Dracula by Bram Stoker

Dracula, by Bram Stoker (original title in English, Bram Stoker's Dracula) is an American horror and romance film released in 1992. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola and produced by Columbia Pictures; the screenplay for the film was written by James V. Hart based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. The film starred Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves, and Antony Hopkins. The soundtrack was provided by Wojciech Kilar, except for the final theme "Love Song for a Vampire", which was composed by Annie Lennox. It had a budget of $40 million, an extraordinary amount for a horror film (a genre that was not in vogue at the time and was usually shot on very modest budgets). The film was well received by the public and got 215,862,692 dollars worldwide, a fact that meant the return to success of Francis Ford Coppola and his film production company American Zoetrope. At the 65th Academy Awards ceremony, the film won three awards in the category of Best Costume Design for Eiko Ishioka, Best Sound Editing for Tom C. McCarthy and David E. Stone, and finally Best Makeup for Greg Cannom, Michele Burke, and Matthew W. Mungle.

Francis Ford Coppola, film director

Synopsis

In 1897, at the end of the 19th century, Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves), recently received as a lawyer, must travel to Transylvania so that Count Dracula (Gary Oldman) signs some papers referring to some properties that he has just acquired in London. The problem is that the count is not who he claims to be: in reality, he is the mythical Romanian prince Vlad Tepes, a fervent knight of the Order of the Dragon, who became a "human vampire". once he revealed all his anger against God, after the Turkish army with the false news of his death in battle pushed his wife Princess Elizabetha, the great love of his life, to suicide, and the waters were stained with blood and tears of the river Arges, into which he threw himself. Strangely, Harker's girlfriend, Mina Murray (Winona Ryder), would become the living reincarnation of the Romanian princess four hundred years later. For that reason, Dracula decides to travel to the British capital to conquer it. Mina, after meeting him, agrees to have a secret romance with the mysterious Romanian prince, for which she will have to fight between the forces of good and evil, before the immortal love that existed between them finally succeeds.

Gary Oldman

Cast

• Gary Oldman as the Dracula Count: Romanian Knight of the Dragon Order. Throughout the film the character shows his facet as a ruthless warrior, as an old count and as a romantic knight. It is said that the actor studied the dialogues in such a way that, if he forgot a sentence, he wanted to repeat the whole scene again so that he could translate the whole dialogue. He read the novel and rehearsed with a dreadful tone for the old Dracula, giving the character a more terrifying touch. His make-ups took five hours to get the count's physicist.
• Winona Ryder as Mina Murray: It also represents Elizabeth the wife of the Count, who commits suicide by believing him dead and triggers subsequent events. Promised and then wife of Jonathan Harker and friend of Lucy Westenra. While in the novel, Mina is a responsible and faithful woman, in the film the character goes beyond and has a affair with Count Dracula while her husband is in Transylvania. The actress had to leave behind and lose four pounds to interpret both Mina and Elizabeth, the wife of Dracula who committed suicide four hundred years earlier.
• Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker: Lawyer who must travel to Transylvania to meet with the Count and finish the documents of the acquisition of a land by this which Renfield left incomplete when he was mad. Initially rejected paper by Johnny Depp was considered for the character to Brad Pitt, but Reeves' friendship with the director helped him to be chosen for the role. It was this film that released him to fame and many say that the characterization of the actor is very similar to that of the novel.
• Sadie Frost as Lucy Westenra: A childhood friend of Mina Murray.
• Richard E. Grant as Dr. John Seward.
• Cary Elwes as Sir Arthur Holmwood.
• Billy Campbell like Quincey Morris.
• Anthony Hopkins as Professor Abraham van Helsing: For the role of the old doctor specializing in vampires and other strange creatures he thought of Liam Neeson, but when he found out that his admired Anthony Hopkins was interested, he decided to give it up. This interpretation goes beyond what the novel proposes: a character more crazy than sane, with a brilliant intelligence. As a curiosity, it should be noted that the actor studied German to get the accent of his character. The actor is the one who serves as a narrator and is also the priest who tells the count that Elizabeth has taken her own life, which is why her soul cannot be saved.
• Tom Waits like Renfield.
• Jay Robinson as Mr. Hawkins.
• Monica Bellucci as a Dracula concubine.
• Michaela Bercu as a Dracula concubine.
• Florina Kendrick as a Dracula concubine.

Winona Ryder

Keanu Reeves

Dubbing

Character	Original Actor	Fold actor	Redoblaje	Fold actor
Mina and Elisabeta	Winona Ryder	Queta Leonel	Natalia Rosminati	Núria Mediavilla
Count Dracula	Gary Oldman	Arturo Mercado	-	* Claudio Rodríguez (Principe Vlad and Count Dracula) * Pere Molina (young Dracula)
Jonathan Harker	Keanu Reeves	Miguel Angel Soriano	-	Luis Posada
Van Helsing	Anthony Hopkins	Rolando de Castro Sr.	-	Camilo García
Quincey Morris	Billy Campbell	Rolando de Castro	-	Juan Antonio Bernal
Dr. Jack Seward	Richard E. Grant	Gustavo López	-	Luis Fenton
Lord Arthur Holmwood	Cary Elwes	Óscar Arzamendi	-	Armando Carreras

Anthony Hopkins

Production

Script

It was widely rumored that Coppola, in addition to directing the film, would also be in charge of adapting the novel into a screenplay. But finally, the producers gave the task to James V. Hart, since he had been working on an adaptation of the original novel for quite some time.

There has been much controversy about the loyalty of Hart's script to Bram Stoker's novel, and this film is currently considered the best adaptation of Stoker's work, since although all the characters appear in it, their personalities they are misrepresented. Dracula in the castle appears with a decrepit appearance and an outlandish hairstyle, and when he arrives in London and rejuvenates himself he becomes a fop. The two young women, Lucy Westenra and Mina Murray, are also deformed: from what they are delicate and refined in the novel, in the film they are the opposite: Lucy Westenra is a flirtatious and seductive redhead, and Mina Harker is unfaithful to her husband. Jonathan Harker, because he falls in love with Dracula and has an affair with him; this idyll does not exist at all in the novel, since Mina is faithful to it.

Address

The film is directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The producers had thought of other horror genre directors such as William Friedkin or John Carpenter, but finally opted for Coppola. Many of the producers doubted whether Coppola would meet expectations, since lately this director suffered multiple financial problems due to film disasters; he had directed films of great cost, but low grosses, such as The Godfather III or Apocalypse Now . Coppola this time focused more on creative goods than economics and put all his effort into making innovations that had never been done, and finally not only met the requirements of the film, but made it one of the highest grossing films of the year. We must also add that it was one of the films that would save the director from both his economic and professional crisis, making Coppola recover his lost prestige in the world of cinema.

Music

Wojciech Kilar, composer of the soundtrack.

The original soundtrack was composed by Polish composer Wojciech Kilar, who would meet Coppola at one of his concerts in France, and would give him a US debut composing the film's music.

His music was about to be nominated for an Oscar, but due to unknown determinations by the producers, they did not want Kilar's music to be selected.

The film's theme song, "Love Song for a Vampire" (Love song for a vampire), was written by Annie Lennox, who, together with Kilar's work, would be released on a disc with the soundtrack and the songs performed by Lennox. This album was very successful in the United States, and also in a large part of Europe, especially in Poland, for the reason that it was the debut of a Polish composer in American cinema.

Deleted Scenes

Due to constant criticism of the film for its violent and in many cases discouraging scenes, the production had no choice but to cut many of the film's scenes until it finished with 120 minutes in length, but supposedly, with the cut scenes, the film should have lasted 145 minutes. Many fans of the novel complained about it, since a breakup of the film would equal less creative expression from the book. Shortly after the film's release, these cut scenes from the film circulated on fledgling websites. Finally, when the version of the film was released on VHS and DVD, such deleted scenes would be included, thus showing the public a more extended version, which included quite sarcastic scenes, including Winona Ryder's nudes.

Reception

Despite everything, the film would be well received by critics. They called it the best film adaptation of the novel ever made, as there are countless adaptations of Stoker's work today. Critical reaction was generally positive, but the novel's fidelity to the plot was widely questioned. Additionally, Keanu Reeves received considerable criticism from the public for his portrayal of Jonathan Harker. However, the film was a notable box office success, grossing USD 82,522,790 in its country of origin and USD 133,339,902 in the rest of the world, with a total collection of USD 215,862,692, becoming the adaptation of the most commercially successful novel to date. Gary Oldman's portrayal of Dracula was praised by many critics and won the Saturn Award for Best Actor.

Marketing

• The commercialization of the film included a table game, a pinball and video games for Super Nintendo, Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, Sega Genesis, Game Gear, Commodore Amiga and Sega CD.

• In addition, they published a comic of the film by Roy Thomas and Mike Mignola and 100 collectible letters released by the Topps company.

• Several action figures based on the film were also produced.