MIM Movie Review

This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.

THE MASK OF ZORRO
PG-13
127 minutes
1998

review by MC17

The "Mask of Zorro" is overall a progressive film for mainstream 
Amerika. It portrays the oppression of the Mexican masses by 
Spain as well as the greed of the landed Mexican aristocracy. 
Zorro, a hero of the people, defends the masses against the 
abuses of their rulers. 

But while it correctly picks the side of the people over the 
oppressors, The "Mask of Zorro" advocates a theory of revolution 
in which a few individual heroes save the masses from 
oppression. In keeping with this theme, the movie portrays the 
masses as incapable of fighting their oppression; instead, 
they can only wait to be saved.

The older Zorro is training a young criminal who wishes the 
avenge the death of his brother to take over as Zorro. The 
aging Zorro tells his enemy that there were many in Mexico who 
would have happily stepped up to the task of taking over the 
mask of Zorro. This correct point about the leaders coming 
from the masses was unfortunately not followed up by the 
participation of the masses in throwing off their oppressors.

In reality, the battle between the oppressors and the 
oppressed is not a sword fight between two men: one good and 
one evil. In the real world, oppression does not end when the 
person who leads the oppressive system is killed. It takes a 
revolutionary struggle of the people to overthrow the system 
of oppression. One oppressive leader  can be easily replaced 
by another, and one hero, no matter how well trained in 
fighting, can not take down an entire system alone.

By the end of the movie, the young Zorro is seen in a very 
nice, obviously expensive house. Just as the older Zorro had 
been wealthy, apparently the only change in Mexican society 
has been this one man's climb up the social ladder. The people 
who worked as slaves in the gold mines whose lives Zorro saved 
are nowhere to be seen. We can assume that once freed from 
slavery they returned to a life of poverty, since the only 
victory for the people was the elimination of one oppressive 
leader and the destruction of one slave plantation.