How would the three out of four Muskateers know what the prisoner in the iron mask resembles physically? One of them, disguised as a priest, enters the cell and brings an astonishingly identical body to be left in the prisoner's place.

Lots of literary inaccuracy nits for this one, but I'll leave those for another time. Here's the one thing that annoys me most about this movie: the ending voiceover, in which we're told that "the king known as Louis XIV brought peace and prosperity to France." Hello? What alternate universe are you living in? In fact it was quite the opposite...

I just couldn't believe how relatively normal the face was behind the mask. OK, there was straggly hair but what about the pile-up of dead skin and sweat? Shouldn't he have been more pasty looking underneath given the skin had had no sunlight?
(We are talking the DiCaprio/Malkovich/Byrne et al film, aren't we?)

Actually, Louis 14th did rule for eighty years and did make France the richest and most powerful country in Europe. But also in reality the Man in the Iron mask was just an unknown political prisoner

Powerful, maybe. Peaceful? Definitely not -- he maintained France's influence by constantly waging wars and mounting invasions, a policy that led to severe financial difficulties for France (which only got worse during the reigns of his successor, Louis XV).

Not until his brother Philipe took over ;o)

To D.Stuart's q at the top, Aramis knew exactly what the Man in the Mask looked like, because he had put him there in the first place.As for the matching clothes, that's a bit of a stretch, however.

Actually the problem with France is that no one who was making money had to pay taxes, not lack of properity. The Nobles and Clergy didn't have to, having won exemption, and the Middle Class bribed their way out of it, and the Protestants were driven out. The only ones paying anything were the lower third estate, who didn't have anything to pay.

Actually the problem with France -- Matt Pesti

You mean there is only one?

Oh come on W. Berry - if you overlook the dogs in the restaurants and the women who don't shave their pits, it's a pretty nice place