Location: Skull Island (the spiders get in everything!).
Posts: 2,128
Zorro
I don't know about you guys, but I am a fanatic about Zorro. The Antonio Banderas movies are kick-ass and have great acting, hissable villains, and jaw-drop-to-the-floor stunts! Anyone else agree with me! Are any of you guys Zorro fans?
(P.S. I don't want to hear any bee-otching about Legend of Zorro (most unfairly persecuted sequel of my generation in my opinion...)
I'm not extremely familiar with Zorro lore, but I like the character.
I thought Antonio Banderas was brilliant casting for a film version, but I just didn't enjoy the movie, and I haven't even bothered with the second movie.
I haven't seen the second film. If it's ever on TV and I have nothing better to do, I might consider watching it.
Mask of Zorro, however, is a pretty awesome flick. It reminds me of other action films such as Mummy and Pirates. The emphasis is on action, but has a lot of laughs along the way. My favorite part is when he calls Tornado "Blackie."
I used to watch the old Disney television show quite a lot, then the nineties show with Duncan what's-his-name...
Recently I've seen both Banderas movies which I thought were great adventure films. I really liked what they did with the character.
I also saw the film simply called 'Zorro' with French star Alain Delon a few months ago. Apparently, it was that film that gave the Salkinds the idea to bring American icon Superman back to the silver screen almost thirty years ago.
I've been a Zorro fan since 1957 when the Disney series first aired (in fact, the 50th anniversary is tomorrow, I believe). That show started the biggest costume fad of all time-- Ben Cooper claimed their "Zorro" costume was their most popular ever, outselling all the others by 60%.
That series, which atarred Guy Williams, was one of Walt Disney's pet projects, and it showed; the casting, costumes, sets and music were all perfect. The one weak spot, in my opinion, was the writing, but the show was aimed at kids, and we weren't too critical in those days.
Empire plastics sold a ton of the chalk-tipped swords that we pint-sized Masked Avengers used to blaze a trail of Zs all across Americas sidewalks, desktops and rec room walls. We drove our parents and teachers half craZy, and that was half the fun of it!
And Zorro had this super-cool secret passage that could only be entered by pressing a hidden button on a fireplace in his bedroom. This caused a panel in the wall to swing back, revealing a secret room, staircase and tunnel that led to his horse Tornado's camouflaged cave. I was always disappointed with the way the secret passage was depicteded in later Zorro productions-- Disney got it just right!
I enjoyed the later movies and shows, especially "Mask Of Zorro," but to me, Guy Williams WAS Zorro, and no one else before or since has come close.
Zorro was also the original movie hero and influenced just about everything else that came after him. "Batman" creator Bob Kane said his Caped Crusader was really a modernized version of Zorro. Some of the most memorable stunts in the Indy films, including the truck chase in "Raiders," as well as Indy's use of a bullwhip, were adapted from Zorro movies and serials.
If you are a Zorro fan, you might find the latest issue of SCARY MONSTERS magazine interesting; it contains a 50th anniversary tribute to Disney's "Zorro" and several other features on the character-- about 17 pages in all! Unusual for a monster magazine to devote so much space to an un-monsterish subject, but a lot of classic horror fans also happen to love Zorro. He bridges genre gaps like no other character.
I looooove Zorro. the 1930's Republic Serial "Zorro's Fighting Legion" is my favorite. They took a number of scenes from this for the Indy films, as most everyone probably knows. The rope bridge, spike room, undertruck stunt. The new ones with Banderas are awesome too
Guy Williams was the greatest.
Even before they colored those episodes, I watched them a lot.
He died in Argentina, about 15 years ago. Don't know what he was doing here his last years.
Guy Williams was the greatest.
Even before they colored those episodes, I watched them a lot.
He died in Argentina, about 15 years ago. Don't know what he was doing here his last years.
Guy was invited down to Argentina to promote reruns of ZORRO. He discovered that his popularity in that country nearly rivalled that of The Beatles, and he was so overwhelmed by his reception that after a couple more visits he decided to move there.
He made many personal appearances as ZORRO in Argentina (sometimes joined by his friend Henry Calvin who played Sgt. Garcia in the Disney series). He also tried unsuccessfully to produce a film about ZORRO, the plot of which was strikingly similar to the Hopkins/Banderas MASK OF ZORRO. Guy was found dead of a brain aneurism in his Buenos Aires apartment in May of 1989. He was indeed the greatest ZORRO ever, IMO, and could never escape the typecasting because of it.
The Disney ZORRO series is being released on DVD now, but many people still miss seeing it on the Disney Channel. I know I do.
Zorror for me is all about the Tyrone Power version of Mark Of Zorro. I love it. I tend to watch Mask as being a sequel to that.
I've got the original Fairbanks movie, but have never watched it. Legend left me cold. I've also seen a flick called Ghost Of Zorro, which is more of a Western and The Bold Caballero.
Location: Skull Island (the spiders get in everything!).
Posts: 2,128
I personally find it heartbreakingly unfair how Batman has become so phenominally popular and iconic, (for good reason, of course, but anyhow...)even becoming quite possibly the most famous superhero of modern times. And yet no one seems to remember the fact that ZORRO was the one that started it all! The Batcave? Zorro's secret lair. Wayne's multiple Bat-hicles? Tornado. Dressed (for the most part) all in black? Zorro. Acrobatic skills? Zorro. Mastery with a sword? Zorro.
I could go on forever about how Batman is, essentially, the twentieth/twenty-first century equivalent of the Fox. But sadly, Zorro has hardly been given the amount of exposure or market saturation that Bats does. He certainly deserves it, because it was he, not Kal-El, that was the very freaking first superhero! I want more Zorro movies/books/comics/TV shows!!!!!!!! And would it kill 'em to make Zorro action figures? ARRRGGGH!!!!
Both Batman and Indiana Jones owe a VERY deep debt to good ol' Don Diego de la Vega, for without Zorro, undeniably the greatest fictional vigilante character of all time, they would not be half as ass-kickingly awesome as they are.
"Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. It has been three days since my last confession."
"Three days? How much sin could you have possibly committed in three days? Come back later, senorita, when I have more time!"
(...)
"I have broken the Fourth Commandment."
"You kill somebody?"
"No! That is not the Fourth Commandment!"
(studders with fake sarcasm)
"Of course not! Tell me, how did you break the most sacred of all the Commandments?"
"I had impure thoughts about a man."
"Oh, well that's not so bad."
"Rafael! You will never be rid of me!"
"Where are you going?"
"To catch a train."
"As much as I want to tell my son to turn the other-"
(backhanded)
"That cheek?"
"Salvation...Damnation. The thing about both, is, you gotta die to find either one."
"I'm just doing the Lord's work..."
"What is this meat?"
"Pigeon."
(slashes 'Z' logo into Count Armand's shirt)
"...So the devil will know who sent you."
Both Douglas Fairbanks' Zorro films are amazing. I would highly recommend them to anyone interested in Zorro, Fairbanks, silent films, etc.
I'd also recommend the Isabel Allende novel, Zorro, which chronicles Zorro's coming of age. It's a great read.
I wish Banderas and Zeta-Jones would do another. They make a great pair and even though the second one wasn't as great as the first I still thought it was pretty darn good.
