Common Sense Note
Parents should know that the movie contains lots of outrageous and stunty violence: explosions, shootouts, sword-fighting, horseback riding, leaping from rooftops and atop racing trains. While most is suitably cartoony, there is one bloody murder (by a sinister villain and his gang) of a sympathetic peasant as he tries to defend his home, leaving his tearful wife and an aggrieved Zorro behind. A young boy is threatened and watches villains beat and almost murder his father. This boy also engages in his own antic violence against the bad guys. Characters smoke (cigars) and drink (sometimes to the point of drunkenness).
Families can talk about the costs of keeping secrets from family. How does Joaquin think differently of his father once he knows the truth? How are Elena and Alejandro's lies alike, in that they want to save the country but in the process damage their family?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Cynthia Fuchs
THE LEGEND OF ZORRO is big and loud, mixing extended action sequences with gestures toward family unity. Zorro (Antonio Banderas) first appears leaping over wagons and across rooftops, shooting hats off of villains (not killing them). In this early scene, he's ensuring that votes cast in 1850 San Mateo will be counted toward California's statehood, in turn granting the "poor and desperate" (many Mexican-born) inhabitants access to rights and property. That the promised glories of U.S. capitalism are at the moment chugging along on the tracks laid by slavery is no small matter, as Zorro is a people's hero.
Among his very appreciative fans is nine-year-old Joaquin (Adrian Alonso), who is in fact Zorro's son, though the boy doesn't know it. In an effort to keep his wife Elena (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Joaquin safe, Zorro hides his identity. Even as Joaquin adores his comic-booky hero figure, Elena is resenting Alejandro, mainly because she's been playing wifey for 10 years, in their well-appointed mansion, and yearns for her own action. She's tired of being holed up in their admittedly impressive mansion while her man saves the day on a regular basis. Following the flamboyant first action sequence, her frustration erupts into anger, they argue, and Elena essentially kicks him out: Alejandro gazes back on her from a hilltop, and with a cut to Zeta-Jones' exquisite face, the scene and apparently the marriage is over.
Elena takes up with another man, the French Count Armand (Rufus Sewell) and Joaquin longs for a chance to emulate his idol. Joaquin does demonstrate a talent for sword-fighting (with sticks) and leaping from desks and windows, the father-son match ensuring that the family must be reunited. They must overcome several obstacles, including Armand's spectacularly scar-faced henchman McGivens (Nick Chinlund), whom Zorro leaves toothless in the opening sequence. Now returned with wooden teeth and a prodigious grudge, McGivens takes it out on the peasants whom Zorro is sworn to defend.
The film lurches from the family trauma to national security anxieties, or, terrorism by way of The Wild Wild West. A nefarious group is working on of a crater-making, nitroglycerine-based weapon in order to control who has access to U.S. statehood, with complications concerning Pinkerton agents and the bad guys' use of Chinese "coolies." That all of this is filtered through Alejandro and Elena's marital discord replicates the parallels between domestic and global politics James Cameron is so fond of excavating, wherein the world's welfare depends on that of the nuclear family unit. You might hope they sort it out this time, and don't have to try again in seven years.
Families who like this movie might also like The Mask of Zorro (PG-13), True Lies (R), Batman Begins (PG-13), or even Once Upon a Time in Mexico (R).
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentSome suggestive imagery (cleavage especially), and some banter. |
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ViolenceLots of explosions, swordplay, falling off cliffs or out windows, shooting, several murders committed in cartoonish styles. |
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Social BehaviorVillains are ugly and violent; hero is handsome and violent. |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoDrinking at parties and in loneliness, as when Zorro despairs over Elena's rejection and gets drunk. A horse drinks and smokes cigars, too. |
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