Starring: Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu Reeves, Cary Elwes, Sadie Frost, Tom Waits.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola.
I don't think I've seen this movie in many, many years. To the point that basically the only thing I probably recognize is certain visual cues (such as Oldman as Dracula) and the score (which, of course, has been used a few more times since). Oh, right, and the kinda sorta sympathetic backstory and all.
Right away there's a certain hammy element to Vlad The Impaler doing his whole military battle-shown in shadowy profile, with a blood red backdrop no less-and Winona Ryder tossing herself off of a roof at false news of the the dudes death...Oldman is both a good and strange choice for the role. Oldman has a way of making over-acting look flawless, even if his physicality is a strange choice. Seeing him in his blood red armor freaking out and stabbing crosses has both a joyfully nonsensical madness and lamentable silliness. Bleeding crosses and Oldman roaring and...man, is this movie wonderfully silly. I'm kind of excited now.
Holy crap, I'd forgotten about Tom Waits as Renfield! That's such inspired casting. I mean, sure, it's batshit insane casting but..,this IS the MTV, Rock Video Dracula. That self indulgent, self aware approach is what's going to keep this whole thing afloat. I mean, hell, we have early nineties pretty people stars Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves doing their not-reactions and bad pseudo-british accents in overdone voiceover. It's fantastic.
What in the blue hell was up with that carriage driver?! I mean, really. Some strange reptillian beast literally LIFTS Harker into the carriage and his reaction is...well, nothing. Like, even for Keanu Reeves it was nothing. Wolves are running alongside the damn thing and Harker barely raises an eyebrow. Who is his shrink?! How do I get that unconcerned about everything?
That shadow bit is kind of awesome. The shadow moves, massive, along the walls even as Dracula stands completely still. It's a simple effect, but it's so very effective. Great costume work here, too: that long robe of The Count is such a striking image. Very classical set design, too. This movie might be completely out of it's mind, but man is it pretty.
Oldman just LOVES this. You can tell he's having a blast with this performance. His make-up is pretty good, too, considering the era. As pre-CGI old man makeup goes, it looks pretty great. Re-using the shadow bit is...well, it's a bit much. The gag is good but it isn't THAT good. Once again, though, Harker just doesn't really have a reaction to the fact that Dracula seemingly teleports around the room.
Reeves really wasn't the best choice for this role: Oldman is thoroughly unopposed in the scene. Oldman may as well be talking to himself for all the good Reeves is doing. I have some respect for Reeves (despite some of his roles begging for my hatred) but this is not one of his finer moments. Admittedly, the role isn't super meaty but...acting is reacting. Under the circumstances, there's nothing for Oldman to do but just devour the scenery en mass.
The scene of Lucy and Mina looking at the engravings in the old book is cute...it doesn't offer much else, though. Hell, other than introducing Lucy it really doesn't do anything...Lucy is a bit of a scandalous young Woman. It's somewhat charming in its silliness. We get some very quick character introductions of some side people, a portent of Dracula's interest in Mina, all to more voiceover from Ryder which feels uncomfortable and forced.
...and then we're off to a overly stylized mental institution where Dr.Seward deals with an overacting Tom Waits. Oh, man, is Waits going over the top here. Seward wants to give him a cat. I don;t think Seward is a very good Doctor...
Finally, Reeves actually reacts to something. It took Dracula making an inhuman noise, mocking his cross, and finally expressing his admiration for the sounds of the night-not a bad line read of "Listen to them, Children of the Night, What music they make" by the way-to finally lose his shit. Then, again in voiceover, he expresses his fears before going to...Dracula's anti-gravity room, apparently. I do like the other worldly Dracubabe voices, though. It's some very good sound work, actually. Has a strong effect.
I find myself briefly wondering just how much this movie cost. The scene of Harker being beset by the Dracubabes is all at once beautiful, sensual, decadent, expansive and completely and unmistakably insane. I mean, they come out of the bed, naked, and go to town on Reeves...it's incredibly self indulgent but truly beautiful. Then, Dracula shows up and feeds them a baby, because this movie wants to be incredibly shocking. Then an uncomfortable close close-up of a bellowing Reeves...I'm running out of adjectives to describe this movie and it's pants-shitting insanity. But, for all that insanity, it's...well, it's really kind of well done. For a movie entirely about excess, aggression and, perhaps most importantly, self-indulgence, it's really successful. Strong first act, at least in context.
There is definitely a challenge thrown down with this movie. I'm not sure exactly what that challenge IS, exactly, but it's there. It's not as if the film is overtly shocking or anything, not really...I mean, I suppose for a mainstream film it could be seen as such. Maybe. But there is such a direct sense of aggression to the film, and that unmistakable air of self-indulgence that I keep harping on. But, sure, once we see a soaking wet Winona Ryder and Sadie Frost kiss one another in the rain, followed by animals losing their minds and Tom Waits tearing at himself, we're confronted by a considerable amount of ferocity and, well, madness. I mean, Dr.Seward decides to inject himself with heroin during Dracula's magic rainstorm, conveying an animalistic savagery.
I think therein lies that challenge thrown before the audience: Coppola wants us to view this decadent savagery, possibly with a wink...I haven't been able to quite ascertain if this is to be taken seriously or not...the overt sexual imagery of Lucy, draped in a red dress, being bitten by a wolf-like Dracula (in a decidedly sexual position, of course) during a raging thunderstorm...it's a beautiful image, really, but...is this supposed to be straight? I'll have to come up with an answer by the end...but the over-the-top nature isn't necessarily a sign of mirth. But it could be. Maybe that, too, is the challenge: make sense of this, suckers! Am I kidding? Am I being serious? Is this stylish or insane? Do you like it or hate it? No matter what the answer, it's ballsy.
How interesting it is that things gradually slow down. As Dracula-now in his more gentlemanly getup-moves through the streets of London, Coppola uses a weird sped up film to show frenzy and bustle and then it slows to a crawl as Drac lays eyes on Mina. It's odd. Oldman also completely transforms his performance in more than a few ways. It's fascinating.
There's also a fascination with sexuality throughout as well. I mean, that's also like saying Winter is cold, but it's definitely there. Seward meets with Lucy, who basically acts incredibly sexually aroused at all times, her performance riding between pleasure and pain. After this, her fiance and his buddies show up discussing the victorian equivalent of "guy talk." Then Drac puts the moves on Mina at a movie, despite her protests, his vampiric transformations being an obvious allegory to masculine lust. In the end, he controls himself, because there character is meant to be something of a romantic figure...then he charms her with his ability to control Wolves, which, I mean, I totally get. If I could control Wolves, I'd do nothing but that all the time, primarily to get chicks. I can barely control my fat cat, even when nobody is watching.
Seemingly to make sure that Oldman isn't the most over-acting guy in the film, here comes Anthony Hopkins to do his thing. His first order of business, tending to Lucy who is once again somewhere between moaning in pain from her illness and moaning in orgasm. Hopkins immediately goes to work using his ability to shout and spit every single line.
It's kind of unfortunate Cary Elwes never really did get too steeped in serious roles. He has better chops than his usual comedic roles suggest. But, then, they always do say: Drama is easy, comedy is hard. If you can do comedy, you can do anything.
What the hell is going on with Hopkins' accent, anyway? It's like he occasionally decides to just start trying something else. Luckily, he has a way with exposition and always has. His speechifying allows for excellent authority (which is key to exposition: without authority, information becomes suspect to an audience. Nobody thinks about that too frequently. A credible source is crucial for plot building).
Somewhere along the way this movie did manage to lose its sense of urgency. Maybe it's the quick pacing, moving along the story without adequately expressing itself within a scene? Maybe it's the love story they try to build between Mina and Dracula: it does tend to slow things down. The overt use of visual flashback within the scene itself: not a full flashback, but occurring around the fringes of the frame...well, it doesn't quite work. I think it crosses a line beyond self-indulgence and primarily insults the audiences memory, which is never a good thing. Underestimating your audience will only cause you to lose them. The lack of chemistry between Oldman and Ryder doesn't help matters, either...honestly, I already miss the lunacy of the first act, really.
Oh, great, now Dracula and Mina are dancing in the music video of "Wrapped around your finger" The Police. Which, while it's a good song and a pretty video, isn't really what I needed. I took a side trip to watch that video again and find myself wondering just how much coke String was on.
and here it is.
Well, thank you Anthony Hopkins. "You, Minnnnna...you are one of the ligggghts. The LIGHT OF all liiife." And then he sniffs her. Nice. Everyone ranges from either TOO restrained to entirely unrestrained (like Lucy, who writhes about moaning, shrieking, and then whispering invitations to kiss her...and then biting a dude.) Or, if you're Oldman, both, seemingly at the same time.
How many candles does one man need, really? Both Dracula and Van Helsing are apparently huge fans of candles. I mean, sure, Sting needs 'em but...
There is some wonderfully nonsense dialogue that really could only be delivered by a guy like Hopkins: "She is now the devil's whore! Ha ha! The Devil's Concubine! HA!" Then followed with odd high shutter speed photography of roses wilting and bugs crawling on statues. Well, I did say I wanted the crazy back. Guess the movie decided to give me my wish. Good thing, too, that middle act really was starting to drag a lot. Hmm. The shutter speed thing seems to be designed to show what he sees in animal form. Fascinating. Meanwhile, in a VERY catholic ceremony, Mina and Harker are married...not bad juxtaposition, really.
Oldman is back to chewing scenery and spitting it out in venomous line reads. Way to go, Mina. Break the guys heart and he goes and turns your best friend into a Vampire. It's all your fault, Mina. I love how white Lucy's corpse is, though: glass casket, white dress, pure white face, surrounded by figures dressed in black and abnormally pale faces. Under some pale lights,too. Some fantastic imagery. Then: "Oh, no, I just want to cut off her head and tear our her heart." And Mina, now married, thinks that maybe she really loves Dracula. Oh, get your head out of your ass, Mina.
I like that Lucy is preceded by a weird, otherworldly moaning string instrument...and then, draped in a gorgeous white funeral dress...actually she's one of the scariest vampires I think I've ever seen. She looks great, even as she vomit blood all over Van Helsing and does a weird death rattle laugh. Man, this is a really good scene.
That roast looks really good. I could go for one of those. Someone make me a pot roast in a slow cooker. Seriously, it looks really, really good. I don't think I could make a good one. I can do a good turkey, though. Maybe I'll totally make myself a turkey sometime soon. Seriously, that huge amount of food looks really good. I should probably be paying attention to the movie but that food really captured my attention.
Luckily, here is Renfield to scream and bellow some more to bring me back into it. Mina wants to have a chat with the guy, for some reason. Tom Waits does his twitchiest best for the scene, which is somewhat wasted on Ryder, who seems to fall into the Reeves area of acting. No adequate reaction. Waits does a pretty good job of showing a brief moment of sanity as he pleads for Mina to flee, and kisses her hand. It's a nice enough scene, even if it is one sided.
The Vampire Hunting party does cut an imposing visage. Nice suits and torches. Not sure why they wore nice suits, though. Oh, shit, I had forgotten about how the full-vampire bat creature thing looks. Pretty similar to the stuff in parts of From Dusk Till Dawn. While that latter movie has it's issues, visual effects certainly were not one of them.
Again, Coppola falls back onto sexuality: after disposing of Renfield, Dracula's mist form crawls up Minas sheets as she moans and writhes...and then Dracula kisses her way down her body. Ryder tingles her way through the scene, but at least has enough wits to ask Dracula the truth of his existence. Y'know, raw sexual magnetism isn't a trait I'd attribute to Gary Oldman. Kind of weird that they expected me to. The transformation of Mina is clearly supposed to somehow be sexy but...it isn't. I would think it to be predatory, but it isn't even really that. It's actually kind of a flubbed sequence...it really wants to be sexy, or predatory, or romantic but gets confused. It feels like a love scene with a head injury.
Giant bat-creature Dracula looks amazing...and then he collapses into rats. Fantastic effects work. We then cut to the hunters moving across the countryside (after a fairly unnecessary hypnosis scene that provides a "where did he go" justification that, well, where else would he go?) to go fight Dracula. We're also given way too much voiceover as well. Like, way too much. It's not a great device. But, we get some very pretty snow scenes, though. Snow is very pretty.
And now a weird love scene between Mina and Van Helsing...well, it's a trap. But still, he was totally going to do it. Which is really weird. But we do have the Dracubabes again. They don't look as amazing this time (but still pretty scary looking Vampires), nor do they look as good as Lucy did, but hey, still a fun scene. The image of Van Helsing tossing their heads off the side of a castles battlements, screaming Draculas name is really fun, though.
Winona Ryder is really lovely, especially when she's allowed to get a little unrestrained with everybody else. It is something of a shark-jumping moment, though, when she cries into the winds and starts doing some sort of purple magic thing. There's something pretty frantic about it, especially as Dracula bursts from his casket and fights his assailants...the fight is pretty truncated, though, which is somewhat unfortunate. It makes sense: a full frontal assault on a foe as powerful as Dracula would be pretty foolish if not finished quickly. It just feels anti-climactic, especially when followed up with Mina and Dracula cuddling together, and Ryder's "I understood then that my love could save us all" voiceover nonsense.
And then, like the classics: it just ends after Dracula is dead. Nice.
Final Thoughts: I'm not sure there's anything more to add. I think I've kind of said everything I can possibly say. I did have the pressing question of whether or not this was a joke or not. Was it meant to be serious or tongue-in-cheek? I still don't really have an answer. Both? Neither? It seems to change as often as Dracula's form itself: from act to act, it metamorphoses into very different things, at times clearly meant to be excessive to the point of self-parody to times of dead seriousness. The movie seems content enough to just be aggressive and...well, just to be.
Final Rating: Jesus, I don't know...Three Stars?
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