Bram Stoker's Dracula: A Novel Turned Film
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| An advertisement poster of the 1992 film adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula (2) |
A couple of centuries have flown by after the publication of Bram Stoker's Dracula, yet its legacy continues to be prevalent. From literature to entertainment, Dracula and being a vampire has spread through myths and folklore and become familiar to society. One specific lens through which we look upon vampires is the media and how that platform shapes and perpetuates our minds. Movies and Hollywood portray vampires with fangs, a long, black cape, and a thick foreign accent. This list extends with countless myths and dramatized descriptions of a vampire. One portrayal of Dracula is the 1992 film titled Bram Stoker's Dracula. This Francis Ford Coppola produced film (1) claims to have been closely in tune with the original novel written by Bram Stoker. Ultimately, Coppola's research and sticking to the literature's words allows his Bram Stoker's Dracula film to accurately share a story of the supernatural.
Francis Ford Coppola's Research-
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| Tomb of Vlad the Impaler that Producer Coppola visited prior to creation of the film (6) |
Overall, the movie is claimed to be a "close adaptation" of the novel, and it lives up to that label as the producer, Coppola, researched thoroughly the beginnings of Dracula. "Coppola even visited the grave of Vlad the Impaler, the historical Dracula who was known to impale his enemies, in Bucharest," says Bryan Adams from the Motion Picture Association of America (1). This shows how Coppola wanted to capture the authenticity of Dracula and where he has evolved from. Coppola has also touched upon his research strategies in interviews. With one interview with Entertainment Weekly, Coppola reflects on reading the entire novel at age 17 as a camp counselor of 9 year-olds (5). He further states, "I rose at the opportunity to direct it," showing his passion for creating an accurate portrayal of Bram Stoker's Dracula.
Dracula connections-
The best way to write a novel accurately based on a book is to read it and pay attention to specific details. One of the biggest things that tie the film to the novel is the use of lines from the book. These include "Children of the night. What music they make,"(3). The representation of Dracula with his oldman-like qualities that are described at the beginning of the novel seem to fit a description for the one portrayed within the movie. Dracula is different compared to the vampire we see every Halloween, but it is more accurate to Bram Stoker's novel.
To the right is the trailer for the movie which shows the face of Dracula.
Known Critiques-
One of the critics of this film adaptation has to do with the portrayal of a story behind Dracula and a heightened connection between him and Mina. This did not happen in the novel, but the film still presents itself as rather accurate to the Stoker's words. This Hollywood style is added to the film for more entertainment purposes, but still sticks to the story's roots in the majority of the film. Another statement of critique states that the plot line is too messy and that there is a too broad representation of characters (4). This is criticism that is negative, but supports that the film is closely tied to the book. These same statements can be made about the original writing by Bram Stoker.
Legacy Today-
In my opinion, the movie was a different Dracula than what people are used to seeing as his look was more related to the words of Stoker than the vampire we are always being shown. This shows how there is a universal perception we have of the stereotypical vampire. These presumptions have spread throughout the years and have stretched greatly from the Dracula presented by Bram Stoker. This film adaptation tried significantly to accurately represent the Dracula that Stoker envisioned, which is different compared to what we are used to. This movie is one of the few examples of modern recreation that has stuck to the original story. Hopefully, other media creators are able to use Bram Stoker's Dracula as precedence to sticking to the true representation of the original Dracula we all have grown to love.
Works Cited
(1) Abrams, Bryan. “Bram Stoker’s Dracula: Francis Ford Coppola on Finding Vlad the Impaler’s Grave.” Mpaa.org, Motion Picture Association of America, 30 Sept. 2015, www.mpaa.org/2015/09/bram-stokers-dracula-francis-ford-coppola-on-finding-vlad-the-impalers-grave/v.
(2)“Bram Stoker's Dracula.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 13 Nov. 1992, www.imdb.com/title/tt0103874/.
(3)Fiduccia, Christopher. “25 Crazy Facts Behind The Making Of Bram Stoker's Dracula.” ScreenRant, Screen Rant, 23 Aug. 2018, screenrant.com/bram-stokers-dracula-making-behind-scenes-hidden-trivia/.
(4)McCarter, Reid. “Let's Take a Look at All the Cool and Extremely Weird Stuff in Bram Stoker's Dracula.” News, News, 18 Oct. 2018, news.avclub.com/lets-take-a-look-at-all-the-cool-and-extremely-weird-st-1829841915.
(5) McGovern, Joe. “Francis Ford Coppola Remembers 'Dracula,' Firing His Special Effects Crew, and Keanu Reeves' Accent.” EW.com, Entertainment Weekly, 6 Oct. 2015, ew.com/article/2015/10/06/francis-ford-coppola-remembers-dracula/.
(6)Newkirk, Greg. “Roadtrippers.com.” Roadtrippers.com, MapQuest, 13 June 2014, maps.roadtrippers.com/stories/researchers-finally-discover-plan-to-open-draculas-grave-were-all-going-to-die.
Very interesting and well put together blog. I thought that the ideas that you had in this blog were very compelling and conceptually interesting. It is quite odd that most film adaptations aren't as similar to what they were based off of. I've noticed that film isn't quite as good at portraying something once you've read the book because you realize that there are missing parts and it ruins the whole thing. Some things that you expect to happen in a certain way don't happen and so on and so forth. Either way good blog post. Well done.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the film and novel are different, but I appreciate the fact that this Dracula in the film is more closely related to Bram Stoker's version of Dracula in the novel. Also, the book is always better than the novel, but in some cases (as you pointed out) the film is no where near representing book. The compassion that Coppola had was clear by him visiting the grave of Vlad the Impaler and trying to recreate the novel while still giving it an entertaining appeal to audiences. Overall this blog touched on topics that I hadn't explored in depth and I found it very helpful and interesting.
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