Dracula

thank to ANNE

Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a 1992 horror/romance film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. It starred Gary Oldman, Keanu Reeves, Anthony Hopkins and Winona Ryder. The score was composed by Wojciech Kilar and featured Annie Lennox. It was the 9th highest grossing film worldwide in 1992, making $215,862,692. It was the 15th highest grossing film in the U.S making $82,522,790.

Despite the the title, the cinematic production differs markedly from Stoker’s version. Notable among the variations is a subplot (introduced in an elaborate prologue) which suggests that Mina Harker is the reincarnation of Dracula’s great love, a suggestion absent from the original story. The Count’s relationship with Mina is different from its portrayal in the novel, in which Dracula met her late in the story after he had killed Lucy Westenra and Mina had joined the vampire’s enemies. The movie version suggests that Dracula is none other than the notorious Vlad Tepes (“The Impaler”), a Romanian prince legendary for his cruelty, a connection absent in the original novel. In the novel, there is no mention of how the Count became a vampire (although it is implied that he was transformed at Scholomance), and little mention is made of the historical Dracula aside of a brief reference to his persistent campaigns against the Turks (which, according to Dracula expert Dr Elizabeth Miller, is due to the fact that Stoker probably didn’t know anything else about him).

The movie opens with Vlad’s wife committing suicide, as she believes that he had been killed during one of these wars. Vlad is insane with grief due not only to the loss, but also to the supposed eternal condemnation of his wife’s soul (suicide being a mortal sin in the Catholic religion); he renounces God and takes an unholy vow to somehow avenge her, thus gaining eternal life as a force of darkness. By contrast, the historical Vlad Tepes married twice. The first wife did commit suicide, but it was not because she grieved his death; in reality their castle was under siege and, believing that there was no escape, she took her own life.

In the movie, Dracula is speaking Romanian while in Stoker’s book he claims to be a Sz�kely, meaning he would have spoken Hungarian. Although a deviation from the novel, it is the movie that is closer to reality as the historical Vlad III Dracula was Romanian, not a Sz�kely.

Even with these changes, the movie is considered by many to be the most faithful version ever made. [Bunson, Matthew: The Vampire Encyclopedia. Crown Trade Paperbacks, 1993. In the Signet Classic 100th annniversary edition of the book, Leonard Wolf writes that “it is surely the most spectacular and most sexually graphic film based on Stoker’s novel…an extraordinary reinvention…”

ALTERNATE ENDING

Mina kisses Dracula a final time before he finally dies on the chapel steps. Mina cries as he lies there. She looks up to see the stone cross heal itself and her scar vanish. Jonathan quietly opens the chapel’s door. Mina turns to see him and runs to him where they embrace. Jonathan escorts Mina outside to where the men are waiting. The next shot is the men carrying Quincy�s body across the cross on the floor in the castle followed by Mina and Jonathan. Van Helsing then has a voice over, “We want no proofs. We ask none to believe us. God be thanked, the curse has passed away.”

Aside from these examples there were still many cuts. There have been rumors of a Special Edition DVD for years that will contain all the deleted footage.

~ di themetalmilitia su Dicembre 10, 2007.