Count of Monte Cristo

Count of Monte Cristo

2002

Directed: Kevin Reynolds

Writers: Alexandre Dumas and Jay Wolpert

131 Minutes

Edmond Dantes (James Caviezel) lands on Elba – an island off the coast of Italy – and he’s burdened with a sick captain. Once on the island, he encounters British soldiers and eventually Napoleon Bonaparte (Alex Norton), who has been exiled on Elba.

“We are kings or pawns,” Napoleon explains to him in the scene above. His captain dies, but Dantes is forever changed by this interaction.

The rest of the movie is played out with a false imprisonment (because of his interaction with Napoleon), eventual escape, and seeks revenge revolving around being the top or bottom of the food chain.

Dantes – a pawn - gets lucky. With the help of his mentor, Dantes find the lost Gold of Sparta. In that turn of events, he becomes something more - a king. Before, he was a sailor, recently just given his Captain’s papers, and would work towards a ring for his bride-to-be. Now can buy any ring his bride wishes.

But, the movie isn’t about money. It’s about revenge. And in all good revenge movies, the hero realizes in the end there is more to life than revenge.

Yet the quote, “We are kings or pawns,” means the ability to change your own destiny. You could go through life being a nothing or you can make something for yourself, which this is why Americans love films like the Count of Monte Cristo.

We all want to make something of ourselves.

It’s why people play the lottery. It’s why people leave their hometowns. It’s why people dream. The chance to change your own stars, seek out a different predetermined future, and live out their dreams is the American way. Those ideals is what this country was founded on. It’s why the settlers left British rule. People simply seek a better life.

In short, Dantes starts the film as a pawn, but ends as a king. He worked hard. He was tested. And he eventually succeeds in the end.

We should all be so lucky.