posts: Aramis (Jeremy Irons) is now a priest of the Jesuit Order; Porthos (Gérard Depardieu) is a frequent visitor to Parisian brothels; Athos (John Malkovich) has a son named Raoul (Peter Sarsgaard) who is just back from the war and ready to marry the girl he loves, Christine Bellefort (Judith Godrèche). At a festival, the two lovers are greeted by an older D’Artagnan (Gabriel Byrne) and wished luck, but just before Raoul can propose, the King’s eyes fall on Christine. He arranges for Raoul to be returned to combat and killed in a suicidal charge.
In the wake of Raoul’s death, Louis invites Christine to the palace where she sleeps with him, grateful for the medical assistance his doctors have given to her mother and sister. When Louis orders the death of the secret leader of the Jesuit order, Aramis initiates a plot to overthrow the King with the help of his old comrades for he is the secret leader of the order of Jesuits. Only Athos and Porthos agree to the plan; D’Artangan refuses to betray his oath of allegiance. The three musketeers sneak into an island prison and arrange the escape of a mysterious prisoner: a man in an iron mask. They replace him with a corpse in a matching iron mask so the guards will not know. They take the young man to a safe house in the countryside and unmask him: he is Philippe (Leonardo DiCaprio), the identical twin of King Louis. While he is identical to his brother, Philippe is compassionate and gentle. Aramis reveals that he was sent away by his father, King Louis XIII, to save France from dynastic warfare. Later, Louis XIV was too superstitious to have his brother murdered; instead, he devised a way to keep him hidden: the iron mask. Aramis was the one who took Philippe away to prison, an act which has haunted him ever since.
Meanwhile, King Louis succeeds in seducing Christine completely, claiming that he ordered Raoul to be placed far from the battlefront. Later, Christine receives a letter from Raoul, predicting his death and saying that he forgives her for becoming the King’s mistress. Read more
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