A woman changes everything; finally there is vindication for the knight who gave up life to avenge the death of his one true love, as he chose to become the undead. Director, Francis Ford Coppola, in his work, “Bram Stoker’s Dracula”, reaches beyond the words to prove Dracula was more than a monster in creating the movie. Coppola focuses on Dracula as a man, as well as a knight, who is both deeply in love with his church and his bride. The historical elements in the writings of Bram Stoker come to life more so in Coppola’s work with the movie, than in the book. My goal of this paper is to prove how the differences between the book and the movie are predominantly in the beginning and in the end of the film and depict Dracula as the man he was before he became a monster. Aside from the commentary in the Blu-Ray edition of the Director’s Cut, of the movie, I could not find any sources that spoke of the specific, in depth, changes in the movie, most reviews that I found focused more on actor performances and costume design, than the literary work itself.
Historical Background
As with time a story changes each time it is told. Some things are left out while others are personified in ways the original author never intended them to be. Whether it is of choice or not, the root of the work remains the same. This is the case with Coppola’s work on Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The prologue of the movie details the history of Vlad III Dracula also given the name Vlad III, Vlad Tepes; Tepes meaning “Imaler”, given the name by how he chose to torture and execute his victims. In 1410, the Holy Roman Emperor founded a secret fraternal order to uphold Christianity and defend the Empire against Ottoman Turks. This order was known by its emblem of a dr...
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...im one last time and pulls the knife from his chest and chops his head clean off. She turn to the heavens and stares at ceiling of the chapel, it has been painted in honor of Dracula and his bride Elisebeta. The movie ends completely different than the book, however perfectly in concert as Coppola intended. The knowledge that love survives even in death.
Works Cited
Bram Stoker’s Dracula: Director’s Cut. Dir. Francis Ford Coppola. Perf. Gary Oldman.
Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu Reeves, Columbia Pictures, 1992. BLU-RAY.
Francis Ford Coppola commentary narrative throughout the entire film.
Hinson, Hal. “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” Washingtonpost.com. 1992. Web. 4/6/2014.
Porter, Ray. “The Historical Dracula.” April 30, 1992 Eskimo North, Inc. 18 Dec. 2007. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
Stoker, Bram. Dracula. 2013 UMash Marketing Ltd. October 26, 2013. Kindle.
In Senf’s essay she points out that modern readers of Stokers novel are more likely to be surprised by this version of Dracula. In Stokers novel most of the action occurs in nineteenth-century London. Senf also shines a light on the fact that Stoker has made it so he cannot comment directly on his characters’ failures in judgment, or their lack of self knowledge with the type of narration selection he has chosen, Dracula as well is never allowed a voice in this novel.
Florescu, Radu R., and McNally, Raymond T., Dracula, Prince of Many Faces: His Life and Times (1989)
The novel Dracula by Bram Stoker has plentiful examples of key concepts we have examined in class including: Purity and impurity, magical thinking, strong emotions such as disgust and shame, , formalization, and myth. In this essay I will summarize events that take place within the novel when the protagonists deal with Dracula and then relate these events to the key concepts to demonstrate why the characters view him as dangerous, and therefore something to be avoided completely.
Comparing the 1931 version of Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi, with Frances Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula 1993 version yields some similarities. Both films are of the same genre: Horror. Both films are set around the same time period. Also, both deal with a vampire coming to England and causing disruptions in people's lives. Beyond these few similarities are numerous contrasts.
In act 2 scene 6 and act 3 scene 6 of the play ‘Dracula’, the
Peters, Sarah L. "Repulsive to Romantic: The Evolution of Bram Stoker’s Dracula." Henderson State University. N.p., Mar. 2002. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
Over the course of cinematic history, many filmmakers have attempted to recreate the chilling, unprecedented world of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Arguably very few have succeeded, for the majority of directors tend to avoid the pervasive sexuality inherent in the novel. It is a difficult task to achieve, considering the blatant imagery surrounding sex and vampirism, such as the reproduction following a vampiric encounter and the phallocentric nature of the violence committed both by and against these creatures: penetration is involved in their hunting, and one must impale them with a stake in order to destroy them. Readers are thereby forced to admit that Dracula is, in fact, a highly eroticized piece of literature, though whether or not Stoker himself was aware of this suggestiveness, we cannot be sure. The most successful effort at capturing that sexual energy on film has been Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 movie, Bram Stoker's Dracula. In fact, it has often been proposed that Coppola’s version is too carnally focused in comparison to the original work, which leads a viewer to wonder about the purpose in this overt sexualization. It can be concluded that adding copious amounts of eroticism to the film is directly related to Coppola’s strive to depict Count Dracula as more human rather than monster, and sexuality in his film serves as a balance so that the lines between good and evil are blurred. Evidence for this deduction is found in three scenes in particular: Jonathan’s seduction by Dracula’s vampiric wives, Lucy’s demonic transformation, and Mina and Van Helsing’s relationship during the climax of the story.
Dracula, the most famous vampire of all time, which readers were first introduced to by Irish author Bram Stoker in 1897 with his novel Dracula, which tells the story of the mysterious person named Count Dracula (Stoker). The book is an outstanding masterpiece of work, which is why it has been a prototype for various movie releases over the decades. Whenever a film director decides to make a movie on behalf of a novel the hope is that the characters concur from the novel to the movie, which leads to the exploration of the resemblances and modifications between the characters in Dracula the novel by Bram Stoker and Bram Stoker’s Dracula 1992 movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
A reader’s anxiety accelerates from altering the story from Jonathan Harker’s journal to Mina Murray’s letter when Jonathan commits to escape from Dracula’s castle. While Jonathan stays at Dracula’s castle coercively, as he depicts himself as “a veritable prisoner, but without that protection of the law which is even a criminal’s right and consolation” (40), he always seeks for an opportunity to g...
Podonsky, Amanda M. "Bram Stoker's Dracula: A Reflection and Rebuke of Victorian Society." Student Pulse: The International Student Journal. N.p., 2010. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.
From Transylvania to Hollywood, vampires have transformed from unfamiliar, mysterious personalities to one of the most dominant monsters in the horror genre today. Vampires are one of the oldest and most noted creatures in mythology, with many variations of them around the world. Although the most famous version is Bram Stoker’s Dracula, many variants have come before and after telling of the same legend with their own added ideas and modifications to relate to their cultures. Today, there is a multitude of literary and film works that convey and resurface peoples’ fear of vampires. As gothic works like Dracula, by Bram Stoker and Scooby-Doo! and the Legend of the Vampire directed by Scott Jeralds share certain traits reflective of the genre;
Religion was a big part of people’s lives back in Stoker’s time. A belief against religion was evil; therefore one who was not devout would be deemed bad or wicked. Dracula, was as evil as a creature gets and a nightmare for the pious; he was a symbol of an Anti-Christ and could even be called Satan. “I drew away, and his hand touched the string of beads which held the crucifix. It made an instant change in him, for the fury passed so quickly that I could hardly believe it was ever there.” (Stoker 24-25). Because Dracula was harmed by holy items, it could mean that he was pure evil, which would be true in Stoker’s time. As a result the main weapons the men had to fight against Dracula with was sacred matter; their struggle was like a fight was like a battle between the holy and satanic. The Count was invading Lond...
The late nineteenth century Irish novelist, Bram Stoker is most famous for creating Dracula, one of the most popular and well-known vampire stories ever written. Dracula is a gothic, “horror novel about a vampire named Count Dracula who is looking to move from his native country of Transylvania to England” (Shmoop Editorial Team). Unbeknownst of Dracula’s plans, Jonathan Harker, a young English lawyer, traveled to Castle Dracula to help the count with his plans and talk to him about all his options. At first Jonathan was surprised by the Count’s knowledge, politeness, and overall hospitality. However, the longer Jonathan remained in the castle the more uneasy and suspicious he became as he began to realize just how strange and different Dracula was. As the story unfolded, Jonathan realized he is not just a guest, but a prisoner as well. The horror in the novel not only focuses on the “vampiric nature” (Soyokaze), but also on the fear and threat of female sexual expression and aggression in such a conservative Victorian society.
In Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, Stoker’s use of inverted gender roles allows readers to grasp the sense of obscureness throughout, eventually leading to the reader’s realization that these characters are rather similar to the “monster” which they call Dracula. Despite being in the Victorian era, Stoker’s use of sexuality in the novel contributes to the reasoning of obscureness going against the Victorian morals and values. Throughout the novel the stereotypical roles of the Victorian man and woman are inverted to draw attention to the similarities between Dracula and the characters. Vague to a majority of readers, Bram Stoker uses Dracula as a negative connotation on society being that the values of the Victorian culture are inverted amongst the sexes of characters, thus pointing out the similarities of the characters and the so called “monster” which they call Dracula.
In Coppola's film, Dracula has a very active and visual role in almost every scene. It is quite understandable the temptation Coppola had of showing Dracula a...