History YMMV / TheManInTheIronMask

*** Then again, they have all been retired for years, if not decades, and the musketeers they fight are all young men who’ve almost certainly enlisted since Athos, Porthos, and Aramis retired.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Queen Anne, it seems, loves her younger son, whom she never knew, more than the elder, with whom she lived all his life. Of course, Louis is an openly narcissistic and cruel person, but the ease with which she "changes" her affections from one son to another is really frightening. In this regard, when she subsequently says that she loves both her sons, Louis and the audience simply do not believe her.

* CompleteMonster: King UsefulNotes/LouisXIV himself is a [[RoyalBrat hedonistic brat]] who lives lavishly in Versailles while his people starve and suffer. Engaging his forces in bloody wars thoughout Europe, when Louis lusts after the beautiful Christine, he has her fiancee Raoul [[UriahGambit sent to die in battle]] so he may coerce Christine into being his mistress by promising help to her family. Upon ordering rotten food sent to the people, Louis deflects blame by ordering his chief adviser executed for it and then orders the next rioters be shot. Upon the legendary Musketeers trying to replace him with his twin Philippe, Louis attempts to murder them and send Philippe back to the Bastille in his hated iron mask. Knowing it will be a fate worse than death for Philippe, Louis angrily demands he "wear it until you love it" and later accidentally murders Captain D'Artagnan while attempting to murder Philippe when he thinks he's lost.

* CompleteMonster: UsefulNotes/LouisXIV himself is a [[RoyalBrat hedonistic brat]] who lives lavishly in Versailles while his people starve and suffer. Engaging his forces in bloody wars thoughout Europe, when Louis lusts after the beautiful Christine, he has her fiancee Raoul [[UriahGambit sent to die in battle]] so he may coerce Christine into being his mistress by promising help to her family. Upon ordering rotten food sent to the people, Louis deflects blame by ordering his chief adviser executed for it and then orders the next rioters be shot. Upon the legendary Musketeers trying to replace him with his twin Philippe, Louis attempts to murder them and send Philippe back to the Bastille in his hated iron mask. Knowing it will be a fate worse than death for Philippe, Louis angrily demands he "wear it until you love it" and later accidentally murders Captain D'Artagnan while attempting to murder Philippe when he thinks he's lost.

** Despite common belief, the fountains at the French royal palace are based on real fountains that used established technology for its day. The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhambra Alhambra]] in Granada, Spain, (constructed in the 14th century) has fountains powered not by electricity, but by gravity, with an aqueduct that brings water from the uphill Darro river.

* SignatureScene: The Musketeers (and Philippe) doing their iconic salute before attempting a final charge to die in a blaze of glory. Lieutenant André uttering 'magnificent valour' upon seeing it is considered one of the best lines in the movie.

* HilariousInHindsight: Fresh off ''Film/{{Titanic 1997}}'' where he was THE KING OF THE WOOOORLD, [[Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio DiCaprio]] is now just the King of France. In fact, the movie opened while ''Titanic'' was still in theaters.

* {{Narm}}:
** Arguably the [[NarmCharm main appeal]] of the movie as a whole.
** D'Artagnan's "To love you is treason against France. Not to love you is treason... against my heart."
** Christine's verdant eyebrows. They look like little mice on her forehead!
** Everyone pronouncing "Athos" as "Ah-thos" except Louis who says "Ey-thos", right when he's furiously ordering Athos's death.

* CriticalResearchFailure: In most cases, intentional, since the film is based on a literary work, but the portrait of the next Louis, hanging ''50 years before his birth'' in his young great-grandfather's office, is still remembered by many history buffs.

* IdiotPlot:
** The soldiers do not notice anything suspicious when the "king" suddenly declares that a group of traitors who tried to put an identical-looking impostor on the throne are now his best friends and members of the royal council. Then again, Louis ordered his chief advisor to distribute rotten food and then had him executed for following his orders when it didn't work out, so either the soldiers figured that consistency isn't their king's strong point, or they didn't want to risk being executed next.
** None of the nobles notice the fact that Philippe had too little time to study the manners of the royal court nor that the spiteful and spoiled psychopathic king suddenly became a kind and compassionate person. True, once around people are surprised that he helped up the lady who fell down in front of him, but this added to the plot only to create intrigue.

* AllStarCast: There is quite a line-up of high-profile actors for the main cast: [=Leonardo DiCaprio=], Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, Gerard Depardieu and Gabriel Byrne.

** Everyone pronouncing "Athos" as "Ah-thos" except Louis who says "Ey-thos", right when he's ordering Athos's arrest and death.

** Everyone pronouncing "Athos" as "Ah-thos" except Louis who says "Ey-thos", right when he's ordering Athos's death.

** Creator/GerardDepardieu being one of the few cast members with an actual French accent makes his Porthos all the more memorable, and even when it's a bit hard to tell from his delivery if he bellows "I am Porthos! I ''fight'' the King!" or "I am Porthos! I ''defy'' the King!", the BadassBoast works either way.

** The "facing the bullets" scene just begs to be nitpicked to death regarding various leaps of logic, but the sheer emotion from the acting, direction and music means it somehow just works.