Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Plot synopsis:
In 1794 Captain Walton leads a troubled expedition to reach the North Pole. While their ship is trapped in the ice of the Arctic Sea, the crew discovers a man, Victor Frankenstein, traveling across the Arctic on his own. Victor proceeds to tell Walton and the crew his life story.
Victor grows up in Geneva with his adopted sister, Elizabeth Lavenza, who will become the love of his life. Before he leaves for the university at Ingolstadt, Victor's mother dies giving birth to his brother William. Victor vows on his mother's grave that he will find a way to conquer death.
At university, Victor's interest in the works of alchemists make him unpopular with professors. He finds a friend in Henry Clerval and a mentor in Professor Waldman. Victor comes to believe that the only way to cheat death is to create life. Professor Waldman warns Victor not to follow through with his theory; he tested it once, but ended his experiments because they resulted in an "abomination."
While performing vaccinations, Waldman is murdered by a patient, who is later hanged in the village square. Victor breaks into Waldman's laboratory, takes his notes, and begins to work on a creation. Victor gives his creature dead body parts from various sources, including the body of Waldman's murderer and Waldman's own brain. He is so obsessed with his work that not even a cholera outbreak tears him from it. Victor finally gives his creation life, but he recoils from it in horror and renounces his experiments.
The creature escapes, running off to the wilderness with Victor's coat which contains Victor's journal. He spends months living in a family's barn without their knowledge, gradually learning to read and speak. He attempts to earn the family's trust by anonymously helping them with their failing farm, and eventually converses with the patriarch, an elderly blind man, after aiding him and his granddaughter against violent debt collectors. But when the blind man's family returns, they mistakenly think the creature committed the assaults against the patriarch and granddaughter, and chase the creature away and abandon the cottage. The creature reads Victor's journal, learning of the circumstances of his creation. He vows revenge on his creator.
Victor, who believes the creature has died of cholera, returns to Geneva to marry Elizabeth. He finds his younger brother William has been murdered. Justine, a servant of the Frankenstein household, is framed for the crime by the creature and hanged by a lynch mob.
Victor is approached by his creation demanding that Victor make a companion for him, promising that if Victor does, he will disappear with his mate. Victor begins gathering the tools he used to create life, but when the creature insists he use Justine's body to make the companion, Victor breaks his promise and the creature vows revenge.
Victor and Elizabeth are married. Shortly after, unknown to them, the creature silently kills Baron Frankenstein in his own bedroom. Victor takes every precaution to defend his wife on their honeymoon, but the creature gains access to their bedroom and tears out Elizabeth's heart, killing her.
Maddened with grief beyond measure, Victor races home to bring Elizabeth back to life. He stitches Elizabeth's head onto Justine's fully intact body, and she awakes as a re-animated creature. The two are briefly and happily reunited until the creature appears. Victor and the monster fight for Elizabeth's affections, but Elizabeth, horrified by what she has become, commits suicide by setting herself on fire, burning the mansion to the ground.
The story returns to the Arctic Circle. Victor tells Walton that he has been pursuing his creation for months to kill him. Soon after relating his story, Victor dies from pneumonia. Walton discovers the creature weeping over Victor's body. The crew prepares a funeral pyre for Victor, but the ceremony is interrupted when the ice around the ship cracks. Walton invites the creature to stay with the ship, but the creature insists on remaining with the pyre. He takes the torch and burns himself alive with Victor's body. Walton, having seen the consequences of Victor's obsession, puts his own obsession aside and orders the ship to return home.

Tags: revenge, gothic, murder, violence, sci-fi

Review:
(I think Christopher Lee hated this movie and equally class-dripping Bram Stoker's Dracula because he felt that they were competing in the same area.) There's the classic monsters (Robert DeNiro!), the period sets, the lovely heroines in the lovely period costumes, the beautiful and suitably turbulent score...
I have not read Mary Shelley's book, but if it has half the emotional effect of this movie, I'll consider it time well spent!What really surprised me though, was that this wasn't a horror film in the traditional sense of the word - it wasn't so that the monster would jump out and the audience would scream.
It was more about how the audience would slowly writhe as they realize the tortured motivations of the creature and what he's willing to do as consequence.Kenneth Branagh brought this movie together wonderfully, with both his directing and powerful, memorable acting as the tormented Dr. Victor Frankenstein.
I think De Niro deserved an Oscar, or at least a nomination for this role.The supporting cast is also very good, with Helena Bonham Carter doing a wonderful and chilling job as Frankenstein's wife (another one who I think should have gotten an Oscar nod), and John Cleese (in probably the only downright serious role in his career) being very creepy as Frankenstein's mentor, who realized before that the moral implications of his kind of work cannot be lived with.
This isn't really a problem for the film as a whole: Holm played a relatively minor character, but I have a lot of respect for his acting skills, and I would have liked to see more of them in this movie.This is probably one of the most powerful and draining movies I've ever seen in my life; I was so impressed by it that I had to run out and buy the DVD right away.
It's true that there were some disgusting parts (I won't go into specifics, but you can probably get the idea), but they seemed to merely add to the mood of the movie, and increase your revulsion that Victor Frankenstein would have thought of creating such a monstrosity.
When dealing with a classic, oft-filmed work, he must choose a new slant, and exploit themes that have not been emphasized before (at least, in quite that way), if his work is to be at all original.Branagh's breezy response was something on the order of, "I didn't really have a theme in mind, I just wanted to tell a good story."This is precisely why Branagh's version fails: is an unanchored, misguided mess.
Realising what he has done, Frankenstein leaves his monster to die but the creature learns fast and wants revenge for his creation.I have seen far too many monster movies that all blur together and share the same focus on effects and gore than story or character.
Quinn is a good cameo but the majority of the cast seem to have bought into the whole `worthy' thing and are dulled as a result.Overall the film is worth watching because it is a good telling of the classic tale and De Niro does a good job of showing us the basic human behind the combined dead body parts.
He introduces himself as Victor Frankenstein (Kenneth Branagh) and he tells to the captain the story of his life since he was a little boy in Geneva.
as i watched the trailer of the movie on TV, i thought it'll be another horror movie with the same old clichés, full of blood and disgusting scenes...However,when i saw the movie i was moved by the dramatic melancholic and tragic way in which branagh directed it...it wasn't at all such a trivial horror movie..on the contrary..it was another philosophical deep way of reviving Shelley's novel..it was another masterpiece of branagh's...he adopted the novel in such a delicate dramatic romantic way..and dipped into the moral that Shelley meant by her story..Branagh made of Victor Frankenstein another Odesseus whose vanity and arrogance makes him think that he could imitate God and defy Him..he made him a tragic hero haunted by the death of his mother which has created in him the urging desire of fighting death and creating an alternative life...Branagh's choice of the actors was more than perfect, De Niro made a sympathetic touching creature despite his violence and thick hands ,the creature in this movie managed to escape being another scary pale dead monster walking the earth as it was in the old Frankenstein movies,the genius De Niro made us feel and believe that this creature bears great equal amounts of love and rage and that if he cannot satisfy one ,he'll indulge the other (as he says to frankenstein), Helena Bonham Carter was splendid as Elizabeth,she was like the refreshing breeze in the movie which could decrease the intensity of the bloody scenes, Tom Hulce in the role of Henry was in his friendship to Victor as intimate as the friendship of Horatio to Hamlet, Ian Holm as the baron Frankenstein was very good ,but his part was too small that he couldn't show all his talents, Richard Briers was great in the role of the tender grandfather, and of course Kenneth Branagh himself as Frankenstein was perfect,he could make us pity for Frankenstein rather than hating him.
All the elements for a brilliant film were in place: a perfect cast (especially De Niro as the monster), breathtaking locations, and for once, complete faithfulness to the real story.
With nary a bolt or piece of green skin in sight, Mary Shelley's classic tale of anti-science terror has never looked so great.It's just such a pity that it cannot make its mind up whether it wants to be a pure emotional drama or a straight-for-the-throat horror story.
Hearing the "son" tell the "father" how the latter gave the former these major impulses and bursts of violent strength without teaching the poor creature how to deal with them rings so true for me that I still show this scene to the health professionals I try to educate from time to time.If I could sum up my comments on this film in a single phrase, it would be that while we have a long way to go in realising the true horror element of this story, Kenneth Branagh's effort stands head and shoulders above the pack.
Like Bram Stokers Dracula and The Mummy, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a classic horror film.
DeNiro playing Frankenstein's monster was great idea, and the performance feels true to the character in the book.
You've got to wonder what people are thinking sometimes when making a horror film - did Branagh, or whoever had final cut of this thing, get chills up their spine at any point?
This movie is a lot of things, mostly a really good lesson in really bad film-making, but it is not scary, nor does it carry any of the message or subtext of Shelly's book.
One would like to think that Branagh approached this as an assignment with a big paycheck, which could cut him off from some of the blame, but from his blustery, overstuffed interviews at the time, he took it, and himself, very, very, very, very seriously, and I'm sure he thought he was adding something profound to the great cannon of the Frankenstein legend.
If Boris Karloff were still alive today and watched this version of the classic novel, he would probably die of a heart attack or have nightmares for weeks!After playing gangsters and police officers in so many of his movies, it's nice to see Robert DeNiro stretching as an actor by playing the sad, neglected creation of Dr. Frankenstein.
(And Boris Karloff played the monster, not Lon Chaney).2) Although this film is truer to the original novel, it is not faithful and makes considerable changes that alter the overall intent of the story.
There is no love triangle in the book, Victor Frankenstein is a medical student of about 18-19 years of age (Branagh is well past the sell-by date for that), and he creates the monster entirely by accident.
He is a whole new kind of Frankenstein.Kenneth Branagh's film does not fully honor Mary Shelley's classic masterpiece, but it feels engaging and fresh, and it shines new light on one of the most memorable literary creations of the 19th century..
This interpretation of the story "Frankenstein", with personalities like Kenneth Brannagh,Ian Holmes,Helena-Bonham Carter and John Cleese amongst others is so incredible in its execution and dramatic flare.
Victor Frankenstein (Kenneth Branagh) makes a scientific breakthrough by which he can create a living creature from the pieces of the dead.
In this version, Frankenstein abandons his creation, thinking it dead, but it lives and follows him to seek its revenge for his uncaring treatment of it.All of the many good film treatments of the Frankenstein story depend on evoking the audience's sympathy for the Creature.
DeNiro's Creature is not Karloff's child-in-a-man's-body, but more an adolescent with an adolescent's need for compassion and with an adolescent's rage at being rejected for his appearance.But the strength of the movie is not so much the characters as the energy and pacing as, slowly at first, then faster and faster, everything in Frankenstein's life falls to pieces, with his horror slowly growing as he realizes that it has all been his own fault.
Kenneth Branagh is very good in the lead, although sometimes theatrical and unnatural; Tom Hulce was mediocre in the role of Clerval because his character was very mistreated by the writer; Ian Holm and Helena Bonham Carter were OK; John Cleese, Robert Hardy and Trevyn McDowell fulfilled but didn't delight us; Robert De Niro did the most striking work in a melodramatic, intense, powerful and psychological portrait of a character who, in other films, was merely an instrument of horror.Despite these merits, the film has a big flaw: it's too melodramatic, full of presumption, self-importance and aspirations of greatness.
A happy Victor Frankenstein(Kenneth Branagh)enamored his half-sister(Helena Bonham Carter) goes to the University where learns signatures of professors(John Cleese and Robert Hardy).He decides to drop out and continue his studies alone.Then Frankenstein attempting to create an artificial monster(Robert DeNiro) of his own.But he's creating a man made being but inadvertently giving him a criminal instinct.Victor rejects him and the monster flees and after he swears vengeance.The monster terrorizing the countryside and everything gets worse.Then he's coerced by the evil monster into creating a mate for him but he begins a killing spree.The bloodthirsty monster asks to Victor trying to alive recently executed for give him a lover.The prowl starts from monster birth ,continuing his revenge against Frankenstein and back again, until the end in the freeze Arctic where find a captain of galleon(Aidan Quinn).This is a stylish,brilliant and faithful adaptation of immortal,durable novel.It's a well designed recounting of Mary Shelley's horror tale.Spooky images creates impact of numerous key sequences as in the monster creation .This is a good entry of the several adapted times has many ghoulish scenes alongside with some touches of romance.Although creaky at times, but it's still breathtaking for its impressive images.Terrific acting by Robert DeNiro in his portrayal of the monster with a sinister and weird performance.It's an entertaining movie if you catch it in the right frame in the mind.Spectacular images by cameraman Roger Pratt make this picture a real treat.Sensational,evocative score by Patrick Doyle, usual in the movies directed by Kenneth Branagh.The film was nominated for ten Oscars but didn't achieve none.Highly recommended despite it was a flop in the box office..
He eventually manages to create a being by piecing together parts from various human corpses and to bring it to life by means of electricity.Branagh not only directed but also starred as Victor, one of two remarkable performances in this film.
Mary Shelley does not perhaps rank as highly in the modern pantheon of English literature as her husband Percy, but she does at least have the distinction of having created in "Frankenstein" one of the great myths of modern times, a story which is known to millions who have never read her original novel.
I read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein for A Level English and we watched the film around the same time for Media Studies.
While I give Branagh props for having directed the most accurate Frankenstein movie to date, I believe that it it not right to call this movie "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein." This movie falls short of capturing the essence of the novel "Frankenstein" written by Mary Shelleey through the loss and/or alteration of character details, and the complete disregard of the Gothic elements which characterize the novel.The passion and drive of Victor Frankenstein are lost in the movie's attempts to give reason to his madness.The feminist ideas that are presented in the novel are dashed by a washed out version of Elizabeth.Also, because of the period the book was written in, there was a lot of focus on the natural v.
Although based on one of the all time greatest 'releasing the inner human monster' and 'pay for your affronts to God' stories, the movie was merely an expensive costume drama like those being produced by the dozen at BBC's studios.
I don't think we're even told what De Niro's character's name in "Frankenstein" was before he was executed?Like Tavis Bickle in "Taxi Driver" the Creature considers himself "God's lonely Man" and yearns for a mate, Cybill Shepherd's Besty from the movie Taxi Driver?, to fill his idle time as well as give him a normal life.
Francis Ford Coppola and Kenneth Branagh make a very brave effort in retelling Mary Shelly's story, especially in a time when all anyone recalls is that the monster's name is Frankenstein, and that he had a flat head.
Instead, it comes across vividly in bits and pieces, stitched together much the way the monster itself was created by Victor Frankenstein.There are genuinely frightful moments with creepiness made more effective by Patrick Doyle's score, but there are equally moments that serve no purpose in the story and are there simply for shock effect, such as the mother's death during childbirth.ROBERT DiNIRO has to suffer beneath extravagantly scarred make-up but does a creditable job as the creature.
Despite the realistic make-up, he's never as scary as Boris Karloff in the original Universal film nor does he ever overact the role the way Branagh does with Victor Frankenstein.HELENA BONHAM CARTER is fine as Elizabeth and has some shocking moments toward the film's climax.
As is the case with most films made in recent years based on classic novels, Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein does not live up to the original book.
The worst part about it all was that DeNiro's makeup and version of the Monster was promising, but cut short behind a muddle of boredom and sped up story, if only to put a beautiful book into two hours of over dramaticized slaughtering that only came to an end when the fast forward button or skip scene button would be pressed, just to get me out of the anger I felt towards specific scenes.See the original Frankenstein.
Everything is overwrought and frenzied and, frankly, unpleasant to watch.You would think an actor with the talent of Kenneth Branagh would direct with some restraint but damned if he doesn't approach the film like he's setting fire to curtains in a theater and laughing while the people run for their lives.
The only interesting parts of the movie are when Robert DeNiro's monster is around, particularly the few times he's interacting with Branagh.
This one is no exception : a near-hysterical version of the classic Frankenstein tale.Apparently the movie follows quite closely the original book by Mary Shelley (hence the title) but instead of a classic horror movie you get a version that most likely seems to be directed by Michael Bay. The swirling camera, the super fast editing, actors who do not talk but but shout the whole time as if they're on a stage, it all results in a head pain-inducing out-of-control carousel of flashy images and sounds.Francis Coppola, who was the producer, wasn't at all pleased with the finished product and even demanded to edit out the first half hour.
This film gets the same standpoint like all the other Frankenstein-movies and the novel: A human being should not play God. Wow!But if Mary Shelley or Kenneth Branagh make such commandments, don't they play God?Thanks.
Best line: "Don't bother to scream."Add one full ratings point for Kenneth Branagh's earnest effort to avoid giving this movie a feel-good ending.
The settings and costumes are deeply impressive, as is the whole new make-up job on the Frankenstein monster (Robert De Niro's mutilated face is likely to shock and repulse the more squeamish viewers amongst us), but the film overall fails in the department of substance.
Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of the original "Frankenstein" novel was undoubtedly a new approach compared to all others.
Despite the fact that Kenneth Branagh set out to present a more accurate representation of the Mary Shelley book, he fails to do so in this film, and gives us a compromised 'hollywood' story.
This movie takes a dump on everything fantastic about the original story, with the magnum opus of the act being naming it "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein." It makes changes that make the character motivations and logic feel strange and stupid, as well as gut the philosophical impact of the book.
After re-reading Mary Shelley's story, I've sought out a bunch of Frankenstein films--something I previously did with Bram Stoker's book.
Kenneth Branagh performs and plays the role of Dr. Victor Frankenstein; Robert De Niro has charisma as the Monster and Helena Bonham Carter as Elizabeth, the bride of Frankenstein - I never thought I'd say it - is very beautiful in this film.
The film, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a big budget snoozefest that is a boring watch and a really poorly made movie.
In addition to dropping the ball with the direction of the film, Kenneth Branagh stunk it up big time with his lousy performance as lead Victor Frankenstein.