Leonardo DiCaprio's Action-Packed Historical Epic Is A Hidden Gem On Prime Video

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Leonardo DiCaprio was the king of the world in 1998 thanks to the runaway success of James Cameron's "Titanic" when he portrayed the very real King Louis XIV of France in Randall Wallace's "The Man in the Iron Mask" (currently streaming on Prime Video), an ultra-loose adaptation of Alexandre Dumas "The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later." He also played Louis' twin brother, Philippe Bourbon, who's been confined to the Ile Sainte-Magurite prison and outfitted with an iron mask to conceal his identity. Historically, it's hogwash, but played as an action flick with double the DiCaprio and the aging Three Musketeers reuniting to save France from the disastrous rule of Louis, and, baby, you got a swashbucklin' stew going.

When "The Man in the Iron Mask" was released on March 13, 1998, box office observers believed it had a very good chance of dethroning "Titanic" — a film DiCaprio has never seen — from the top spot, which it had owned for 12 weeks. If any film was going to best Cameron's blockbuster, why not a movie featuring the star who was hugely responsible for its repeat business?

"The Man in the Iron Mask" had two things working against it, one of which wasn't that big a deal. The teenagers who were lining up time and time again to swoon over DiCaprio's Jack Dawson probably didn't care that film critics weren't crazy about the movie. These kids were not avid "Siskel & Ebert" viewers. The bigger issue was that Philippe had no love interest. Louis did, but the villainous king's pursuit of Judith Godrèche's Christine Bellefort involves him sending her true love, Raoul (Peter Sarsgaard), to certain death in the war against the Dutch.

Here's how it worked out for "The Man in the Iron Mask."

I saw Wallace's movie on opening weekend in a packed New York City theater, and I was convinced it was going to out-gross "Titanic" over the three-day frame. Furthermore, I thought the critics were way too hard on the movie. It's silly and a little draggy at 132 minutes, but watching Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, and Gérard Depardieu (before his sexual assault convictions), as, respectively, over-the-hill versions of Aramis, Athos, and Porthos, was suitably rousing. Even better was Gabriel Byrne as the fourth Musketeer D'Artagnan, who's now Louis' bodyguard.

Unfortunately, the newly minted superstar was overshadowed by his co-stars in two underwritten roles. If "Titanic" hadn't been making fistfuls of cash for 12 weeks, this could've been a career setback for Leonardo DiCaprio. Clearly, he capably weathered this turbulence.

Commercially, "The Man in the Iron Mask" came within around $300,000 of besting "Titanic" that weekend, but it couldn't sink the box-office behemoth (a few weeks later, the awful "Lost in Space" knocked Cameron's film from its commercial perch). By the end of its theatrical run, it had grossed $182.9 million against a $35 million budget, a far cry from the $2 million haul brought in by "Titanic," but a much-needed hit for the struggling United Artists. It's no classic, but if you just want to kick back and watch a swashbuckler with a first-rate cast, this will fill the bill.