intoxicating essence. He draws the viewers into his darkness and passion and guides them through until the end. This film is drastically romantic and hauntingly captivating- just like a real Dracula movie should be. The cinematography deserved Oldman's phenomenal performance and perfectly created a true vampire realm. Francis Ford Coppola is brilliant. This is the spirit of the vampire.

the former scene when Quincy is holding the hat. Very irritating with such a big blunder in a super movie like that. Now, what makes the movie a "tenner" is everything else, in particular Gary Oldmans interpretation of the count, and Anthony Hopkins as doctor van Helsing.The scene with Mina and Dracula in bed is one of the greatest romantic scenes ever, and sure to make any girl cry.

Seductive, strong, bad and scary in his own distinctive way, yet really romantic.Hopkins is funny as Van Helsing and quiet ironic.Winona is a great Mina. Beautiful, innocent. She looks great in these Victorian costumes.Keanu Reeves is not as bad as many of you think. He makes the best of his underwritten character.3, the Score... haunting, romantic, scary. It works beautiful with the pictures.I think this movie is a great cinematic achievement and very underrated. It's a shame they don't make movies like that any more.10/10

film are the pictures in the book Vampyr, which is read by van Helsing Anthony Hopkins in this movie. The pictures you find there are also to be found in history and school books, complete with ancient writings beside them. I will not reveal to you the nature of the plot, but I must say this bloody horror film is one of the most sad and romantic stories ever told. It is about a man who loses his wife and cannot rejoin her in another life. So he turns against anything people in the 15th century believed in and is punished by god to wander the earth as the undead. He is cursed to be feared and hunted, for he needs to drink the blood of man to keep alive. He is nosferatu vamyr , he is Count Dracula. He lives miserably for about 400 years until he falls in love again. And by doing so we are dragged into the fortune and misery of a creature who lives eternally. He is alive, but lifeless on the inside. He is rich, gentle and loving, yet he must feast on humans to survive. He is damned forever, whilst he did not do anything wrong. The settings of this great story is late 19th century Europe England and Karpathia . Karpathia is not well known to man, the wild side of Europe. All this bears with it the mysticism of this story and the epic and tragic background. As for Dracula Gary Oldman himself, he drags us into a world of blood, lust and erotica. He seems only to be driven by his great love for Mina Winona Ryder and the need of being together with her. TRUE LOVE There are some great and famous actors in this film: Anthony Hopkins, Winona Ryder, Gary Oldman, Cary Elwes and Keanu Reeves. They all contribute greatly to this film, although I must say that the best acting comes from Gary Oldman Dracula , Sadie Frost Lucy , Sir Anthony Hopkins van Helsing and music legend Tom Waits Renfield . Do not get me wrong the rest is good to and do their job's well, but these four really put the dot on the i. Besides the actors there are a lot of things that stand out look at the list of prizes and nominations at the Oscars , but I must say two people are left unaccounted for there. The director Francis Ford Copolla and the genius behind the haunting and touching music Wojciech Kilar. They both bring so much to the greatness of this film, I would have felt like an idiot if I had left them out. This does not only make an excellent horror / epic / romantic film, but surely is in my opinion a great date flick, about love everlasting and the tragedy of a man who is cursed to live forever and roam the world alone, for he is feared and hunted. 9 out of 10

bit long but there are very few lulls, if any. Gary Oldham gives his normal intense performance as Dracula and it never hurts to have Anthony Hopkins in the film. The only negative I found was Keannu Reeves, who sounds a bit wooden in his lines. Is it my imagination, or is he a terrible actor? Maybe it's just his voice. Nonetheless, Cary Elwes, Richard Grant, Sadie Frost and Bill Campbell all give good support to this film which is a real feast for the senses.

completely to him is not only romantic, but dangerous and filled with adventure. I always found it funny that Dracula was supposed to be the villain of the story, but he's offering to take the girl on this incredible adventure through the world and time yet her usually bland boyfriend doesn't want it that way so he rips her from that experience… I don't know, maybe I just look at things too differently. However moving onto the film, Francis took on the classic tale claiming to be "Bram Stoker's Dracula", not really being 100% faithful to the novel and really over glamed it, however still made this into a very good movie.In 1897, newly-qualified solicitor Jonathan Harker takes the Transylvanian Count Dracula as a client from his colleague R. M. Renfield, who has gone insane. Jonathan travels to Transylvania to arrange Dracula's real estate acquisition in London, including Carfax Abbey. Jonathan meets Dracula, who discovers a picture of Harker's fiancée, Mina, and believes that she is the reincarnation of Elisabeta, his long lost love. Dracula leaves Jonathan to be seduced by his brides and sails to England with boxes of his native soil, taking up residence at Carfax Abbey. In London, Dracula appearing young and handsome during daylight, meets and charms Mina. When Mina receives word from Jonathan, who has escaped the castle and recovered at a convent, she travels to Romania to marry him. In his fury, Dracula transforms Lucy, her best friend, into a vampire. The men: Van Helsing, Holmwood, Seward and Morris kill Lucy. After Jonathan and Mina return to London, Jonathan and Van Helsing lead the others to Carfax Abbey, where they destroy the Count's boxes of soil. Dracula confesses that he murdered Lucy and has been terrorizing Mina's friends, but a confused and angry Mina admits that she still loves him and remembers her previous life as Elisabeta. At her insistence, Dracula begins transforming her into a vampire. The men are now determined to save her before her transformation is complete by killing Dracula.What makes this film so special compared to other Dracula movies? I think it was Gary Oldman's performance, he made a very memorable Dracula. Ranging from creepy and disturbing to romantic and charming. I think a lot of people connected with the love story, even if it was over romanticized, a lot of people would like to think that "love never dies" and someone would "cross oceans of time to find them". Does the film have flaws; oh yeah. Between the laugh fest that was the battle of the bad accents between Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder. There are scenes that are very over the top and over acted, sometimes also equaling a little too MTV generation. However, you cannot deny that the style of the film is absolutely memorizing and very elegant. The costumes and sets are very stunning and who could forget Dracula's "butt" hair-do? This film has had so many parodies making fun of the lines and hair, but I think that goes to show the impact that the film had. It also started a stream of the Universal Studio remakes with "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" and "Wolf" later on. The film may be flawed, but I still love it. It's not faithful to the novel, but gets more things correct compared to other films like Dracula's death and some lines directly taken from the novel like "Yes, I too can love". I think this will go down in the horror classics when it comes to vampire movies, it's got class, violence, blood, style and a lot of sex appeal.8/10

was one of the guys who auditioned for the part of Dracula, and I have to say that he would be a great choice as Oldman.Ps: I will not write the plot here because I saw many people already did this.

Harker's fiancé Mina Murray played by Winona Ryder, the subject of Dracula's affection, Van Helsing the vampire hunter, played by Anthony Hopkins, and the man himself, Dracula, played with intensity by Gary Oldman. All four principle actors do well in their parts, lending a heightened drama to the fantastical story. Reeves is comfortably quiet as the straight man in the story. Ryder is an attractive presence on screen, wisely dialing back on the melodrama that may have infected her performance. Conversely, Anthony Hopkins gives a delightfully over-the-top turn as a man obsessed with killing Dracula. And speaking of the Count, Gary Oldman's irritating habit of wildly over-acting is actually channeled here into something incredibly watchable. Dracula is a fascinating presence every time he's on screen, especially when he's wearing Eiko Ishioka's brilliant costumes or sporting some of the most convincing creature makeup I have ever seen. The problem with the narrative in Bram Stoker's Dracula is that it spends too much time on an somewhat standard love story. Winona Ryder's character is well written and her arc works well enough, but at a certain point, the erotic love scenes only carry so much weight. I was far more interested in Dracula's point of view, and aesthetically, I simply wanted to spend more time in his castle. The first chunk of the film is so consistently engaging, both visually and thematically, that it is a pity that the rest of the movie never manages to get back to that level. I can't say I have a real problem with the love story. Like the rest of the film, it's well written, crafted, and acted, but the Dracula point of view as well as Van Helsing's vampire hunt were both more interesting story lines than the conventional love story, and I wish they would've gotten more screen time in comparison.Even with nagging problems regarding the story, I can't deny the power Coppola infuses into this film atmospherically. The costumes, music, sets, and special effects are uniformly amazing and they work together seamlessly with Coppola's direction to create a final product that is uniquely Coppola and uniquely Dracula. From the first shot of the film, Dracula is constantly surprising as a audio/visual experience. The first 45 minutes in particular showcase some of the most captivating visuals ever put on film. The opening flashback sequence alone is masterfully designed, composed, and shot. There is a heightened reality to the sequence, a storybook detachment that had me transfixed on the screen from the first second, and it didn't let up. The time spent in Dracula's castle is the highlight of the entire film, with the vast corridors of the castle illuminating with eerie shadows in some of the most daring and artistic cinematography I've ever seen. Dracula himself is a haunting creation, as he glides and coils about in an unsettlingly alien manner. The film never gets back to the same level of atmospheric intensity after we leave the castle, and that is a real shame, but still, Coppola continually shows us new visual tricks and inventive effects throughout the film. As a sensory experience, everything works. Coppola gives the film a breathtaking visual signature, utilizing age old camera tricks and special effects to create something that puts you in another world. It's not just unique locations we're treated to, it's a unique method of filmmaking. Wojciech Kilar's music is similarly special. Big, bold, haunting, and dramatic; the soundtrack here is exceptional. The same can be said for the costumes and makeup. There is a boldness to every technical department here.In Bram Stoker's Dracula, Francis Ford Coppola has created something daring, ambitious, and different in the best way possible. Unfortunately, the movie's best section is its first, and the story lingers too long on it's least interesting story line. While those complaints keep the film from being truly great, they don't stop Bram Stoker's Dracula from showcasing a master filmmaker's unique vision. This is a special film, an extraordinary sensory experience, a 2 hour journey to a dark, foreboding dreamworld that I won't soon forget.85/100