Apparently there are over 40 different adaptations of Dumas\u2019 novel, so I haven\u2019t even scratched the surface here. Anyway\u2026here\u2019s a brief comparison between these three lads, since these are the ones I\u2019ve viewed so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The contenders:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Count of Monte Cristo (2024 film)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Count of Monte Cristo (2024 TV Series)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Count of Monte Cristo (2002 film)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Count of Monte Cristo\u2019s a big favourite of mine. The book, that is. Alexandre Dumas\u2019 book sits solidly in my top 3 books of all time, in fact. And since the successful novel was first serialised in 1844, there\u2019s been plenty of time to adapt it (yes, I\u2019m aware that ye olde film wasn\u2019t a thing at that point in time. Come on now). The novel\u2019s an absolute cracker imho, so much so that I talked about it in my extended project at sixth form, discussing its influence on literature and film like The Shawshank Redemption, One Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest, Oldboy and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Anyway, plot summary. Main dude\u2019s about to marry the love of his life, bad guys get in the way, dude\u2019s locked up unjustly for 15 years, wreaks terrible vengeance when he escapes. The actual novel is a bit of a chonk (coming in at roughly 600 pages, if I remember correctly), so it\u2019s pretty difficult to get all the details in when it comes to the adaptation process. Anyway, I\u2019ll make some comparisons between the three attempts down below. Knowledge of the book\u2019s always helpful, but I\u2019m willing to offer a bit of context too. Onwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– Best Abbe Faria<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So. This guy is the guy that happens to be imprisoned near our main boy Edmond Dantes in prison. It\u2019s only a coincidence that they meet in the first place, since Faria has been digging in the wrong direction to try and escape prison, ending up in Dante\u2019s digs instead. Oops. Only several years wasted. Well, not wasted, because this dude teaches Dantes a lot, reveals the location of treasure, then acts as Dantes\u2019 means of escape when an opportune moment arises. But, who\u2019s the best?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2024 Film:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meh. The weakest of the bunch. Partly down to this series\u2019 pacing issues, which are pretty darn bad. I say series because this was released in the UK in three parts, but when I researched this I discovered it\u2019s actually a chunky film. You\u2019d have thought with that extensive running time you could fit in a lot more material, but somehow, no. Anyway. Not many vibes from this Faria, who doesn\u2019t feature for long, and isn\u2019t particularly compelling when he does. No dice. Desol\u00e9e.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2024 TV Series:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not getting much from this guy. Jeremy Irons puts in some effort, I won\u2019t deny that, but there\u2019s not enough pathos here for my liking. Still, Irons does some solid, earnest acting, and he still manages to leave an impact of sorts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2002 Film:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On reflection, the other two didn\u2019t stand much of a chance here. The Abbe in the 2002 version\u2019s played by Richard Harris. Yeah, Dumbledore from the first 2 HP films. And his entrance into Dumas\u2019 abode should just be a meme, by all rights. Whereas he appears in the above two through the side of Dantes\u2019 wall, here the dude just yeets up through the stones on Dantes\u2019 ground head first. The comedy here maybe wasn\u2019t intentional, but it\u2019s there wide and clear nonetheless. From that point on, Harris just adds so much more gravitas and aplomb to the wizened old character. There\u2019s no competition in this area, lads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– Best Edmund Dantes<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The main man. As mentioned above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2024 film:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eh. Fine, I guess. A decent job by the actor, but not massively engaging, at least compared to the other two Dantes in this comparison. He speaks French, which is a plus (this is the only one of the three which is carried out in the OG language that the novel was written in, which is nice). But, y\u2019know, I need more rizz, man. And you ain\u2019t got enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2024 TV Series:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here, however, we\u2019ve got Sam Clafin as the main man. Now we\u2019re talking. Plenty of rizz here, largely courtesy of Clafin\u2019s performances as Finnick in the Hunger Games films. And he puts in a solid performance here as vengeful innocent out for revenge. I suppose my main subjective drawback here is that I can\u2019t get some of his a-hole roles out of my head. Partly The Riot Club, but mostly The Nightingale. Oof, he\u2019s a major league a-hole in that latter one. I guess the fact that I hate him so much in those roles is largely because those are strong, convincing performances? But anyway, that\u2019s a slight bias which puts Clafin down the bench for me here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2002 Film<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I can\u2019t say I know much of Jim Caviezel’s work outside of this film, but I can say he puts in a strong effort here. Plenty of moody, aggrieved stares, which I\u2019m always a fan of, and a fair bit of rizz here too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019d say Clafin and Caviezel are about even here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– Best Fernand Mondego<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This here\u2019s the bad guy. Sure, there are other bad dudes here and there, but Fernand\u2019s the big bad that engineers Dantes\u2019 false imprisonment and steals Dantes\u2019 girl. Mr StealYourGirl, if you will (do you remember that meme? I do. And that\u2019s what matters). And Mr FalselyImprisonYouBecauseIWantToBangMyCousin (yep, Ferdinand and Dantes\u2019 beau Mercedes are cousins. Nice. Apparently that incest thing was accepted back then. Hmm). Except that title doesn\u2019t exactly roll off the tongue. And that was definitely never a meme. Anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2024 Film:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Again, like Dantes in this version, Mondego just isn\u2019t quite enigmatic enough. You don\u2019t get that kind of seething hatred that you need to bolster the narrative and make Dantes want to screw him over. It\u2019s just\u2026kind of bland. As mentioned above, the pacing and swerves from the source material don\u2019t exactly help, but still, this Ferdinand ain\u2019t quite it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2024 Series:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Certainly an improvement on the above. A Mondego that gets you more into the spirit of a \u2018I want you to suffer for destroying the main guy\u2019s life and stealing his wife\/your cousin (hmm\u2026)\u2019 kind of vibe, for sure. A bit more conniving, and a bit more entertaining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2002 Film: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Guy Pearce channels the evil dude in this flick, and he does a very decent job of it. It\u2019s definitely a more theatrical interpretation than the others, but hey, I\u2019ll go for that. More camp, more entertaining, and easier to lead into that kind of pantomime \u2018ooh you\u2019re bad and you know it\u2019 kinda thing. It\u2019s not subtle, but I like it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I probably won\u2019t do a comparison on Mercedes because she doesn\u2019t pop up a whole lot, at least not enough to make as much of an impact as the other folks. Just thought you should know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Best Adherence to Source Material<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This one\u2019s fun, because I don\u2019t think any of them actually do a great job with this. Sure, Dumas\u2019 text is rather chunky and yes, like any book, you\u2019ve got to cut and chop stuff to keep your viewing audience (most of whom probably haven\u2019t read the novel) engaged, but still. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
2024 Film: Oof. Some major oofs on this one. Big oofs indeed. I\u2019m not wholly against messing with the source material. Noah Hawley\u2019s great at doing that (see: the TV series of Fargo, Legion and Alien: Earth), but this? Nah. Introducing a new character for no reason, messing around with character dynamics and completely butchering the ending? No sir, a decent adaptation this is not. Begone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2024 TV Series: Good enough, but definitely shaky in places. It keeps the central revenge plot nice and strong, probably because that\u2019s the main point of drama that\u2019s going to grip the audience. Fair. Nonetheless, they do a shoddy bit of work with this character called Haydee (all of these seem too, for that matter) and they change the ending, AND they use the ending line, but not in the right way or at the right point. DISGUSTING. There are various other points I could make, but there\u2019s no excuse for messing up the ending, as you\u2019ve basically messed up the novel\u2019s moral message. Gosh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2002: While this does slightly mess around with Dumas\u2019 work slightly, it does it in fun ways. Is the child that Mercedes and Fernand have actually sired by Dantes? No, there\u2019s nothing in the book that suggests that. But hey, it would be cool if it did. Does the Abbe Faria kind of headbutt his way through Dantes\u2019 brick floor rather than chisel into one of his side walls? No. But hey, this is all in the service of watchable, dramatic cinema, and I\u2019ll heartily accept that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think the 2002 CoMC version takes the gong for me. Congrats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Apparently there are over 40 different adaptations of Dumas\u2019 novel, so I haven\u2019t even scratched the surface here. Anyway\u2026here\u2019s a brief comparison between these three lads, since these are the ones I\u2019ve viewed so far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2042"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2044,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2042\/revisions\/2044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}