Corrected entry: When Jacopo introduces the Count of Monte Cristo for the first time to all the guests, he floats in on a hot-air balloon with a background of fireworks. In the time period in which this movie is portrayed, there was no such technology for fireworks, let alone hot-air balloons.
Corrected entry: The Château d'If is not a small castle on a large island as depicted. The fortress occupies the entire island, its walls rising sheer from the cliffs. Far from being bought by the Count in the 1830s, it remained a government fortress until 1890.
Correction: This fictional story is not intended to be a documentary about the castle.
Corrected entry: Edmond is illiterate before he meets Abbé Faria. Ship's officers, let alone captains, could not be illiterate - they had to be able to read charts and almanacs, make navigation calculations, read inventories and complete ships' logs. In any case, as the son of a clerk he is very unlikely not to have been taught to read and write. (Though based on the book, this is still a mistake.)
Correction: As is still common today, Edmond was likely FUNCTIONALLY illiterate, meaning he could read just enough to get by in his work. He would have picked up the ability to identify some words and necessary phrases, but would be unable to read something like Napoleon's letter.
Corrected entry: In the scene on the beach after Dantes' imprisonment in Château d'If, as he looks off-screen to the left, behind his head in the upper right hand corner of the screen you can see what appears to be a large blue tarp and someone walking - apparently crew. (01:01:00)
Correction: What you see is the captain of the ship & his men...you see Dantes run right towards that way & they are right there watching him run.
Corrected entry: During the fight scene, Fernand spits on Edmond, but in the next scene the spit is gone. (01:59:00)
Correction: After Fernand spits on Edmond, he puts his hand up and wipes the spit away.
Corrected entry: In the climactic fight scene, Dantes and Fernand are fighting in a vast wheat field. The wheat changes periodically from new ( green ) to mature ( harvest-ready beige.).
Correction: No it doesn't. While this is visible in the DVD extras, they digitally colored the grass for the film itself and there are no shots where it is anything other than green.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Fern and his companion are looking out onto the courtyard from his balcony, the fountains are glowing from under the water. I would really like to know how that is done, considering that fire is the only light source available in this time period. (01:34:30)
Corrected entry: During Edmond's stay in prison his teeth have rotted. But after he becomes Count Monte Cristo they are pearly white.
Correction: He certainly had the money to have dentures made: those aren't a modern invention. See http://www.smiles4ever.com/dentures.htm.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Edmund went to Fernand's house trying to escape and Fernand pulled his sword, look in the mirror. There is a reflection of someone there who is neither Edmund nor Fernand.
Correction: If you look closely, you can see that it is not a mirror at all. It is a hallway leading to another room. The "someone" is one of Fernand's servants, as is evident from his clothing. He must have been going down the hall and then decided to turn back.
Corrected entry: During the final fight scene of the film, you can see a rainbow behind Fernand Mondego (being stabbed) that was not there during any of the other shots. They must have been shooting the scene between rain showers. (02:04:45)
Correction: For a rainbow to appear, there doesn't have to be a rain shower. If there were any rain clouds in the area, they would contain moisture and the sun reflecting off of the moisture in the cloud would create a rainbow.
Corrected entry: In the scene where the Count reveals to Fernand that he is Edmond, there is a brief skirmish during which Edmond takes Fernand's sword and throws it aside. When his son arrives on the scene, he breaks Edmond's sword, so Edmond is forced to grab the sword on the ground, formerly that of Fernand. However, later, as the last battle between them is beginning, Fernand draws a sword with which to fight Edmond. Unless he was carrying two (unlikely), this sword came from nowhere.
Correction: If you watch as Fernand is holding the gun at Edmond/Mercedes, he has Albert's sword in his hand. You can see this just after Fernand releases Albert. It is this sword that he withdrawls when confronting Edmond for the final time.
Corrected entry: In the beach scene at the beginning of the movie, where Edmund and his companion are attacked by soldiers, the companion fires a shot from a blackpowder pistol. He reaches across Edmund and fires the pistol about a foot away from Edmund's ear, but Edmund does not even flinch. An unexpected pistol shot this close to your ear would hurt quite a bit, possibly even breaking an eardrum. (00:02:50)
Correction: When Edmond and his friend are attacked on the beach, even though his friend fired the pistol close to his ear, there is so much noise and battle-type excitement that Edmond wouldn't have particularly noticed the pistol, though the noise still could have hurt. Just not necessarily from THAT pistol, there's lots of battle noise.
Corrected entry: When the count and his "man" take the treasure boxes out of the water to load them into a boat, they are immediatly dry. (01:13:20)
Correction: There is a long wait from the time they arrive to the time you see the chests on the boat. They arrive during the day, and late at night you see the chests on the boat. And even then, there is a slight discoloration on the chests (half of it looks partly dry, the other parts of it look wet). You can still see some (in some cases, all of it) looks soaked from being in the water.
Corrected entry: In the steam room after Edmond Dantes gets Villefort arrested, Dantes says "Do you remember". Villefort says "Valdez?" as if he remembers who the count really is. The Count's name is Edmond Dantes not Valdez. Villefort's lips even form the word Valdez. (01:48:30)
Correction: It sounded like Dantes to me, and I don't think that the filmmakers would overlook this. Also, the incident was 16 years ago, and he may not have remembered Dantes' exact name.
Corrected entry: When Mercedes first shows Edmond the string on her finger after their separation, the string is wrapped twice around her finger. The next time the string is shown on her finger, it only circles it once.
Correction: In the second shot, when she is in bed, one strand crosses diagonally over the other. Hence the confusion.
Corrected entry: Edmund Dantes never read the letter from Napoleon because, by his own admission, he could not read (he was later taught in prison by the old Priest). So how is it that when he first got to his cell he engraved "God Will Give Me Justice" on the wall before he was taught to read? Furthermore, when he was about to commit suicide (again - before he was taught to read) he 'read' the inscription, and supposedly these words gave him the strength to live on.
Correction: "God Will Give Me Justice" was already on the wall when Edmond was put in le Chateau D'If. He knew what it said because the warden pointed to it and explained that the prisoners sometimes pray to God.
Corrected entry: In the last scene Fernand has a pistol and obviously fires more than 1 shot but back then the guns would not have fired more than 1 shot.
Correction: Guns even back then came in many variants like the flip gun with two loaded barrels etc.
Corrected entry: In the middle of the movie when Edmond Dantès escapes from the prison using the old man's body bag, he rips the keys off the body of the warden and pulls in into the water. However, when he is in the water freeing himself from the body bag, he uses the keys to get out of the bag, yet he ends up cutting the bag with a knife. There is no knife present earlier in the movie, otherwise it would have been easier to cut the prison walls or dig the tunnel.
Correction: This is explained in the book, the other prisoner had made his own knife. Just because it is not seen before this point doesn't mean it is not there.
Corrected entry: When Edmund Dantes is arrested by Villefort he gives the letter from Bonaparte to Villefort to read. Villefort breaks the seal (candle wax) to read the contents of the letter. But later it shows Fernand Mandego in a flash back taking the letter out of Edmunds coat breaking the seal and reading the letter. That seal could not be broken twice.
Correction: Neither Mondego nor Villefort actually break the seal, they just lift it from the parchment. If carefully rewarmed, the seal can be reattached.
Corrected entry: In the scene at Fernand's house where Edmond discovers that Fernand betrayed him and the two engage in a swordfight, Edmond falls backwards over a chair or ottoman. The camera follows Edmond, but Fernand is still in the shot enough for the audience to see him drop his sword and quickly scramble to retrieve it.
Correction: How is this a mistake? They're in a frantic and violent sword fight. It's entirely plausible that he might drop his sword, and he would certainly "scramble to retrieve it".
Correction: Fireworks were invented by the Chinese centuries ago, and the hot-air ballon was invented in 1783 by the Mongolfier brothers (see http://www.anecdotage.com/index.php?aid=6116).
Sereenie