The Mark of Zorro (1920) :
Brief Review -
A peerless landmark in the swashbuckling adventure genre. All the Spideys and Caped Crusaders took tutions from Zorro. Douglas Fairbanks and the swashbuckling adventure genre is like a God-made pair. The Mark of Zorro is a landmark film in his career before he worked in a legendary film like "The Thief Of Bagdad" (1924), and the evergreen pirate flick "The Black Pirate" (1926), but it's also a landmark in the swashbuckling genre-quite a peerless one! Having seen all those masked men tales of Spider-man (supernatural) and Batman (natural), and even Indian superheroes like Shaktimaan and Krrish, I could easily sense how influential this Zorro's film was. A savior with a mask on lives a cowardly life so that no one will recognize him. He falls in love with the girl, but does not tell her about his other version. He makes the girl hate him and, at the same time, wins her as a masked man. Don't tell me that you haven't seen all these cliches in those superhero flicks. Well, they all were born here, with Zorro, who is not a superhero but nothing less than that. Watching Douglas Fairbanks in such roles is a pure treat. He made the roles popular with his charm and machoism-much before the term was even born. The 1920s decade has been a game changer for his career as well as for the action-adventure genre. With Zorro, people started expecting more. This was a Superman whom everybody in society would look forward to. Sadly, we didn't have anyone in real life. But at least people had hopes to fight the tyranny after seeing this reel version of a savior. Marguerite De La Motte as a typical female lead, and the rest of the cast is fine in their roles. Words fall short of praising master Fred Niblo for what he invented with this film. Peerless, unparalleled, thoughtful and educational.
RATING - 8/10*
By - #samthebestest.
A peerless landmark in the swashbuckling adventure genre. All the Spideys and Caped Crusaders took tutions from Zorro. Douglas Fairbanks and the swashbuckling adventure genre is like a God-made pair. The Mark of Zorro is a landmark film in his career before he worked in a legendary film like "The Thief Of Bagdad" (1924), and the evergreen pirate flick "The Black Pirate" (1926), but it's also a landmark in the swashbuckling genre-quite a peerless one! Having seen all those masked men tales of Spider-man (supernatural) and Batman (natural), and even Indian superheroes like Shaktimaan and Krrish, I could easily sense how influential this Zorro's film was. A savior with a mask on lives a cowardly life so that no one will recognize him. He falls in love with the girl, but does not tell her about his other version. He makes the girl hate him and, at the same time, wins her as a masked man. Don't tell me that you haven't seen all these cliches in those superhero flicks. Well, they all were born here, with Zorro, who is not a superhero but nothing less than that. Watching Douglas Fairbanks in such roles is a pure treat. He made the roles popular with his charm and machoism-much before the term was even born. The 1920s decade has been a game changer for his career as well as for the action-adventure genre. With Zorro, people started expecting more. This was a Superman whom everybody in society would look forward to. Sadly, we didn't have anyone in real life. But at least people had hopes to fight the tyranny after seeing this reel version of a savior. Marguerite De La Motte as a typical female lead, and the rest of the cast is fine in their roles. Words fall short of praising master Fred Niblo for what he invented with this film. Peerless, unparalleled, thoughtful and educational.
RATING - 8/10*
By - #samthebestest.