Fallen Idol
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'Zorro' gets a zero from author/astrologer Caroline Casey
By David Templeton
David Templeton takes interesting people to interesting movies in his ongoing quest for the ultimate post-film conversation. This time out, he stands by as Caroline Casey, the renowned astrologer, author, and radio host, makes her mark on the latest big-budget appropriation of pop-cultural iconography: The Mask of Zorro.
The excited crowd begins to settle down as a mask-wearing DJ from a local rock station rises to welcome us to this special advance-screening of The Mask of Zorro. Starring Antonio Banderas and Anthony Hopkins, the film is being screened this evening to a few film critics and an audience of radio listeners, all of whom have won free tickets to tonight's show.
"But first," the DJ exclaims, "let me introduce you to the producer of The Mask of Zorro." Before announcing producer Doug Claybourne's name, he reads a list of Claybourne's previous films: Jack, Money Train, D2: The Mighty Ducks, Drop Zone, and The Serpent and the Rainbow being among them.
"Ouch!" observes my guest, author and astrologer Caroline Casey. "Every single one of those was a dog!" Her critique--loud enough to be heard by those around us--elicits a smiling flurry of concurring nods from the journalists to our left.
A second later, the DJ asks Claybourne to stand up and say a few words. He does, revealing himself to be the large, bearded fellow who's been sitting directly in front of Casey.
"I felt kind of bad about that," Casey confesses after the film. "But only until the movie started. As soon as Zorro's great big Z--that childhood icon of justice and playfulness--came on screen and then exploded into flames, I thought, 'Oh no! This isn't going to be my Zorro. Not with all this kapow! kapow! kapow! and rockets' red glare stuff. That's not what Zorro is about."
Before the final credits have rolled, Casey is ready to say even more to the bearded man. As the words 'The End' burst onto the screen, she announces, loudly and clearly, "What a horrible, cynical, commercial piece of crap!" Kapow.
"That felt pretty good," Casey laughs merrily, standing outside the theater. "I mean, how often do we get the chance to tell [a group of] producers what we think of their movies? I was just so horrified with what they did to Zorro, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to rant a little."
As a growing number of spiritual seekers have come to appreciate, Caroline Casey believes in taking the opportunities that the universe offers. Calling her unique, decidedly political approach to the astronomical universe "Visionary Activist Astrology," Casey has found a fitting forum on the legendarily progressive Pacifica Radio Network (her one-of-a-kind call-in show can be heard in the San Francisco Bay Area on KPFA 94.1-FM, Thursdays at 2 p.m.)
The initial acclaim she had won with her best-selling audiocassette series Inner and Outer Space (Sounds True, 1996) has reached new heights with the release of her first book Making the Gods Work for You: The Astrological Language of the Psyche (Random House; $23.00). Unique, insightful, and surprisingly funny, Making the Gods is a compassionate self-help book, a step-by-step political action guide, and a neo-pagan celebration of the wonder of nature, all wrapped up in the guise of a book about astrology.
A student of semiotics (the systems of symbols) and mythologies from around the world, Casey recognizes the human psyche's need for icons and heroes, be they gods, animals, mortals . . . or Zorro, the masked protector of the poor and powerless.
"Growing up, I loved Zorro," she reiterates, seated in a cafe after the movie. "He was a powerful icon of goodness. He was the trickster. He's Uranus--the coyote, the trickster, the rascal, the court jester who always brings the tyrants down by revealing the truth. And he never killed anyone, or seldom did."
Zorro, in the famous 1950s TV show, killed only once or twice--and then with remorse so great he'd kneel and pray for the souls of the tragically departed. The new Zorro, as his very first act of derring-do, does in a soldier by lassoing the rifles of a firing squad and directing the blast at their leader. Within his first minute on screen, Zorro has killed--and seems pretty pleased with himself.
"There should be a special hell for people who rip off cultural images and distort them and trivialize them and take all the magic out of them, purely for commercial gain," Casey says. "The abuse of magical totems, even unto the 'Z' of Zorro, is nothing less than spiritual harrassment. 'Z' is a sufficient enough totem. Sure, it represents a diminished form of the rascal God, but it was sufficient to get us through the '50s and '60s."
She suddenly breaks into a laugh. "Sorry," she says. "I seem to have lost my sense of humor. I haven't been this riled up since Clinton killed the needle-exchange bill."
Brandishing an imaginary sword as we stand on the sidewalk, Casey becomes animated. "Now, the real Zorro," she says, "would have turned on the evil makers of this movie, as being the oppressors of the people. He'd playfully reveal himself as the real Zorro, saying, 'This movie sucks!' With a swish swish swish"--she draws a letter in the air--"he'd carve a giant 's' on the front of the theater. He'd say, 'And these people are cynical!' "
Swish swish swish--she makes a big 'c' for cynical. "'And this movie gets a great big zero!' "
Swish swish swish.
"It's poignant," she explains, putting away her imaginary weapon, "because it will be a long time before anyone touches the Zorro myth again, and it could have been beautifully and lovingly done.
"Ah well," Casey sighs. "There are many other good stories to be told."
Web extra to the July 30-Aug. 5, 1998 issue of the Sonoma County Independent. Reprinted with permission. Copyright © Metro Publishing Inc. Maintained by Boulevards New Media.
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