Bram Stoker's Dracula

[Note: In the commentary for Bram Stoker's Dracula, Francis Ford Coppola says when he adapts a work, he typically puts the name of the original author in the title, a la Mario Puzo's The Godfather.   Among fans, these works are customarily referred to by their original titles, sans author.  By that rationale, Bram Stoker's Dracula goes under "D" here.]

I've always liked Coppola's version of Dracula, despite his style-over-substance approach and screenwriter James V. Hart's tweaking of the original story and rather anticlimactic ending (after the sun sets, Dracula explodes out of the crate that carries him, and then somebody just runs up and stabs him, taking all the fight out, and he lives a little while longer flopping around in agony...meh).  While I've enjoyed this film several times over the years, I've never considered Coppola's version a "definitive" adaptation of Stoker's novel.  Instead, this is just another interpretation — one that explores Dracula as a tragic figure rather than just a plain old bloodsucker.

Of all the actors who have played Count Dracula over the years — Max Schreck, Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, Jack Palance, Frank Langella, Klaus Kinski, etc. — Gary Oldman is among the more memorable, but I think that's a generational thing.  I wonder how this film will last.  I've never heard anyone say Oldman is his/her favorite Dracula.  He's not mine, by any means.  The Dracula that I know and love is Christopher Lee.

Lee was Dracula several times in the Hammer Studios interpretations, which appeared on late night television when I was young.  I'd stay up late with Dad and catch Sammy Terry, Indiana's late night horror movie host, and if we were lucky, we'd catch Christopher Lee.  Thanks to Sammy Terry's show and my dad's negligence/coolness, I saw dozens of horror movies while growing up, including many of those Hammer films.  I was probably too young, because in those days I braved my way through dozens of nightmares, and to this day I'm not all that comfortable typing at a computer in a quiet house in the middle of the night.  I'm a bit jumpy.

(In the interest of full disclosure, my efforts to watch horror films did not always pay off.  I also caught Invasion of the Bee Girls and Empire of the Ants while staying up late.  I can remember Dad getting up in the middle of dozens of movies and leaving me with the remote control to soldier through such cinema shitpiles as The Swarm.  Hey, they can't all be winners.)

So when I think of Dracula, I think of Christopher Lee rather than Gary Oldman, but I can't forget Oldman's portrayal.  Then again, that might be because I can't watch this film without thinking of C. Montgomery Burns:

I couldn't help but borrow that image from this article, which is a dynamite read, by the way.

I once saw David Letterman interview Gary Oldman on "The Late Show."  Oldman was detached, uninterested, and barely answered Letterman's questions.  The interview was an awkward failure.  I forget the film Oldman was promoting (maybe this one?), but I've never seen Gary Oldman in the same light.  So when I see Oldman in this, or The Fifth Element, Leon: The Professional, Batman Begins, or any of the myriad films one can list, I can't help but remember that interview.  He's a solid actor who disappears into his roles and often is quite frightening as a villain.  I get the feeling there's not much inside him, though, sort of like how Peter Sellers has been characterized as a kind of shell for characters to inhabit rather than a self-actualized person who portrays others.  Then again, maybe Oldman is one of those actors who doesn't have time for the Hollywood hype machine, and would rather be working than doing some late night promotional interview.

Anthony Hopkins as Van Helsing is an inspired choice.  I love how he speaks so off-handedly about how he needs to cut off Lucy's head and then cut out her heart.  Even Coppola seems in on the joke, and they come back to that a couple of times.  Cary Elwes' horrified face is priceless.  Did I mention Winona Ryder is in this film?  I admire her work.

For most of the film, the 5.1 mix seems pretty ho-hum.  However, at 1:27, right as Lucy vomits blood on Van Helsing, a kind of unearthly clatter swings from the front channels to the right rear channel, and even though I don't consider this film all that scary, that moment freaks my shit out (technical term), especially when I'm trying to type, the house is mostly dark, and I'm not exactly paying attention to that part of the film.

What's with all the voice-overs?  Dracula, Van Helsing, Mina Harker, and Jonathan Harker all provide first-person narration at some point or another, either reading a letter to the audience or speaking journal entries.  Everyone kept a journal in the late 1800s, apparently.

And what's with the match-cuts?  I love a good match-cut as much as the next guy, but this film seems to have one in every scene.

Vampires are written to undeath, yet audiences keep going back.  For me, Coppola's film isn't exactly a masterpiece, but works as one great director's interpretation in a world where everyone else seems to have one.