The Count of Monte Cristo is a 2002 film, the 10th film based loosely upon the book of the same name, by Alexandre Dumas, père. It was directed by Kevin Reynolds and starred Richard Harris, James Caviezel, Dagmara Dominczyk, Guy Pearce and Luis Guzman.[2] It loosely follows the general plot of the novel (the main storyline of imprisonment and revenge is preserved), but many aspects, including the relationships between major characters and the ending, have been changed, simplified, or removed, and several action scenes not in the novel have been added, presumably to satisfy modern-day action fans. The character of Sultan Ali Pasha's daughter Haydee, whom Edmond forms a bond with in the novel, is completely missing from this film version, though she was included in many others. The movie met with modest box office success, and surpassed its budget bringing in about $75 million worldwide.[1]
Plot
Edmond Dantès (James Caviezel) and his friend Fernand Mondego (Guy Pearce), officers of a French trading ship, head to Elba seeking medical attention for their captain. Dantès and Mondego are chased by British Dragoons who believe they are spies for the exiled Napoleon Bonaparte (Alex Norton). The Emperor arrives and declares they are not his agents, and asks Dantes to give a letter to a friend in France. When the captain dies that night, they are sent on their way.
At Marseilles, Dantès is reprimanded by the ship's first mate, Danglars (Albie Woodington) for disobeying orders. However, the shipping company's boss, Morrell (Patrick Godfrey), commends Dantès' bravery, promoting him over Danglars. Mondego intercepts Dantès' fiancée Mercédès (Dagmara Dominczyk) and unsuccessfully tries to seduce her. When he hears of Dantès' promotion, Mondego realizes that Dantès will be able to marry Mercedes sooner than expected.
Mondego gets drunk and tells Danglars about the letter Napoleon gave Dantès. Danglars has Dantès charged with treason and sent to magistrate, J.F. Villefort (James Frain). Villefort is sure of Dantès' innocence, but discovers the addressee is Villefort's father, Clarion, a Bonapartist. Villefort denounced his father, improving his relations with the government. Villefort burns the letter and fools Dantès into submitting to arrest, then sends him to an island prison, Château d'If. Dantès escapes and goes to Mondego for help, but Mondego turns on him and wounds him so he cannot escape. Dantès is re-arrested and returned to Château d'If.
News spreads that Napoleon has escaped from Elba. Mondego, Mercédès, Morrell, and Dantès' father go to Villefort to plead that Dantès is innocent, but Villefort rejects their efforts. Mercédès thanks Mondego for his support; but after she leaves Mondego and Villefort discuss their reasons for wrongfully imprisoning Dantès. Mercédès is later told that Dantès has been executed.
In prison, Dantès befriends Abbé Faria (Richard Harris), a priest and former soldier in Napoleon's army. Dantès learns Faria was imprisoned because he claimed not to know the location of the deceased Count Spada's fortune. As the priest educates him, Dantès discovers why he was imprisoned, vowing revenge. While escaping, their tunnel caves-in, burying Faria. Before dying, Faria gives Dantès the location of Spada's treasure.
The priest's death gives Dantès another opportunity to escape. When the guards put the priest into a body bag, Dantès removes the corpse, hides himself in the bag and is thrown into the sea.
Dantès washes onto an island. He encounters Luigi Vampa (JB Blanc), a smuggler and thief. Vampa persuades Dantès to fight Jacopo (Luis Guzmán), a traitor who they intended to bury alive. Dantès defeats Jacopo but lets him live; Jacopo vows to serve Dantès for the rest of his life. Dantès joins the smugglers for three months, leaving when they arrive at Marseilles. Not recognizing him, Morrell tells Dantès that his father committed suicide upon learning of Dantès imprisonment and that Mercédès has married Mondego. Danglars took over Morrell's shipping company after Morrell made him a partner. Dantès goes to the island of Monte Cristo, finds Spada's treasure and vows revenge on Mercédès, Mondego and the other conspirators.
Dantès becomes the "Count of Monte Cristo". He hires Vampa to stage a kidnapping of Mondego's son Albert (Henry Cavill) and then "rescues" him, inviting the boy to his residence. In return, Albert invites the count to his sixteenth birthday at the Mondegos' residence. Dantès meets with Villefort to discuss a shipment of unspecified property. Mondego meets with Villefort later that evening and mentions that his son heard Monte Cristo use the words gold, shipment, and Spada. They believe the shipment is treasure, and plot to steal it.
At the party, Mercédès suspects that the Count is Dantès. Jacopo allows her to hide in Monte Cristo's carriage to speak with him, wanting his master to take what he has won. Dantès does not admit to being her former lover, but accidentally says 'Edmond Dantès', which Mercédès had never spoken to him.
Dantès' confronts Danglars. When the police arrive, Danglars fights Dantès, who reveals his true identity. Danglars is arrested. Later, he gets Villefort to confess that Mondego killed his father, Clarion, in return for telling Mercédès that Dantès was executed. He is charged with conspiracy to murder, and realizes Monte Cristo's true identity.
Having determined who Dantès really is, Mercédès admits to him that although she married Mondego, she loves him. After sleeping together, Dantès decides to take Mercédès and her son and leave France. Dantès causes Mondego's debts to be called in, bankrupting him. Mercédès confronts Mondego, revealing she is leaving him and Albert is Dantès' son. Mondego leaves for his family estate, where the stolen gold shipment was to be taken. He finds that all of the chests are empty, and that Dantès has arrived to take his revenge. Albert rushes to defend Mondego, until Mercédès reveals to Dantès and Albert that they are father and son. Mondego attempts to kill Mercédès, but only wounds her, as Jacopo stabs Mondego's hand, throwing off his aim. Mondego realizes he can't live in a world where Dantès has everything. Dantès and Mondego duel, at the end of which Dantès kills Mondego.
Three months later, Dantès returns to Château d'If to pay homage to the priest and promises him that he has given up on revenge and will live a better life. He then leaves the island with Mercédès, Albert, and Jacopo.
Cast
Characters Omitted
- Ali
- Beauchamp
- Benedetto
- Bertuccio
- Caderousse
- Château-Renaud
- Edouard Villefort
- Eugénie Danglars
- Franz d’Epinay
- Haydée
- Louise d’Armilly
- Marquis Saint-Méran
- Marquise of Saint-Méran
- Maximilian Morrel
- Valentine Villefort- is present in the movie as J.F. Villefort's wife (Valentina) but not the same character as in the original novel. Valentine was his daughter in the novel.
Changes of Characters from the Novel
- Danglars- in the novel Danglars was the purser of the ship, not the first mate (which was Edmond). Danglars left Morrel & Sons shortly after Edmond's arrest and became rich through investments he made during the war with Spain. Due to his support of the Crown, Danglars was made a Baron and moved to Paris. Danglars' continued success is attributed to his wife who was rich through inheritance and supplies Danglars with inside information on investments through her lover, who in turn profits himself from gifts from Danglars wife. The Count of Monte Cristo manipulates the lover into feeding Danglars false information, leading to his downfall. The Count also manipulates Danglars' daughter who was arranged to marry Albert into running off in a lesbian relationship, further discrediting Danglars. The Danglars in the movie is a composite of several characters, mostly with Caderousse, a tailor and neighbor to Edmond in Marseille who fell to misfortune and became a thief.
- Ferdinand Mondego- in the novel he was only an acquaintance of Edmond and was a poor fisherman. He was not present on the ship and learned of Edmond's unintentional involvement with the letter through Danglars (who eavesdropped on Edmond). In the novel, Mondego was enlisted in the military after Edmond's imprisonment and rose to fame through manipulation and betrayal, eventually becoming an officer and rewarded by the Crown with the rank of Count. The Count of Monte Cristo manipulated Danglars into investigating Fernand's past, revealing his betrayal of a French allies to the Court to his embarrassment.
- Clarion- was named Nortier in the novel and lived on Villefort's Parisian estate as an invalid when the Count of Monte Cristo came to Paris to plan his revenge. Though he could only communicate through eye-blinks, he manipulated people and events, often to the advantage of the Count of Monte Cristo.
- Mercedes- did not reunite with Edmond after the downfall of Ferdinand and instead moved to Marseille to live alone.
- Albert- was not Edmond's son in the novel. Became a soldier in Africa to support his mother. He also challenged the Count of Monte Cristo in a theater in front of everyone.
- Luigi- was a composite of several characters. In the novel, Luigi was a Roman bandit who kidnapped for ransom. He owed the Count of Monte Cristo debt through the Count's influence with the Pope who spared one of Luigi's top men from execution.
- Jacopo- a composite of several characters from the novel, mainly the Count's servants Bertuccio, Ali and Baptistin. In the novel Jacapo is a smuggler aboard the Jeunne-Amilly. He saves Edmond from drowning after he attempts to swim out to the smuggler's ship to be rescued. He remains under the service of the Count for the rest of the novel.
- Edmond Dantes- in the movie, Edmond was portrayed as being illiterate and uneducated. In the novel, Edmond discovered errors with Danglars accounting leading to his and Danglars disagreement. Also, Edmond would not have been considered as captain if he could not read ship logs, manifests, or charts. In the novel, Edmond's early rise was attributed toward his keen intellect, extreme skill as a sailor, and devotion of his crew though like the movie, he was naive about the motives of his friends. Edmond never met the Governor of Chateau d'If and was not tortured. Edmond's escape was only discovered after he was cast from the cliff posing as Faria's corpse and was assumed drowned.
- Abbie Faria- in the novel, Faria offered his captors a share of his treasure for his freedom but they did not believe the treasure existed and therefore thought he was mad. Faria had accidentally found a half copy of the instructions to the treasure (the other half was burned) in a book. He used his time at the Chateau d'If to decipher the rest of the instructions, and destroyed them after Edmond memorized them. Faria died from a seizure, not a cave-in, and his death was predicted by Faria, leading to Faria's preparation of Edmond for his escape and using the treasure of Spada as his revenge mechanism.
- Count of Monte Cristo- in the novel Edmond buys the Island of Monte Cristo and title of Count of Monte Cristo from the Italian Government, then spends 9 years developing his persona as the Count. He is much more calculating than in the movie and uses influence, manipulation, and patience much more than swordsmanship.
- Villefort- in the novel he is friendly with both Danglars and Ferdinand in Paris and had never schemed with them against Edmond or the Count as depicted in the movie. In the novel, Villefort tries to marry his daughter Valintine to the son of his father's enemy, while his wife schemes to arrange for her son, Edouard, to inherit Nortier's fortune which rightfully belongs to Valentine (Valentine being the daughter of Villefort's first wife). Villefort had a previous relationship with Danglars' wife and produced an illegitimate son that the Count of Monte Cristo used to discredit Villefort.
Reception
The Count of Monte Cristo was modestly-received by critics with a rating of 74% based on 133 ratings at Rotten Tomatoes with critics conceding that it was an "entertaining tale of revenge reminiscent of those swashbuckling movies made in the 1940s."[3]
At Metacritic, the film received a score of 61 out of 100, with generally favourable reviews.[4]
Soundtrack album
The Count of Monte Cristo Official Soundtrack was composed and conducted by Edward Shearmur and performed by the London Metropolitan Orchestra.[5]
Track listing
- "Introduction " – 1:56
- "Landing on Elba " – 3:33
- "Marseille " – 4:23
- "Betrayed" – 3:52
- "Chateau d'If" – 4:26
- "Abbe Faria" – 2:24
- "Edmond's Education" – 0:58
- "Training Montage" – 1:54
- "Escape from the Island" – 7:24
- "Finding the Treasure" – 2:52
- "Invitation to the Ball" – 2:12
- "Involving Albert" – 2:47
- "After the Party" – 3:06
- "Retribution " – 5:29
- "End Titles" – 5:47
References
External links
