Real to Reel: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Welcome to a new recurring segment, where I will compare books to their live action adaptations. Today’s critique is on The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas vs the abomination that is the 2002 version with Guy Pierce and Jim Caviezel. Figures, since my name is Dantes, I should start with this. Now, I know that this book has been adapted 100s of times in various media. I’m focusing specifically on the 2002 atrocity. Hint: I hated this movie.

Let’s start with the book. The Count of Monte Cristo is my favorite story. It’s about a young sailor in 1815 who has just been named captain of a sailing vessel and is about to marry the love of his life, when the world crumbles around him. A few people near him get jealous of his seemingly great life and accuse him of plotting to reinstate Napoleon who was exiled on Elba at the time.

Even though he’s obviously innocent, the real perpetrator was the prosecutor’s father, so Edmond is black bagged to the island prison of Chateau d’If. He spends years in solitary confinement never knowing why. Six years into his sentence, a fellow prisoner, Abbe Faria, accidentally digs into Edmond’s cell while trying to escape. They become friends and Faria passes on a wealth of knowledge to young Edmond.

Including the location of a buried treasure.

After 14 years in d’If, Edmond makes a daring escape, gets to the Island of Monte Cristo, finds the treasure, then spends the next nine years planning his revenge. He travels all over the world learning about other cultures. He makes allies. He learns local customs. He learns their languages. He learns his enemies’ weaknesses. He takes on the title of Count of Monte Cristo.

Then he returns to France for revenge. 23 years after he was arrested.

There are four primary enemies in this story. While I really encourage you to read the book to find out what happens to them, in this context, it is important to my rant for you to know what happens to them. Sorry for spoiling a story that’s 100 years old.

Caderousse – Dantes’ neighbor. He gets drunk and ends up helping Danglars and Mondego with the Napoleon plot. I mean, he doesn’t really participate, he is just drunk, and doesn’t stop them. At first he seems to be simply a jealous person, but over the course of time, he becomes greedy and a murderer. Eventually he tries to rob the Count, but Dantes lets him go free, knowing that one of Caderousse’s accomplices is going to kill him.

Mondego – Dantes’ romantic rival for Mercedes’ love. Through lies, and pure audacity, he marries Mercedes and moves up the French aristocracy. Eventually one of the people he wronged… well, one of the many other people he wronged, comes forward and proves how horrible he is. Mercedes leaves him. His son, Albert (more on him later), abandons him. He kills himself.

Villefort – The prosecutor who handled Dantes’ case. At first he believes that Dantes is innocent, but at the last moment figures out that it’s his own father who is guilty. To protect his name and himself, he sends Dantes to prison and tries to erase every trace of it. He also uses the information about Napoleon to advance his own career with the king. His revenge is kind of fucked up. So Villefort’s second wife becomes a poisoner (conveniently coached by Dantes) who poisons his daughter so her son will get the money. Villefort finds out and tells her to kill herself or he’d have to arrest her. There’s SOOOOOOOOO much more to this than I can possible cover. Anyway, Villefort changes his mind, but by the time he gets back to his home, he finds both her and their son dead. With everyone gone, he goes insane. When Dantes sees the little boy dead, he starts to question his revenge, so he decides to forgive Danglars.

Danglars – Another sailor on Dantes’ ship who is jealous that Dantes is named captain instead of himself. The entire Napoleon plot is his idea. He marries rich getting the title of Baron, and becomes a banker. Through some terrible investments, he loses most of his money and is forced to steal from a charity and flee the country. Dantes’ friends catch him and extort the money out of him and give it back to the charity. Then Dantes forgives him.

Ok. Got it?

Here’s my main problem with the movie. They changed the ending. All that revenge? It’s different. Like, completely different. They even changed Villefort’s father’s name. Why? Because fuck you, that’s why. It’s not like it was a super French name. They changed it from Nortier to Clarion. They changed so much. In the book, Dantes and Mondego have one brief conversation before Dantes is imprisoned. In the movie, they are childhood friends and both serve on the same ship. I guess so the betrayal hits harder? Villefort and Mondego team up to kill each other’s fathers. In the books, Villefort’s father plays an important role later in the story and Mondego’s father isn’t even mentioned.

As for the revenges. Here’s how they play out in the movie.

Caderousse – Isn’t even in the movie. That’s fine, really. He was more of just a connection to a few other characters.

Mondego – Since he is a count in this version, he moves to Paris with Mercedes and Albert. Then, I guess he gets into the import/export business, even though he’s nobility. He also manwhores his way through Paris and gets into debt through gambling. Dantes gets the casinos to call in all his debts, and gets the shipping people to refuse to work with him, so he must go through Danglars. Then he tries to flee the country, and ends up getting into a sword fight with Dantes. Mercedes intervenes, and Mondego leaves. Briefly. But he can’t stand the idea that Dantes won, so he goes back, they fight, and he dies.

Villefort – Moves to Paris to become the lead prosecutor. Mondego asks him to help steal Monte Cristo’s treasure, and being a prosecutor, Villefort has sway with the port authority, I guess? Then he goes to a sauna, and Dantes forces a confession from him. Then the police, who I guess, work for Dantes now, arrest him.

Danglars – Forcefully takes over Morrell’s shipping company. That’s the company that used to own the ship Dantes and Danglars worked for. When Albert overhears Dantes and Jacapo talking about “gold” and “Spada”, he tells Mondego. Mondego tells Danglars. Danglars agrees to steal the gold. Dantes shows up with the cops, which again, seem to work for him now, and he is arrested.

So different. And for what? The movie completely misunderstands the Count. He doesn’t actively do much. He just puts the pieces in place and lets the villains’ nature be their downfall. Villefort is so obsessed with justice, unless it’s his own. Mondego is a coward, but thinks himself better than others. He undermines those around him, in order to get ahead. Danglars’ greed leaves him bankrupt. Caderousse is never happy with what he has, and is driven to covet what others have. The Count even tried to help Caderousse a few times, but he always came back to his envious nature. The Count didn’t force Mondego to betray Haydee’s father. He didn’t force the newspapers to look into it. He didn’t force Haydee to speak to the assembly and accuse Mondego in front of everyone. He just knew that Mondego was a horrible person, and Haydee wanted justice for her father. The Count didn’t force Danglars to make bad investments. He didn’t force Danglars to steal from a charity. He just understood that Danglars was greedy.

They also made Albert Dantes’ son instead of Fernando’s. Why? So Mercedes had an excuse to marry Mondego so quickly. But in the movie, Villefort wrote her a letter saying that Edmond was dead. So, again. Why? Why make Albert Dantes’ son?

There is only one thing good about this movie. Well, the actor who plays Mercedes (Dagmara Domińczyk) is really pretty. There are only two good things about the movie. The other is one scene where Albert (played by a young and unknown Henry Cavill) is celebrating his birthday. The Count gives a toast “Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes. You must look into that storm and shout as you did in Rome. ‘Do your worst, for I will do mine!’ Then the fates will know you as we know you: as Albert Mondego, the man!” That line is worth of Alexandre Dumas’ legacy. The rest isn’t. The fact that this movie is often called “Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo” just adds salt to the wound.

I read a lot. Sometimes I am one of those snobs who thinks that the book is always better than the show/movie. However, there are times when they are equally good (The Expanse). The story that actually inspired me to start doing these comparisons is The Hunt for Red October, by Tom Clancy, where I’d argue that the movie is vastly superior to the book. But this movie is so unbelievably unfaithful. No. Antifaithful to the book that it legitimately makes me angry. The movie itself is fine. Predictable, but fine. I don’t have a problem with the acting. I think Luis Guzman’s Jacapo doesn’t fit the mood of the movie, but that’s not a slight against him. This movie just isn’t The Count of Monte Cristo, and it certainly isn’t Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo.

Side note, I just read Black Count by Tom Reiss, which is a biography about Alexandre Dumas’ father, Thomas. Thomas was a military commander under Napoleon and eventually became the highest ranking black officer in any Eurocentric military, until Colin Powell. General Dumas made Napoleon jealous, and was left imprisoned in Naples for a few years. Many of the circumstances surrounding Thomas’ life acted as inspiration for The Count of Monte Cristo. Another possibility is that it’s based on a true story of a cobbler who was falsely imprisoned, escaped, found some money, and got revenge. Yet I have been wholly unable to locate any sort of verification of that story.