A young man, falsely imprisoned by his jealous "friend", escapes and uses a hidden treasure to exact his revenge.A young man, falsely imprisoned by his jealous "friend", escapes and uses a hidden treasure to exact his revenge.A young man, falsely imprisoned by his jealous "friend", escapes and uses a hidden treasure to exact his revenge.
Mairead Devlin
- Partygoer No. 2
- (as Maireid Devlin)
Luis Guzmán
- Jacopo
- (as Luis Guzman)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaScreenwriter Jay Wolpert came up with the idea, not present in the novel, that Fernand Mondego (Guy Pearce) and Edmond Dantes (Jim Caviezel) started out as best friends. His logic was that it would work better as a "buddy" film that turned sinister. Wolpert believed that when a friendship soured, the hate generated was both more terrible and more believable.
- GoofsEdmond's eye color fluctuates between brown and blue throughout the movie.
- Quotes
Edmond: Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes. You must look into that storm and shout as you did in Rome. Do your worst, for I will do mine! Then the fates will know you as we know you: as Albert Mondego, the man!
- Alternate versionsThe UK release was cut, the distributor chose to remove two shots of a man hanging to avoid giving children the impression that a person can hang for some time with no ill effects and in order to obtain a PG classification. An uncut 15 classification was available.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Count of Monte Cristo: An Epic Reborn (2002)
Featured review
One of the most famous revenge stories, The Count of Monte Cristo is here turned into a dashing, old-fashioned swashbuckler. The plot is riddled with unconvincing coincidences and occurences (as indeed was the book), but other than that this is a well-made, enjoyable film, with some literate dialogue and believable action sequences. It is the fact that the action is believable that makes the film memorable, because in too many 2002 releases the action was so overblown and unrealistic (not to mention physically impossible) that the credibility of such films was destroyed.
Edmond Dantes (Caviezel) is a honest young sailor working out of 19th Century Marseilles. His best friend Fernan (Pearce) secretly craves the hand of Dantes's fiancee Mercedes (Dominczyk), so he informs to the authorities that Dantes is a conspirator plotting to aid in Napoleon's escape from Elba. Dantes is sent to a terrible, inescapable island prison, while Fernan takes Mercedes to be his wife. After many years of hardship, Dantes makes an audacious escape and, having acquired a fortune by solving a cryptic treasure map, slowly plots his revenge under the new identity of the "Count of Monte Cristo".
Caviezel was a relative newcomer when he did this film, but he really catches the eye as the innocent man driven to despair by his terrible and unjustified punishment. Pearce is good too, perfecting his arrogant sneer as the deplorable Fernan. The prison scenes are well shot, with the hopelessness and horror of the place captured in considerably believable detail. It's quite surprising that The Count of Monte Cristo was a relative disappointment at the box office, since its dramatic storyline, and the themes of revenge, betrayal and loss, are usually guaranteed crowd-pullers. This film deserves to be seen by more people, and the more people that see it the more its reputation will surely grow.
Edmond Dantes (Caviezel) is a honest young sailor working out of 19th Century Marseilles. His best friend Fernan (Pearce) secretly craves the hand of Dantes's fiancee Mercedes (Dominczyk), so he informs to the authorities that Dantes is a conspirator plotting to aid in Napoleon's escape from Elba. Dantes is sent to a terrible, inescapable island prison, while Fernan takes Mercedes to be his wife. After many years of hardship, Dantes makes an audacious escape and, having acquired a fortune by solving a cryptic treasure map, slowly plots his revenge under the new identity of the "Count of Monte Cristo".
Caviezel was a relative newcomer when he did this film, but he really catches the eye as the innocent man driven to despair by his terrible and unjustified punishment. Pearce is good too, perfecting his arrogant sneer as the deplorable Fernan. The prison scenes are well shot, with the hopelessness and horror of the place captured in considerably believable detail. It's quite surprising that The Count of Monte Cristo was a relative disappointment at the box office, since its dramatic storyline, and the themes of revenge, betrayal and loss, are usually guaranteed crowd-pullers. This film deserves to be seen by more people, and the more people that see it the more its reputation will surely grow.
- barnabyrudge
- Mar 28, 2004
- Permalink
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Montecristo
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $35,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $54,234,062
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $11,376,150
- Jan 27, 2002
- Gross worldwide
- $75,395,048
- Runtime2 hours 11 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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