The Mask of Zorro (1998)

The Mask of Zorro (1998)

In Martin Campbell's action-filled film about the legendary masked swordsman and outlaw:

• the scene in a training circle inside a cave where nobleman and master Don Diego de la Vega (aka Zorro) (Anthony Hopkins) was training Mexican thief-outlaw Alejandro Murrieta (Antonio Banderas) to duel and be his apprentice or successor as the new Zorro, to seek revenge against his rival and corrupt enemy, governor Don Raphael Montero (Stuart Wilson), for the killing of his wife: ("Do you know how to use that thing?...This is going to take a lot of work. This is called a training circle. The master's wheel. This circle will be your world, your whole life. Till I tell you otherwise, there is nothing outside of it....There is nothing outside of it!...As your skill with a sword improves, you will progress to a smaller circle. With each new circle, your world contracts, bringing you that much closer to your adversary, that much closer to retribution")
• the humorous confessional scene, in which Don Diego's beautiful grown-up daughter Elena (Catherine Zeta-Jones), who was taken as a young child by Montero and raised as his daughter, thought she was confessing her sins to a padre in the "house of the Lord", although Alejandro was posing inside the booth and listening to her 'impure thoughts' about himself: ("Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been three days since my last confession....I have broken the Fourth Commandment, padre...I dishonored my father...Well, I try to behave properly, the way my father would like me to. But I'm afraid my heart is too wild...I had impure thoughts about a man. I did. I think he was a bandit or something. He wore a black mask...His face was half-covered, but something in his eyes captured me....I felt warm and feverish...Yes, lustful. Forgive me"); Zorro assured her: ("Senorita, you have done nothing wrong. The only sin would be to deny what your heart truly feels. Now, go")
• the scene of the provocative dance at Montero's hacienda between Elena and Alejandro (posing as visiting nobleman Don Alejandro del Castillo y García), and afterwards, his words to an apologetic Don Raphael Montero: ("Well, that is the way they are dancing in Madrid these days. Excuse me, Don Rafael, I need to catch my breath. Your daughter is a very spirited dancer...She is young and impulsive, but her beauty is beyond compare. And she has her father's commanding presence")
• the action-packed sword-play scene in the hacienda between Alejandro - dressed as Zorro (who was attempting to steal a gold-mine map), Montero, and many of his guards, including right-hand man Captain Harrison Love (Matt Letscher)
• the classic moment that Alejandro/Zorro, during his escape from the hacienda, used his sword to seductively duel against and undress Elena, who was attempting to acquire Montero's map for him; before they began their duel, she bragged about her sword prowess: ("I have had the proper instruction since I was 4"); after some swordplay, he stripped her of her top with a few swipes of his sword after warning: "Don't move" - and then after she covered herself, he asked: "Do you surrender?"; when she replied: "Never, but I may scream" - he joked: "I understand. Sometimes I have that effect" - and she hungrily accepted a kiss from him as his reward for winning

• the conclusion, in which Alejandro/new Zorro and Diego/old Zorro both found their revenge against their enemies: Alejandro defeated Love by impaling him through the mid-section with his sword and then showering him with heavy gold bars, while Diego killed Montero by causing him to be dragged behind a wagon off a tall mining platform to his death, but then he found himself mortally wounded