And Revenge Becomes a Reason to Live - The Count of Monte Cristo
Is revenge a dish best eaten cold? For some, yes, but others are determined to exact retribution in the heat of the moment. In the 2002 movie The Count of Monte Cristo, coldness (for revenge) is overdone. After so many years, when one has lived a life of splendor, it would be a blunder not to dull one's sense of revenge.
Let's examine the movie and then the feeling of revenge more closely! Edmond Dantes (played by James Caviezel) is a naive and honest sailor. His only goal is to marry his beautiful girlfriend Mercedes (played by Dagmara Dominczyk). He is saving money for this. He is betrayed by his best friend Fernand (played by Guy Pearce) and thrown into prison for treason.
This is the beginning of the sense of revenge that will develop after the beginning of the story of the movie, because it is the ambition of Edmond Dantes, burning with the desire for revenge, that makes the movie gripping. There can be many reasons for someone to cling to life after years of being falsely accused of a crime he did not commit and being severely tortured in the process. It is the desire for revenge that keeps Edmond Dantes alive.
James Caviezel, who gives life to the character, does a great job just by the way he reflects this ambition. His transition from an illiterate and easily deceived man to a count is wonderful and his acting performance is excellent. I can say that he single-handedly carries the movie. Although he had a partner who accompanied him from the moment the story matured; it was the fire of revenge that he was constantly fueling!
Now I would like to say a few words about the movie and, at some moments, about the feeling of revenge. When you are betrayed in such a way, the already unequal conditions worsen against you. While you go backwards, those who have done this to you go forwards. In the movie, the treasure found by Edmond Dantes is used to equalize the conditions again. The man who escaped from prison suddenly makes a huge leap as a count and all the disadvantages disappear.
It was disappointing to add a fairy tale to a script that I liked very much. I would have liked to tweeze the scene of finding the treasure out of the movie and insert another revenge plot. Anyway, if you look at the last scenes of the movie, which I won't mention here, you will see that using wealth for revenge is pointless.
I quite liked the movie except for the ending. I think it deserved a different ending. The shapes that revenge can put a person in could have been used better in the last scenes... And the theme of wealth that I mentioned would have been better not to have existed at all. In spite of everything, I recommend you to watch the movie to see love, intrigue, betrayal, drama, pain and the determination to live triggered by the feeling of revenge as a component of all these. Unless you haven't watched it yet in the 21 years that have passed!
For those who will watch it, I wish you a life free from all feelings of revenge and a life in which your sense of forgiveness develops more.