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Dracula (1992)
Starring Gary Oldman, Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, and Anthony Hopkins. Cinematography by Michael Ballhaus. Edited by Anne Goursaud, Glen Scantlebury, and Nocholas C. Smith. Produced by Francis Ford Coppola, Fred Fuchs, and Charles Mulvehill. Written by James V. Hart. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
The Romanian king Vlad the Impaler has fought gallantly for his Christian God in the bloody Crusades. He has single handedly slew thousands of his enemy and returns home a hero. But an erroneous report that he was mortally wounded in battle has beaten him home and his love, Elisabeta, has thrown herself off a building in grief.
Vlad curses the God that he fought so bravely for and vows to continue to do so for the rest of eternity. Flash forward to the nineteenth century where a young lawyer named Jonathan Harker has been called on by the immortal creature, now known as Dracula, to evaluate his vast real estate transactions. Dracula spies a photograph of Harker’s fiancée Mina who is a dead ringer for his lost love. He immediately picks up and moves to England so that he can reclaim his bride.
Winona Ryder was originally cast as Mary Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather: Part III, but had to drop out when she was hospitalized for exhaustion. She maintained communication with him, however, and when she came across a script that interested her she sent it his way. The script was Dracula: The Untold Story by James V. Hart.
Hart had been working on adapting Bram Stoker’s novel to the screen since 1977 and his script was actually in the process of becoming a made for television movie at the time Ryder discovered it. Coppola quickly saw the potential in the screenplay and thought that it would be a good opportunity to start reestablishing his reputation in the Hollywood filmmaking community. Coppola added a few of his own personal touches and changed the titled to Bram Stoker’s Dracula (using the author’s name because Universal Pictures owned the rights to “Dracula”). He then found forty two million dollars worth of support from Columbia Pictures and jumped back into his first horror film since his days with Roger Corman.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula has its strengths and its weaknesses. Of its strengths, the most impressive is Coppola’s use of complimentary old and new filmmaking technologies. In homage to vintage vampire films like Nosferatu and Dracula, Coppola used many of the techniques popular in the early years of filmmaking (for example using irises to cut from one scene to the next) and even used an old Pathè camera to shoot some footage.
And then seamlessly tied in are some of the most cutting edge special effects and make-up technologies available. On top of that you’ve got beautiful period costumes and sets that add to the amazing visuals of the picture. But beyond the spectacle the film has little else to offer. The story struggles and is full of holes, and behind some pretty credible performances are bland and uninteresting characters.
The movie audiences didn’t seem to mind, however, and they turned out in droves. The film made over eighty million dollars in its US theatrical run and much more abroad. Coppola now had two consecutive hits with this and The Godfather: Part III. Zoetrope was raised from the dead.
Budget: $40,000,000
Total US Gross: $82,522,790
Genre: Horror
Runtime: 128 Minutes
US Release Date: 11/13/92
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Awards: Academy Awards: Won for best costume design, best sound effects, and best makeup. Nominated for best art direction/set decoration.
Tagline: Love Never Dies.
Quote: “The blood is life... and it shall be mine.”
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