up at 4am

[dr4b]

I just finished reading The Count of Monte Cristo.

Odd.. the movie really totally deviated from the book. I mean, the spirit of it all, and the general storyline (guy gets wrongfully imprisoned, guy escapes eventually, guy seeks revenge, guy realizes that vengeance isn't everything, guy is redeemed) is the same. But what happens to everyone who is not the Count is utterly different. One of the best characters, Noirtier, for example, is killed early on in the movie (don't worry, he has another name in the movie altogether anyway, so it isn't a spoiler), but lives through the whole book and is very interesting - as a paraplegic, he has more power than many of the other characters, it's really funny. What happens to Mercedes, Albert, etc... totally different. The main romantic pair of the last third of the book, Maximillian and Valentine, don't even exist in the movie. There's this lovely intrigue and murder mystery that make it such a good story. Although it would have been nice to have slightly more of an ending. I guess in serials, you only really get the one last chapter to tie everything together... but still.

I wonder what past movies of this story have been like. I would wonder how much they had to change to make it coherent and 2 hours long as well.

Comments

[madbard.livejournal.com]

But still.... What a freaking great movie.

[damion.livejournal.com]

I cried out when they killed him. It made me sad :/

[naufiel.livejournal.com]

If you ever learn Russian, the movie version is wonderful. I actually saw it before I read the book, but it was (a) in two parts and (b) kept the plotline entirely intact. So while it's a bit longer, LotR-style, it does a MUCH better job.

I actually find that Dumas's works translated into Russian are better overall than the English. Perhaps that a bit snooty of me, but I really feel that the attention paid to detail in those is greater.

[tesposit.livejournal.com]

I read the Count in 10th grade, and loved it. I immediately followed up with The Three Musketeers, and loved that too. Mike read 3M, but he didn't like it because he thought that the author was talking down to him too much (if I am remembering his comments from 10 years ago). I then read The Man in the Iron Mask, Ten Years After. I hated that. Different translation. So my conclusion is that the quality of the book is greatly influenced by the translation. I think Mike read a different translation than I did.

There was an older movie with Richard Chamberlain (?). The first part is right on with the book. But I remember the ending different greatly. Cut way too short to make it fit into the 2 hour movie slot.