Bram Stoker

Released in 1992 Fancis Ford Coppola's adaptation of the Bram Stoker's classic novel, Dracula, was intended to be the most faithful until that date. Inventive in several aspects this movie was the first to associate the image of the novel's vampire to the Prince of Wallachia, Vlad Tepes, The Impaler.

A prologue in the first minutes of the film tells the story of how he defeated the Turkish army, and how the vengeful enemy threw an arrow at his castle with the false claim that Vlad had been killed during battle. Believing the lies his princess, Elisabeth, leapt to her death in the Castle abyss.

Returning from battle to find his beloved dead Prince Vlad (Gary Oldman) blasphemes against God and thrusts his sword in the cross he faithfully served. Blood spills through the crack and, drinking it, he swears that from now on he will deny the Church, thus becoming the eternal blood thirsty night creature.

Anxious, but also insecure about making the journey, Harker fears that he will end up like Reinfiled, the former agent sent to Dracula's Castle, completely insane. That detail was also absent in the book. Bram Stoker never explains why the madman Reinfield becomes attracted for Dracula. Coppola and his screenwriter found a convincing device to provide that.

Dracula's novel is interpreted as expressing the fear the West felt about the mysteries of the East. Dracula was a representation of how those mysteries slowly invaded the West. The film makes that detail even more obvious when Jonathan Harker points out on the train to Transylvania that he feels he is leaving the West and entering the East.

Another aspect emphasized by this adaptation is the sexuality implicit in the myth of the vampire. The vampire bite is interpreted as a representation of intercourse. Coppola makes it explicit when Harker is attacked by Dracula's mistresses and when Dracula bites Lucy Westerna, the friend of Harker's fiancee, Mina Murray (Winona Rider). Lucy's sex appeal also becomes evident after the vampire's attack.

Mina becomes the reincarnation of Dracula's deceased princess, another deviation from the novel, but, again, well used to improve the plot.

When Lucy Westerna becomes ill from the constant attacks of Dracula Jack Seward, Lucy's doctor and Madhouse director, calls for his former Professor, Abraham Van Helsing (Anthony Hopkins in a strangely exaggerated performance). The Professor soon identifies the creature plaguing Lucy and leads a group to execute it.

One of the most interesting characteristics of Bram Stoker's novel is the way the story is narrated--entirely through characters' diaries or letters to each other. Coppola keeps that characteristic in several moments.
With amazing art directing and sets built up in studios "Bram Stoker's Dracula" emerges as the best adaptation of Bram Stoker's so far. Coppola achieved his goal, making the most faithful reproduction. It is done with an effective balance between passion and darkness.