Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula
The Film Dracula directed by Godfather trilogy director Francis Ford Coppola and based on the book by Bram Stoker, released in 1992. The story was slightly revamped from the book and it was modified to adapt to the culture of the 1990s. As in Stoker's book, sexuality forms the core part of the film. It defines the characters in many ways.
The scene in which the Dracula and Harker were together alone, shows great passion and closeness between these two. The scene where Dracula shaves Harker in front of a mirror and when the mirror reflects only Harker, it signifies that both of them are one and the same. When Harker's blood is spilled, the expression and reaction on Dracula's face is almost equal to that of a man reaching his climax. This scene maybe highlights that Dracula is a homosexual since he does not show the same reaction to Lucy and Mina's blood. Sexual preferences gives different shades to each character. For instance Lucy must be Dracula's victim because of her sexual advances which was considered weird according to Stoker (Eggert).
Coppola's most fascinating scenes takes place inside the Castle. The sound effects during the scenes inside the Castle is nothing but perfection. The sound effects delivers almost 3D sounds and all the more scary.
There is an another unofficial adaptation of the book by Bram Stroker and it is called as Nosferatu which was directed by Friedrich Murnau. The names of the characters were changed in this film since the maker did not own the rights for Dracula but the plot remained the same. Nosferatu and Dracula differ in various aspects and physical appearance is among them.(Swenson). Nosferatu was given an animal like appearance whereas Dracula was handsome and charming. Another way in which they differ is that, Nosferatu's victims simply die after they get bitten but in Dracula, the victims become a vampire when they get bitten (Weiter). Murnau was successful in using darkness and shadows in the best possible manner to give his film a horrific appearance whereas during the time of Coppola more sophisticated technology was available at his hands and hence he was able to use it strikingly well. Coppola's Dracula was more sexually pictured than Murnau's Nosferatu. In the end, though Dracula was the game changer and the movie which people will remember for a long time, it is Nosferatu which paved the way for such films through its unofficial and copyrights infringing film.
Works Cited
Eggert, Brian. "Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)". Deep Focus Review. 30/10/2011. Web. 18-04-2016.
Weiter, Laura. "Nosferatu Vs Dracula". Helen Roulston. 23-04-2016. Web. 18-04-2016.
Swenson, Katrina. "Comparing Nosferatu and Dracula: I want to suck your blood". The Artifice. 26 -05- 2015. Web. 18-04-2016
Brian Eggert
Brian Eggert
