In the year 2024: The Problem with Haydee
In the year 2024: The Problem with Haydee
Oof, where should I start? It's pretty obvious that now in the 21st Century, Book!Haydee's "slavish" (literally) devotion to the Count, her age, her status as his ward/foster-daughter make it unpalatable for her to stay with her Book! ending, as a romantic partner for the Count. People are sensitive to "grooming" these days, it's not uncommon for people to interpret the Count+Haydee relationship in that way. With Modern Sensibilities frowning on such things, it got changed in the latest 2024 screen adaptations.
Haydee is "Algerian" and her father, Ali Pasha was an "Algerian" leader who was a French ally, fighting off "radical Muslim rebels" led by a "Mohammed Suleiman" from 1817-1822 (I guess?). Maybe to explain why Haydee is Black? But moving Ali Pasha to Algeria implies that he's a collaborator with the French, who historically had colonial aims on Algeria. So, Ali Pasha is being propped up by the French to be... a puppet ruler for them? And the "Muslim rebels" don't want a bunch of French overlords so maybe they're the real patriots? Anyone can spot-check history can see that there was no Algerian rebellion with Ali Pasha + French allies vs. Muslim rebels in 1817-1822. BUT, there was such a thing in far-off Albania! Historical Ali Pasha was a semi-autonomous, native ruler of Albania, then a client-state of the Ottoman Empire. He fought for the independence of his domain with French help against the Ottoman Turks and lost, and was executed in 1822. Alexandre Dumas took this tidbit of history and integrated it into the Monte Cristo story. 2024TV!Haydee is a scared little mouse, just purchased by the Count and she timidly approaches his home and is introduced to her new personal servants as well as the Count. She clings to her little carpetbag, as if Jacopo, or the servants were going to snatch it from her! This is way late in Episode 5. The Count needs her to positively identify Fernand, the Count of Morcerf as the man who betrayed her father. They go to the Morcerf Summer Ball, and she positively ID's him. Once that's confirmed, she is introduced to everyone as "his protégé, a student of chemistry". She just happens to witness Mrs. V stealing a vial of poison from the Count's lab and tells the Count, who isn't very worried about it. Then she has zero other scenes talking with the Count. When it's FINALLY time for her to do her part in Fernand's public court-martial, she stands around passively, as the Count tells her exactly what to say and do. He provides her with the papers she needs to prove her identity and story and then it's, "Off you go. It is time. I have prepared you". She's just a hapless pawn, and doesn't make her own decisions. In the chamber, she (at least) testifies, but with her mentor the Count right there for support. So she's not as brave and bold as Book!Haydee, who did it all ALONE. Where's the 21st century concept of women's empowerment? The book had it right, but 2024TV! stole her best moment? Last seen is her being hustled out of Paris in a carriage to safety, like Parts Unknown. It comes off as, "Welp, I only needed you for a week for just this one thing. You're free to go now. Bye." Is he giving her a cash windfall to sponsor her new digs wherever she's headed? Her screen time is minimized to perhaps 10 minutes total? What makes things even weirder is that the Production Team had originally hyped their Haydee, "who isn’t a frightened slave as she is in the book, but rather a brave and empowered woman" back in Oct. 2023 and did not deliver on this promise. Their end result, the Scared Little Mouse, doesn't do it.
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This has got to be one of the worst interpretations of the Haydee character. Other bad takes on the character involve her as a li'l sex kitten. A constantly skimpily-clad temptress who's meant to make male readers and viewers salivate over her... "physical assets" and No Brain Required. Just make her a hottie.... and BTW she throws herself at the Count (when he's not interested). She is that way in the manga by Ena Moriyana and the 1988 Soviet flick, The Prisoner of If. 2024movie! goes the opposite way: maybe attempting to infuse her with "spunk" and "empowerment" but it just ends up making her annoying, two-faced and bitchy. The premise here is that her father, Ali Pasha of Ioannina (Janina) was betrayed by Fernand and killed, and she was sold into slavery (so far so good) in "The Balkans*" (what?). The Count buys her freedom when she's young, and raises her and young "Andre" (Villefort's Secret Son) together as his wards/protégés. The kids grow rather fond of each other. When it's time to flip the "ON" switch for the Revenge Plan, young Albert de Morcerf is smitten by her, and the Count warns him that she's "dangerous", a "heartbreaker" and has issues and to never, ever fall in love with her. But that's his Secret Plan all along and has a massive Fail Point: Suppose Albert took his advice and stayed away, not wanting to deal with a femme fatale? Anyway, Albert really is dumb enough to love her and the Count approves. And what is the reason for this and how would this further Revenge Against Fernand? To...break Albert's li'l heart? Her hair-trigger temper ends up being aimed at the Count for the death of Andre, who possessed all of the positive character aspects of an enraged chimpanzee. That idiot assassinated Villefort in court and (of course) got his dumbass shot by the gendarmes. Haydee yells at the Count for this, and demands to know if he intended to sacrifice HER for his own revenge. Then she sulkily stomps off, and Albert visits her to proclaim his love for her and offers to run away with her, but the Count makes her tell him the whole Ali Pasha story (in private), which causes Albert to challenge the Count to a duel (huh?). Albert never tells Haydee, "I'm so sorry for what Father did." The Count returns from the duel, and Haydee starts screaming at him some more about how much she loved Albert but never told him, blah blah, blah and then Albert emerges from the carriage, unharmed. They fall into each others arms, and the Count tells them to "run away together" with his blessings, and she never mouths a "Thank You" to him, for liberating her from Slavery "in the Balkans*", saving her precious Albert and letting them go off to a happy(?) future. Hmmm, Slavery "in the Balkans*" must not have been too bad, and the deaths of her parents... no big deal. That's right... something is missing and with her gone, nobody is around to publicly call out Fernand for his crimes in Janina. France will never know! Scandal averted! (WTF?). * "In the Balkans". I kept laughing at this, because the Balkans were at the western-most European outskirts of the Ottoman Empire, and chafed under the Ottomans. The Balkans kept rebelling, several places became autonomous so if a slave girl needed to run away from Ottoman slavery, then the Balkans were the best places to be! |
Comments
The Albert issue is a whole separate subject that I'd need a short-term paper to properly dissect, but the main issue for me boils down to how they clearly wanted to swap Valentine and Maximilien with them because of the movie's already packed three-hour screentime, and in doing so sacrificed everything that even made the latter remotely interesting and compelling. And the biggest problem is that Albert for the majority of their relationship DOESN'T KNOW SHE'S TRYING TO TRICK HIM. He only finds this out in the last HALF HOUR of the film, goes to duel the count (this particular plot bit isn't even logical because the Count didn't even disgrace his family or Albert publicly....why does Albert need to duel him when all this happened in closed quarters in the Count's mansion??), then comes back and is just gonna get to run off with the woman who says she loves him, but also was trying to seduce him in order to then betray him? None of this is properly digested by the characters or even the script, if anything it just feels like it's desperate for the viewers to just buy into it because "young hot people in love, what's not to like??", throwing any semblance of logic or proper buildup out the window in order for us to buy them as the second coming of Mercedes/Edmond when even this was never displayed well. I'm a book-Haydée fan to readily accept even conflict between her and the Count in relation to the revenge plot, because understandably, Haydée going along with whatever the Count says or does can make their relationship already look even more imbalanced in terms of power and influence. But the execution in this film was just trash to me. Haydée argues with the Count, opposes his plan by the end, yet she also....just stays in the mansion until the Count comes back from the duel and then yells at him? He doesn't even legally own her as a slave here! Why is she supposed to be an active force against him yet still conveniently passive until the script needs her to pop up again? When did she even fall in love with Albert during all of this time? We don't even know she's in love with him till after the revenge scheme has been set in motion, we don't even know WHY when all Albert's done is court her and be a sniffling innocent boy around everyone.
I forgot about the 2024TV! hype. I do vaguely recall something that Haydee was supposed to be empowered, but the final result isn't so! She's so weak, so helpless, so malleable. And so quickly disposed of...
And yeah, the BIG thing to talk about is the newHaydee in the 2024movie! I honestly wouldn't expect newHaydee to speak Romanian or Greek or Albanian onscreen. I couldn't understand a word of it anyway, and that's why I need subtitles.
And oh yeah, it's also what I suspected...newHaydee+Albert meant to be merged with a more wholesome, and truly in-love couple Valentine and Maximilian. But hey, less than 3 hours... not enough time to bring in a THIRD couple so let's combine them. And it doesn't work. newHaydee isn't a good person. She's a terrible match for truly naive and innocent Albert. She's too intense and her temper and her Dark Side will make him miserable. Those things don't just go away because some cute guy falls in love with her.
I think 2024movie! was trying to show that she was part of a ruse, but slowly really did fall in love with Albert. She's transformed into a Valentine and doesn't want her Max, errr, Albert to commit suicide. And the whole duel thing was just insane. No good reason for that! Albert is angry about learning the truth? He says the Count "took everything" from him and "tarnished" his name? HOW? This reveal was done in private. If nobody wants to tell anybody else, they can all keep silent! Albert seems so childlike and here, so childish with his own little temper tantrum!
And you are right. She's aggressive, then passive, then aggressive, then passive. If she felt so strongly that the Count was just "using her" for his own revenge (they were at Andre's grave) then that was the time to tell him directly, "I'm not doing this anymore. I'm LEAVING you!" At this point, she wasn't going to go through with Revenge on Fernand (she never does) so she is of no more use to the Count and he can just let her go where she wants to with 50 thousand francs, right? But she won't speak up with her real feelings and intentions and just stomps off and goes back to her room in the Count's mansion! Awful person she is. By the way, if you didn't already notice, my movie reviews contain links to comedic graphics and I mocked her here:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXUjp7RhPakHnEnCX_cF4sS0H5VAsg3jK5WUE34zITeSAk_UuVx2qChyFzzFxiE5s0Uy2uwEvFx3XYDoTwZx5O4tiOqGDKCr3XcHzCXpACu64G5o4eRia3yPpCpDHCwy6Nct9Yi49UzFsv1SGRB-Gg12XWtzg7W-gCqKm8de8AjcFSauG1pm8mP46kJco/s998/movie_screen_niney.jpg