Count of Monte Cristo, revenge & overcoming crisis

Countless tales of business reversals, bruised emotions and other tragedies litter the landscape of Asia today, even as we still await an American-led worldwide economic recovery. One interesting film that will surely find wide popularity during these hard times is The Count of Monte Cristo. This new movie was directed by Kevin Reynolds, with actor James Caviezel in the lead role as Edmond Dantes.

The film is based on the most famous of the 277 novels and plays by French writer Alexandre Dumas (also the author of The Three Musketeers and The Man in the Iron Mask). This writer saw this movie about revenge and adventure on a recent half-day flight via Gulf Air from Manila to Bahrain en route to the United Arab Emirates. It was so interesting I watched the film three times, scribbled down this essay and forgot to sleep.

Alexandre Dumas was a genius in creating the story of Edmond Dantes, a trusting sailor who fell victim to the machinations and evil of other people. He was falsely accused of treason, imprisoned in an island, he loses his job to a rival, loses all his material possessions, his father commits suicide out of shame and even lost his lovely fiancee to another man.

Edmond eventually makes a daring escape, gains vast wealth, returns in disguise as the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo and plots sweet revenge against all those who had destroyed his life. This is a dark but riveting tale. Even in this modern age, vengeance is still a popular passion that often defies and totally overwhelms morals, logic and everything else.

Mandela, Gumao, Martin Luther King Jr.

US real estate tycoon Donald Trump in the early 1990s almost collapsed in bankruptcy, with insensitive bankers, the skeptical media and even people whom he had considered friends abandoning him. When he recovered, he said that he wanted to get even with those who had betrayed him and who didn’t give him a chance when he was down and out.

Another business icon who almost crashed out is Larry Ellison of Oracle, once ranked the world’s second richest billionaire. In the late 1980s to early 1990s, industry leader Oracle bled with huge losses due to sloppy accounting and overly aggressive sales, but Ellison eventually defied his critics who were already writing his business obituaries and came back more successful. An ancient king in China was once defeated and captured and to remind himself of his obssession to make a comeback and to exact revenge on those who destroyed him, he tasted a bitter bark and slept on the bare floor every night until he had attained his goals.

In modern history, revolutionary Nelson Mandela of South Africa had suffered so many years of imprisonment, but instead of becoming an angry bitter man who sought the destruction of his enemies, he became the statesman, nation-builder and peacemaker admired by all.

Former guerrilla rebel leader Xanana Gusmao is another example of a dramatic comeback story, who instead of vowing revenge against Indonesia’s past human rights abuses and oppression of East Timor, is now the newly-elected president who wants to lead his country towards peace with full independence on May 20. Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and India’s Mahatma Gandhi also responded to hatred and sufferings without revenge, but exemplified indomitable will, hope and moral courage.

’Les Miserables,’ Forgiveness & Hope

The theme of a suffering person enduring the worst crisis, then making a furious comeback to plot revenge is perhaps as powerful as any love story in literature or film. However, this writer is reminded of another classic tale about a wrongly-imprisoned man who escapes and becomes wealthy, but instead of burning with rage and plotting revenge, this person led a good life helping others.

The great French writer Victor Marie Hugo in 1862 created the masterpiece Les Miserables with the theme of forgiveness. This story became a well-made 1998 movie directed by Bille August and starring Liam Neeson as Valjean. In the epic saga, Valjean was a poor man in pre-revolutionary era France who suffered harsh imprisonment just for the petty crime of stealing a loaf of bread. He escapes and leads a life of goodness due to an old couple’s having touched his life with their kindness, despite Valjean’s having stolen from them. Valjean struggles against the ogre of the bureacracy, society’s hypocrisy and against past mistakes. Goodness, selflessness, helping others who are down and the ability to forgive, these are unforgettable lessons from Valjean.

For people who are today consumed with rage and wrestling with the darkest crises of their lives, the foremost lesson from The Count of Monte Cristo should not be revenge, but that of never losing hope for a better future. A taipan once told me almost philosophically that the world is round, one is not always up or down. Even though the theme of revenge seems to dominate the novel and the modern-day film The Count of Monte Cristo, in the end, Edmond Dantes gains freedom from the ghosts of his furies, he is blessed with wisdom and vows to devote his wealth to a life of goodness.

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