Bram Stokers Dracula
When a cruel twist of fate prompts his wife to take her own life, Transylvanian Count Dracula/Vlad Drakul (Gary Oldman) renounces God and takes to an existance of evil as one of the undead, a vampire feeding on the blood of the living.
Several hundred years later the Count, planning to relocate to England, enters negotiations to purchase several properties around London....
When a cruel twist of fate prompts his wife to take her own life, Transylvanian Count Dracula/Vlad Drakul (Gary Oldman) renounces God and takes to an existance of evil as one of the undead, a vampire feeding on the blood of the living.
Several hundred years later the Count, planning to relocate to England, enters negotiations to purchase several properties around London. When his predecessor Renfield (Tom Waits) goes mad, young lawyer Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves) is forced to leave his betrothed, Mina (Winona Ryder) and journey to the Carpathians to conclude the deal with the Count.
When the Count sees a photograph of Mina he sees in her his beloved Elisabeta reborn so he imprisons Harker in his castle, leaving him at the mercy of his vampire brides, and takes ship for England to seek out his Elisabeta and to try and rekindle a love that has, for him, lasted beyond the grave.
Once in England, Dracula tries to woo Mina while feeding his bloodlust on her friend Lucy (Sadie Frost). When Lucy becomes ill with a "sickness of the blood", her doctor (Richard E. Grant) seeks the help of his old professor, Abraham Van Helsing (Anthony Hopkins), a man who knows well the ways of the undead.
Harker eventually escapes from Transylvania and returns to England and, along with the help of Van Helsing and Lucy's suitors, they race and save his beloved from the clutches of the Count and attempt to destroy him and end his reign of terror on the world.
Review
Francis Ford Copolla brings another dimension to yet another adaptation of Bram Stoker's classic vampire tale, Dracula in this masterpiece of Gothic horror. While it follows the book fairly closely, we are also given some background on how Dracula became one of the undead, which introduces the romance element into the story. As such, this isn't simply a vampire tale but it's also a love story full of passion and eroticism that sees the Count trying to recapture in Mina something that he lost a long time ago. This adds a great deal of depth to the original story and enhances the film greatly. Copolla's direction is very good and the movie won three Academy Awards (best costume design, best effects, sound effects editing and best makeup) and five Saturn Awards (best actor, best costumes, best director, best horror film and best writing).
As for the cast - Gary Oldman is absolutely excellent as the Count in all his many guises and forms and he conveys all of the emotions expected of the role very well. Keanu Reeves is okay as Jonathan Harker but seems to struggle with the expected English accent and doesn't really shine as the hero of the piece should have. Winona Ryder is pretty good as Mina, the damsel in distress, and she gives a believable performance as the naive young solicitor's wife to be come Elisabeta reincarnate and Anthony Hopkins gives his usual excellent performance as the eccentric Professor Van Helsing. Sadie Frost, in an early role in a career that never really blossomed as expected, did well as Lucy and the rest of the supporting cast of Richard E. Grant, Cary Elwes, Bill Campbell and Tom Waits gave reasonable performances, if a bit hammed up but that's probably reasonable given the source material. You might also recognise Monica Bellucci, more recently seen in the Matrix trilogy, in an obviously early career-building role as one of Dracula's brides.
The picture is displayed in a 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer and is very good throughout. Even though a lot of the movie is shot in low light conditions, blacks are solid and colours, especially reds, well defined with no sign of artefact or grain. Some excellent visual effects are well used throughout the movie and Gary Oldman's various make-up jobs are really superb as are the costumes used and all well deserved the awards bestowed. The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack has good clear dialogue and makes a lot of use of the surround channels for music and ambient sounds, though perhaps too aggressively in some scenes, and Woiciech Kilar's musical score also adds a great deal of passion and atmosphere to the movie.
This is an excellent movie all round and Gary Oldman really steals the show as the aging Dracula in his Transylvanian castle, going on to seduce you as Prince Vlad and to terrorise you as the bloodsucking beast and vampire.
Extras
US Theatrical Trailer* - A reasonable two and a half minute trailer.
DVD Trailer - Nothing to do with the movie. Just a one-minute promo for DVD technology.
Costume Designs - A brief text introduction to Academy Award winning costume designer Eiko Ishioka, followed by a click-through gallery of six of the designs used in the movie. This could've been better if they included more of the designs - six seems way too few.
Filmographies - of Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu Reeves and Francis Ford Coppola up to about 1999.
Dracula Bloodlines: The Man, The Myth, The Legend* - A 28 minute documentary on the making of the movie. This is pretty entertaining and combines interviews with the major cast and production team members, president of the Count Dracula Society Dr. Donald A. Reed, folklorist and author of "American Vampires" Norine Dresser along with behind the scenes material and archive footage of some earlier Dracula movies.
* - These can be viewed with German, French, Dutch, Spanish or Italian subtitles.
Overall
This is a classic retelling of the original vampire tale by Bram Stoker with an excellent video transfer and surround soundtrack. The screenplay, production and acting are excellent and everything comes together to make this probably one of the best ever movie versions of the tale.
The extras package is fair with an above average "making of" documentary, although the addition of a commentary from Francis Ford Coppola or Gary Oldman would have made it much better.
This is an absolute must have disc for fans of horror or the vampire movie genré.
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