Bram Stoker's Dracula is a 1992 American Gothic horror film co-produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and written by James V. Hart, based on the eponymous 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. The film stars Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins, and Keanu Reeves. Set in 19th-century England and Romania, it follows Count Dracula (Oldman), a vampire who falls in love with Mina Murray (Ryder), the fiancée of his solicitor Jonathan Harker (Reeves). When Dracula wreaks havoc in London, Professor Abraham Van Helsing (Hopkins), an expert in vampirism, is summoned to bring an end to his reign of terror.
Principal photography began at Sony Pictures Studios and Universal Studios Lot on October 14, 1991, and concluded on January 31, 1992, in addition to reshoots at Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Los Angeles. The closing credits theme "Love Song for a Vampire" was written and performed by Annie Lennox.
Bram Stoker's Dracula was theatrically released by Columbia Pictures in the United States on November 13, 1992, to mixed reviews from critics, with praise for Coppola's direction, the production values, and Oldman's performance, but criticism for the story and Reeves' performance. The film opened at the top of the box office, grossing $215.9 million against its $40 million production budget. At the 65th Academy Awards, the film received four nominations and won three, Best Costume Design for Eiko Ishioka, Best Sound Editing, and Best Makeup.
Plot In 1462, Vlad Dracula returns from a victory in his campaign against the Ottoman Empire to find his beloved wife Elisabeta has committed suicide after his enemies falsely reported his death. A Romanian Orthodox priest tells him that his wife's soul is damned to Hell for her suicide. Enraged, Vlad desecrates the chapel and renounces God, declaring he will rise from the grave to avenge Elisabeta with all the powers of darkness. He then stabs his sword into the chapel's stone cross and drinks the blood that pours from it, becoming a vampire.
In 1897, solicitor Jonathan Harker takes the elderly Transylvanian Count Dracula as a client from his colleague R. M. Renfield, who has gone insane and is now an inmate in Dr. Jack Seward's asylum. Jonathan travels to Dracula's castle in Transylvania to arrange Dracula's real estate acquisitions in London. There, he meets Dracula, who finds a picture of his fiancée Mina Murray and believes she is Elisabeta reincarnated. Dracula leaves Jonathan to be fed upon by his brides, while he sails to England with Transylvanian soil, taking up residence at Carfax Abbey, which he recently purchased.
In London, Dracula, in werewolf form, hypnotically seduces and bites Mina's best friend Lucy Westenra, with whom Mina is staying while Jonathan is in Transylvania. Lucy's deteriorating health and behavioral changes prompt former suitors Quincey Morris and Dr. Seward, along with her fiancé Arthur Holmwood to summon Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, Seward's mentor, who recognizes Lucy as being the victim of a vampire. Dracula, appearing young and handsome during daylight, meets and charms Mina. Mina develops feelings for Dracula, accompanying him on several outings. When Mina receives word from Jonathan, who has escaped the castle and recovered at a convent, she travels to Romania to marry him. A heartbroken Dracula transforms Lucy into a vampire. Van Helsing, Holmwood, Seward, and Morris kill the undead Lucy the following night.
After he 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 enters the asylum and kills Renfield for warning Mina of his presence. He visits Mina, who is staying in Seward's quarters, and confesses that he murdered Lucy and has been terrorizing Mina's friends. Though furious at first, Mina admits that she still loves him and remembers Elisabeta's previous life; at her insistence, Dracula begins transforming her into a vampire. The hunters burst into the bedroom, and Dracula, in a bat humanoid form, claims Mina as his bride before escaping as a swarm of rats. As Mina changes, Van Helsing hypnotizes her and learns via her connection with Dracula that he is sailing home in his last remaining box. The hunters depart for Varna to intercept him, but Dracula reads Mina's mind and evades them. Van Helsing and Mina travel to the Borgo Pass and the castle, while the other hunters try to stop the Romani from transporting Dracula.
At night, Van Helsing and Mina are approached by Dracula's brides. Mina succumbs to their chanting and attempts to seduce Van Helsing. Before Mina can feed on his blood, Van Helsing places a communion wafer on her forehead, leaving a mark that slows her transformation. He surrounds them with a ring of fire to protect them from the brides, then kills the brides the following morning. Dracula's carriage arrives at the castle, pursued by the hunters. A fight between the hunters and Romani ensues. Morris is fatally stabbed in the back and Dracula bursts from his coffin at sunset. Jonathan slits his throat with a kukri knife while Morris stabs him in the heart with his knife. Van Helsing and Jonathan allow Mina to retreat with the Count while Morris dies in the arms of Seward, comforted by his friends.
In the chapel where he renounced God, Dracula lies dying. He and Mina share a kiss as the candles adorning the chapel light up and the cross repairs itself. Dracula reverts to his younger self and asks Mina to give him peace. Mina thrusts the knife through his heart. As he dies, the mark on her forehead disappears, freeing her from his curse. She then decapitates him and gazes up at a fresco of Vlad and Elisabeta ascending to heaven together, finally reunited.
Cast Gary Oldman as Count Dracula / Vlad the Impaler Winona Ryder as Mina Harker and Elisabeta Anthony Hopkins as Professor Abraham Van Helsing and the Romanian Orthodox priest Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker Richard E. Grant as Dr. Jack Seward Cary Elwes as Lord Arthur Holmwood Billy Campbell as Quincey P. Morris Sadie Frost as Lucy Westenra Tom Waits as R. M. Renfield
Monica Bellucci, Michaela Bercu, and Florina Kendrick portray Dracula's Brides. Jay Robinson appears as Mr. Hawkins, Harker's employer.
Themes
Occultism Coppola's film makes a direct connection between Dracula's vampiric origin and occultism/satanism. In the opening scene of the film, after learning that his wife committed suicide and is denied salvation, Dracula denies God and makes a deal with the dark forces. This is symbolically verified with Dracula plunging his sword into the crucifix, which immediately starts to bleed excessive amounts of blood that Dracula drinks as a sign of "bloodpact" with the Devil.The Lure of the Dark Side: Satan and Western Demonology in Popular Culture (2014) by Christopher H. Partridge, Eric S. Christianson
AIDS pandemic Upon release, The New York Times Frank Rich suggested that the film drew upon the prevalent fear of HIV/AIDS in the 1990s. Coppola, according to Rich, gives to the viewers a movie that both frightens and arouses them by playing off their unchecked fear of the spread of AIDS as an invasion of the national bloodstream.
Van Helsing comments to his medical students that civilization and "syphilization" advanced together; this is viewed as much as a commentary on Coppola's times—during the spread of HIV/AIDS—as it was on Stoker's (who may have died of syphilis, as speculated in some biographies of Stoker).Post/modern Dracula: From Victorian Themes to Postmodern Praxis (2009) by John S. Bak, p.14
Production Development and casting Winona Ryder initially brought James V. Hart's screenplay to the attention of Francis Ford Coppola. The director had agreed to meet with her so the two could clear the air after she was cast in The Godfather Part III to play Mary Corleone in September 1989 when the previous choice Rebecca Schaeffer was murdered by an obsessed fan Robert John Bardo two months earlier. This caused production delays on that film, and Ryder's eventual withdrawal led her to believe Coppola disliked her.Rohrer, Trish Dietch. Coppola's Bloody Valentine, Entertainment Weekly, November 20, 1992, accessed September 6, 2011. According to Ryder: "I never really thought he would read it. He was so consumed with Godfather III. As I was leaving, I said, 'If you have a chance, read this script.' He glanced down at it politely, but when he saw the word Dracula, his eyes lit up. It was one of his favorite stories from camp." Ryder also explained that "what attracted me to the script is the fact that it's a very emotional love story, which is not really what you think of when you think about Dracula. Mina, like many women in the late 1800s, has a lot of repressed sexuality. Everything about women in that era, the way those corsets forced them to move, was indicative of repression. To express passion was freakish". Coppola was also attracted to the sensual elements of the screenplay and said that he wanted portions of the picture to resemble an "erotic dream". To prepare for Bram Stoker's Dracula, as the movie would be called, Coppola screened Citizen Kane, Ivan the Terrible, and Chimes at Midnight.The Coppolas: A Family Business (2012) by Vincent LoBrutto, Harriet R. LoBrutto, p.75 In the months leading up to its release, Hollywood insiders who had seen the movie felt Coppola's film was too odd, violent, and strange to succeed at the box office, and dubbed it "Bonfire of the Vampires" after the notorious 1990 box-office failure The Bonfire of the Vanities.Maslin, Janet. "FILM; Neither Dracula Nor Rumor Frightens Coppola". , The New York Times, November 15, 1992, accessed September 6, 2011.Weinraub, Bernard. "Coppola's 'Dracula' A Hit on First Weekend". , The New York Times, November 16, 1992, accessed September 6, 2011.
Gary Oldman has stated that he never considered Count Dracula to be a "bucket list" role for him. Regarding the main reason he agreed to the role: "It was an opportunity to work with Coppola, who I consider one of the great American directors. That was enough, really. It was my first big American movie, made on a big set with lots of costumes. For a young actor, that was a tremendous experience." Another reason why Oldman wanted to play Dracula was because he wanted to say: "I've crossed oceans of time to find you" and to him it was worth playing the role just to say that line. Gabriel Byrne screen test for Dracula, alongside Kyle MacLachlan as Jonathan Harker, but neither were cast.
Christian Slater was offered the role of Harker, but he turned it down; a decision he later regretted. As for casting Keanu Reeves in the role, Coppola said of his casting choice: "We tried to get some kind of matinée idol for the part of Jonathan, because it isn't such a great part. If we all were to go to the airport [...] Keanu is the one that the girls would just besiege." Coppola has stated that Reeves worked harder on his accent than most people realized: "He tried so hard. That was the problem, actually—he wanted to do it perfectly and in trying to do it perfectly it came off as stilted. I tried to get him to just relax with it and not do it so fastidiously. So maybe I wasn't as critical of him, but that's because I like him personally so much. To this day he's a prince in my eyes.""Francis Ford Coppola remembers Dracula, firing his VFX crew, and Keanu Reeves' accent" . [Entertainment Weekly]. October 6, 2015.
Costume, set, hair, and makeup design