The Count of Monte Cristo

The Count of Monte Cristo-- a story of revenge for justice.


*** This review may contain spoilers ***


        After seeing The Count of Monte Cristo(2002) for a second time, I came up with a strange idea that this movie is  a combination of Wuthering Heights, The Great Gatsby and The Shawshank Redemption! Jim Caviezel plays Edmond Dantes who then becomes Monte Cristo to revenge all the people that hurt him before and Guy Pearce plays Fernand Mondego,Edmond's former best friend who betrayed Edmond for jealousy. Together, these two shine.
         Unlike the Heathcliff in the Wuthering Heights who goes almost insane for his inhumane revenge, Edmond Dantes goes on his revenge slowly and elegantly, by which I mean those revenges are all within the limit of laws and he reciprocate the people who helped before he takes on his revenge. One similarity between this film and the Wuthering Heights is that they both use their enemy's son for part of the revenge. Like Gatsby, Edmond's beloved Mercedes(Dagmara Dominczyk) married Fernand Mondego when he was away (in Chateau d'if prison), while he come back 13 years latter and become a really rich count. In the prison, Edmond met the priest(Abbé Faria) who taught Edmond to write and use sword. Like Shawshank, he digged the tunnel, too, and then miraculously ran away from the prison.
          For my overall view of this film is that you can see many de javus of other movies, but the adaptations in the film is so good and so smooth that you can't easily discern what they are. After all, this film is based on the 1844 novel by the same name written by Alexandre Dumas, whose work inspired thousand of lately authors. So if you want to see why the Count of Monte Cristo is similar to Wuthering Heights, The Great Gatsby and The Shawshank Redemption, go and see it, you won't regret! Thumbs up for this good movie, which makes me want to read the original book!