@@Centane I think you missed one famous actor. Gary Oldman was Dracula. And Keanu Reeves has been in a ton of other things and easily the biggest star in the movie. Next famous would be Oldman and Anthony Hopkins.
The best reaction to BSD I've seen. You can tell when someone is loving a film when they are just silent and in awe. Your eyes said it all throughout the entirety of the movie. I loved it! 😂 By this time, I hope you've read the book; one of the best books I've read. And I always try to read it yearly around October.
I love this movie. Oldman is so amazing as Vlad.The score is truly incredible and one of the few done by the composer. There are very, very, VERY few digital effects, the only ones being the green smoke, but all the rest of these effects are entirely practical in camera effects. And truly, the combination of everything just a doomed romance film. I just love it so much.
Is there movie where Oldman isn't amazing? Yea, this movie is great, and when I was young, I was lucky enough to see it under the influence of the shrooms - and that was really another level.
Even much of the green smoke is practical as well. They used the same fog machine techniques as in John Carpenter's "The Fog," but this time they ran some of the footage backwards to give it an unearthly look.
Believe me, your silent expressions speak plenty loud, and we love your reactions! Some reactors like to joke, talk, ignore half of any movie they watch, and have no idea what was going on in order to give their impression of the movie. You like to pay attention and understand a movie and we appreciate that.
It's a pleasure seeing someone truly enjoy this movie. It's one of my favorites, and it's nice to see someone else appreciate it for what it is, instead of tear it down like the critics.
So many hidden gems in this movie. Anthony Hopkins also playing a priest at the beginning. The rat being Dracula kissing Mina's foot while leaving. Dracula sorting from his coffin like in the Nosferatu film, the "i don't drink wine" line from Tod Browning Dracula, etc. Probablu the best vampire movie with interview with the vampire
@@DanABA Oldman is just great in anything you just dont know its him half the time chameleon of an actor. Drexl in True Romance, Stansfield in Leon or as far out as Zorg in The Fifth Element he can turn toilet paper into gold.
The nudity and sexuality is very integral to the character and story of Dracula. It is very much about lust, temptation, primal desires. It is not a children's fairytale
When you are reduced to one word commentary like mhmm....you know the movie has you in literal shock! It was glorious to watch you, and I had to, because for much of the reaction, it was only your body language that could bee read. #lovely and amazingly silent 🤫 #Dracula #GOAT version!!
Bela Lugosi, Sir Christopher Lee & Gary Oldman all brought their own unique style to Dracula. This adaptation / interpretation of the story is easily the most visually stunning. I live not far from Whitby in Yorkshire, which has a very special connection to the story. Bram Stoker visited Whitby in July 1890 & was working on a new story, set in Styria in Austria, with a central character called Count Wampyr. The favoured Gothic literature of the period was set in foreign lands full of eerie castles, convents and caves. Whitby’s windswept headland, the dramatic abbey ruins, a church surrounded by swooping bats, and a long association with jet - a semi-precious stone used in mourning jewellery - gave a homegrown taste of such thrilling horrors. High above Whitby, and dominating the whole town, stands Whitby Abbey, the ruin of a once-great Benedictine monastery, founded in the 11th century. The medieval abbey stands on the site of a much earlier monastery, founded in 657 by an Anglian princess, Hild, who became its first abbess. In Dracula, Stoker has Mina Murray - the young woman whose experiences form the thread of the novel - record in her diary. Below the abbey stands the ancient parish church of St Mary, perched on East Cliff, which is reached by a climb of 199 steps. Stoker would have seen how time and the weather had gnawed at the graves, some of them teetering precariously on the eroding cliff edge. Some headstones stood over empty graves, marking seafaring occupants whose bodies had been lost on distant voyages. He noted down inscriptions and names for later use, including ‘Swales’, the name he used for Dracula’s first victim in Whitby. On 8 August 1890, Stoker walked down to what was known as the Coffee House End of the Quay and entered the public library. It was there that he found a book published in 1820, recording the experiences of a British consul in Bucharest, William Wilkinson, in the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia (now in Romania). Wilkinson’s history mentioned a 15th-century prince called Vlad Tepes who was said to have impaled his enemies on wooden stakes. He was known as Dracula - the ‘son of the dragon’. While staying in Whitby, Stoker would have heard of the shipwreck five years earlier of a Russian vessel called the Dmitry, from Narva. This ran aground on Tate Hill Sands below East Cliff, carrying a cargo of silver sand. With a slightly rearranged name, this became the Demeter from Varna that carries Dracula to Whitby with a cargo of silver sand and boxes of earth. So, although Stoker was to spend six more years on his novel before it was published, researching the landscapes and customs of Transylvania, the name of his villain and some of the novel’s most dramatic scenes were inspired by his holiday in Whitby. The innocent tourists, the picturesque harbour, the abbey ruins, the windswept churchyard and the salty tales he heard from Whitby seafarers - all became ingredients in the novel. In 1897 Dracula was published. It had an unpromising start as a play called The Undead, in which Stoker hoped Henry Irving would take the lead role. But after a test performance, Irving said he never wanted to see it again. For the character of Dracula, Stoker retained Irving’s aristocratic bearing and histrionic acting style, but he redrafted the play as a novel told in the form of letters, diaries, newspaper cuttings and entries in the ship’s log of the Demeter. The log charts the gradual disappearance of the entire crew during the journey to Whitby, until only the captain is left, tied to the wheel, as the ship runs aground below East Cliff on 8 August - the date that marked Stoker’s discovery of the name ‘Dracula’ in Whitby library. A ‘large dog’ bounds from the wreck and runs up the 199 steps to the church, and from this moment, things begin to go horribly wrong. Dracula had arrived … Every year in Whitby there is a Dracula weekend, along with the incredible Whitby Goth Festival
@@alanholck7995 It’s held in April, so it’s usually not too bad….but you can never be too sure!!Think fewer influencers & a lot more black clothing 😂😂😂
I really enjoyed this reaction. I feel it’s more entertaining to see someone who is really into a film & not talking versus someone talking all the time, but not all that focused on the movie..
I agree Golden Age. Facial expressions communicate so much anyway. I become frustrated when reactors talk so much, and I know they’re missing chunks of important info. Centane is a nice change.
If it wasn't mentioned already Francis Ford Coppola decided against using modern special effects, instead opting for traditional and sometimes antiquated techniques. His son Roman Coppola was 2nd unit and special effects director for the film. The use of such effects was an inspired choice, as it fits the gothic nature of the film. The only digital shot was the burning blue fire at the gates of Dracula's castle. All other effects were shot in camera. The scene of the diary, with the train and pair of mysterious eyes, I find to be especially powerful. This is the rare film that holds up to the test of time. Winona Ryder was originally set to appear in "The Godfather 3" but had to bow out due to illness. The film was meant to be a television series, before Ms.Ryder brought Francis Ford Coppola the script. Thank god, because television wasn't what it is today. Her and Gary Oldman were famously at odds throughout filming, and that may have had a lot to do with Gary Oldman struggling with alcohol addiction at the time. Happily, Keanu Reaves and Winona Ryder were filmed being married in a Greek orthodox church by a real Orthodox priest, and Winona Ryder has stated that Keanu is still technically her husband. A remarkable masterpiece and a true expression of artistic talent.
The book is very interesting in its form, presented as letters back and forth between Jonathan and Mina. Jonathon does notice very strange things in his stay in Dracula 's castle but doesn't get frightened away. This seems unrealistic but Dracula has a very powerful and supernatural charismatic effect on people.
Lucy is usually portrayed as wild and a bit lusty, leading on several suitors and such. but it's rarely captured that she was unusually authentically kind and charming to everyone around her. So much so that her three suitors became as close as brothers long before she said yes to one,
Leading on several suitors is impossible. The whole point is to get married. Those were chaperoned parties where she's supposed to decide on a husband. Back then, if a girl wasn't engaged before she's 21 she's considered an 'old maid'.
Also while a bit thirsty Lucy was at heart an innocent. Most movies never get that. Her manner was like a child pretending to be grown up more than that of an actual "wanton" woman.
One of the main reasons this particular Dracula movie has become so iconic is that this was the first one to incorporate the Vlad The Impaler origin story for Dracula. One of the main inspirations for Bram Stoker's original novel was a 15th Century Romanian prince named Vlad Dracul III, who waged war against the Ottoman Empire. His enemies would go on to call him Vlad Tepes, meaning Vlad The Impaler, because his favorite method of executing enemies of the state and criminals was impalement: driving a ten-foot tall stake through their ass and standing the stake upright to let the body slide down (trust me when I say that this is NOT a fast way to die. It is VERY slow, and VERY painful). But ever since this film came out, it has almost become a quintessential part of Dracula's "canon" lore that, when he was human, he was Vlad The Impaler.
Nope, this was not the film to first use the Vlad origin story, and not the first to portray the reincarnation love story between Dracula and Mina. That was done in the 1974 film "Bram Stoker's Dracula", starring Jack Palance and directed by Dan Curtis. Coppola bought the rights to the title for his film, and all the home releases of the 1974 movie that followed Coppola's version were retitled as "Dan Curtis' Dracula" or simply "Dracula". CBS took advantage of the successful release of Coppola's film and broadcast it on network TV two weeks later.
Mild correction. The only thing stoker took from vlad the impaler was the name "Dracula" and the location. Prior to his Discovery of the wallachian warlord the count's working name was "Wampyr" and the story took place in Germany. But the story was much unchanged.
I had to ask my dad to go with me to the cinema as a kid when it came out.. Since then became one of my favourites and favourite soundtracks.. 30 years later its my wife s favourite movie and we have a daughter called mina.. 😁
Regarding the nudity and sexuality in this story: it is very purposeful. It is the essence of the Dracula character (and vampires over all). They symbolize lust,addiction,seduction and sin in general. But also love, passion and rush. Same as werewolves symbolize primal instinct, anger and the loose of control but also freedom,sex and our ties to nature. They are all told, as monsters, from a christian perspective, that is why their salvation can only come from turning back to god. The freedom that we have with art like this, is to see all those trades not only as something bad but as something very human and as an intricate part of the human experience. That is also why Dracula is often portrayed as someone who embraces art and science instead of blind faith.
it is also a fact that it was Bram Stoker who introduced the concept of the Vampire as a lustful being and or using lust and sexuality as a lure for prey etc. until then, they were mostly the horror tales of mythology, he was the one that introduced the concept of sexuality to the vampire genre as well as the basis for the modern genre itself.
Always found this Dracula movie closest to the novel more than any other and that's why I think it's the best, Plus Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins in a film together.
One thing I really appreciate about this movie is that, although the priest says that Elizaveta is damned for commiting suicide, in fact we as the audience know that she is not damned, she just gets reincarnated. In this day and age we probably all know someone who has committed suicide, so it's just nice that the movie shows Elizaveta thriving in her next life, you know? Fuck that priest, or anyone who says that kind of shit when you're grieving. I'm not sure if the same attitude is reflected in the book? It's been a long time since I read it.
That's ridiculous, and I wonder if you've even seen all the adaptations. The BBC version from the late 70s/early 80s is the definitive version (and, by far, the closest to the book). This is a fun, over-the-top, throw-alot-of-money-at-it 90s production. It's a little overdone for my tastes. Calling it "Bram Stoker's" Dracula is misleading; it should have been called Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula because that's what it is, and that's what most people think of it as.
My stepfather collected books on the occult and supernatural; Dracula (among many others) was a bedtime story of my youth and fired an overactive imagination into serious bouts of night terrors. I kept on reading them anyway.
I really appreciate the silence actually. Especially during the dramatic moments. That's what is needed more. I hate it when reactors talk over important moments.
If anyone has ever visited the English seaside town of Whitby (where this book was written) you'll understand exactly how Dracula can appear through mist and the overall creepy feeling you get walking through the town at night.
Bram Stoker wrote, got many influences for and was partly based in the English seaside town of Whitby in Yorkshire, England . He stayed at the Royal Crescent Hotel in Whitby between 1890 and 1896 during which time he wrote Dracula. There is a bench called The Bram Stoker Memorial Bench which overlooks Whitby and it has a plaque that reads 'The View From This Spot Inspired Bram Stoker (1847-1912) To Use Whitby As The Setting Of Part Of His World-Famous Novel DRACULA' Whitby Abbey was also a major influence for the setting of Dracula in his book as the Abbey has many misty days which give a mysterious look to it. Whitby is also famous for English explorer Captain James Cook who sailed his first ship The Endeavour from Whitby. Whitby is also known for it's World Famous Fish n Chips which are said to be the best in the world.
It's Very Dated but Based on a 2 century or More Novel...So the Dialog and Visual were Meant to Emulate that Time and Society....I WILL ALWAYS see Gary Oldman as Prince Vlad..Threw some of that Dracula swag when Playing Sirius..Black
I finally read Dracula. I bought a really old copy just to put me in the mood for it. I bought a copy that was printed in the 1920s. It’s really different reading because of the way it’s written.
Exactly. Calling it "Bram Stoker's Dracula" is highly misleading. it doesn't have the tone of the book (and, of course, makes changes from it, like all the others do). It's a 90s moneyfest: it's cool, it's trippy, it's fun.....it ain't "Bram Stoker's Dracula".
@@jkhristian The BBC miniseries from the 70s is, by far, the closest (and is great). Happy Coppola did this one though because after the hilariously laughable "Godfather Part 3", he needed something to rehabilitate his career! Definitely this was great on a big screen and it was able to supplant my previous Coppola movie theatre memory: a packed audience roaring with laughter at the end of "GF Part 3". Francis was back! It was a rock & roll Dracula!
This is one of those movies that as many times as Ive seen it, it never gets old for me. Gary Oldman is a veteran actor & very underrated. This is one of the few movies where his character is the protagonist, & he carries the movie like a boss. As to your question about the focus on line in Dracula's door where Harker entered, as you might know, according to the vampire myths, you have to invite a vampire into your home, in order for them to bring you under their power & attack you. So here, it works the other way around. Dracula had to invite Harker into his home to bring him under his power. Crossing over the threshold line symbolically emphasized he was crossing a line there's no going back from.
An hour and a half into the movie: “that actress looks like Winona Ryder”. I laughed pretty hard at that😂. A bit of a delayed realization but you got there
It's still weird hearing Lydia Deetz and Ted "Theodore" Logan referred to as the actors from Stranger Things and John Wick. But, that's what happens when great actors have such long careers.
You may get something of a shock when you read 'Dracula'. I remember when this film came out, 'The South Bank Show' in Britain did a segment on Coppola's myriad of influences for the movie. The reaction to Keanu Reeve's portrayal of Johnathan Harker was, em, 'quite marked', shall we say.
If you are into this kind of horror, then you will probably like Penny Dreadful. It is a 27-episode show about the classic horror characters like Dracula and Frankenstein. It brings all of them together in one comprehensive story
I remember I liked it when it came out, so I was 11, maybe 12 if I saw it on VHS. However I'm such more of a snob now I don't think I could handle these accents. I can barely get past Hemsworth's Thor accent. I realize it makes me an ass but I hear fake accents constantly now that I'm older. The most memorable moment in The Boys season 3 for me, seriously, was when Maive couldn't do scenes with Butcher without her real accent coming out. You can even hear it in the final edits.
The Brides of Dracula are a really sad tale in themselves. To be a vampire, and remain sane, requires a will, a focus, which is immense. Dracula met wonderful, strong women, and tried to create companions for his journey through the centuries. But they lacked the will, the strength of mind, the sheer power, and they became mindless beasts under the lust for blood and pleasure. This is why they do what they do to Harper. It is a prequel of sorts to how Dracula acts with Mina. He feels the same desires as they did, only much stronger, and it takes all his being not to simply act on them.
The part about the Princess in the River and Renfield were never in the book. Renfield was a character invented in the first Dracula with Bella Lagosi. But the Princess was actually historical. It was said that one of Dracula's wives did commit suicide by throwing herself into a river by one of his castles. But the real reason is that she thought that the Ottomans were about to assault the castle and she didn't want to be taken prisoner. Because of the things they did to their prisoners. Though not all historians agree she existed. And I noticed a lot of other historical stuff too. Dracula was part of a Roman Catholic society called Societas Draconistarum, (Society of the Dragonists) it was a medieval military group that only some kings and higher aristocrats could join. It was based on the Crusader groups of the church. Meant to defend the Catholic Church at home in Europe from the Ottomon Empire. His father was initiated and was renamed Vlad Dracul (Vlad the Dragon). So his name Dracula means "son of the dragon". He was a Prince and a Knight in the Society. And considered one of its greatest heroes for a while. In Romania a lot of people view him as a national hero and have statues of him. But he did impale his enemies on wooden stakes. Interesting historical note : The Ottomans actually did think he was a Vampire because of all the blood he supposedly drank (probably just a rumor). They thought he was an evil sorcerer who became a vampire called an Ubir. I read about that in Jonathan Maberry's Vampire Universe book on folklore. So by the time Abraham "Bram" Stoker heard of Dracula, much of the darker legends were already there. It's insinuated in the novel that Dracula is actually Vlad the Impaler. Who is only pretending to be his own descendant. Edit Vlad the Impaler www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Vlad_III_the_Impaler The Ubir ulukayin.org/ubir-english/ Also Lucy was based on a young American woman named Mercy Brown. She died of cholera but the people of New England thought the epidemic was caused by a Vampire. So when they dug her up and she was still young and not decomposed they assumed it was her. It's called the Mercy Brown Vampire incident and it became part of the New England Vampire panic www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-great-new-england-vampire-panic-36482878/ Video on Mercy Brown ruclips.net/video/bj4tCKjrk70/видео.html
Keanu Reeves delivered a performance here that is so bad it’s almost unbelievable. Why didn’t the director tell him what he was doing? Was there anybody there on set who actually cared that this was being presented to an audience? It’s strange because in some way it’s a beautifully made film with world class set design and cinematography. Then there’s a high school amateur dramatics performance from the main character.
Although I could appreciate Bram Stoker's Dracula for it's Comprehensiveness, Style and Effects I am not a fan of a crying and romantic Dracula. I actually grew up and biased to Christopher Lee's The Horror of Dracula. May I suggest you watch and react to it.
In the famous 1931 version with Bela Lagosi the characters Johathan Harker and R. M. Renfield were combined. The story had to be simplified somewhat to fit into its run time of 1 h 15m
Winner of 3 Oscars Best Makeup Best Costume Design Best Sound Editing Adrian Pasdar Alec Baldwin, Ray Liotta, Gabriel Byrne, John Malkovich Daniel Day Lewis, Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson, Richard Gere, Charlie Sheen, Emilio Estevez, Tom Hanks, Peter Weller, Aiden Quinn, Dermot Mulroney, Julian Sands, Christian Slater, Jason Patric, Costas Mandylor, Hart Bochner, Alan Rickman, Sting, Christopher Walken, Michael Nouri, and David Bowie were considered for Dracula.
Thanks! :-) This is the most accurate adaptation of the novel *except* the additions of Dracula being Vlad the Impaler and the reincarnated lost love in Mina and the accompanying romance between Dracula and Mina. I love this version because it has the chase through Central Europe and Quincy Morris! Quincy is great in the book, and every other version leaves him out! The chase is left out too. And van Helsing is just as crazy in the book! When you read the book, read the dialogue phonetically out loud and you will speak in the dialect of those characters, especially Dracula and van Helsing. It’s really fun! Stoker was brilliant! Im glad you enjoyed this movie! :-)
You said who every actor was at the end that you recognized, and people still tell you who they are 😂
People don't always watch my full review at the end 😅
This has to be my favorite portrayal of Dracula. Acting is top notch 👍
@@Centane I do ! Frankenstein with de Niro is awesome ! The Story of Frankenstein really runs deep...
@@Ezekielepharcelis Surprisingly, this version follows the book more closely than all of them I have seen.
@@Centane I think you missed one famous actor. Gary Oldman was Dracula. And Keanu Reeves has been in a ton of other things and easily the biggest star in the movie. Next famous would be Oldman and Anthony Hopkins.
The best reaction to BSD I've seen. You can tell when someone is loving a film when they are just silent and in awe. Your eyes said it all throughout the entirety of the movie. I loved it! 😂
By this time, I hope you've read the book; one of the best books I've read. And I always try to read it yearly around October.
I love this movie. Oldman is so amazing as Vlad.The score is truly incredible and one of the few done by the composer. There are very, very, VERY few digital effects, the only ones being the green smoke, but all the rest of these effects are entirely practical in camera effects. And truly, the combination of everything just a doomed romance film. I just love it so much.
One of my favourite scores.
Is there movie where Oldman isn't amazing? Yea, this movie is great, and when I was young, I was lucky enough to see it under the influence of the shrooms - and that was really another level.
Oldman doesn`t get enough praise for all his fine work its a real shame.
Even much of the green smoke is practical as well. They used the same fog machine techniques as in John Carpenter's "The Fog," but this time they ran some of the footage backwards to give it an unearthly look.
And the morph from old to young Dracula in the last scene...people always forget that one, for some reason. Obviously that's digital.
Believe me, your silent expressions speak plenty loud, and we love your reactions! Some reactors like to joke, talk, ignore half of any movie they watch, and have no idea what was going on in order to give their impression of the movie. You like to pay attention and understand a movie and we appreciate that.
It's a pleasure seeing someone truly enjoy this movie. It's one of my favorites, and it's nice to see someone else appreciate it for what it is, instead of tear it down like the critics.
I love her commentary. She let's the movie breath without interrupting every 2 seconds and great facial expressions lol.
The costume designer Eiko Ishioka on this movie was so amazing! Her design for Dracula's armor is so fantastic.
Her work on the movie 'The Cell' is equally amazing. Such a vibe
Arthur Holmwood was played by Cary Elwes, who was Westley in _The Princess Bride_ .
He really added that hint of aristocracy to this flick, but Anthony Hopkins stole the show! As usual....lol
So many hidden gems in this movie. Anthony Hopkins also playing a priest at the beginning. The rat being Dracula kissing Mina's foot while leaving. Dracula sorting from his coffin like in the Nosferatu film, the "i don't drink wine" line from Tod Browning Dracula, etc.
Probablu the best vampire movie with interview with the vampire
This movie is a masterpiece. Dracula be looking like the love child of Emperor Palpatine
A great adaptation of a classic gothic horror tale. So well done. Gary Oldman is impeccable.
Gary Oldman is also great in Leon, another cult classic.
@@DanABA Oldman is just great in anything you just dont know its him half the time chameleon of an actor.
Drexl in True Romance, Stansfield in Leon or as far out as Zorg in The Fifth Element he can turn toilet paper into gold.
The nudity and sexuality is very integral to the character and story of Dracula. It is very much about lust, temptation, primal desires. It is not a children's fairytale
When you are reduced to one word commentary like mhmm....you know the movie has you in literal shock! It was glorious to watch you, and I had to, because for much of the reaction, it was only your body language that could bee read. #lovely and amazingly silent 🤫 #Dracula #GOAT version!!
Bela Lugosi, Sir Christopher Lee & Gary Oldman all brought their own unique style to Dracula.
This adaptation / interpretation of the story is easily the most visually stunning.
I live not far from Whitby in Yorkshire, which has a very special connection to the story.
Bram Stoker visited Whitby in July 1890 & was working on a new story, set in Styria in Austria, with a central character called Count Wampyr.
The favoured Gothic literature of the period was set in foreign lands full of eerie castles, convents and caves. Whitby’s windswept headland, the dramatic abbey ruins, a church surrounded by swooping bats, and a long association with jet - a semi-precious stone used in mourning jewellery - gave a homegrown taste of such thrilling horrors.
High above Whitby, and dominating the whole town, stands Whitby Abbey, the ruin of a once-great Benedictine monastery, founded in the 11th century. The medieval abbey stands on the site of a much earlier monastery, founded in 657 by an Anglian princess, Hild, who became its first abbess. In Dracula, Stoker has Mina Murray - the young woman whose experiences form the thread of the novel - record in her diary.
Below the abbey stands the ancient parish church of St Mary, perched on East Cliff, which is reached by a climb of 199 steps. Stoker would have seen how time and the weather had gnawed at the graves, some of them teetering precariously on the eroding cliff edge. Some headstones stood over empty graves, marking seafaring occupants whose bodies had been lost on distant voyages. He noted down inscriptions and names for later use, including ‘Swales’, the name he used for Dracula’s first victim in Whitby.
On 8 August 1890, Stoker walked down to what was known as the Coffee House End of the Quay and entered the public library. It was there that he found a book published in 1820, recording the experiences of a British consul in Bucharest, William Wilkinson, in the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia (now in Romania).
Wilkinson’s history mentioned a 15th-century prince called Vlad Tepes who was said to have impaled his enemies on wooden stakes. He was known as Dracula - the ‘son of the dragon’.
While staying in Whitby, Stoker would have heard of the shipwreck five years earlier of a Russian vessel called the Dmitry, from Narva. This ran aground on Tate Hill Sands below East Cliff, carrying a cargo of silver sand. With a slightly rearranged name, this became the Demeter from Varna that carries Dracula to Whitby with a cargo of silver sand and boxes of earth.
So, although Stoker was to spend six more years on his novel before it was published, researching the landscapes and customs of Transylvania, the name of his villain and some of the novel’s most dramatic scenes were inspired by his holiday in Whitby. The innocent tourists, the picturesque harbour, the abbey ruins, the windswept churchyard and the salty tales he heard from Whitby seafarers - all became ingredients in the novel.
In 1897 Dracula was published. It had an unpromising start as a play called The Undead, in which Stoker hoped Henry Irving would take the lead role. But after a test performance, Irving said he never wanted to see it again. For the character of Dracula, Stoker retained Irving’s aristocratic bearing and histrionic acting style, but he redrafted the play as a novel told in the form of letters, diaries, newspaper cuttings and entries in the ship’s log of the Demeter.
The log charts the gradual disappearance of the entire crew during the journey to Whitby, until only the captain is left, tied to the wheel, as the ship runs aground below East Cliff on 8 August - the date that marked Stoker’s discovery of the name ‘Dracula’ in Whitby library. A ‘large dog’ bounds from the wreck and runs up the 199 steps to the church, and from this moment, things begin to go horribly wrong.
Dracula had arrived …
Every year in Whitby there is a Dracula weekend, along with the incredible Whitby Goth Festival
I am envisioning a Goth-style Burning Man. But rainier.
@@alanholck7995 It’s held in April, so it’s usually not too bad….but you can never be too sure!!Think fewer influencers & a lot more black clothing 😂😂😂
Many thanks for sharing this!
@@pseudohacker you are welcome!!
Wow thank you for this! Stoker's novel is one of my favorite classics, so this history is fascinating to me.
I really enjoyed this reaction. I feel it’s more entertaining to see someone who is really into a film & not talking versus someone talking all the time, but not all that focused on the movie..
🤍
I agree Golden Age. Facial expressions communicate so much anyway. I become frustrated when reactors talk so much, and I know they’re missing chunks of important info. Centane is a nice change.
If it wasn't mentioned already Francis Ford Coppola decided against using modern special effects, instead opting for traditional and sometimes antiquated techniques. His son Roman Coppola was 2nd unit and special effects director for the film. The use of such effects was an inspired choice, as it fits the gothic nature of the film. The only digital shot was the burning blue fire at the gates of Dracula's castle. All other effects were shot in camera. The scene of the diary, with the train and pair of mysterious eyes, I find to be especially powerful. This is the rare film that holds up to the test of time.
Winona Ryder was originally set to appear in "The Godfather 3" but had to bow out due to illness. The film was meant to be a television series, before Ms.Ryder brought Francis Ford Coppola the script. Thank god, because television wasn't what it is today. Her and Gary Oldman were famously at odds throughout filming, and that may have had a lot to do with Gary Oldman struggling with alcohol addiction at the time. Happily, Keanu Reaves and Winona Ryder were filmed being married in a Greek orthodox church by a real Orthodox priest, and Winona Ryder has stated that Keanu is still technically her husband.
A remarkable masterpiece and a true expression of artistic talent.
The book is very interesting in its form, presented as letters back and forth between Jonathan and Mina. Jonathon does notice very strange things in his stay in Dracula 's castle but doesn't get frightened away. This seems unrealistic but Dracula has a very powerful and supernatural charismatic effect on people.
Lucy is usually portrayed as wild and a bit lusty, leading on several suitors and such. but it's rarely captured that she was unusually authentically kind and charming to everyone around her. So much so that her three suitors became as close as brothers long before she said yes to one,
Leading on several suitors is impossible. The whole point is to get married. Those were chaperoned parties where she's supposed to decide on a husband. Back then, if a girl wasn't engaged before she's 21 she's considered an 'old maid'.
Also while a bit thirsty Lucy was at heart an innocent. Most movies never get that. Her manner was like a child pretending to be grown up more than that of an actual "wanton" woman.
Everything in this was done with practical effects on film (including the train scenes with eyes and such, which is insane...
One of the main reasons this particular Dracula movie has become so iconic is that this was the first one to incorporate the Vlad The Impaler origin story for Dracula. One of the main inspirations for Bram Stoker's original novel was a 15th Century Romanian prince named Vlad Dracul III, who waged war against the Ottoman Empire. His enemies would go on to call him Vlad Tepes, meaning Vlad The Impaler, because his favorite method of executing enemies of the state and criminals was impalement: driving a ten-foot tall stake through their ass and standing the stake upright to let the body slide down (trust me when I say that this is NOT a fast way to die. It is VERY slow, and VERY painful). But ever since this film came out, it has almost become a quintessential part of Dracula's "canon" lore that, when he was human, he was Vlad The Impaler.
Nope, this was not the film to first use the Vlad origin story, and not the first to portray the reincarnation love story between Dracula and Mina. That was done in the 1974 film "Bram Stoker's Dracula", starring Jack Palance and directed by Dan Curtis. Coppola bought the rights to the title for his film, and all the home releases of the 1974 movie that followed Coppola's version were retitled as "Dan Curtis' Dracula" or simply "Dracula". CBS took advantage of the successful release of Coppola's film and broadcast it on network TV two weeks later.
Mild correction. The only thing stoker took from vlad the impaler was the name "Dracula" and the location. Prior to his Discovery of the wallachian warlord the count's working name was "Wampyr" and the story took place in Germany. But the story was much unchanged.
Great movie. Gary Oldman is amazing as always but there's a reason you've never heard Keanu try to do accents again.
And Dracula himself is a wonderful Gary Oldman!
I like how they cut from slaying vampire Lucy who fed on human blood straight into Helsing cutting roasted beef for him, Harker and Mina to eat.
One of the GOAT movies. The book is insane.
The true story of prince vlad is one of the most intriguing I’ve ever heard. History is often far mor fascinating than fiction.
I had to ask my dad to go with me to the cinema as a kid when it came out.. Since then became one of my favourites and favourite soundtracks.. 30 years later its my wife s favourite movie and we have a daughter called mina.. 😁
"Listen to them... The children of the night. What sweet music they make." :)
Regarding the nudity and sexuality in this story: it is very purposeful. It is the essence of the Dracula character (and vampires over all). They symbolize lust,addiction,seduction and sin in general. But also love, passion and rush.
Same as werewolves symbolize primal instinct, anger and the loose of control but also freedom,sex and our ties to nature.
They are all told, as monsters, from a christian perspective, that is why their salvation can only come from turning back to god.
The freedom that we have with art like this, is to see all those trades not only as something bad but as something very human and as an intricate part of the human experience.
That is also why Dracula is often portrayed as someone who embraces art and science instead of blind faith.
100% True
it is also a fact that it was Bram Stoker who introduced the concept of the Vampire as a lustful being and or using lust and sexuality as a lure for prey etc.
until then, they were mostly the horror tales of mythology,
he was the one that introduced the concept of sexuality to the vampire genre as well as the basis for the modern genre itself.
See also Dracula in the animated Castlevania. He likes and respects his future wife because she's trying to be a legit science-minded doctor.
Always found this Dracula movie closest to the novel more than any other and that's why I think it's the best,
Plus Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins in a film together.
After watching 3/4 of the movie: "That actress looks so much like Winona Ryder" 🤣
One thing I really appreciate about this movie is that, although the priest says that Elizaveta is damned for commiting suicide, in fact we as the audience know that she is not damned, she just gets reincarnated.
In this day and age we probably all know someone who has committed suicide, so it's just nice that the movie shows Elizaveta thriving in her next life, you know? Fuck that priest, or anyone who says that kind of shit when you're grieving.
I'm not sure if the same attitude is reflected in the book? It's been a long time since I read it.
I watched a documentary on this film once…apparently the aesthetics and costumes were inspired by Gustav Klimt paintings.
BY FAR, this was the most intense and thoroughly enjoyable version of Bram Stoker's classic. Oldman's performance, unparalleled. Nice one, ma'am.
That's ridiculous, and I wonder if you've even seen all the adaptations. The BBC version from the late 70s/early 80s is the definitive version (and, by far, the closest to the book). This is a fun, over-the-top, throw-alot-of-money-at-it 90s production. It's a little overdone for my tastes. Calling it "Bram Stoker's" Dracula is misleading; it should have been called Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula because that's what it is, and that's what most people think of it as.
This was by far the best version of Dracula that I had ever seen. I still watch it!
My stepfather collected books on the occult and supernatural; Dracula (among many others) was a bedtime story of my youth and fired an overactive imagination into serious bouts of night terrors. I kept on reading them anyway.
Your facial expressions definitely speak for your silence. I love when your eyes widen. That says all we really need to know.
Greatest version of Dracula ever
I really appreciate the silence actually. Especially during the dramatic moments. That's what is needed more. I hate it when reactors talk over important moments.
This the best Dracula adaptation - imo - because it follows the book so closely.
Watching intro in silence.
Intro end Titles dissapears:
"Wow"
If anyone has ever visited the English seaside town of Whitby (where this book was written) you'll understand exactly how Dracula can appear through mist and the overall creepy feeling you get walking through the town at night.
Just up the Rd from me
Yes, I think there’s a dogging site near there, nasty Brit’s!
And me! The Yorkshire coast is stunning
Bram Stoker wrote, got many influences for and was partly based in the English seaside town of Whitby in Yorkshire, England . He stayed at the Royal Crescent Hotel in Whitby between 1890 and 1896 during which time he wrote Dracula. There is a bench called The Bram Stoker Memorial Bench which overlooks Whitby and it has a plaque that reads 'The View From This Spot Inspired Bram Stoker (1847-1912) To Use Whitby As The Setting Of Part Of His World-Famous Novel DRACULA'
Whitby Abbey was also a major influence for the setting of Dracula in his book as the Abbey has many misty days which give a mysterious look to it.
Whitby is also famous for English explorer Captain James Cook who sailed his first ship The Endeavour from Whitby.
Whitby is also known for it's World Famous Fish n Chips which are said to be the best in the world.
It's Very Dated but Based on a 2 century or More Novel...So the Dialog and Visual were Meant to Emulate that Time and Society....I WILL ALWAYS see Gary Oldman as Prince Vlad..Threw some of that Dracula swag when Playing Sirius..Black
You aren't wrong, it is Winona Ryder. Also I'm loving your facial expressions as you watched one of my fav movies.
Vlad Tsepes, Vlad III, was from Wallachia, a region of what is now Romania.
II read the book and compared it to this version of Dracula. It's rare for a movie to be better than the book.
I do not see this as a plain horror movie. I see this as a love story as well. Definitely on my top 5.
That actress IS Wynona Ryder!
Love her
It seemed when John entered into Dracula's home a spell was broken for him to enter. Like a protection spell that Dracula placed at his own doorstep.
It sucks that Quincy got it in the end but he went out like a boss. Great cast in a great movie! Awesome soundtrack too!
Luckily for you, this is still the most accurate adaptation of the book thus far. You'll love the book, I'm almost positive. Enjoy.
A LOT of people actually dislike the book and find it dull and disappointing. It's not a guarantee.
@@rustincohle2135 That's how I feel about this movie.
@@bradwiehn6448 I'm not a big fan of this movie either. I like how technically well made it is from a filmmaking perspective but that's about it.
No it isn't, the BBC miniseries from the late 70s/early 80s is the most accurate adaptation. This is a fun, trippy adaptation though.
@@TTM9691 1977, the most accurate but I prefer this one.
This movie is crazy and also a wonderful ride.
I finally read Dracula. I bought a really old copy just to put me in the mood for it. I bought a copy that was printed in the 1920s. It’s really different reading because of the way it’s written.
Exactly. Calling it "Bram Stoker's Dracula" is highly misleading. it doesn't have the tone of the book (and, of course, makes changes from it, like all the others do). It's a 90s moneyfest: it's cool, it's trippy, it's fun.....it ain't "Bram Stoker's Dracula".
@@TTM9691 it’s pretty damn close though. It’s one of my favorite books and I think Coppola’s version is the closest.
@@jkhristian The BBC miniseries from the 70s is, by far, the closest (and is great). Happy Coppola did this one though because after the hilariously laughable "Godfather Part 3", he needed something to rehabilitate his career! Definitely this was great on a big screen and it was able to supplant my previous Coppola movie theatre memory: a packed audience roaring with laughter at the end of "GF Part 3". Francis was back! It was a rock & roll Dracula!
@@TTM9691 I hear people say this often, but I hate how it combines major characters.
Have you read Frankenstein? It's amazing. I don't know how they ever got that weird green monster story from that book.
The Love how direct Van Helsing is.
The novel is definitely worth the read. Another great novel is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Absolute gems!
Gary Oldman is friggin amazing
I love your expressions for this one, it truly tell everything :)
It's still stands as being closest to the book
I love this movie. I did a stage play version of this movie in college. I played Renfield. It was fun.
Great movie! You’re going to love the book. It’s definitely a classic novel. Frankenstein is another great read.
love the scene on the train "my friend"..
See me see me now,that’s my favourite bit lol
This is one of those movies that as many times as Ive seen it, it never gets old for me. Gary Oldman is a veteran actor & very underrated. This is one of the few movies where his character is the protagonist, & he carries the movie like a boss. As to your question about the focus on line in Dracula's door where Harker entered, as you might know, according to the vampire myths, you have to invite a vampire into your home, in order for them to bring you under their power & attack you. So here, it works the other way around. Dracula had to invite Harker into his home to bring him under his power. Crossing over the threshold line symbolically emphasized he was crossing a line there's no going back from.
Gary Oldman is Dracula!!
Dracula Untold is another good version of Dracula
Tom Waits as Renfield is such a good, and creepy casting decision.
Your facial expressions are all the reaction I need. Very nice.
Your comments speak very highly of your character, Ma'am. A rare gem.
An hour and a half into the movie: “that actress looks like Winona Ryder”.
I laughed pretty hard at that😂. A bit of a delayed realization but you got there
LMFAO i was busy with staring at Keanu 👀
I love Kam's shocked face 💯 👍🏿👍🏿
He doesn’t drink wine because it’s the blood of christ, thats why eucharist wafers repel him.
Dracula's laugh is iconic
"That actress looks so much like Winona Ryder" LOL.
All Brian DePalma movies must be watched!
Finally, a man of culture
I came for the Dracula, stayed for the knitting project.
It's still weird hearing Lydia Deetz and Ted "Theodore" Logan referred to as the actors from Stranger Things and John Wick. But, that's what happens when great actors have such long careers.
You may get something of a shock when you read 'Dracula'. I remember when this film came out, 'The South Bank Show' in Britain did a segment on Coppola's myriad of influences for the movie. The reaction to Keanu Reeve's portrayal of Johnathan Harker was, em, 'quite marked', shall we say.
If you are into this kind of horror, then you will probably like Penny Dreadful. It is a 27-episode show about the classic horror characters like Dracula and Frankenstein. It brings all of them together in one comprehensive story
Had such a crap ending though. :(
@@JnEricsonx it wasn’t too bad. And the second season is one of the strongest in tv history. Worth watching for alone
Surprisingly close to the book with all the first-person narration. Just the love story that was added for the 1990s audience.
I'm glad you enjoyed the movie, it seems to be a "love it or hate it" type of movie.
I Just Subbed because i Saw how you genuinely Enjoyed it..❤ I Adore this Movie..Loved it Since i was a Kid
I remember I liked it when it came out, so I was 11, maybe 12 if I saw it on VHS. However I'm such more of a snob now I don't think I could handle these accents. I can barely get past Hemsworth's Thor accent. I realize it makes me an ass but I hear fake accents constantly now that I'm older. The most memorable moment in The Boys season 3 for me, seriously, was when Maive couldn't do scenes with Butcher without her real accent coming out. You can even hear it in the final edits.
Young Vlad with those blue glasses is beautiful. He caused confusing feelings in young me. I'm straight but nobody is that straight.
30:39 ....."That actress look so much like Winona Ryder"..... I wonder why..... XDXDXD
This is probably the greatest movie about love and devotion ever made! No matter how mane times watching it - tears...
From memory they focused on the his entrance because in vampire lore if he invites you to enter you are "safe". Or close to that.
Poor Jonathan! I was especially "concerned" for him when he encountered Vald's concubines in the spare bedroom, or whatever that was :)
The Brides of Dracula are a really sad tale in themselves. To be a vampire, and remain sane, requires a will, a focus, which is immense. Dracula met wonderful, strong women, and tried to create companions for his journey through the centuries. But they lacked the will, the strength of mind, the sheer power, and they became mindless beasts under the lust for blood and pleasure. This is why they do what they do to Harper.
It is a prequel of sorts to how Dracula acts with Mina. He feels the same desires as they did, only much stronger, and it takes all his being not to simply act on them.
The part about the Princess in the River and Renfield were never in the book.
Renfield was a character invented in the first Dracula with Bella Lagosi.
But the Princess was actually historical. It was said that one of Dracula's wives did commit suicide by throwing herself into a river by one of his castles. But the real reason is that she thought that the Ottomans were about to assault the castle and she didn't want to be taken prisoner. Because of the things they did to their prisoners. Though not all historians agree she existed.
And I noticed a lot of other historical stuff too.
Dracula was part of a Roman Catholic society called Societas Draconistarum, (Society of the Dragonists) it was a medieval military group that only some kings and higher aristocrats could join. It was based on the Crusader groups of the church. Meant to defend the Catholic Church at home in Europe from the Ottomon Empire.
His father was initiated and was renamed Vlad Dracul (Vlad the Dragon). So his name Dracula means "son of the dragon".
He was a Prince and a Knight in the Society. And considered one of its greatest heroes for a while. In Romania a lot of people view him as a national hero and have statues of him.
But he did impale his enemies on wooden stakes.
Interesting historical note :
The Ottomans actually did think he was a Vampire because of all the blood he supposedly drank (probably just a rumor). They thought he was an evil sorcerer who became a vampire called an Ubir.
I read about that in Jonathan Maberry's Vampire Universe book on folklore. So by the time Abraham "Bram" Stoker heard of Dracula, much of the darker legends were already there.
It's insinuated in the novel that Dracula is actually Vlad the Impaler. Who is only pretending to be his own descendant.
Edit
Vlad the Impaler
www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Vlad_III_the_Impaler
The Ubir
ulukayin.org/ubir-english/
Also Lucy was based on a young American woman named Mercy Brown. She died of cholera but the people of New England thought the epidemic was caused by a Vampire.
So when they dug her up and she was still young and not decomposed they assumed it was her.
It's called the Mercy Brown Vampire incident and it became part of the New England Vampire panic
www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-great-new-england-vampire-panic-36482878/
Video on Mercy Brown
ruclips.net/video/bj4tCKjrk70/видео.html
This is one of those rare situations where the movie is much better than the book.
Keanu Reeves delivered a performance here that is so bad it’s almost unbelievable. Why didn’t the director tell him what he was doing? Was there anybody there on set who actually cared that this was being presented to an audience? It’s strange because in some way it’s a beautifully made film with world class set design and cinematography. Then there’s a high school amateur dramatics performance from the main character.
Although I could appreciate Bram Stoker's Dracula for it's Comprehensiveness, Style and Effects I am not a fan of a crying and romantic Dracula. I actually grew up and biased to Christopher Lee's The Horror of Dracula. May I suggest you watch and react to it.
In the famous 1931 version with Bela Lagosi the characters Johathan Harker and R. M. Renfield were combined. The story had to be simplified somewhat to fit into its run time of 1 h 15m
I love Tom Waits as Renfield.
she doesn't say much , just gives certain looks with her reactions. i like that!
Wynona Ryder was also the princess at the beginning. The priest at the beginning was Anthony Hopkins (Van Helsing).
Winner of 3 Oscars
Best Makeup
Best Costume Design
Best Sound Editing
Adrian Pasdar Alec Baldwin, Ray Liotta, Gabriel Byrne, John Malkovich Daniel Day Lewis, Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson, Richard Gere, Charlie Sheen, Emilio Estevez, Tom Hanks, Peter Weller, Aiden Quinn, Dermot Mulroney, Julian Sands, Christian Slater, Jason Patric, Costas Mandylor, Hart Bochner, Alan Rickman, Sting, Christopher Walken, Michael Nouri, and David Bowie were considered for Dracula.
The book is way better, you’ll love it
Thanks! :-)
This is the most accurate adaptation of the novel *except* the additions of Dracula being Vlad the Impaler and the reincarnated lost love in Mina and the accompanying romance between Dracula and Mina.
I love this version because it has the chase through Central Europe and Quincy Morris! Quincy is great in the book, and every other version leaves him out! The chase is left out too. And van Helsing is just as crazy in the book!
When you read the book, read the dialogue phonetically out loud and you will speak in the dialect of those characters, especially Dracula and van Helsing. It’s really fun! Stoker was brilliant!
Im glad you enjoyed this movie! :-)
36:43
"-But Lucy... I'm british.
-So are these!"
:)