Villarroel, Juan Miguel H.

BSECE - T41

Rizal’s Life and Works of Other Heroes (RIZAL)

Mr. Marlon O. Maglipas

The Count of Monte Cristo (Movie Review)

The movie adaptation of ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ had a theme of seeking out revenge

to those who did unjust acts towards an unknowing person, similar to the book itself. In the first

part of the movie, Edmond Dantes was shown to have an almost perfect life. He’s shown to be a

skilled sailor who docked a large ship in Marseilles after the captain died along the way. Dantes

had also risen up in his career as a sailor and promoted as first mate. On his arrival his adored

woman, Mercedes, comes to him and was shown as a very clingy character to Dantes and also

shown as the woman that he married in the first part of the movie. He had also his closest friend

by his side and God knows what he has in his almost perfect life. This was almost too good to be

true for him, but was taken away swiftly by jealous people towards his success in life.

Dantes finds himself locked up in a prison cell due to a suspicion of treason. This caused

Dantes to be locked up for several years. On his stay, he met a wandering prisoner named Abbe

Faria, an old man that wandered the prison for long by digging up passages. Faria becomes his

mentor and taught him a lot of things. This became Dantes’s equipment to find his escape plan and

in their working, Faria told him about the whereabouts of a hidden treasure that would make him

rich. When they are about to get free from the prison, Faria dies and this became Dantes’s escape

to the prison by placing himself inside the sack of Faria’s corpse.

In his escape, he recreates himself as the Count of Monte Cristo and wished revenge to

those who caused him to suffer from a sin that he didn’t commit. His friend, Fernand Morcerf,

who betrayed him due to jealousy towards Mercedes’s love (Fernand marries Mercedes while
Edmond is imprisonated) – was the first in his list. As the Count of Monte Cristo, he rose up to

social status and surprisingly, was gone unrecognized by people around him. Anyway, he knows

still his enemies but he knows who did good acts to him. He rewards those who did kind acts to

him which is very expected because of his innate goodness. He then destroys Morcerf by ruining

him socially through releasing a statement that Morcerf is a traitor. This caused Morcerf’s

relationship to his family to be destroyed as well, causing him to commit suicide.

Morcerf is only one of his enemies that the Count of Monte Cristo destroyed. There are lot

more in the story that he sought revenge upon. In the list are: Mercedes (whom he thought loved

him), Danglars, Caderousse, and Villefort. Edmond Dantes, as the Count of Monte Cristo,

succeeds in laying out his revenge on these set of people and was never seen again.

As for my opinion towards the movie, I honestly did not enjoy the story that much due to

its hollow theme. The storyline is that hollow that I can’t see the fulfillment of myself, as an

audience, to the resolution of the story. He sought revenge to those who made him suffer and after

that what happens? Nothing. In the aspect of its cinematography, for that year 1975, the picture

can be considered as among the better looking films for that time. The depiction of the characters

are not that very excellent but can be considered as good enough. Mercedes and Edmond’s

affection in the movie was very unnatural looking. Too exaggerated as it seems.

Anyway, the movie had made me synthesize some of the life lessons that I had learned.

Personally, I am not among those who seek vengeance to their enemies. I practically don’t care

about enemies but I give time to re-evaluate and assess myself if accusations towards me are really

true. If so, I let myself to be changed and eradicate the cause of the accusations. I guess the theme

of the movie can be really applied to those who wanted to seek revenge towards their enemies.
The movie can make them realize that seeking out revenge to other people is a very hollow victory

for themselves.

On the other hand, the movie is intriguing that this became an inspiration to Rizal’s novel

El Filibusterismo. Rizal thought of revenge in the story as almost the same as Edmond Dantes’s

revenge towards his enemies. Crisostomo Ibarra can be seen as the ‘Edmond Dantes’ in the story

because of his return as Simon, a rich man who sought revenge to those who made him suffer.

However, as an addition to my own realizations, I think that after I saw what the feeling of

vengeance does to a kind man, the best way of seeking revenge is to be a better version of yourself

every day. Doing so makes your critics to be more positive towards your positive changes and

eliminates their criticism towards you. This also brings fulfillment for yourself that you had

improved from who you were in the past.