Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Plot
The story of Jonathan Harker’s visit to Transylvania to meet with ‘Count Dracula’ an aristocrat who plans on buying up property in London. Little does Harker know, Dracula is a centuries old Vampire.
While there, he is held hostage by Dracula’s ‘Brides’ as Dracula travels back to London to woo Harker’s fiance, Wilhelmina or Mina, believing her to be a reincarnation of his long dead wife Elisabeta.
Direction
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola (who I believe this is the first of his films I have reviewed), it is dark, Gothic and at times not for the faint hearted.
There is graphic imagery scattered throughout the film, and the maddening moments that occur on film – while constant and relentless… work due to the subject matter.
I did find the superimposition was overused, especially when Vlad Dracula meets Mina for the first time and is speaking of his lost love.
Cast Characters
Gary Oldman is just phenomenal as Vlad Dracula, getting to use one his trademark ‘accents’ as well as be virtually unrecognisable in the heavy makeup, which could leave some other films nearly 35 years later feeling underwhelming.
Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder are sound as Jonathan and Mina Harker. They both put on ‘accents’ of their own – and at times they do struggle. Ryder is the more solid performer of the two, and I’ve always found her to be undervalued in way of her talent.
Anthony Hopkins plays Van Helsing. I will discuss his performance in the breakdown section.
Other cast members include Sadie Frost as Lucy, Richard E Grant as Dr Jack Seward, Cary Elwes as Lord Arthur Holmwood, Bill Campbell as Quincy Morris and Tom Waits as Renfield.
Breakdown
The film begins with the legend of how Dracula, became Dracula – and it was the right choice to include this, as it gave us the sound of mind of Dracula. This is why he is who he is, and why he does what he does throughout the film.
It is in essence a love story of Dracula, and his unrequited love for his wife. It is actually quite beautiful, to the point that at the end of the film – when Mina begs him to ‘turn her’ he refuses because he doesn’t want to condemn her to the life he has had to live.
There is strong ‘narration’ throughout, which at times is also characters writing to each other. At times this worked (the letters to each other), but it did come across too heavy at times as well.
At times I did find the special effects slightly underwhelming, while this was only made in 1992 – other films around that time seemed to have more quality to them in regards to computer imagery. Despite this it won one of its three Oscars for Effects. It also won for Costume Design and of course Make Up.
I did notice that Hopkins version of Van Helsing was somewhat contradicted in his portrayal. While at times he is seen to be a mentor figure, especially to Grant’s Dr Steward – he comes across almost villainous in the way he converses with Mina. I had almost snippets of his Hannibal Lecter character which Hopkins played the year prior.
There are also some almost comedic lines when asked if he is going to autopsy the recently deceased Lucy, to which he replies ‘no just cut off her head and remove her heart.
I loved the Gothic score by the late Wojciech Kilar, and it matched the tone of the film splendidly.
The third act is a tad dragged out too, with Van Helsing and Lucy’s suitors all trying to find Dracula, and then Drac’s moments with Lucy. While this is likely from the source material, some editing could have helped here.
Overall
Despite a few downs, this is still a great film with mostly solid performances (especially the lead Oldman). A strong recommend.
4/5
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