SOCSCI_105 Republic of the Philippines

Life and Works of Rizal A Reaction Paper of the movie: The Count of Monte Cristo

Vanessa Anne Z. Oliva September 26, 2014 BSEd 4-2 (English) TFri 2:30 – 4:00 PM

Movie Title: Alexander Dumas’: The Count of Monte Cristo Main Cast:

Maurice Christopher Adamson Luigi JB Blanc

Old Dantes Barry Cassin Edmond Jim Caviezel Mercedes Dagmara Dominczyk

Villefort James Frain Jacopo Luis Guzman

Napoleon Alex Norton

Movie Summary:

Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled to the island of Elba and Dante’s captain

suddenly turned ill while voyaging on ship. They went to the nearest island, which by

then is Elba even though they knew it to be filled with soldiers who are ready to fire at

anything seen approaching the island. What happens then is that they are helped by

Napoleon’s own physicist but the captain still died. In exchange of the help provided,

Dante was asked to give a letter to a certain man back at his hometown at Marseilles

then upon arriving at Marseilles, Dante was promoted into a captain for his act of

nobility for the sake of the dead captain.

On the height of their celebration, Dante was captured and brought to Villefort for

questioning. Questions were answered and Dante was proven innocent but when

Villefort reads the letter that Dante was founded with, he (Dante) was again arrested

and thrown to a far-off cold prison called Chateau d’If.

Dante was imprisoned for many years before he met an old wise man who

became later on, his teacher both in battle and intellect. They planned to escape from

the dreadful walls of prison by digging their way out underground.

The plan of escape was finally going to its climax but the old man died in a

sudden cave-in. Dante, still mourning, decided to use this opportunity to escape by

acting as the old man’s corpse which was going to be thrown out into the sea.

Dante’s escape plan worked out beautifully with an added joy of killing Chateau

d’If’s caretaker who had been antagonizing its prisoners for many years. Dante arrived

at an island where a particular band of pirates were currently staying and was forced to

fight. The result of the fight ended with Dante, accompanying the pirates for years of

voyage at sea.

The pirate ship, at one time, anchored in the port of Marseilles. The pirate

captain, who by then became a friend of Dante’s, allowed him to do whatever Dante

needs to. Dante went home to his city and heard of the news of what happened to his

father and to his fiancée, Mercedes.

Upon hearing the bad news, Dante went with his best man to find the treasures

in the island of Monte Cristo which he named himself after when he decided to be a

count and exact his revenge.

The story ended with Dante fulfilling his vengeance and justice for all his

sufferings and lived happily with Mercedes and their son as counts and countess.

Reaction:

I loved some of the actors’ lines and I think that this movie’s Dante is pretty much

feminine; kudos to be of the gentle kind. A bit brute but of the type of man who had

been torn apart and sewn several times, which made him later on, ready as the

unmoving rock when faced with problems. He is kind hearted, good-looking and the

typical courageous variety of heroine leaning on the good side. These qualities were

especially evident on the course of his planned escape and when he was exacting his

served cold revenge; Dante then and there exhibited much air of nobility, kindness, witty

cognizance and grace.

But then, I felt rather odd. I felt relatively queer. As an eager spectator, I should

have been pleased that Dante’s anguishes have been justified at the end of the movie

but instead, I felt like something’s missing. I felt half-full. I felt like Dante’s way of

exacting revenge in the movie was lacking some feelings of old regrets and deeply

carved anguishes. The way the movie portrayed Dante’s vengeful mechanisms has not

fully appeased my thirst for the bloodcurdling revenge I was aiming for. I wanted more

from them. I wanted more from the movie. I wanted that exhilarating ending with all the

solemn and ostentatious music that wells up your veins and steals a beat from your

heart and freezes there. That feeling of empathizing with the surging tension of the

actors and the anguish behind their eyes... their words and every move makes you

think, “Yes. This is it. This is the end I’m waiting for. Things are exactly where they’re

supposed to. The end is near.” Clichéd things like that. But perhaps the movie ended

with that peaceful aura was because the real Dante himself had found a way to

appease his anger that was eating his good consciousness away.

Though, I guess my reaction would sound quite illogical and exaggerated for

some, those who’ve read the story from Alexander Dumas’s book will deem it all (my

reaction and reasoning) logical. Maybe it’s just an after effect of reading a book and

then watching it. You cannot just hold back yourself from comparing the movie director’s

piece of work to that of the real author’s work of art.

Count of Monte Cristo is one of the most celebrated works of all times and I think

this movie, in its own way, justifies it. Though I might contrast what I had said earlier, it

was really good and exciting. But if you are a reader like me, you will see the intellectual

and emotional reasoning behind my previous words from the previous paragraphs.

The beauty of words, the letters, every dot, commas, curves, and marks within a

book has this innate glow and charisma that no adaptation movie/s can accurately

seize. Try as they might, it would be like partaking in two beautiful worlds, equally same

in magnificence and prowess but the truth precipitously hits you, and then they suddenly

are not.

I cannot express my reaction using further any words or easier terminologies for

people who do not get what I mean. Just remember this, I think this movie is really

worth watching but also try reading the real work behind this because it really triggers

emotions and feelings that are unexplainable in words, terms, and actions – a usual

feeling once you read a really good story. Because sometimes pictures cannot, in the

course of human technology, truly justify innate beauty.

Reflection:

Upon watching this movie, thoughts about how the fate of the good and the bad

ones greatly vary, formed in my mind. Bad people enjoy life and its riches to the fullest

and stripped of it, just at the end of almost every story. On the other hand, good people

enjoy life and its riches to the fullest just after they had undergone a series of

unfortunate events, miseries, treasons and such.

If you draw this scene using lines in a paper, the good peoples’ fate would be the

one filled with smudges, curves, and doodles while the bad ones contain clean slates

and only smudged once, at the end.

But then, what is money, fame, luxury and all that crappy material things that

ignorant people die for compared to the marvel of pure love and blissful happiness of

the ones you hold close to your heart? I think the latter is more important in a man’s life.

The latter makes a man, a man and the former, a resemblance of what was once, a

man.

However, on the subject of exacting revenge which they say is a dish best served

cold, I think it would be justifiable if (a) you are doing revenge for something that is

really justifiable; not for something petty that includes earthly desires and the likes of it

and or (b) your revenge is something that evens out the scale of justice without calling

any bloodsheds.

All these ideas reflect my personality and how I perceive the world around us. It

may be wrong, misguided and not as intellectual as the others’ but this is what I think,

this is what I feel and this is what I stand for.