The Count of Monte Cristo 1934 and 2002: A Comparison

Though they were made almost a century a part, both of these films tell the story of Edmond Dantes, a young man who is wrongly accused of treason and sent to a merciless prison. After several years painfully spent there, he manages to escape and discover the treasure of "Monte Cristo". He then enters society once again, this time as the Count of Monte Cristo, and avenges himself against those who sent him to prison.

Between the two movies, I enjoyed Kevin Reynold's 2002 remake more than the original. Firstly, I found the second movie much more enjoyable because the Edmond Dantes' character was much more driven by revenge, which made the motivations for his actions much more obvious. I say this because in the first one, he rarely shows emotion or the extreme anger that an actual person would have felt after they'd been betrayed by their best friend among others. This made it unclear and seemingly pointless that he should get revenge upon his enemies, for he barely seemed driven to kill them or satisfied once they were dead. In the 2002 version, the Count's fury and resentment is portrayed much more clearly as he goes on to fight, imprison, and  murder his enemies.

Secondly, I preferred the second version because it goes more in-depth while explaining Edmond Dantes' transition into his "Count of Monte Cristo" identity. Unlike in the first film, it shows him learning to sword fight in prison, found a loyal companion among pirates that he encountered, stole the treasure, and established a life for himself back in civilization.

Lastly, the second version of the film contained more scenes in which Dantes murdered the men who and done him injustice in his life. The first of these would be the man who ran the prison and annually whipped Dantes, whom he drowned in the ocean surrounding the prison. This did not happen in the original version. In the first film, Dantes does not always kill his enemies himself. In some cases, he guilt trips them so that they kill themselves. In the second film, the only occasion in which he does not perform a murder is when he imprisons the man who originally sent him to jail. I found the second film to be much more satisfying, because Dantes is more ruthless whilst seeking revenge.