“Bram Stoker’s Dracula” or, more properly, “Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula”? The assumption was that the title was chosen to stake a claim to being the film adaptation closest to Bram Stoker’s modern gothic fresh, but the reason was more mundane. Another studio had the rights to the title “Dracula,” so a qualification was primary. Since this 1992 terror film would have the same characters along with the same general plotline as the fresh, this seemed reasonable enough. But screenwriter James V. Hart added a vital element to Stoker’s unique that justified the movie’s potent tagline, “Admire Never Dies.” As director, Francis Ford Coppola provides the stylistic flourishes, which are this movie’s best parts, but Hart is the one who is responsible for the derivations.
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In the unusual Count Dracula only makes vague reference to the historical Vlad the Impaler, son of the prince known as Dracul (the Dragon), hence the name Dracula (son of the Dragon), when he tells his guest Jonathan Harker of the history of his family. Hart takes advantage of what we know about the historical figure to craft the film’s prologue. Vlad (Gary Oldman) is fighting the Turkish invaders, not simply as a prince of Wallachia, but rather as more of a right Christian knight. He succeeds, but the exaggerated rumor of his death reaches his beloved Elisabeta (Winona Ryder), who throws herself to her death from the castle walls. As a suicide she cannot be buried on consecrated ground, and an outraged Vlad renounces God and is somehow transmorgraphies into a vampire as a result of his blasphemy. Then we regain to the beginning of the current.
Harker (Keanu Reeves) is traveling to Transylvania to Dracula’s castle to complete a series of sincere estate transactions that will allow the Count to arrive to London and live in style. Something not very nice happened to the previous member of Harker’s firm to perform this slouch (can you say Renfield? ), but the weak Count only seems eccentric. However, when he sees a recount of Harker’s fiancée, Mina Harker (Ryder), the Count knows that she is the reincarnation of his beloved Elisabeta. Now Dracula has reason to not only proceed to London, but to obtain himself young again so that he can woo his woman.
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Once we fade from Transylvania to London, we meet the rest of our cast of characters. Mina’s best friend, Lucy Westenra (Sadie Frost), is being courted by Dr. Jack Seward (Richard E. Grant), who runs his acquire itsy-bitsy asylum, Lord Arthur Holmwood (Cary Elwes), a stunning nobleman, and Quincey P. Morris (Bill Campbell), who hails from the American West. However, before Lucy can settle from amongst her beaus, she becomes the original bride of Dracula instead. Fortunately, Professor Abraham Van Helsing (Anthony Hopkins) knows more about medicine than what is found in science books and knows what is to be done in this set. Meanwhile, Count Dracula manages to speed into Miss Mina, and the seduction is on.
The production do on this film is extraordinary. When it first came out on DVD I would consume it as a prime example of what could be down with sets and decor: Thomas E. Sanders and Garrett Lewis were nominated for an Oscar. The film won Oscars for Eiko Ishioka’s Costume Develop, and the Makeup of Greg Cannom, Michèle Burke and Matthew W. Mungle, as well as the Sound Effects Editing by Tom C. McCarthy and David E. Stone. Cinematographer Michael Ballhaus deserves to be mentioned despite similar gawk. The bottom line is that this is a stout looking film, which is one of the things we reach to question in Coppola’s work.
Oldman’s performance as Dracula is challenging. Given all the actors who have advance before from Max Schreck and Bela Lugosi to Christopher Lee and Frank Langella, it is hard to stake out original ground in the role. But Oldman bases his characterization on not only the romantic but also the tragic elements of this particular Dracula. Unfortunately, the performances of the cast are the weakest allotment of the film. Reeves is far and away the most wooden, but Ryder does not gain a woman worth waiting for as far as I am concerned, which is the upright weakest point of the film. Hopkins follows Laurence Olivier in the Van Helsing role and in a similar vein creates an eccentric ethnic know-it-all who spends a lot of time basically telling the gang of horrified vampire slayers to shut up and do what he says.
When “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” is over you will be struck by how glowing the film is from begin to accomplish. That will gain up for so many of the actors being as wooden as the stakes primitive to dispatch the vampires. Hart’s twist on the anecdote helps improve Stoker’s current ending, which was basically a hurry to extinguish Dracula before the sun sets. The tragic element established by the prologue is adequately played out in the ending. This film might be another example of the triumph of style over substance, but given the depths that some vampire movies can advance, it is nice to have one that aspires to such artistic pretensions.
When I first saw this film I was completely carried away with Francis Ford Coppola’s shadowy and brooding presentation of the unusual that created the unique vampire. The visual composition, the expend of color as theme, and the music overloaded my senses to the point that I barely famed the movement of the residence. After all, I had read Stoker’s account often enough to recite it word for word. Why pay too worthy attention? Going befriend over the film 10 years later revealed distinguished that I missed the first time.
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Of course, the film really tries to rob the feeling of the book rather than be a literal copy, which may bother some aficionados. Coppola has chosen to gradually shift emphasis from a scare memoir to the tragic account of an impossible adore, without ever losing either thread. By shifting Dracula (Gary Oldman) abet and forth from Rumanian hero to abominable monster, and allowing each persona to have its emotional context, he forces a foreboding quandary on the viewer. Dialog and narration is sparse, unprejudiced enough rather than florid. Again, nothing is allowed to distract from the building tension.
What completely escaped me on the first viewing was Coppola’s vision of a creeping corruption that infects almost all of the characters. British social mores fare miniature better than those of the vampires. Jack Seward (Richard Grant) is a morphine addict and Lucy Westenra’s (Sadie Frost) sexual intensity proves her Achilles heel. Even Van Helsing (Anthony Hopkins) is subject to eerie, almost degenerate moments. This is a less pure, more disturbing world than that of Bram Stoker’s imaginings.
Coppola keeps the film working on many levels - foreboding awe, large romance, inviting social commentary, and transcendental morality play. If like redeems, it only does so at a abominable note. Well worth viewing - several times.
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… again, I digress…
