My past few days have been filled with Dracula movies either at the theatre or on Netflix. Best Week Ever! Now I am a Bram Stoker Dracula purist. I am very critical of anything relating to the unabridged story that was written by Bram Stoker.
As I've said before in other posts, for the past several years I have listened to the audio book of Stoker's Dracula read by Simon Vance. It lulls me to sleep faster than any sleeping pill ever could. I have no idea why, but it works.
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| Dracula Untold 2014 |
In my opinion, Luke Evans was the perfect fit for Vlad before all hell broke loose. His mannerisms, facial expressions and speaking voice were dead on. Mirena, played by Sara Gadon, is a classic beauty and she totally understands her man. Even when he is turning into Dracula. I don't want to spoil the movie for y'all, but there is a scene, the most memorable scene in the movie for me. Mirena is trying to defend her son, Ingeras, from being taken by those nasty Turks. She is knocked off the tower's edge and hangs perilously by her hands. Finally, the two stones she is holding on to pull away and she begins falling to her death. She falls lying on her back with her golden hair flowing up to the sky, her arms are stretched out as Dracula has jumped from the ledge to try and save her life. He is diving down towards her with his outstretched hands, as parts of him are disintegrating into black bats. It is a very long fall and they almost are able to touch each other's hands. That singular scene is one of the most romantic things I have ever seen, at the same time being gutwrenching.
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| William Dafoe as Count Orlok |
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| Nosferatu played by Max Schrek |
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| Bram Stoker's Dracula Movie |
Released back in 1992, it has been my personal favorite since the dialog uses actual wording from Stoker's book. It has stayed truer to the book than any other movie thus far. The only addition was the love triangle between Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves), Mina Murray (Wynona Ryder) and Vlad, played perfectly by Gary Oldman. (BTW Keanu was a very poor choice for Jonathan Harker as his British accent was pretty much nonexistent. They should have spent more money on a dialect coach). But I digress, the book has no such triangle, even though Dracula does actually bit Mina in the book so I suppose you could stretch that out a bit and an unrequited love story does sell more tickets. I know the lines that Vlad used on Mina would have swept me completely off my feet. And I have always wanted to try Absinthe drizzled over the sugar cube. That scene is awesome with candles lit everywhere and then Vlad feeds Mina the Absinthe sugar cube. MEOW.
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| Absinthe in Dracula |
So much has been written, filmed and talked about when it comes to Dracula or Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia. I wonder what he would think if he could see all that he has inspired in people in the way of the written word and film? Maybe he would say, "Let's get them on a pole immediately!"
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| Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia |
Sites Mentioned In Above Post:
http://www.sho.com/sho/shameless/home
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0829150/
http://www.starz.com/originals/blacksails
http://zachmcgowan.com
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