Gary Oldman plays armored Prince Vlad, old Count Dracula, young Count Dracula, werewolf Dracula, 7 foot bat Dracula, and the stagecoach driver with the unreasonably extending arm
As I recall, the book is written almost entirely in the second person style, as in letters and journals where the reader is the recipient. It's not a writing style often employed to such an extent.
I love all the practical effects, the old-fashioned camera tricks, Gary Oldman's performance, the evocative musical score, just the whole overall feel to this movie. Wonderfully dark!
This is more than just practical effects. This is all antiquated in-camera effects. There isn't even any blue/green screening, (which is permissible in the spirit of "practical effects"). This was more than just avoiding CGI. This was reaching deep into the infancy of cinema.
@@kevinschultz5678 Well, it's not about how an effect is done. It's about if the effect worked. There's shit CGI and great CGI just as there's great practical effects and shit practical effects.
Winona Ryder tells the story of the wedding scene between her and Keanu Reeves. Apparently, Coppola used a local priest in the scene, and that she and Keanu may actually be married in the eyes of the church as a result.
I got married in an orthodox church, it takes more than just a wedding ceremony. Both bride and groom have to be baptised in an orthodox church and they also have to get a permit from the local parish. 😊
"awwww Mina is being faithful because she loves her fiance" Those of us that have seen this movie: um ..... should we tell her? Btw Vic, Mina doesn't just look like Elizabetha, she is the reincarnated Elizabetha, even with some of her memories
In the novel, Dracula is more of a pure monster who has no romantic connection to Mina and is often quite enigmatic and mysterious, not to mention ruthless. I like Coppola's adaption very much for its layers and visual style and how they do at least feature the character more throughout, but Stoker's novel is more of a mysterious kind of odyssey treating the whole situation as diary entries, the "epistolic" style to add more realism and immersion. Oldman is incredible in this as are all the cast and although the character is not entirely depicted as he is in the novel, I do think it's perhaps the closest to it, although "Nosferatu" and "Dracula" with Sir Christopher Lee portray more the monstrous and ruthless nature of the original character in my opinion. Great reaction!
Bela Lugosi, Sir Christopher Lee & Gary Oldman all brought their own unique style to Dracula. This adaptation / interpretation of the story is easily the most visually stunning. I live not far from Whitby in Yorkshire, which has a very special connection to the story. Bram Stoker visited Whitby in July 1890 & was working on a new story, set in Styria in Austria, with a central character called Count Wampyr. The favoured Gothic literature of the period was set in foreign lands full of eerie castles, convents and caves. Whitby’s windswept headland, the dramatic abbey ruins, a church surrounded by swooping bats, and a long association with jet - a semi-precious stone used in mourning jewellery - gave a homegrown taste of such thrilling horrors. High above Whitby, and dominating the whole town, stands Whitby Abbey, the ruin of a once-great Benedictine monastery, founded in the 11th century. The medieval abbey stands on the site of a much earlier monastery, founded in 657 by an Anglian princess, Hild, who became its first abbess. In Dracula, Stoker has Mina Murray - the young woman whose experiences form the thread of the novel - record in her diary. Below the abbey stands the ancient parish church of St Mary, perched on East Cliff, which is reached by a climb of 199 steps. Stoker would have seen how time and the weather had gnawed at the graves, some of them teetering precariously on the eroding cliff edge. Some headstones stood over empty graves, marking seafaring occupants whose bodies had been lost on distant voyages. He noted down inscriptions and names for later use, including ‘Swales’, the name he used for Dracula’s first victim in Whitby. On 8 August 1890, Stoker walked down to what was known as the Coffee House End of the Quay and entered the public library. It was there that he found a book published in 1820, recording the experiences of a British consul in Bucharest, William Wilkinson, in the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia (now in Romania). Wilkinson’s history mentioned a 15th-century prince called Vlad Tepes who was said to have impaled his enemies on wooden stakes. He was known as Dracula - the ‘son of the dragon’. While staying in Whitby, Stoker would have heard of the shipwreck five years earlier of a Russian vessel called the Dmitry, from Narva. This ran aground on Tate Hill Sands below East Cliff, carrying a cargo of silver sand. With a slightly rearranged name, this became the Demeter from Varna that carries Dracula to Whitby with a cargo of silver sand and boxes of earth. So, although Stoker was to spend six more years on his novel before it was published, researching the landscapes and customs of Transylvania, the name of his villain and some of the novel’s most dramatic scenes were inspired by his holiday in Whitby. The innocent tourists, the picturesque harbour, the abbey ruins, the windswept churchyard and the salty tales he heard from Whitby seafarers - all became ingredients in the novel. In 1897 Dracula was published. It had an unpromising start as a play called The Undead, in which Stoker hoped Henry Irving would take the lead role. But after a test performance, Irving said he never wanted to see it again. For the character of Dracula, Stoker retained Irving’s aristocratic bearing and histrionic acting style, but he redrafted the play as a novel told in the form of letters, diaries, newspaper cuttings and entries in the ship’s log of the Demeter. The log charts the gradual disappearance of the entire crew during the journey to Whitby, until only the captain is left, tied to the wheel, as the ship runs aground below East Cliff on 8 August - the date that marked Stoker’s discovery of the name ‘Dracula’ in Whitby library. A ‘large dog’ bounds from the wreck and runs up the 199 steps to the church, and from this moment, things begin to go horribly wrong. Dracula had arrived … Every year in Whitby there is a Dracula weekend, along with the incredible Whitby Goth Festival
Fascinating! I definitely want to visit Whitby now, more than I did before! And you forgot Frank Langella in great actors who took the Dracula role and made it their own.
I like this movie because you see so many different sides to Dracula. The charming nobleman, the decadent old vampire lord, the ferocious bat beast, etc. He is truly the king of all vampires.
Dracula has the ability to glamour people. Lucy gets it on with the wolf dude because Dracula has manipulated her. Jonathan Harker is also under a spell, which made him susceptible to the brides and made it difficult for him to leave the castle.
I don't think the brides need Dracula's help and Jonathan isn't specifically put under a spell so much as he is weak from blood loss and the castle itself is.. a weird place.
@@PatheticApathetic Thanks, but I've watched Francis Ford Coppola's "Dracula" about a thousand times since I saw it in theaters. I'm aware Dracula was also the Wolf-bro. The word "glamour" is an enchantment or magic, and can be used to describe putting a spell on someone or gaining influence over them. The Wiccan spell is as you ascribe, but I'm not using that definition.
@@Shawnzy_Gabonzy Frank Langella played the part on Broadway first, but I thought the movie version with him was disappointing. He was good, but the rest of the movie was not.
A lot of people compare this film with a fever dream. In my case it virtually was. When it came out back then I was 14 or 15 years old and bedridden due to a cold or influenza. Against my parents' advice I still left the house and watched it in the cinema with some friends although I was having a temperature of about 40°C (!). That was trippy. 🙂 P.S.: The orthodox priest, who accuses Drăculea (yes, that's Vlad III "the Impaler") of blasphemy in the beginning, is also played by Sir Anthony Hopkins.
As I remember it, the movie was pretty close to the book, but the love story with Mina being his wife re-incarnate is not. Dracula's 3 wives annoy him so he was happy to leave. But the blue lights, shape-shifting, holding Jonathan Harker captive, the chase from London to Transylvania, Dracula walking around during the day, Van Helsing's crazy demeanor, eating a big meal before killing Lucy, etc. and a lot of the characters were spot-on.
@@vincegamer I'm afraid you are wrong about the reincarnation romance. That is completely absent from the Bela Lugosi version. I've watched that film about twenty times and NOWHERE does that film include any kind of romantic storyline between Dracula and Mina.
@kevinnorwood8782 well you've watched it a lot more than I have so I'll take your word for that. I remembered it that way, but maybe that's just the mummy
@@kevinnorwood8782 Van Helsing states that Dracula was Vlad the Impaler in his mortal life in Chapter 18: "He must, indeed, have been that Voivode Dracula who won his name against the Turk, over the great river on the very frontier of Turkey-land. If it be so, then was he no common man; for in that time, and for centuries after, he was spoken of as the cleverest and the most cunning, as well as the bravest of the sons of the ‘land beyond the forest.’ That mighty brain and that iron resolution went with him to his grave, and are even now arrayed against us."
Gary Oldman, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu, WInona Ryder, Cary Elwes, etc...The cast is amazing...BUT can we talk about Mr Tom Waits as Renfield?? He rules 😁😁
The novel is one of my favorite books, and has been since I first read it nearly forty years ago. This adaptation is in turn one of the most beautiful and emotional ones I've watched and enjoyed. Gary Oldman absolutely shines in this role.
If You liked this version, You should take a look at John Badham's "Dracula" with Frank Langella. It's less colorful but also romantic take on Dracula. Also, Francis Coppola took huge inspirations from Mario Bavas gothic horrors on his "Dracula" so his movies are worth checking out also, especially "Black Sunday", "The Whip and the Body", "Kill, Baby, Kill", "Black Sabbath" and "Lisa and the Devil".
Stoker took the name of his vampire from Vlad but the novel has absolutely no other connection with him. Coppola added a completely new backstory. This movie takes a number of scenes from the book and then adds things that change the whole thrust of the original novel.
And the character is based more on Irish vampire Legends than eastern European ones. Strigoi are actually pretty different from what people in the west think of as vampires and you don't even have to be undead to become one.
Dracula is one of the classic monsters from Universal. The others are the Frankenstein Monster, Wolfman, Invisible Man, Phantom of the Opera, The Mummy, and The Creature From The Black Lagoon.
At 29:28, That's the thing in the story. Mina really IS, the reincarnation of Vlad's wife. The problem, is that he is from her past, while John is her present. It's a complicated love story to be sure. But a Love story, not a horror story.
Besides the morphing at the end, I love how this film was made as it might have been made back in the early days of film, when the film takes place - puppets, models, changing film speeds, paintings, etc.
From what I hear the only "CGI" was the blue "ignis fatuus" near the castle and everything else is done pretty old school so I'm not sure what morphing you mean.
@@Mansplainer2099-jy8ps Morphing was first used in Ron Howard’s Willow to allow smooth transitions between images/footage, and here it’s used at the end when Dracula is dying, and his face becomes younger. 32:54
Keanu was still in Bill and Ted mode while making this movie. I think he really tried to change his character for this movie. I give him credit for trying. In the end, he remains Keanu for every role he's been in.
According to IMDb, Keanu said he had been burned out on acting by the time he filmed this movie and couldn’t put the effort and energy into this role that he wanted to. Also the director apparently wanted Johnny Depp as Harker but the studio had other ideas. So they went with Keanu.
It's interesting that in the book that while Mina is linked to Dracula by his attack on her, the romantic relationship between them was not in the book. That was an addition to the movie, but it was a good addition to the movie. In the book she and Johnathan have a son and name him after the Texan that lost his life defeating Dracula.
Growing up I was always a vampire for Halloween. I used to read this book every Halloween. I also watched all the hammer films with Sir Christopher Lee and Sir Peter Cushing. Epic, classic films.
You caught most of the recognizable folks in the movie, but I'm a bit surprised you missed Lord Holmwood, played by Cary Elwes, aka Wesley from The Princess Bride.
Vlad The Impaler WAS a Transylvanian knight and prince, VKunia. And he DID wage war against the Ottoman Turks. And now that I think about it, this is probably exactly WHY the Vlad Tepes origin story is so popular for Dracula: The Ottoman Empire was such a nigh-unstoppable force that pretty much the only way Vlad COULD ultimately stand any chance of defeating it was by transforming himself into this unholy monster.
Years ago, my stepfather collected these prints of a French illustrator of women during the 1920's. He was heavily influenced by absinthe and Art Deco (or vice versa - his works inspired art deco). The point is, when I saw the visualization of them using absinthe in this movie, it connected for me that artist, his work, and the art deco movement. Some art deco is all straight lines, but some art deco is also a fluid blending of nature, construction, and art. I was born in the wrong era.
@@markcarpenter6020 Art Nouveau (them french words don't spell easy like english heh) actually preceded art deco and was one of it's inspirations. Art Deco isn't just one style but a mess of different types. If you ever build a time machine, look me up!
About all the lust: vampires are often portrayed as seducers (kind of like sirens), and some people think the whole bite-them-on-the-neck thing is metaphor for something you couldn't write about in popular novels of the 1890s.
Just in case no one else answered the question. No, Nosferatu isn't the original. Dracula is. Nosferatu was the attempt at avoiding the copyrights from Bram Stokers estate as he was already dead by the time of filming. They failed of course, and one of the criteria of the judgement was that all copies be destroyed. Luckily for us, not all was, and that is why we have the classic movie today.
In Coppola’s version, Dracula is not using Mina-ie putting the stories in her head. Mina actually *is* the reincarnated Lizabeta, and he is helping her *recall* her former life. Dracula *is* using Lucy, however, to gain life essence, have a stateside concubine, and to be close to Mina (in a very f-ed up, toxic way).
You are the rare reviewer who appreciates the beauty and storytelling of this production. Well done. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, the man responsible for "The Godfather" trilogy...and "The Conversation" (another film up for an Oscar, brilliant), and "Apocolypse Now". And yeah, Keanu was a poor choice for this film,,,the other leads and direction were able to overcome his presence. You would very much enjoy " The Conversation"....NO ONE is on to it's greatness.
11:36 This imagery symbolizes Dracula's power to bend and manipulate the natural world, suggesting his supernatural abilities transcend the laws of physics. It represents an inversion of the natural order, mirroring Dracula's own existence as an undead creature.
I actually read the novel and this adaptation is the closest to it. Dracula is probably one of the greatest villains of all time. He’s practically in everything and in various universes he is THE vampire of vampires. One of the best depictions of Dracula as a character is the animated series Castlevania. His motivations and character arc is pretty cool, but going back to this movie. I saw it in the theater and I loved and I watch it around every October.
There have actually been other Dracula films that used the Vlad The Impaler origin story before this one, but this was the film that truly popularized that origin story for Dracula, and actually made it his canon origin story in the minds of a lot of vampire fans (myself included).
The "mina is his reincarnated lover" bit is actually stolen from the 1882 book The Mummy (which makes the "Bram Stoker's Dracula" title ironic). Stoker's version of Dracula was much more on the horror-monster level without the romantic aspect and very early vampire movies like Nosferatu kept to that. But in the 1960s, the supernatural soap opera Dark Shadows mixed a bunch of different horror elements together, including making their vampire sexy and the heroine his reincarnated lover. After that, most adaptations have taken inspiration from Dark Shadows and depicted Dracula as sexy and either Lucy or Mina as his reincarnated lover. The original Dark Shadows doesn't translate that well to today, but is really impressive for the special effects they were able to pull off considering it was broadcast live. The 1991 remake of Dark Shadows was a fantastic adaptation of the story and it's tragic that it only got one season. So much delicious vampy goodness!
You should watch the first Christopher Lee Dracula movie from Hammer Horror. It is very good. Christopher makes Dracula very scary. I believe the title of his first Dracula movie is Dracula Prince of Darkness. It is a very good movie. The Bela Lugosi Dracula movie is very good too.
Yeah this movie definitely gets the sorcerer aspect that basically every other one misses. He's got a lot of stuff going on here that's just alluded to.
What's "Bram Stoker's Dracula" on opening weekend blind in theaters. The opening scene was epic, we loved the armor lol, but the rest of the movie just didn't quite click for us. I'm not surprised it's both loved and forgotten, you could go either way on it based on your tastes.
I'm so happy you loved this movie as much as I did. This is THE definitive version of the story, IMO. Gary Oldman is the GOAT. The score is EPIC. The movie is hauntingly beautiful and the tragic love story, while something created for this movie and not found in the original text, added a layer of pathos that elevated the movie above a hokey period horror piece. Every time this movie is rereleased to theaters, I go see it. LOVE IT!!!
12:07 One thing to keep in mind about Dracula: There are some HEAVY undertones of sexuality that Victorian society publicly frowned upon. It is not known for certain if Bram Stoker was a closeted gay or bisexual (He did have a wife and a son). However, he was well acquainted with those who were, such as Oscar Wilde and Walt Whitman. In English literature, vampires were coded sexy from the very start. You had Polidori's "Lord Ruthven" (1819) and then Varney the Vampire (1845) before you ever had Dracula (1897). Vampires started getting sexier in the late 1950's, then Anne Rice turned everything up to 11 with Interview With The Vampire. Although Anne Rice's novels doubled down on the homosexuality, the idea of "pleasure without sexual intercourse" has been a big draw from the very beginning. I think the best example is from the 1998 film Blade, where Blade is sucking Vanessa. Something a lot of people don't know about: In 1816, Lord Byron, Polidori, Mary Shelley, and Percy Bysshe Shelley were vacationing together and challenged each other to a writing contest. Polidori wrote his Lord Ruthven story (The Vampyre) while Mary Shelley wrote what would eventually become Frankenstein. As for Lord Byron, well, the free-love movement didn't start in the 1960's...
Mina is supposed to be the actual reincarnation of his wife, as some kind of lesser divine punishment for the suicide rather than being damned as the priest told dracula at the beginning. Hence the resemblance and the reason she has vague memories of draculas homeland and could describe it The blue flame they rode through is intended to imply there is some kind of treasure buried there, probably as bait for foolish peasants. Goes back to a common legend about such flames appearing wherever treasure is buried on a particular night of the year. This really should have either been explained in the film or not included at all. The stuff with the water and mice walking upside down and such is intended to show that reality is warped around dracula and that the laws of physics aren't quite normal wherever he goes While not explicitly stated in the film, the romanian girl giving jonathan the cross necklace and telling him for the dead travel fast was a low key reference to things that happened to him in the novel but weren't in the book about him wandering the woods chased by wolves and coming across the tomb of another vampires tomb in the woods that randomly gets hit by lightning. The tomb and an inscription that read 'denn die toten reiten schnell' (for the dead travel fast) and implied she was a noblewoman of german descent from the early 19th century. Its also implied that he was being followed and protected from the wolves by dracula, who also probably had something to do with the sudden lightning strike to protect him from the other vampire
I see this film as the story of the redemption of Dracula, of God reclaiming his chosen warrior. This matches the book, when Mina notes that just before Dracula crumbles to dust his face suddenly held such an expression of peace as she never imagined it could show. Thus, Dracula was set free.
This movie is a love letter to the previous methods of film-making. There have been so many Dracula movies over the decades that Dracula sort of works as a time-capsule of set design, costuming, and special-effects. Coppola used so many methods that were out-dated at the time, to celebrate how far cinema has come.
Full respect to Francis Ford Coppola. He was so annoyed by the onset of digital effects, he went out of his way to do EVERY SINGLE EFFECT in this film in-camera. It's as old school as it gets, and it's incredible.
23:45 This is a perfect example of intercutting that Coppola did so beautifully in “The Godfather” where Michael is christening the baby and his minions are killing the heads of the five families and Moe Greene. So it like a blend of the profane and the sacred similar to the Night on Balled Mountain sequence in Disney’s “Fantasia”, which transitions into the Ave Maria. Another film that did this was “Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith” where as Palpatine is announcing the creation of the Galactic Empire, Anakin Skywalker (now dubbed Darth Vader) goes to the Mustafar system to kill Viceroy Gunnray and the other Separatist leaders
Coppola is such an operatic filmmaker, and his approach to “Dracula” really works. In the book, Jonathan Harker writes his diary in shorthand, so Dracula can’t read it, and Mina knows both shorthand and how to use a typewriter. My theory of why Dracula starts out aged and becomes younger as the story progresses is that he has been depressed and is rejuvenated by the change of scene. This is the only movie version of the story I have seen that has all 5 major male heroes, including Jonathan, Lucy’s 3 suitors, and Van Helsing, and doesn’t change the names of the two main women characters.
I’m glad you enjoyed the movie but unfortunately it doesn’t live up to its title, “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” in that the script has taken a lot of liberties with the novel. Compared to the film, Dracula is hardly in the novel. He is in the first 4 chapters and then appears sporadically throughout the rest of the novel. What’s missing from all film adaptions is Dracula’s cunning and superiority over Jonathan Harker. The scene in the novel where Dracula allows Harker to leave the castle, only for him to be stopped by a pack of hungry wolves outside in the courtyard, shows up his superiority and the fact that he can control Harker. In the novel, Harker is not bit by the 3 vampire women as he is in this film. There was no need by the scriptwriter to tell the audience that, “contrary to popular belief, vampires can move about in daylight.” It’s there in the novel, but has also been used in other vampire films not related to Dracula. Never insult the audiences intelligence, believing that they cannot adapt to different interpretations of vampire “lore.” The scenes on the ship, the Demeter, are so short in the film that they don’t convey the mounting terror of the crew as Dracula slowly picks them off, one by one, on the journey to England. The character of Lucy in the film is the complete polar opposite to who she is in the novel. In the film she is portrayed as a tease, a slut, using sexual innuendo and staring wide eyed at published porn, something that Lucy in the novel never was or did. There’s a throwaway line in the film that tells the audience that Lucy suffers from nightly sleepwalking, and soon afterwards Dracula is ravaging Lucy in the Cemetery. In the novel he is in human form when he does this, but for some reason the scriptwriter thought it more frightening to have Dracula in a half man-half beast state when he feeds on Lucy. All of Lucy’s sweet virtue in the novel is taken from her when she becomes a vampire, and it’s that which is so shocking to the reader that this innocent, happy 19 year old could suddenly change into a wanton creature of the night, feasting on young children. The audience is less shocked by this transformation in the film because it has already shown them that the human version of Lucy isn’t virtuous in any way, so there is no change in her character for them to feel pity towards her. The biggest change (and the biggest fault in the film) is the love interest between Mina and Dracula. None of this is in the novel. Mina is not the reincarnation of Dracula’s bride of 400 years past, and this “idea” wasn’t even an original one for this film. It was lifted directly from the 1973 Dan Curtis TV production of Dracula (starring Jack Palance in the title role). In the novel, Mina is disgusted with herself that she has been “intimate” with Dracula as he tries to claim her as his next bride, but in this film version she is desperate to be at his side and wants to run away with him! Nearing the end of the film the scriptwriter once again takes liberties with the source material. In the novel Mina is not sexually attracted to Van Helsing in any way, and neither do the pair kiss as both are depicted in the film. The films climax is also different to the novel. The core elements from the novel are there in the film: Quincy being killed and Dracula is staked to death, but the similarities end there. In the film it is Mina who delivers the final blow into Dracula’s heart that kills him, and not a combination of Quincy’s Bowie knife and Harker slitting Dracula’s throat as in the novel. And nowhere in the novel does Dracula welcome his own death as he does in the films final scene. Having said all of the above, the film does have some merits. The film score is excellent as is the set designs and the costume design (with the exception of what Dracula wears in the castle scenes at the beginning of the film). The acting is a bit up and down and that is primarily due to the actors cast. Whilst a very good actor, fellow Brit Gary Oldman would have made a decent Dracula if he could have played the character as he was depicted in the novel, and not as a love sick puppy pining over a lost love. Oldman’s hair and make up as the older version of Dracula did unfortunately make him look like a demented Glenn Close and wasn’t a good “look” for the Dracula we’ve all come to love, whether that be the Bela Lugosi or Christopher Lee versions. I may be in the minority here, but I thought Winona Ryder did a good job of portraying Mina Harker, and though her British accent was passable, it was certainly better than that of Keanu Reeves. Whilst not straying into the poor levels of Dick Van Dyke’s mangled British accent in Mary Poppins, Reeve does at least try to get the British cadence in his voice right, so kudos to him for that. Anthony Hopkins as Van Helsing was a great choice and in his quieter moments is very effective in his desire to hunt down Dracula and rid the world of his evil. Where it doesn’t work is when Hopkins going way over the top in scenes where his bouts of crazy madness just isn’t needed. As for the rest of the cast, Richard E. Grant and Tom Waits are the stand outs as Seward and Renfield respectively, and Cary Elwes as Holmwood, Billy Campbell as Quincy and Sadie Frost as Lucy are serviceable at what they’re given to do, as is Coppola’s direction. James V. Hart could have delivered a better, more rounded screenplay, but thankfully it did include a lot of Stoker’s material that doesn’t always get into other film versions of the novel. It’s just a pity that giving the film the grand statement that it was “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” that it didnt actually deliver “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” the novel. Oh, well. I guess the next film version might get it right!
"Wait, so they're 19... What am I, ancient?" By Victorian Era standards.... You're getting up there. Also, Vlad the Impaler did what he needed to do to free his country.
Dear Vkunia, Elisabetta & her reincarnation Mina were both played by Winona. The 🎬 was a love story as much as it was horror, the promo line for the 🎬 upon its release was" Love never dies" So Mina wasn't been manipulated but basically remembering the love that Elisabetta & Vlad shared centuries earlier. Also Dracula possess many abilities that the ordinary 🧛♀️ didn't but he didn't need to use them on Mina because their love was true four centuries apart.
A few anecdotes: The painting on the wall at Dracula's cast;e, long hair, is really German Artist, Albert Durer (@1500) 1) I saw this film originally in the cinema in November, 1992, with some friends. We all thought it would be really scary,....it is in parts. Yet, Keanu's English accent was found funny by the audience, and Anthony Hopkins is really theatrical -more laughs. We liked it for all the creative camera, make-up, photo-effects. It's not The Exorcist or The Shinning! 2) During the Romania revolution in December 1989, the quite evil and oppressive dictator of Romania (Communist era) Nicolai Cheauchesceu, had serious messed his nation up. When the Revolution took place, and the people stopped obing the Dictator, N.C. and his wife loaded up their personal helicopter, with wealth and belongings, and flew to the historically believed Dracula's Castle, in the Romanian section of Transylvania. The people, after there was fighting, deaths, and the military backed the people - The Dictator and his Wife were found at the Castle, dragged back to Bucharest. There was a short offical trial, and the Dictator and his Wife were shot by firing squad on Christmas morning -televised to the nation! I was studying in Europe that year, and experienced that new in London for Christmas. The should have impaled the evil duo! 3) The survivor of the Holocaust, and write Ellie Wiesel, I saw give two public lectures, at two different colleges. He would talk some of his experiences, yet also concern for the world today. He told a story -He was from Transylvania, the part in Hungary. When he survived the ode real of death, and got to America, and people asked where he was from, he would say "Transylvania" - and he said American's would resound with "I want to suck your blood!",.....Which, Wiesel did not understand. He had a TV on, and he saw part of the Bella Lugosi film -OH, that!!! So he started to just tell people he was from Hungary -and that got people to understand.
I remember back when this first came out and of course I was very young. I was so upset that my aunt (who is 13 years older then me) wouldn't let me watch it with her because she said it was too scary!!! It's not even scary was my first thought the first chance I got to watch it while people slept lol
Claimed to be the most faithful version of Stoker's timeless classic. But misses out the most beautiful female character - Vkunia! This review rectifies.
Actually Cinemassacre did a comparison and the 1977 BBC TV film scored slightly higher on details from the book. EDIT: Although I'm not sure they noted Dracula having a moustache.
love your reactions! As to your wondering at the beginning of this. Vlad was Voivode of Wallachia - sort of and administrator or commander of a region, or both. Historically he was a very shrewd political and by some accounts very commendable battle leader. Additionally, some historical accounts attribute Vlad for the impaling of thousands of persons as a deterrent to invasion into his lands.
The Morris family (relatives of the Belmonts) in Castlevania are connected to this story through Quincy. They mention in the games that he defeated Dracula but it claimed his life before his son John Morris inherits the Vampire Killer whip.
Rider plays both Mina and Elizabetha. That is from the Lugosi Dracula movie. In the 1930s a lot of movies seemed to make the love interest a reincarnated ancient soul.
This movie's always been a Halloween favorite, and I'm glad you enjoyed it, V. For another great vampire movie, I highly, HIGHLY recommend Fright Night (1985). It's horror but also has some good comedy in it as well. I usually watch it every year around this time, it's a classic that I'm sure you'll love!
When Vicky said “Is that Hippity-Hopkins?!? They just be dropping A-listers in here at every turn…” I guess she didn’t notice that A.H. was the angry priest at the very beginning 🤷🏻♂️
Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder did not see eye to eye on this production. Oldman felt her acting to be amateurish. He later apologized to Winona and blamed constant drinking and stress from the production. Gary Oldman has been sober for many years now. A cult classic with Gary Oldman few people talk about, and I'd recommend is, "Sid and Nancy". Oldman plays "Sex Pistols" bassist Sid Viscous in a very dark Rock N' Roll story about drugs, love and violence. Ironically, Courtney Love has a small part. Gary Oldman is incredible in his role of an out of control Punk maniac.
These "dates" don't happen in the books. She does get attacked by Dracula but she's not his dead wife reincarnated. Keanu has been continuously roasted for his accent in this film.
Keanu and Winona got “married” by a real priest… “…, Ryder previously told Entertainment Weekly that she and Reeves are technically married because a real-life Romanian priest was present for their characters' wedding in Bram Stoker's Dracula…”
Gary Oldman plays armored Prince Vlad, old Count Dracula, young Count Dracula, werewolf Dracula, 7 foot bat Dracula, and the stagecoach driver with the unreasonably extending arm
If you are unsure if a character is played by Gary Oldman, first ask yourself "Does it look like Gary Oldman?"
If the answer is "No" it may be him.
@@donkfail1 however, if the answer is "yes".... Then it may be him.
The novel is a book equivalent of a found footage film, because it’s all excerpts from diary entries, logs, letters, stuff like that
What a great comparison.
As I recall, the book is written almost entirely in the second person style, as in letters and journals where the reader is the recipient. It's not a writing style often employed to such an extent.
Quite right.
That's a great way of putting it.
The ease that Gary Oldman has in playing completely different characters is incredible, he is certainly one of the most versatile actors of all time.
I loved him in immortal beloved as beethoven
It would have been a bad idea for Keanu to be Dracula. I love the guy, but he could barely handle an English accent, much less a Romanian one. 😂
State of Grace, 5th Element, The Professional, this. The guy is a legend.
I love all the practical effects, the old-fashioned camera tricks, Gary Oldman's performance, the evocative musical score, just the whole overall feel to this movie. Wonderfully dark!
This is more than just practical effects. This is all antiquated in-camera effects. There isn't even any blue/green screening, (which is permissible in the spirit of "practical effects"). This was more than just avoiding CGI. This was reaching deep into the infancy of cinema.
And I love how much inspiration it took from the old Gothic horror movies like the hammer horror films
@@Cre80s Yes, I couldn't think of the right wording for the in-camera effects. We need more movies with zero to bare minimum CGI.
@@kevinschultz5678 Well, it's not about how an effect is done. It's about if the effect worked. There's shit CGI and great CGI just as there's great practical effects and shit practical effects.
The crawling up the wall of the castle part is straight from the book.
We love Keanu's attempt at a British accent in this household.
Same. "Our work is finished here" never fails to destroy us all.
It's most righteus, dude.
The “My God it is the man himself, but he’s grown young!”
@@00rabbit7Don't, lmfaooooooo rotfl
Winona Ryder tells the story of the wedding scene between her and Keanu Reeves. Apparently, Coppola used a local priest in the scene, and that she and Keanu may actually be married in the eyes of the church as a result.
I got married in an orthodox church, it takes more than just a wedding ceremony. Both bride and groom have to be baptised in an orthodox church and they also have to get a permit from the local parish. 😊
I've heard that story but unless they used their real names, I don't think so.
Apparently, when they text each other, the still address each other as husband and wife as a joke.
"awwww Mina is being faithful because she loves her fiance"
Those of us that have seen this movie: um ..... should we tell her?
Btw Vic, Mina doesn't just look like Elizabetha, she is the reincarnated Elizabetha, even with some of her memories
In the novel, Dracula is more of a pure monster who has no romantic connection to Mina and is often quite enigmatic and mysterious, not to mention ruthless.
I like Coppola's adaption very much for its layers and visual style and how they do at least feature the character more throughout, but Stoker's novel is more of a mysterious kind of odyssey treating the whole situation as diary entries, the "epistolic" style to add more realism and immersion.
Oldman is incredible in this as are all the cast and although the character is not entirely depicted as he is in the novel, I do think it's perhaps the closest to it, although "Nosferatu" and "Dracula" with Sir Christopher Lee portray more the monstrous and ruthless nature of the original character in my opinion.
Great reaction!
Bela Lugosi, Sir Christopher Lee & Gary Oldman all brought their own unique style to Dracula.
This adaptation / interpretation of the story is easily the most visually stunning.
I live not far from Whitby in Yorkshire, which has a very special connection to the story.
Bram Stoker visited Whitby in July 1890 & was working on a new story, set in Styria in Austria, with a central character called Count Wampyr.
The favoured Gothic literature of the period was set in foreign lands full of eerie castles, convents and caves. Whitby’s windswept headland, the dramatic abbey ruins, a church surrounded by swooping bats, and a long association with jet - a semi-precious stone used in mourning jewellery - gave a homegrown taste of such thrilling horrors.
High above Whitby, and dominating the whole town, stands Whitby Abbey, the ruin of a once-great Benedictine monastery, founded in the 11th century. The medieval abbey stands on the site of a much earlier monastery, founded in 657 by an Anglian princess, Hild, who became its first abbess. In Dracula, Stoker has Mina Murray - the young woman whose experiences form the thread of the novel - record in her diary.
Below the abbey stands the ancient parish church of St Mary, perched on East Cliff, which is reached by a climb of 199 steps. Stoker would have seen how time and the weather had gnawed at the graves, some of them teetering precariously on the eroding cliff edge. Some headstones stood over empty graves, marking seafaring occupants whose bodies had been lost on distant voyages. He noted down inscriptions and names for later use, including ‘Swales’, the name he used for Dracula’s first victim in Whitby.
On 8 August 1890, Stoker walked down to what was known as the Coffee House End of the Quay and entered the public library. It was there that he found a book published in 1820, recording the experiences of a British consul in Bucharest, William Wilkinson, in the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia (now in Romania).
Wilkinson’s history mentioned a 15th-century prince called Vlad Tepes who was said to have impaled his enemies on wooden stakes. He was known as Dracula - the ‘son of the dragon’.
While staying in Whitby, Stoker would have heard of the shipwreck five years earlier of a Russian vessel called the Dmitry, from Narva. This ran aground on Tate Hill Sands below East Cliff, carrying a cargo of silver sand. With a slightly rearranged name, this became the Demeter from Varna that carries Dracula to Whitby with a cargo of silver sand and boxes of earth.
So, although Stoker was to spend six more years on his novel before it was published, researching the landscapes and customs of Transylvania, the name of his villain and some of the novel’s most dramatic scenes were inspired by his holiday in Whitby. The innocent tourists, the picturesque harbour, the abbey ruins, the windswept churchyard and the salty tales he heard from Whitby seafarers - all became ingredients in the novel.
In 1897 Dracula was published. It had an unpromising start as a play called The Undead, in which Stoker hoped Henry Irving would take the lead role. But after a test performance, Irving said he never wanted to see it again. For the character of Dracula, Stoker retained Irving’s aristocratic bearing and histrionic acting style, but he redrafted the play as a novel told in the form of letters, diaries, newspaper cuttings and entries in the ship’s log of the Demeter.
The log charts the gradual disappearance of the entire crew during the journey to Whitby, until only the captain is left, tied to the wheel, as the ship runs aground below East Cliff on 8 August - the date that marked Stoker’s discovery of the name ‘Dracula’ in Whitby library. A ‘large dog’ bounds from the wreck and runs up the 199 steps to the church, and from this moment, things begin to go horribly wrong.
Dracula had arrived …
Every year in Whitby there is a Dracula weekend, along with the incredible Whitby Goth Festival
Fascinating! I definitely want to visit Whitby now, more than I did before!
And you forgot Frank Langella in great actors who took the Dracula role and made it their own.
I like this movie because you see so many different sides to Dracula. The charming nobleman, the decadent old vampire lord, the ferocious bat beast, etc. He is truly the king of all vampires.
Dracula has the ability to glamour people. Lucy gets it on with the wolf dude because Dracula has manipulated her. Jonathan Harker is also under a spell, which made him susceptible to the brides and made it difficult for him to leave the castle.
I don't think the brides need Dracula's help and Jonathan isn't specifically put under a spell so much as he is weak from blood loss and the castle itself is.. a weird place.
dracula is the wolf dude
The “wolf dude” is Dracula, and he hypnotized her, not a glamour. A glamour makes people look different
@@PatheticApathetic Thanks, but I've watched Francis Ford Coppola's "Dracula" about a thousand times since I saw it in theaters. I'm aware Dracula was also the Wolf-bro. The word "glamour" is an enchantment or magic, and can be used to describe putting a spell on someone or gaining influence over them. The Wiccan spell is as you ascribe, but I'm not using that definition.
Gary Oldman is on the Mount Rushmore of Dracula’s, with Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, and Max Shreak
Due to copyright law Max Shreak is not Dracula but we should run away like he is.
I am a fan of thr 1979 Dracula starring Frank Langella. Saw it on TV as a young boy, it definitely left an impression.
Schreck
@@Shawnzy_Gabonzy Frank Langella played the part on Broadway first, but I thought the movie version with him was disappointing. He was good, but the rest of the movie was not.
A lot of people compare this film with a fever dream. In my case it virtually was.
When it came out back then I was 14 or 15 years old and bedridden due to a cold or influenza.
Against my parents' advice I still left the house and watched it in the cinema with some friends although I was having a temperature of about 40°C (!).
That was trippy. 🙂
P.S.: The orthodox priest, who accuses Drăculea (yes, that's Vlad III "the Impaler") of blasphemy in the beginning, is also played by Sir Anthony Hopkins.
I am shocked you didn’t recognize the actor who plays Lucy’s love interest, Cary Elwes from the Princess Bride.
As I remember it, the movie was pretty close to the book, but the love story with Mina being his wife re-incarnate is not.
Dracula's 3 wives annoy him so he was happy to leave.
But the blue lights, shape-shifting, holding Jonathan Harker captive, the chase from London to Transylvania, Dracula walking around during the day, Van Helsing's crazy demeanor, eating a big meal before killing Lucy, etc. and a lot of the characters were spot-on.
This film also brings in the Vlad The Impaler origin story, which is not in the book, to my knowledge.
The reincarnation romance is from the 1930s Bela Lugosi Dracula.
The Vlad Tepes connection is new to this version as far as I know.
@@vincegamer I'm afraid you are wrong about the reincarnation romance. That is completely absent from the Bela Lugosi version. I've watched that film about twenty times and NOWHERE does that film include any kind of romantic storyline between Dracula and Mina.
@kevinnorwood8782 well you've watched it a lot more than I have so I'll take your word for that. I remembered it that way, but maybe that's just the mummy
@@kevinnorwood8782 Van Helsing states that Dracula was Vlad the Impaler in his mortal life in Chapter 18:
"He must, indeed, have been that Voivode Dracula who won his name against the Turk, over the great river on the very frontier of Turkey-land. If it be so, then was he no common man; for in that time, and for centuries after, he was spoken of as the cleverest and the most cunning, as well as the bravest of the sons of the ‘land beyond the forest.’ That mighty brain and that iron resolution went with him to his grave, and are even now arrayed against us."
Gary Oldman, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu, WInona Ryder, Cary Elwes, etc...The cast is amazing...BUT can we talk about Mr Tom Waits as Renfield?? He rules 😁😁
Nosferatu means Vampire and the movie Nosferatu was an unauthorized movie of Bram Stoker’s Dracula
'Nosferatu' means 'Vampire'. You were thinking of the early vampire film named 'Nosferatu'....The vampire in that movie was Count Orlock.
They had to name him Count Orlok because 'Dracula' was still copyrighted back then.
The novel is one of my favorite books, and has been since I first read it nearly forty years ago. This adaptation is in turn one of the most beautiful and emotional ones I've watched and enjoyed. Gary Oldman absolutely shines in this role.
If You liked this version, You should take a look at John Badham's "Dracula" with Frank Langella. It's less colorful but also romantic take on Dracula. Also, Francis Coppola took huge inspirations from Mario Bavas gothic horrors on his "Dracula" so his movies are worth checking out also, especially "Black Sunday", "The Whip and the Body", "Kill, Baby, Kill", "Black Sabbath" and "Lisa and the Devil".
Stoker took the name of his vampire from Vlad but the novel has absolutely no other connection with him. Coppola added a completely new backstory. This movie takes a number of scenes from the book and then adds things that change the whole thrust of the original novel.
And the character is based more on Irish vampire Legends than eastern European ones. Strigoi are actually pretty different from what people in the west think of as vampires and you don't even have to be undead to become one.
Very true.
Dracula is one of the classic monsters from Universal. The others are the Frankenstein Monster, Wolfman, Invisible Man, Phantom of the Opera, The Mummy, and The Creature From The Black Lagoon.
Some include Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
At 29:28, That's the thing in the story. Mina really IS, the reincarnation of Vlad's wife. The problem, is that he is from her past, while John is her present. It's a complicated love story to be sure. But a Love story, not a horror story.
Besides the morphing at the end, I love how this film was made as it might have been made back in the early days of film, when the film takes place - puppets, models, changing film speeds, paintings, etc.
From what I hear the only "CGI" was the blue "ignis fatuus" near the castle and everything else is done pretty old school so I'm not sure what morphing you mean.
@@Mansplainer2099-jy8ps Morphing was first used in Ron Howard’s Willow to allow smooth transitions between images/footage, and here it’s used at the end when Dracula is dying, and his face becomes younger. 32:54
@@JedHead77 Alrighty then.
I was in a Dracula stage play in college. I played Reinfield. I loved playing the character.
Do you prefer your bugs crunchy or squishy?
Tom Waits Nails it
Keanu was still in Bill and Ted mode while making this movie. I think he really tried to change his character for this movie. I give him credit for trying. In the end, he remains Keanu for every role he's been in.
Yeah he is terrible in this movie.
According to IMDb, Keanu said he had been burned out on acting by the time he filmed this movie and couldn’t put the effort and energy into this role that he wanted to.
Also the director apparently wanted Johnny Depp as Harker but the studio had other ideas. So they went with Keanu.
It's interesting that in the book that while Mina is linked to Dracula by his attack on her, the romantic relationship between them was not in the book. That was an addition to the movie, but it was a good addition to the movie.
In the book she and Johnathan have a son and name him after the Texan that lost his life defeating Dracula.
"LUCY, YOU'RE ENGAGED!"
Growing up I was always a vampire for Halloween. I used to read this book every Halloween. I also watched all the hammer films with Sir Christopher Lee and Sir Peter Cushing. Epic, classic films.
You caught most of the recognizable folks in the movie, but I'm a bit surprised you missed Lord Holmwood, played by Cary Elwes, aka Wesley from The Princess Bride.
And unlike some other Lord Hornwoods, he can speak with a British accent.
@@r.d.hargrave8159 Exactly!
Vlad The Impaler WAS a Transylvanian knight and prince, VKunia. And he DID wage war against the Ottoman Turks. And now that I think about it, this is probably exactly WHY the Vlad Tepes origin story is so popular for Dracula: The Ottoman Empire was such a nigh-unstoppable force that pretty much the only way Vlad COULD ultimately stand any chance of defeating it was by transforming himself into this unholy monster.
30:50 i mean... it's Wynona Ryder! I'd fall ass'over'teakettle for anything she would cast in front of my eyes
Yeah 1992 Winona Ryder. I'd be finished at that point.
Years ago, my stepfather collected these prints of a French illustrator of women during the 1920's. He was heavily influenced by absinthe and Art Deco (or vice versa - his works inspired art deco).
The point is, when I saw the visualization of them using absinthe in this movie, it connected for me that artist, his work, and the art deco movement.
Some art deco is all straight lines, but some art deco is also a fluid blending of nature, construction, and art.
I was born in the wrong era.
Art deco and later art neuavo (if I spelled that right) are two of my favorite styles.
@@markcarpenter6020
Art Nouveau (them french words don't spell easy like english heh) actually preceded art deco and was one of it's inspirations. Art Deco isn't just one style but a mess of different types.
If you ever build a time machine, look me up!
About all the lust: vampires are often portrayed as seducers (kind of like sirens), and some people think the whole bite-them-on-the-neck thing is metaphor for something you couldn't write about in popular novels of the 1890s.
Oh she’s a libra? Cool, you should see Dracula untold. It’s a very good one, underrated, ohh the blood transfusion dialogue is different
Just in case no one else answered the question. No, Nosferatu isn't the original. Dracula is. Nosferatu was the attempt at avoiding the copyrights from Bram Stokers estate as he was already dead by the time of filming. They failed of course, and one of the criteria of the judgement was that all copies be destroyed. Luckily for us, not all was, and that is why we have the classic movie today.
In Romania, Vlad Țepeș/Vlad Dracula is considered a national hero. He was a Voivode [Prince] of Wallachia. Elsewhere, he is known as Vlad the Impaler.
My favorite Dracula.
Legosi is the OG
Lee is the king
But Gary Oldman is my favorite
You should watch at least two other version of Dracula, the Bela Lugosi Dracula, and the Christopher Lee, Dracula, aka Horror Of Dracula.
In Coppola’s version, Dracula is not using Mina-ie putting the stories in her head. Mina actually *is* the reincarnated Lizabeta, and he is helping her *recall* her former life.
Dracula *is* using Lucy, however, to gain life essence, have a stateside concubine, and to be close to Mina (in a very f-ed up, toxic way).
You are the rare reviewer who appreciates the beauty and storytelling of this production. Well done. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, the man responsible for "The Godfather" trilogy...and "The Conversation" (another film up for an Oscar, brilliant), and "Apocolypse Now".
And yeah, Keanu was a poor choice for this film,,,the other leads and direction were able to overcome his presence.
You would very much enjoy " The Conversation"....NO ONE is on to it's greatness.
11:36 This imagery symbolizes Dracula's power to bend and manipulate the natural world, suggesting his supernatural abilities transcend the laws of physics. It represents an inversion of the natural order, mirroring Dracula's own existence as an undead creature.
I actually read the novel and this adaptation is the closest to it. Dracula is probably one of the greatest villains of all time. He’s practically in everything and in various universes he is THE vampire of vampires.
One of the best depictions of Dracula as a character is the animated series Castlevania. His motivations and character arc is pretty cool, but going back to this movie. I saw it in the theater and I loved and I watch it around every October.
There have actually been other Dracula films that used the Vlad The Impaler origin story before this one, but this was the film that truly popularized that origin story for Dracula, and actually made it his canon origin story in the minds of a lot of vampire fans (myself included).
The "mina is his reincarnated lover" bit is actually stolen from the 1882 book The Mummy (which makes the "Bram Stoker's Dracula" title ironic).
Stoker's version of Dracula was much more on the horror-monster level without the romantic aspect and very early vampire movies like Nosferatu kept to that. But in the 1960s, the supernatural soap opera Dark Shadows mixed a bunch of different horror elements together, including making their vampire sexy and the heroine his reincarnated lover. After that, most adaptations have taken inspiration from Dark Shadows and depicted Dracula as sexy and either Lucy or Mina as his reincarnated lover.
The original Dark Shadows doesn't translate that well to today, but is really impressive for the special effects they were able to pull off considering it was broadcast live. The 1991 remake of Dark Shadows was a fantastic adaptation of the story and it's tragic that it only got one season. So much delicious vampy goodness!
You should watch the first Christopher Lee Dracula movie from Hammer Horror. It is very good. Christopher makes Dracula very scary. I believe the title of his first Dracula movie is Dracula Prince of Darkness. It is a very good movie. The Bela Lugosi Dracula movie is very good too.
I think the first one is Dracula (1958) aka Horror of Dracula.
It's Horror of Dracula
The mythos is that vampires do not cast shadows and the one that tried to strangle Keanu is a daemon that serves Dracula.
Yeah this movie definitely gets the sorcerer aspect that basically every other one misses. He's got a lot of stuff going on here that's just alluded to.
Shadow of the Vampire is another one to watch. A VERY unique Vampire film.
"we can learn many things from beasts" this is a wicked awesome eternal love tragedy. freakin luv love : p
There were some theories that Vampire Hunter D’s name was Dracula but I don’t think it was ever confirmed.
12:47 I think it would be more accurate to say that Jonathan was in the middle of a fang grape.
"Creepy Bed & Breakfast host" That was such a great description lol!
15:50 If you're talking about the "ruff" (a type of ruffled collar), that is the Victorian equivalent of 12-inch stiletto heels.
The art direction and score in this movie are superb.
What's "Bram Stoker's Dracula" on opening weekend blind in theaters. The opening scene was epic, we loved the armor lol, but the rest of the movie just didn't quite click for us. I'm not surprised it's both loved and forgotten, you could go either way on it based on your tastes.
I would describe it as overwrought. I like the cinematography but the acting is wooden and set designs feel over produced.
22:46 Dracula is a shape-shifter. He can turn into a wolf, a bat, a mist…etc
I'm so happy you loved this movie as much as I did. This is THE definitive version of the story, IMO. Gary Oldman is the GOAT. The score is EPIC. The movie is hauntingly beautiful and the tragic love story, while something created for this movie and not found in the original text, added a layer of pathos that elevated the movie above a hokey period horror piece. Every time this movie is rereleased to theaters, I go see it. LOVE IT!!!
12:07 One thing to keep in mind about Dracula:
There are some HEAVY undertones of sexuality that Victorian society publicly frowned upon.
It is not known for certain if Bram Stoker was a closeted gay or bisexual (He did have a wife and a son). However, he was well acquainted with those who were, such as Oscar Wilde and Walt Whitman.
In English literature, vampires were coded sexy from the very start. You had Polidori's "Lord Ruthven" (1819) and then Varney the Vampire (1845) before you ever had Dracula (1897). Vampires started getting sexier in the late 1950's, then Anne Rice turned everything up to 11 with Interview With The Vampire.
Although Anne Rice's novels doubled down on the homosexuality, the idea of "pleasure without sexual intercourse" has been a big draw from the very beginning.
I think the best example is from the 1998 film Blade, where Blade is sucking Vanessa.
Something a lot of people don't know about: In 1816, Lord Byron, Polidori, Mary Shelley, and Percy Bysshe Shelley were vacationing together and challenged each other to a writing contest. Polidori wrote his Lord Ruthven story (The Vampyre) while Mary Shelley wrote what would eventually become Frankenstein.
As for Lord Byron, well, the free-love movement didn't start in the 1960's...
This is technically a movie version of the stage play of the book / story .
Ot also is one of the closest to the book .
Mina is supposed to be the actual reincarnation of his wife, as some kind of lesser divine punishment for the suicide rather than being damned as the priest told dracula at the beginning. Hence the resemblance and the reason she has vague memories of draculas homeland and could describe it
The blue flame they rode through is intended to imply there is some kind of treasure buried there, probably as bait for foolish peasants. Goes back to a common legend about such flames appearing wherever treasure is buried on a particular night of the year. This really should have either been explained in the film or not included at all. The stuff with the water and mice walking upside down and such is intended to show that reality is warped around dracula and that the laws of physics aren't quite normal wherever he goes
While not explicitly stated in the film, the romanian girl giving jonathan the cross necklace and telling him for the dead travel fast was a low key reference to things that happened to him in the novel but weren't in the book about him wandering the woods chased by wolves and coming across the tomb of another vampires tomb in the woods that randomly gets hit by lightning. The tomb and an inscription that read 'denn die toten reiten schnell' (for the dead travel fast) and implied she was a noblewoman of german descent from the early 19th century. Its also implied that he was being followed and protected from the wolves by dracula, who also probably had something to do with the sudden lightning strike to protect him from the other vampire
That latter part is from the short story 'Dracula's Guest', which was written for the novel but left out, right? It's not in the novel as published.
The behind the scenes gives really great context on how they did practical effects and how the hell they hired Keanu for his role
And you didn't recognize Cary Elwes as Lucy's suitor... "As you wish."
I see this film as the story of the redemption of Dracula, of God reclaiming his chosen warrior.
This matches the book, when Mina notes that just before Dracula crumbles to dust his face suddenly held such an expression of peace as she never imagined it could show. Thus, Dracula was set free.
This movie is a love letter to the previous methods of film-making.
There have been so many Dracula movies over the decades that Dracula sort of works as a time-capsule of set design, costuming, and special-effects. Coppola used so many methods that were out-dated at the time, to celebrate how far cinema has come.
Mina is the reincarnation of Dracula's lost bride. Not sure why every reactor misses that. It's integral to this love story.
18:39 giggidy
28:41 Gothic literature was in essence romantic literature.
Full respect to Francis Ford Coppola. He was so annoyed by the onset of digital effects, he went out of his way to do EVERY SINGLE EFFECT in this film in-camera. It's as old school as it gets, and it's incredible.
For love Dracula crossed oceans of time.
You're not ancient, Vicky. You're classic.
How politely phrased😂. You could have also said distinguished🤣
23:45 This is a perfect example of intercutting that Coppola did so beautifully in “The Godfather” where Michael is christening the baby and his minions are killing the heads of the five families and Moe Greene. So it like a blend of the profane and the sacred similar to the Night on Balled Mountain sequence in Disney’s “Fantasia”, which transitions into the Ave Maria. Another film that did this was “Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith” where as Palpatine is announcing the creation of the Galactic Empire, Anakin Skywalker (now dubbed Darth Vader) goes to the Mustafar system to kill Viceroy Gunnray and the other Separatist leaders
24:38 His accent in the film is actually pretty incredible. He's speaking in a 19th century southern posh accent.
Coppola is such an operatic filmmaker, and his approach to “Dracula” really works. In the book, Jonathan Harker writes his diary in shorthand, so Dracula can’t read it, and Mina knows both shorthand and how to use a typewriter.
My theory of why Dracula starts out aged and becomes younger as the story progresses is that he has been depressed and is rejuvenated by the change of scene.
This is the only movie version of the story I have seen that has all 5 major male heroes, including Jonathan, Lucy’s 3 suitors, and Van Helsing, and doesn’t change the names of the two main women characters.
I’m glad you enjoyed the movie but unfortunately it doesn’t live up to its title, “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” in that the script has taken a lot of liberties with the novel.
Compared to the film, Dracula is hardly in the novel. He is in the first 4 chapters and then appears sporadically throughout the rest of the novel. What’s missing from all film adaptions is Dracula’s cunning and superiority over Jonathan Harker. The scene in the novel where Dracula allows Harker to leave the castle, only for him to be stopped by a pack of hungry wolves outside in the courtyard, shows up his superiority and the fact that he can control Harker.
In the novel, Harker is not bit by the 3 vampire women as he is in this film. There was no need by the scriptwriter to tell the audience that, “contrary to popular belief, vampires can move about in daylight.” It’s there in the novel, but has also been used in other vampire films not related to Dracula. Never insult the audiences intelligence, believing that they cannot adapt to different interpretations of vampire “lore.”
The scenes on the ship, the Demeter, are so short in the film that they don’t convey the mounting terror of the crew as Dracula slowly picks them off, one by one, on the journey to England. The character of Lucy in the film is the complete polar opposite to who she is in the novel. In the film she is portrayed as a tease, a slut, using sexual innuendo and staring wide eyed at published porn, something that Lucy in the novel never was or did.
There’s a throwaway line in the film that tells the audience that Lucy suffers from nightly sleepwalking, and soon afterwards Dracula is ravaging Lucy in the Cemetery. In the novel he is in human form when he does this, but for some reason the scriptwriter thought it more frightening to have Dracula in a half man-half beast state when he feeds on Lucy. All of Lucy’s sweet virtue in the novel is taken from her when she becomes a vampire, and it’s that which is so shocking to the reader that this innocent, happy 19 year old could suddenly change into a wanton creature of the night, feasting on young children. The audience is less shocked by this transformation in the film because it has already shown them that the human version of Lucy isn’t virtuous in any way, so there is no change in her character for them to feel pity towards her.
The biggest change (and the biggest fault in the film) is the love interest between Mina and Dracula. None of this is in the novel. Mina is not the reincarnation of Dracula’s bride of 400 years past, and this “idea” wasn’t even an original one for this film. It was lifted directly from the 1973 Dan Curtis TV production of Dracula (starring Jack Palance in the title role). In the novel, Mina is disgusted with herself that she has been “intimate” with Dracula as he tries to claim her as his next bride, but in this film version she is desperate to be at his side and wants to run away with him!
Nearing the end of the film the scriptwriter once again takes liberties with the source material. In the novel Mina is not sexually attracted to Van Helsing in any way, and neither do the pair kiss as both are depicted in the film. The films climax is also different to the novel. The core elements from the novel are there in the film: Quincy being killed and Dracula is staked to death, but the similarities end there. In the film it is Mina who delivers the final blow into Dracula’s heart that kills him, and not a combination of Quincy’s Bowie knife and Harker slitting Dracula’s throat as in the novel. And nowhere in the novel does Dracula welcome his own death as he does in the films final scene.
Having said all of the above, the film does have some merits. The film score is excellent as is the set designs and the costume design (with the exception of what Dracula wears in the castle scenes at the beginning of the film). The acting is a bit up and down and that is primarily due to the actors cast. Whilst a very good actor, fellow Brit Gary Oldman would have made a decent Dracula if he could have played the character as he was depicted in the novel, and not as a love sick puppy pining over a lost love. Oldman’s hair and make up as the older version of Dracula did unfortunately make him look like a demented Glenn Close and wasn’t a good “look” for the Dracula we’ve all come to love, whether that be the Bela Lugosi or Christopher Lee versions.
I may be in the minority here, but I thought Winona Ryder did a good job of portraying Mina Harker, and though her British accent was passable, it was certainly better than that of Keanu Reeves. Whilst not straying into the poor levels of Dick Van Dyke’s mangled British accent in Mary Poppins, Reeve does at least try to get the British cadence in his voice right, so kudos to him for that. Anthony Hopkins as Van Helsing was a great choice and in his quieter moments is very effective in his desire to hunt down Dracula and rid the world of his evil. Where it doesn’t work is when Hopkins going way over the top in scenes where his bouts of crazy madness just isn’t needed.
As for the rest of the cast, Richard E. Grant and Tom Waits are the stand outs as Seward and Renfield respectively, and Cary Elwes as Holmwood, Billy Campbell as Quincy and Sadie Frost as Lucy are serviceable at what they’re given to do, as is Coppola’s direction. James V. Hart could have delivered a better, more rounded screenplay, but thankfully it did include a lot of Stoker’s material that doesn’t always get into other film versions of the novel. It’s just a pity that giving the film the grand statement that it was “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” that it didnt actually deliver “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” the novel.
Oh, well. I guess the next film version might get it right!
"Wait, so they're 19... What am I, ancient?"
By Victorian Era standards.... You're getting up there.
Also, Vlad the Impaler did what he needed to do to free his country.
Dear Vkunia, Elisabetta & her reincarnation Mina were both played by Winona. The 🎬 was a love story as much as it was horror, the promo line for the 🎬 upon its release was" Love never dies" So Mina wasn't been manipulated but basically remembering the love that Elisabetta & Vlad shared centuries earlier. Also Dracula possess many abilities that the ordinary 🧛♀️ didn't but he didn't need to use them on Mina because their love was true four centuries apart.
A few anecdotes: The painting on the wall at Dracula's cast;e, long hair, is really German Artist, Albert Durer (@1500)
1) I saw this film originally in the cinema in November, 1992, with some friends. We all thought it would be really scary,....it is in parts. Yet, Keanu's English accent was found funny by the audience, and Anthony Hopkins is really theatrical -more laughs. We liked it for all the creative camera, make-up, photo-effects. It's not The Exorcist or The Shinning!
2) During the Romania revolution in December 1989, the quite evil and oppressive dictator of Romania (Communist era) Nicolai Cheauchesceu, had serious messed his nation up. When the Revolution took place, and the people stopped obing the Dictator, N.C. and his wife loaded up their personal helicopter, with wealth and belongings, and flew to the historically believed Dracula's Castle, in the Romanian section of Transylvania. The people, after there was fighting, deaths, and the military backed the people - The Dictator and his Wife were found at the Castle, dragged back to Bucharest. There was a short offical trial, and the Dictator and his Wife were shot by firing squad on Christmas morning -televised to the nation! I was studying in Europe that year, and experienced that new in London for Christmas. The should have impaled the evil duo!
3) The survivor of the Holocaust, and write Ellie Wiesel, I saw give two public lectures, at two different colleges. He would talk some of his experiences, yet also concern for the world today. He told a story -He was from Transylvania, the part in Hungary. When he survived the ode real of death, and got to America, and people asked where he was from, he would say "Transylvania" - and he said American's would resound with "I want to suck your blood!",.....Which, Wiesel did not understand. He had a TV on, and he saw part of the Bella Lugosi film -OH, that!!! So he started to just tell people he was from Hungary -and that got people to understand.
I literally never heard Dracula being described as a creepy bed and breakfast host..!
I remember back when this first came out and of course I was very young. I was so upset that my aunt (who is 13 years older then me) wouldn't let me watch it with her because she said it was too scary!!! It's not even scary was my first thought the first chance I got to watch it while people slept lol
Claimed to be the most faithful version of Stoker's timeless classic. But misses out the most beautiful female character - Vkunia! This review rectifies.
INB4 @Excalibur44 comes to tell you it's not.
It's not faithful; the backstory with Mina being the reincarnation of Elisabeta is not in the book. Buy yes, Vicky is beautiful!
Anthony Hopkins is hilarious in this movie. Steals every scene he's in.
As does Gary Oldman. They both ruled so damn hard in this one.
On top of the high quality and great acting, this is probably the most faithful to the source material.
Actually Cinemassacre did a comparison and the 1977 BBC TV film scored slightly higher on details from the book. EDIT: Although I'm not sure they noted Dracula having a moustache.
No it's not..not even close.
@@0PsychosisMedia0 Try again, I've read the book and watched several of the films. I've been in the play.
This is the best Dracula film ever
love your reactions! As to your wondering at the beginning of this. Vlad was Voivode of Wallachia - sort of and administrator or commander of a region, or both. Historically he was a very shrewd political and by some accounts very commendable battle leader. Additionally, some historical accounts attribute Vlad for the impaling of thousands of persons as a deterrent to invasion into his lands.
The Morris family (relatives of the Belmonts) in Castlevania are connected to this story through Quincy. They mention in the games that he defeated Dracula but it claimed his life before his son John Morris inherits the Vampire Killer whip.
One movie also about Dracula, it is not a horror movie you might like, is Dracula Untold.
Rider plays both Mina and Elizabetha. That is from the Lugosi Dracula movie.
In the 1930s a lot of movies seemed to make the love interest a reincarnated ancient soul.
This movie's always been a Halloween favorite, and I'm glad you enjoyed it, V. For another great vampire movie, I highly, HIGHLY recommend Fright Night (1985). It's horror but also has some good comedy in it as well. I usually watch it every year around this time, it's a classic that I'm sure you'll love!
When Vicky said “Is that Hippity-Hopkins?!? They just be dropping A-listers in here at every turn…”
I guess she didn’t notice that A.H. was the angry priest at the very beginning 🤷🏻♂️
Anthony Hopkins plays two characters in this movie. He plays the priest at the beginning of the movie and Van Helsing.
Which can be interpreted as him also being reincarnated to play his role.
Dracula, a Synopsis: "He's the Weirdest Host Ever" 😂
Dracula’s shadow has a life of its own because he is a very powerful vampire.
"Dirty, dingy, smells like wet dust." Thanks for the good laugh.
Best gothic romance ever. My favorite take on Dracula. You should watch the Vampire Lovers, its a take on Le Fanu's Carmilla
Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder did not see eye to eye on this production. Oldman felt her acting to be amateurish. He later apologized to Winona and blamed constant drinking and stress from the production. Gary Oldman has been sober for many years now. A cult classic with Gary Oldman few people talk about, and I'd recommend is, "Sid and Nancy". Oldman plays "Sex Pistols" bassist Sid Viscous in a very dark Rock N' Roll story about drugs, love and violence. Ironically, Courtney Love has a small part. Gary Oldman is incredible in his role of an out of control Punk maniac.
Nosferatu was after Dracula. The germans dont get the Copyright, so they created an similiar story with a vampir called Nosferatu.
These "dates" don't happen in the books. She does get attacked by Dracula but she's not his dead wife reincarnated. Keanu has been continuously roasted for his accent in this film.
24:00....... Dracula only sees Lucy as a food source, V. He cares nothing about her.
Keanu and Winona got “married” by a real priest… “…, Ryder previously told Entertainment Weekly that she and Reeves are technically married because a real-life Romanian priest was present for their characters' wedding in Bram Stoker's Dracula…”