I just finished watching the 2002 movie version of "
The Count of Monte Cristo", which starred Jim Caviezel (
Person of Interest). I've seen this version before, but had forgotten what a train wreck it is insofar as the plot lines of the book are concerned. It's a handsomely-mounted production, but a 130-minute movie can't do justice to the novel, which ran to 1300+ pages. Caviezel isn't an actor with much animation, but he was OK in the role. The unlikely casting of Gerard Depardieu in a French TV version that ran 6+ hours or so was more successful at presenting the actual story, I thought.
Now, onto the book topic: I thought I knew the story until I stumbled across an article concerning a new translation of the work. It alleged (IIRC) that all the current English translations were based on a highly-abridged translation done in the 1800s by someone who didn't really speak French all that well. He chopped out almost two-thirds of the novel, and censored some parts of it (that got your attention, didn't it?). The new translation also somewhat modernizes the language instead of the instead of shoehorning the English words into what someone thought was period-French language usage.
All in all, it's a very entertaining work (albeit long), but I can say that if you have only read earlier translations, then you don't really know the story. Certainly the movies won't give you most of the story. And I think all the movies have changed the ending, missing the point of the work.
