The Man in the Iron Mask was released in 1998. It was an adventure film directed by Randall Wallace and produced by Randall Wallace and Russell Smith. Leonardo DiCaprio, Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, Gabriel Byrne, and Gerard Depardieu all stared as important historical characters in this film. I watched this movie at my house. The movie was in color and the plot was very loosely adopted from the Vicomte de Bragelonne. It centers the reign of Louis XIV and tries to explain the mystery of the 1939 painting “The Iron Mask” by James Whale, and the original Dumas Book. In 1662, France is suffering from hunger and poverty but their king, Louis XIV seems to care more about money and women. The king’s “good” identical twin brother Philippe was imprisoned by Louis with his face hidden behind an iron mask so that Louis could insure his royalty. Friends of the king, Aramis, Athos, and Porthos plot revenge on the king. They plan to overthrow Louis by secretly replacing him with Philippe. D’Artagnon, Louis’ Captain of the Guards remains loyal to the king even though he disagrees with his ways so he must choose between doing what’s best for his country or doing whats best for Louis. While the basic plot of the film was based on a real historical painting, some of the characters weren’t very realistic. Louis, D’Artagnon, Athos, Aramis, and Porthos were real people. D’Artagnon was a real person, but not at all related to the king, he was an excellent fisher, and died from getting shot during the Siege of Maastricht more than ten years later, not saving his son from getting stabbed. Louis XIV did enjoy parties and women, he was a very good war strategist and he mostly cared for himself. There was no real evidence of him suddenly becoming a peaceful ruler, in fact, towards the end of his reign he engaged into all kinds of unnecessary wars and ruined France’s economy. Christine (Louis’ crush) and Philippe weren’t real people. Christine was most likely based on Louise de la Valliere, a mistress of King Louis XIV who eventually fell out of relation with the king. According to a theory of Voltaire, Philippe was an illegitimate older half brother of Louis, an identical twin would have been nearly impossible, his existence would have complicated Louis’ succession so he was imprisoned. The man in the iron mask was filmed mostly in France, in locations as the Vaux-le-Vicomte Castle in Seine-et-Marne. The movie takes place mostly in and around Versailles.