YMMV / The Man in the Iron Mask

• Aluminum Christmas Trees:
  • Despite common belief, the fountains at the French royal palace are based on real fountains that used established technology for its day. The 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.
  • There was an actual Man in the Iron Mask imprisoned in the Bastille. His identity has always been very much speculated on.
  • While that was not the case in the novel, some theories on the identity of the Man in the Iron Mask suggest he might have been an illegitimate son of Anne of Austria, either by George Villiers or Cardinal Mazarin, but not d'Artagnan.
• Angst? What Angst?:
  • Philippe does not experience any moral distress when he first sees his twin brother and even furtively glances at him while dressing, although everything he knows about his brother, he knows from other people.
  • Although this is justified by the situation, it seems that the musketeers kill their former colleagues too easily. Porthos even gets pleasure from it.
    • Then again, they have all been retired for at least thirty years and the musketeers they fight are all young men who’ve almost certainly enlisted since Athos, Porthos, and Aramis retired.
  • Averted by D'Artagnan, who begs the others, "Spare their lives, if you can!" and prevents Athos from finishing a wounded musketeer.
• Cliché Storm: Despite an All-Star Cast, the film quickly becomes very narmy due to an excessively large number of dramatic cliches. The too obvious contrast between the terrible Louis and the innocent Philippe, the musketeers talking only with pathos clichés...
• Complete Monster: King Louis XIV himself is a hedonistic brat who lives lavishly in Versailles while his people starve and suffer. Engaging his forces in bloody wars throughout Europe, when Louis lusts after the beautiful Christine, he has her fiancé Raoul 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.
• Friendly Fandoms: It's not uncommon for people to extend their enjoyment for this film to the 1993 adaptation of The Three Musketeers and consider this Man with the Iron Mask movie to be a sequel to that incarnation. Some even assumed it was meant to be, and still like to view it that way.
• He Really Can Act: Years before Hollywood would finally start to take him seriously as an actor, Leonardo DiCaprio rather convincingly played both the kind and pure Philippe and the incredibly vicious Louis.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Twenty years later, many teenagers watch this film just to see how DiCaprio plays the twin brothers.
• Narm Charm:
  • So many of the film's lines are so very corny, and yet the acting chops of Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, Gabriel Byrne, Gérard Depardieu, and even DiCaprio means that more often than not, they make their lines work.
  • The "facing the bullets" scene just begs to be nitpicked to death regarding various leaps of logic, but the sheer emotion from the acting, dialogue, music and direction means it somehow just works.
  • Gérard Depardieu 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 if he bellows "I am Porthos! I fight the King!" or "I am Porthos! I defy the King!", the Badass Boast works either way.
• Periphery Demographic: The film was commercially successful, and this was attributed to the fact that it was the first film starring Leonardo DiCaprio to be released after the Titanic juggernaut, attracting legions of his fans far beyond the scope of the historical adventures genre fans.
• Questionable Casting: Although it made it very popular at the time, the film has gotten considerable mockery in hindsight for casting iconic All-American pretty-boy Leonardo DiCaprio as a famous French monarch—particularly since he makes no effort to disguise his natural Southern California accent while playing the part.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Then-unknown Peter Sarsgaard as Raoul, Athos's doomed son.
  • The king's chief advisor Pierre is played by Hugh Laurie.
  • Laura Fraser appears as one of King Louis' bedwarmers.
  • Figure skating fans may be familiar with the music from Alexei Yagudin's 2002 Olympic long program.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: 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.
• The Woobie:
  • The younger characters in the story are put through the mill:
    • Philippe grew up not knowing his true identity and then was imprisoned for years in a horrendous iron mask, without even knowing what he did to deserve it.
    • Raoul is very much in love with his fiancée, but on the day he plans to propose to her, he's confronted with the knowledge that the king wants her for his mistress, and he's fully aware that his being sent back to the frontlines is Louis trying to get him out of the way. He goes anyway and is killed by cannon fire while shouting Christine's name.
    • Christine is likewise in love with Raoul and refuses Louis's attentions, but after Raoul is killed, Louis coerces her into being his mistress, a situation which she clearly grows to hate. Then she finds out that Louis arranged for Raoul's death, and she hangs herself in utter despair.

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