Drácula de Bram Stoker

As is the case with many of these latter-day horror movies, this is visually stunning. This one is particularly so, with beautiful colors, wild special effects, lavish sets and a handful of pretty women, led by Winona Ryder.

It isn't all beauty; there are some horrific, bloody moments in here. I've seen the film three times and the first two times was terrifying to me in parts. The last viewing wasn't as scary, but maybe I was distracted by seeing this on DVD for the first time, which enhanced the visuals and added some nice 5.1surround sound.

At two hours and 10 minutes, it's a bit long but there are very few lulls, if any. Gary Oldham gives his normal intense performance as Dracula and it never hurts to have Anthony Hopkins in the film.

The only negative I found was Keannu Reeves, who sounds a bit wooden in his lines. Is it my imagination, or is he a terrible actor? Maybe it's just his voice. Nonetheless, Cary Elwes, Richard Grant, Sadie Frost and Bill Campbell all give good support to this film which is a real feast for the senses.

Incessantly gothic & unabashedly erotic, Dracula brings Bram Stoker's literary classic to the film canvas in all its Victorian glory & required faithfulness and is a visual splendour overflowing with bold vision & audacious choices. But the technical mastery on display is also severely hampered by the film's inconsistent tone, overdone theatrics, casting choices & passionless performances.

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather & Apocalypse Now), the story unfolds like an eerie & sensual reverie and is substantially elevated by its operatic set pieces, lavish costumes, vivid photography, old-school effects & uncanny score. The film gets the atmosphere right with its inspired use of colours, shadows, lighting & subliminal imagery that works in tandem with its sexually charged narrative.

However, the impressionistic touches, cinematic flourishes & technical ingenuity still don't prove to be enough to mask its shortcomings, for its bloated length & over-the-top drama are further exacerbated by the casting decisions that nearly destroys the whole picture. Neither Keanu Reeves nor Winona Ryder are right choices for their roles and as for the remaining cast, their inputs are serviceable at best & forgettable at worst.

Overall, Dracula is a visual feast that delivers on mood, setting & filmmaking creativity but the commitment evident in the technical aspects are sorely lacking in the acting department. And that in effect hurts its ability to fully immerse viewers into its dreamlike escapade. Its romantic gestures are sincere even if the tonal shifts are all over the place but for a premise that has so much promise, the film as a whole leaves much to be desired.

Excuse me, but I just read a series of reviews by people who are disappointed by the fact that this movie didn't follow the same old script that has been done over and over and over again. They gave a provocative movie a rating of "1" so they could sabotage what most people thought. Go do something else besides writing about films. This is not a perfect movie, but it takes the basic text of the Stoker novel and extrapolates from it. People seem to be reacting tot he sexuality of this. If we go back to the seminal movies, "Nosferatu" being the greatest example, we see that sexual tension dominates these films as well as the books. Dracula has power over people. He can draw women to him. He is not an animal, but he is a sub-human with desires to dominate. Coppola uses this to show his evil intent. Gary Oldman is the most eccentric and wonderful Dracula to come along in years. When did it become written that every Dracula should be the black-caped Bela Lugosi figure that kids still dress up as on Halloween. He is a force to be reckoned with; he is evil; and he is powerful. Remember, people accept the scenes of him sucking the blood out of women without any trouble. Why not an evil abuser of their being? Remember, they are under a spell over which they have no control.

... although I keep remembering that this "modern" tale was filmed 31 years ago.

James V. Hart's script seemed heavily indebted to Fred Saberhagen's The Dracula Tape (1980), which was a re-telling of the events of Bram Stoker's novel from the POV of Dracula, whose POV was missing from the Stoker original. It was also much more favorable towards Dracula, and added a lot of the romantic elements.

One thing that it did get right was having all the actual characters from the original novel. Many of the adaptations removed one or more of the suitors, especially the American Quincy Morris, or age up Dr. Seward, or make him the father of Mina or Lucy. This version did present them as they were in the novel.

Stylistically, it was unusual even for 1992, with Coppola said to be attempting some sort of visual homage to silent and classic film techniques, with some things looking deliberately artificial.

I recall at the time thinking Keanu Reeves was highly miscast, and his awkward performance nearly undid the whole film for me. Anthony Hopkins was coming off his Oscar win for The Silence of the Lambs, and he did seem to have his performance pitched to the rafters. His characterization seemed more in line with the Saberhagen book, where Van Helsing is depicted as more of a religious fanatic with a cruel streak.

The whole enterprise was a cash grab for Coppola who was coming off the relative disappointment of The Godfather Part III. It was a success, and kickstarted a "prestige horror" trend over the next several years, with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Wolf, and Interview with the Vampire.

Coppola's take on one of horror's sacred texts was divisive at the time of release; well, I say divisive ... but I'm the only person I remember loving it. But time plays tricks. It's faithful to the text - at least more than most adaptations; in and of itself that's not necessarily a good or bad thing. But Coppola's high-wire act of excess makes it work brilliantly, and it's aged very well ... who knew that the man who made The Godfather could make a good film?

Hopkins and Reeves excepted (whose idea were their interpretations?), there are some terrific performances, and I seriously doubt if Gary Oldman has ever had more fun as an actor than he does here. The almost entirely in-camera approach to visual effects lends the film an otherworldly, chilling air; there are some dazzlingly brilliant transitions that speak to the film's technical mastery. It's not afraid to be many things; camp, funny, exciting, disturbing, erotic, and romantic, all in the right proportions and at the right times. It's also unafraid to make Dracula himself, ultimately, something of the story's romantic hero and to see the events of the story through the female gaze as much as the male.

Ultimately it's one of those films that's imperfect and all the better for it; it has hopelessly high ambitions, but its failure to reach some of them (but by no means all) is still thrilling. You can't possibly be bored.