Excellent film

Rating: Null/10 (18 December 1999)

The problem with most book to film projects is that it is almost impossible to capture all of the essence and meaning of the original work onto the screen. I think IWTV is perhaps one of best translations of this. Although there are many parts of the novel that have been excised from the film I feel it managed to keep everything that was integral to the original story. The Homo-erotic scenes are significantly down-played, I assume for the sake of avoiding controversey. Too much of that would have just made viewers regard it as whoring trash and realistically, I doubt that either Cruise or Pitt would have agreed to display themselves in overt homosexual themes. This works out fine because the heart of the story is not just about sex or love. (Although it is the driving motivation for many of the characters) This is not the type of film to see if you are looking for a grandiose villain with a nefarious plot who meets his end in a gruesome display of blood and gore. It's more than just splattering eye-candy. The story is about Human exploration. Rice initiated a romanticized theme in Vampire lore that has been imitated in almost every medium since. I think the film is about re-evaluating ones values in light of tragedy and testing the boundaries of immoral hedonism. It paints the vampire in a portrait that I think others have either never dared to or never succeeded in capturing. My only complaint is the casting choice of Antonio Banderas. He is way too old and much too masculine to be playing the role of Armand. I think a much better choice for the character would have been (if he lived) River Phoenix. I think he would have been a great Armand. Many viewers ended up having a lot of complaints about various characters. Most notably, Louis. The only defense that I can offer is that you must read the written story. And not just Interview, but the follow ups as well. They lend so much into the nature of the characters that it explains their actions in their first film/novel. All in all....a very good film.