The Count of Monte Cristo

Free Web Hosting Provider - Web Hosting - E-commerce - High Speed Internet - Free Web Page

The Count of Monte Cristo

The Movie vs. the Literature

Key themes

Justice, revenge, suffering, friendship, family, faithfulness, betrayal, envy, love, identity, social class

Summary

Edmond Dantes, a naive and uneducated sailor, is wrongly arrested for treason and murder. After 16 years he escapes looking for revenge on the people who set him up. In prison he was befriended and educated by Faria, a fellow prisoner and former priest, who reveals to him the location of a vast wealth of treasure.

Edmond joins a crew of smugglers, and gains the loyalty of Jacopo, whose life he saves. In time Edmond and Jacopo retrieve the treasure and Edmond learns that all his enemies are now in Paris. He assumes the false identity of the Count of Monte Cristo (the island where the treasure was hidden) and enters Parisian society.

One by one, Edmond takes revenge on all of his rivals, before a final confrontation with Fernand Mondego, the man whose jealousy lay at the heart of the conspiracy against him.

Background

To every generation a hero, to every generation . . . a remake of The Count of Monte Cristo. Alexander Dumas' 1844 classic revenge novel is dusted off again, with Jim Cavaziel following in the footsteps of Robert Dunat, Richard Chamberlain and Gerard Depardieu. Director Kevin Reynolds delivers a dark swashbuckler, which may well mark his critical rehabilitation after the mauling he received for Waterworld.

Reynolds has said that in the film he tried to ask the question of whether revenge restores wholeness: 'I wanted to get to a place where Edmond Dantes has to realise that, if he's going to enjoy the rest of his life, he has to come to terms with it and put behind him what has happened to him.' Edmond finally does get to this place, but not before destroying the lives of all of his betrayers, and making sure they know who it was that destroyed them and why. Throughout the film, Edmond is repeatedly urged by friends to forget revenge and simply enjoy the good things he now has, but he won't be turned from the path he has chosen.

Reynolds' ending is a change from Dumas', so perhaps the director wants to have it both ways - Edmond ignores Faria's advice, gets his revenge and finishes the film satisfied and happy, even though he says that he now sees that Faria was right. By contrast, Dumas has Edmond disappearing, leaving only a letter where he admits that he has realised that 'in God's hands alone reside supreme power and infinite wisdom', and advising others to live and be happy, and to 'wait and hope' until 'God deigns to unveil the future to mankind'. The novel's enigmatic ending, with no certainty of the revenger ever finding happiness might have made more sense thematically, but that has rarely been Hollywood's concern.

I D E A S F O R D I S C U S S I O N

Study questions

1. Why do you think Faria urged Edmond not to use the things he learned for revenge, but only for good?

2. Whose theory of revenge does the film ultimately endorse - Faria's or Edmond's?

3. Is there a conflict between the message conveyed by the film as a whole and the reflective comments Edmond makes at the end of the film?

4. Why does Fernand betray Edmond?

5. Why did Fernand return to confront Edmond at the film's climax? Why couldn't he just escape?

6. Do you think Mercedes betrayed Edmond? Was it unfair of him to include her in his revenge list? What changed his mind?

7. Did God give Edmond justice, or did Edmond win his own justice?

8. How far does God expect us to help answer our own prayers?

9. Why was Jacopo such a loyal friend to Edmond? How did he demonstrate this friendship?

10. The film frequently refers to God. Which character (or characters) can be seen to represent God in the film? What parallels are there between God and those characters?

11. Why do you think Dumas chose 'Monte Cristo' as the name for the treasure's hiding place, and Edmond's new identity?

12. What difference would it have made if Edmond had simply forgiven his betrayers? How would it have affected them? And him?

13. Edmond says that the measure of a man is how he copes with the storms of life. Is this true? Which Bible passages would you suggest to support your view? How does this quote relate to the main themes of the film?

14. Compare Edmond at the film's beginning and its end: What has he lost? What has he gained?

15. The day that Faria is found dead, his guard commented that it was the first day in 12 years that he hadn't said thank you for his food. What everyday things about your life would people notice?

Action questions

1. When Edmond is first tortured in the Chateau d'If, and tells the Warden that God is always watching, the Warden jokes that as soon as God turns up in the room, he will stop. How would you answer someone who asks why God allows great suffering, even when it is directly caused by men?

2. How would you answer a friend who said, as Edmond does to Jacopo, 'If you truly love me, then don't rob me of my hate'?

3. Jacopo's response to having his life saved was to promise unending loyalty to Edmond ('I am your man, forever'). How might you use this to help explain to someone who isn't religious, what following God means?