A fangtastic vampire movie

Rating: 10/10 (18 December 2013)

As a big fan of Bram Stoker's novel, it's no wonder I tend to like this movie a lot. The soundtrack is perfect - absolutely great! Costumes, extraordinary old-fashion-looking special effects and sets - I liked all of it. However, what I particularly love about it is the following: Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of this storyline is a perfect blend of the two opposite literary ideas of vampirism: the Melancholic Vampire (as exemplified by Romantic poets like Byron, Shelley and many more) and the Monstrous Vampire (as exemplified by its creator Stoker and many followers later). Both types of vampires exist until today (although today we are confronted with a third type, namely the harmless, romantic, oh-so-beautiful, socially-accepted High School Vampire). What Coppola did, however, was to combine these two main types into one single "Dracula", into a character that is both monstrous, evil, contagious and melancholic, love-stricken, suffering. This perfect blend and encompassing portrayal was only possible because an excellent actor could be won for the role of Dracula. Gary Oldman is impressive and I am sad that he has never got much attention for this role.