The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Features:

• Running Audio Commentary by director Reynolds
  
• The Napoleonic World production design featurette
  
• The Pen featurette on Alexandre Dumas
  
• Adapting a Classic screenwriting featurette
  
• En Garde sword fighting multi-angle featurette
  
• The Clash of Steel fight choreography featurette
  
• 4 Deleted Scenes with director's commentary
  
• Layer-by-Layer Interactive Sound Design Featurette
  

My Advice: Own it

Edmond (Caviezel) is a common man who has recently worked his way into his first captaincy of a ship. He has worked his way up the ladder, and finally has the means to ask his girlfriend, Mercedes (Dominczyk) to marry him. However, he finds himself entangled in a conspiracy plot that involves the recently exiled Napoleon Bonaparte and soon finds himself in prison for a crime he didn't commit. He is imprisoned for sixteen years, but for the last part of those years, he meets up with another prisoner, Faria (Harris). Faria teaches him to read and write, as well as the fundamentals of economics, history, and swordfighting while they attempt to dig their way out of the prison. During his time in prison, Edmond becomes obsessed with revenge against his friend Fernand Mondego (Pearce) who placed him in this situation. Faria also tells Edmond of a large treasure buried on the small island of Monte Cristo...a treasure which Edmond hopes to use to finance his elaborate scheme to claim his revenge on the people who wronged him.

This is a very solid adaptation of the Dumas classic. It is not exactly the same and some could say that it was Hollywoodized, but in this case, those who Hollywoodized it did it right. The story really wraps you up from the very beginning and doesn't let you go until you've been taken on the whole ride. Caviezel is absolutely perfect as the wronged Edmond and his journey is clear and unmistakable. Pearce simply nails the role of the jealous friend flawlessly and his downhill journey juxtaposes Caviezel's very nicely. The rest of the cast is just as strong. Production values are very well done. The create a very believable Napoleonic world.

But the best parts of this movie are the fight sequences which are simply the best I've seen come out of Hollywood in a number of years. They do not try to fool our eyes with short, fast closeups that try to cover up the actors' inability to perform the choreography. In these fights, we spend most of our time looking at uncut shots of the actors going at each other with swords. Add to that some of the most beautiful and original choreography that I've seen in a while and you've got a wonderful swashbuckling movie in the classic Hollywood sense of the word.

The DVD itself is simply elegant. What it lacks in quantity of special features it more than makes it up in their quality. Starting with the featurettes: all of them are absolutely top notch. Whoever put this DVD together should be praised with voices on high. Each one of them covers a different, yet interesting aspect of the production, including Dumas himself. They are not the typical fluff that you get with featurettes on other DVDs. No, these inundate you with tons of really cool info from behind the scenes through really pertinent interviews with the people who made it all happen. I have to point out a bit in the Adapting a Classic segment where writer Wolpert addresses his critics for saying he wasn't faithful enough to Dumas' story. He addresses it point blank stating that he was writing a movie, not adapting a book. His featurette alone is worth buying the DVD for.

The deleted scenes are almost the same as they are with other DVDs, but in this case, they don't overload you with them. That section of the disc is introduced by Reynolds and the editor Stephen Semel and each one individual one is introduced in turn by Reynolds. He gives you insight into why the scene was either cut or pared down for the final presentation of the film, then you get to watch the scene. There is also a really neat feature that lets you put the sound design together for some of the scenes by hitting the "audio" button on your remote control. I think by now laymen get the idea of how complicated it is to put a movie soundtrack together, and this makes for a nice homage to the guys who do this job and do it well.

Reynolds' audio commentary track does not disappoint either. He gets right down to business and provides his audience with a wealth of information. It's just a treat to watch.

All in all, I have to say that this movie would be worth owning for the true fan of a good swashbuckling movie even if it didn't have all this other cool stuff on it. However, since it does have all the other cool stuff on it, it should be on everyone's shelf as an example of the fact that excellent DVDs do exist out there.