Bram Stoker's Dracula: A Variation of a Classic Work in Modern Time

1517 Words4 Pages

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.

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Bram Stoker's Dracula: A Variation of a Classic Work in Modern Time

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