Razor Ramon

Because of the pathetic lack of horror movies on Cable in my area, I decided to pop Bram Stoker's Dracula into my DVD player. Now, I know I just said "horror" but I dont think it's quite a horror movie. It's no feel-good Disney movie either, but I believe it to be more of a Gothic fairy tale.

A lot of my friends like to rip it apart, and I seem to always find myself defending it. I think it's a really good movie... sure it has it's fair share of flaws *cough*Keanu Reeves *cough* Wynona Ryder. But Gary Oldman more than makes up for those two in one of his career perfomances. I love his accent and his evil laugh!

Also, the special effects, the costumes, and the sets are excellent. The vivid colours and lighting effects make me wish I had an HDTV... they are as bright and beautiful as Terminator 2's.

Francis Ford Coppola pulls out all the stops as well. I love the scene transitions... specially when one of the "eyes" of a peacock's tail feather turns into the view of an ending train tunnel. And even the peacock's cry turns into the loud horn of the train. Also, when the famous drawing of Vlad The Impaler dining before his victims turns into Dracula awaiting Mina at a dinner table. The scene with the three vampire mistresses is one of the most sexy and surreal scenes I've seen.

This movie much deserves the sound mixing Oscar it got. I can't really explain it... you'll have to listen for yourself lol. And the score is beautiful and ties everything together spledidly.



******************SPOILER ALERT*********************



Now my Beef!! The ending! Okay, I've seen this movie many times, and the ending doesnt quite make sense still. So if winning the love of Mina frees Dracula of his eternal curse, heals the wounded cross etc etc.... why does she decapitate him?? Was there a chance that he might still come back as a vampire and everything gets fucked again??

Also, Hollywood.... STOP giving Keanu Reeves work!





AND my BIGGEST beef: Where the hell is the Special Edition DVD with the deleted scenes, documentary, commentary with Coppola and Oldman, and ultra cool packaging with concept art!!!



Let the discussion begin...

Giantrobo

Hmmm, I loved this movie too and I never understood the dislike of this flick. Well it's been a while but I thought his being killed...severely injured... by the Vampire hunters ended the curse because he was dying and that she cut his head to give him peace?

nightmaster

Good movie. To me it's the kind of movie I was hoping that DeNiro's Frankenstein would have been. I'd like to see an SE as well (dare I say even a director's cut?) but I am happy that the current version looks very good, and there is a superbit version as well.
I've always wanted to see a strong, epic kind of movie pertaining to Vlad the Impaler's actual reign and I'm afraid the opening scenes of this movie are as close as we've gotten to that. Oldman and Hopkins were terrific in this film. While I realise this isn't seen as a classic by most, I think Coppola pulled it off;it's an amazing movie to look at. I agree that this wasn't the best movie for Keanu to be in....he seemed completely wrong for the part.

As for the head rolling scene I guess I always saw it as a consummation kind of thing, necessary to save his soul from eternal damnation.....

Dr. DVD

I liked the movie and remember seeing the night it came out when I was just 16 years old. It was a packed house and opened rather large its first weekend.
The movie does have flaws, in fact, Keanu Reeves almost makes the movie unwatchable whenever he's on screen. However, it really looks good, and was the last real hit Coppola had internationally (I think it turned enough profit to help him open his vineyards).

In terms of the end, well, that was one of the beefs I had with the movie after I read the book. The whole love story was absent in the book. What's really sad, however, is that it is still the most faithful adaptation of the Stoker novel made as a major motion picture.

Groucho

Words cannot describe how much I hated this film. Don't ask for specifics, since I haven't seen it since it's theatrical release.

Glad to see praise for the sets, however. I happened to know some folks who did set design for the movie, and they had quite an interesting experience. Apparently, Coppola gave them specifications on what he needed ahead of time, and demanded that they build only what was needed for his carefully pre-planned shots (for budget reasons).

So, they did just that. Then, on the day of the shoot Coppola would get to the set, decide he wanted an entirely different angle, and the set people would scramble around trying to put something together at the last second while everybody else waited around.

Apparently this kind of thing went on in every aspect of the production, and Coppola drove everybody nuts.

Zodiac_Speaking

I LOVE this movie. I watch the (Superbit) movie once a year for Halloween.

matome

I enjoy this movie this movie as well, and spin it a couple of times a year at least. I love Anthony Hopkins hamming it up in this one. Plus it has one of the best DTS tracks out there. The little screams and creaks in Dracula's castle come from everywhere. Creepy.

Oh yeah, Sadie Frost

Chrisedge

I love my Criterion Laserdisc of this movie. I need to break it out...

matome

Yep, that LD was awesome and the isolated sound effects track was really something different back in the day. Could've done without the CAV encoding which required five sides, but on the other hand the still frame capabilities are unbeatable, even today.

Mondo Kane

Aint that the truth!

baracine

One of my all-time favourites. Makes me forgive Coppola for "The Godfather". Keanu Reeves is well cast as a doofus who's not sure what's happening. Mina's real love interest is the Count. His love for her makes him accept the necessity of death. She cuts off his head (1) because it has to be done if she is to be free herself from the disease of vampirism and (2) because he would certainly rather she do it than anybody else, as it is the sign of his liberation from his past life of sin.

Hiro11

I absolutely love the movie as well. Great production and sound design. The editing, vintage optical effects and miniatures create a very cool retro 20s horror look that no movie since has come close to duplicating. Also, the Superbit is one of the few superbits worth getting: fabulous video quality and one of the best and most (previously mentioned) subtly creepy DTS tracks ever made.

Mistoffeleez

Great movie, Oldman should've won something for his portrayal of Dracula. The rest of the cast doesn't even come close. The soundtrack is nice and spooky as well.

The book is great and a terrific page turner. Got a good pace and is sort of like a Victorian-era Tarantino, with multiple characters in multiple locations and how they all piece together. There are alot more asylum scenes in the book, it's very cool to understand Renfield's thought process.

There was an announcement on some websites a couple years back about an SE, and that's the only thing I've heard.

Josh-da-man

Probably my all-time favorite adaption of Stoker's novel.

About the ending... well, Dracula has to die, doesn't he? He might have achieved redemption, but he still has to pay for his crimes.

Bilbo Baggins

What this movie does right...

-This movie has probably my all-time favorite soundtrack. It sounds so gothic, so German (Wagner). I love it.
-This movie looks beautiful. The cinematography, the colors, the costumes, the makeup, the special effects, the wipes, fades, everything visual in this movie is perfect to me. I love the old-man Dracula from the beginning of the film. The old camera tricks used for stuff like the shadows. Coppola was on his game for that stuff.
-Anthony Hopkins is great. "She is the Devil's CONCUBINE!"
-Overall with the exception of a couple of scenes(see: What doesn't work for me...) Gary Oldman does a good job as Dracula too.

What doesn't work for me...

-OK. It's been said enough, but I'll repeat it. Keanu Reeves is HORRIBLE. I cringe every time he opens his mouth. How Coppola didn't fire him is beyond me. How he even go the part is beyond me. Worst acting job ever. He single handedly almost ruins this movie. And I am not exaggerating.
-The middle of the movie drags a bit for me. The love story isn't well realized for me. I think the main problem there was the script. I didn’t get the feeling they were really in love. Maybe the "chemistry" wasn't there...I dunno...
-A lot is said about Keanu Reeves but Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder have some bad parts in there too(more so Ryder). When they are in bed together for the scene where he turns her into a vampire it is so over acted it borders on comedy. "I love...you...too...much...too...condemn you!" Pee-yew. Man, straight outta the William Shatner school of acting.

All that being said, I still really like this movie. I consider it one of my favorite vampire flicks. More for the style than anything else I guess. It's a shame but I think better casting and more time at the typewriter would have turned this movie into a masterpiece. A real missed opportunity.

POWERBOMB

The ending where the head is severed. I think that even though he was stabbed he could "in theory" pull the sword out of his chest and begin a dracula again. By chopping off the head while he was in a state of "forgiveness" it ended the blood line and his torture in essence truly killing him and everything he had done.

Giantrobo

Yeah, now that I think about it I remember hearing that in Vampire Lore one of the ways to make sure it was dead was to behead it and bury the head in the middle of a crossroad.

baracine

Last night, I cold-bought and watched Dracula (1979), the John Badham film with Laurence Olivier (Van Helsing), Frank Langella (Dracula) and Kate Nelligan (Lucy). I had never seen it. It's based on the horrid play* (read: the one that never leaves England or the drawing-room of the Seward household) that inspired the 1931 film, which had just been revived on Broadway with great success in stark black-and-white (and red!) sets by Edward Gorey and with the very seductive Langella in the title role.

The film tried to capitalize on Langella's gound-breaking ultra-romantic hormone-swirling interpretation but failed by mixing it with very disparate elements from Hammer-style gore to cringe-inducing laser-disco-light special effects in the pivotal love-making scene**.

It's a horrible hodge-podge but not without merit or atmospherics, the best of which are attributable to John Williams' perfect score. The deliberately washed-out photography and involved art direction are "interesting" but they don't go far enough to save the whole and they are a poor substitute for the Edward Gorey stage set that inspired the whole enterprise.

In typical Hollywood fashion, the script inverts the parts of Lucy (Seward) and Mina (!) and makes the latter the first victim and the daughter of Van Helsing (!!). Lucy is Harker's fiancée (!!!). Renfield is a failed real estate agent who has become a drunken, foul-mouthed labourer with bad teeth (!!!!). "Why?" is anybody's guest. It is set circa 1905 (judging by the early cars) whereas the novel is set in the late 90's and the play in the late twenties. Universal went with this play because it already owned the rights and they could save a few bucks.

Having said this, it's a definite influence on Coppola's film, which wouldn't have been possible without it: scenes like a "realistic" blood transfusion, the reciprocal blood-drinking between Dracula and Lucy (read: Mina in the book), Dracula crawling up and down buildings, killing Renfield in order to give Lucy (uh, Mina) a chance to escape and the general sexual and romantic overtones are key. It's a necessary link in the long evolution leading to Coppola's masterpiece. Of course, where Badham failed miserably (including at the box office), Coppola succeeded admirably, because of his unifying vision.

One more reason to like Coppola's film.

* The merciless lampooning of this very bad, but very successful, play is what makes Mel Brooks' film Dracula: Dead and Loving It so gosh-darned funny for Draculaphiles!
** A long time before I ever saw the film, I used to fantasize about the look of the film while listening to John Williams' score, especially from this scene. The music had me "seeing things" but they weren't a vision of a couple doing the horizontal hustle on a New Jersey disco floor...

necros

This is an awesome movie. I also dunno why so many people hate it. I have the superbit version and it looks and sounds incredible. I have a cheapy subwoofer but every time they show the "dracula view" of him going through the woods, it's like all the sound is coming from below me. It's great. I dunno if it's just me or if it's really supposed to be like that

I also don't like Keanu in it though. I don't mind him in recent films like matrix and he was great in The Gift, bit this one he just sucks. But, I thought Wynona wasn't too bad. Gary Oldman on the other hand gave one of his best performances ever. And let's not forget Anthony Hopkins.

This is also the only movie I ever bought an original score soundtrack for. I'm a headbanger type and buy those types of soundtracks a lot, but the soundtrack for this movie is also great. Really dark and creepy. And way overused by trailers

Numanoid

This is true. According to actual lore, if you kill a vampire by driving a stake through its heart, it can still return to life once the stake is removed. The only sure way to permanently kill it is to then behead it. You were also supposed to stuff the head with garlic.

This is one of my favorite films, and certainly one of the best adaptations of classic horror literature on film.

Ruderic

Keanu brought alot of negative revies to the flick.

Dai

One of my all time favorites!

This is the first movie that I ever bought a poster for and in fact, it was the Teaser poster (Beware!).



Anyways, as it's already been talked about, the soundtrack, Oldman and the costumes / set designs are amazing. Too bad Keanu is the exact opposite.

I gave up on a R1 release with extras and ended up buying the UK version, although I do have the R1 SB to watch!

Giantrobo

Keauna needs more roles where he's fast paced and energetic; not quiet and polite like he is in this movie. That's why SPEED was so great for him.

matome

I have the same poster up on my wall! Simple and effective.

nightmaster

Can anyone tell me what the UK version offers over the R1 DVD release? I took a look at Amazon.uk but didn't see anything to distinguish it other than a later release date......