In exchange for Edmond’s conversation and able bodied assistance, Faria tutors the illiterate Edmond in reading, writing, economics, history, politics, mathematics, physical and mental arts, and swashbuckling, giving him hope, life, mental fortitude and, oh yes, a map to buried treasure.Īfter another five years, Edmond eventually escapes (without a doubt still one of the most astonishing and adventuresome ever conceived) and meets up with pirates and in particular, Jacopo, who becomes his servant, and true friend, for life. But everything happens for a reason and this bump in the road is no exception as Faria enlists Edmond in his escape efforts. Unfortunately he was a bit directionally challenged and instead of digging out, dug up, running into Edmond. Unlike Edmond, Faria is a cheerful and wise old soul who has kept his mind, body, and hope for freedom alive by digging an escape tunnel. At the end of his rope after eight years of imprisonment, salvation comes in the form of Abbe Faria, a soldier turned priest who pops up through the rock flooring in Edmond’s cell. Run by the villainous Dorleac whose idea of fun is to beat the prisoners on the anniversary of their incarceration, Edmond is driven to the point of insanity with an insatiability for revenge against those that left him for dead. Meanwhile, Edmond is in his own living hell at Chateau D’If. Needless to say, the plot thickens when Villefort reports to Mercedes and Edmond’s father that Edmund is dead, pushing Mercedes into the arms of her other “friend”, Mondego. Entangling the politically ambitious Villefort in his web of deceit and destruction so that he might have Edmond’s beautiful fiancé Mercedes for his own, Mondego’s efforts prove successful and Dantes is sent off to life in prison at Chateau D’If. While seemingly historically impossible for nobles and commoners to mix and mingle in friendship, this minor deviation by screenwriter Jay Wolpert only enhances the story, adding increased depth and passion to the characters and the action itself.Īs the saying goes, politics makes strange bedfellows, and even in Dumas’ day, this was no exception. In a departure from the Dumas version, however, the primary conspirator, Fernand Mondego, is not merely a nobleman, but Edmond’s best friend since childhood. Somewhere deep in your mind, you may recall the tale of Edmond Dantes, a commoner with a kind heart working as a sailor, who is framed by several members of the aristocracy on the trumped up charge of treason for assisting the exiled Napoleon escape from the Isla of Elba. Probably best remembered for his lavish disaster, “Waterworld”, director Kevin Reynolds admirably redeems himself with this lavish, seemingly spare-no-expense production of “The Count of Monte Cristo.” With exacting precision, staggering attention to detail, exquisite location selection and costuming, opulence, just the right touch of humor and all those fine elements of jealousy, betrayal, greed and vengeance, not to mention, swashbuckling, dueling, murder and sunken treasure, too, Reynolds breathes new life into the time honored Alexandre Dumas literary classic of the same name.
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