This is the film that asked the $40 million dollar question: "what's up with Dracula's hair?" As the biggest horror 'event' since Stanley Kubrick took on The Shining, the fact that Francis Ford Coppola's opulent retelling of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel turned out to be a whole lot of nothing does nothing to diminish my fond memories of anticipating its release. Posters bearing the single word "Beware," scrawled in blood, began showing up in theater lobbies months in advance and the teasers and trailers looked incredible. Even if Bram Stoker's Dracula doesn't quite come together as a powerful film (although its devoted fanbase would argue that it does), it's still a triumph of style, thanks to the use of turn of the century-style, in-camera effects and the iconoclastic costume designs of Eiko Ishioka.And here's the original teaser, pulled from theaters after complaints about its blood imagery:
6 comments:
For me this is one of those flawed masterpieces... lots of great stuff with a few grating bungles.
Mostly Keaneaueau's craptacular acting is what drag's it down for me.
Still, great trailer... can't believe people were silly enough to complain about the 'red stuff that doesn't much look like blood' teaser.
Yeah, extreme violence is a pretty everyday thing in TV and film now so it's hard to imagine that kind of reaction to some fake blood today. Apparently people were a lot more sensitive in 1992!
I too fondly remember the build-up to this movie! In fact, I read the Stoker novel beforehand, something I had never done, not all the way through anyway. Recently I watched the movie--that 2-disc DVD set is pretty nice--and really enjoyed it, more than I remembered, because I was let down way back in '92. I'm not much on reinventing Dracula as a lovesick fop, but there are some good moments, the score is cool, and the opening sequence--!!!
I agree, Will - there's too many cool moments in Bram Stoker's Dracula to just dismiss it. The performances are uneven, the emphasis on the love story gets to be a drag, and the revisionist back story of the Count belies Coppola and scripter James V. Hart's claim that this was going to be true to the book. However, I still find myself going back to the movie every few years, just to revisit some of my favorite bits.
I love this movie! The acting does kind of suck sometimes but visually it's amazing. After the first showing I actually just stayed in the theater and watched it a second time. One of my favorite soundtracks too!-Unk
The Annie Lenox song over the closing credits is great. And if this was ever re-released to theaters, I'd definitely be there as the visuals really deserve to be appreciated on the big screen.
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