There’s a saying, “With friends like these, who needs enemies?” And also, “Revenge is a dish best served cold.” Both of these are appropriate for The Count of Monte Cristo.

Life seems blessed for Edmond Dantes, who has been promoted captain of a trading ship and is engaged to the beautiful Mercedes. What he doesn’t count on is how his promotion will infuriate the ship’s first mate, Danglars, or how his “best friend,” Fernand Mondego, envies his engagement to Mercedes. Danglars and Mondego scheme together to have Dantes arrested for treason, accusing him of carrying a letter from Napoleon Bonaparte, whom he encountered on the famed island of Elba. Chief Magistrate Villefort knows that Dantes is innocent, but for his own reasons has him jailed anyway.

Thus Dantes comes to spend thirteen years imprisoned in the Chateau d’If, where he is whipped by the warden and…hey wait a minute…is this The Passion of the Christ? The scenes where Dantes (with his long hair and beard) is beaten will no doubt remind you that Jim Caviezel also played Jesus in The Passion, and must have been all the audition Mel Gibson needed for his gore-fest.

Eventually Dantes manages to escape in a daring feat that would make Houdini proud. He learns that after his imprisonment, his father committed suicide and his fiancée married his archenemy, Mondego. That’s when he starts planning his sweet, sweet revenge. And the Count of Monte Cristo is born.

This film is shot beautifully, and will make you want to sail a boat around the Mediterranean even if, like Dantes, you have to escape a prison tower and join a gang of pirates to do so. And if that’s not reason enough to see this, then the prospect of seeing Jesus kick butt in a swordfight should be.

The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)
DVD Date of Release: September 2002
Based on The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Posted Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:00:14 and filed under DVD of the Week, Movies, DVD, Adaptation Reviews. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.