An Honest Review

Rating: 8/10 (4 December 2016)

On one hand, I always Hated the Anne Rice take on vampires...OK, sure, "Queen of the Damned" was an awesome and fun book that read like a comic book. It was really good but...but beautiful vampires...no.
I applaud the Gay thing. It was written in 1976 well before even don't ask don't tell. It took brass to do that and shame on Neil Jordan for leaving it out. The book, I feel could possibly have done a lot for civil rights, normalize it in the mind of Americans and the movie, with Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, and Antonio Banderas, well it could have been as hard hitting as Rage Against the Machine if they left it in.
It took pure brass to write in that way in 1976 and feet of clay to leave it out of the movie. And after "The Crying Game?" Shame on the producers. That's probably more their fault than Jordan's.
Still, beautiful sensitive vampires? No. They feed on blood, wouldn't they have every BBP on earth? Look when it was set? Louise and Lestate should have syphilis.
Besides, they are evil, right? Vampires are evil and that is why Blade and Buffy and Harker hunt them and kill them. They aren't beautiful creatures that you pity and love. They are evil creatures that you kill.
Anti-Vampire rant aside...the movie is beautiful. Neil Jordan knows how to make movies beautiful and he pulls out all the stops in "Interview with the Vampire." It is just a stunning movie to watch.
And, though I really do hate how Anne Rice writes vampires...I read her anyway. Her stories are always sublime...with the exception of "Queen of the Damned" which was the hard rock version of her otherwise cool jazz stories.
Her stories are set in New Orleans--mostly--sometimes Frisco, but they always seemed to remind me of the coldest Chicago winters. It reminds me of when I find myself tucking against the frigid wind as I walk down a street that would otherwise be booming with people and action.
Her stories are visceral and sublime at the same time and Jordan captured that well. Even people like me who hate how she writes vampires still read her because of how she writes.
The story is as jaw dropping as Jordan's direction.
My only lament is that it could have been a civil rights springboard and they passed on that chance to make the world a better place through cinema.