Bram Stoker's Dracula (the movie) is a 1992 horror-romance thriller produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. It stars Gary Oldman as Count Dracula and Winona Ryder as Mina Harker in an ensemble cast, also featuring Anthony Hopkins as Professor Abraham Van Helsing, Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker, and Sadie Frost as Lucy Westenra in her first major film role. Dracula was greeted by a generally positive critical reception and was a box office hit. It also had a significant cultural impact, spawning a video game, a board game, a comic book adaptation, collectable cards and various action figures and model sets. The film's score was composed by Wojciech Kilar.PLOT
In 1462, Vlad Dracula, a member of the Order of the Dragon, returns from a victory against the Turks to find his wife Elisabeta has committed suicide after hearing false reports of his death. Enraged at the notion of his wife being eternally damned as a suicide, Dracula desecrates his chapel and renounces God, declaring that he will rise from the grave to avenge Elisabeta with all the powers of darkness.
In 1897, law clerk Jonathan Harker takes over as a client for the Transylvanian Count Dracula from his colleague Renfield, who has gone insane. Jonathan travels to Transylvania to arrange the formalities of Dracula's real estate acquisition in London, including Carfax Abbey. Jonathan meets Dracula, a wrinkled, pale old man inhabiting a bizarre castle. During the signing of the papers, the Count discovers a picture of Harker's fiancée Mina, and is astonished to find that she is the reincarnation of his long dead wife. Dracula leaves Jonathan to be raped and drained of blood by his brides and sails to England with boxes of his native soil, taking up residence at Carfax Abbey. His arrival is foretold by the ravings of Renfield, now an inmate in Dr. John Seward's neighbouring lunatic asylum.
In London, Dracula emerges as a werewolf-like creature amid a fierce thunderstorm and hypnotically seduces, then bites, Lucy Westenra, with whom Mina is staying while Jonathan is in Transylvania. Lucy's deteriorating health and behavioral changes prompts Lucy's former love-interests Quincey Morris and Dr. Seward, along with her fiancée Arthur Holmwood to summon Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, who during a blood transfusion recognizes Lucy as the victim of a vampire.
Dracula, now young and handsome, meets and charms Mina. However, when Mina gets word from Jonathan, who has escaped the castle and recovered at a convent, she travels to Hungary to marry him. In his heartbroken fury, Dracula transforms Lucy into a vampire. Van Helsing, Holmwood, Seward and Morris kill Lucy to stop her undead suffering, and save her from eternal damnation.
Jonathan 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, where he kills Renfield for warning Mina of his presence, and visits Mina, who is staying in Seward's quarters while the others hunt Dracula. Dracula confesses that he murdered Lucy and has been terrorizing Mina's friends, but a confused and angry Mina admits that she still loves him. At her insistence Dracula begins to transform her into a vampire. The vampire hunters burst into the bedroom, with Dracula claiming Mina as his bride before escaping.
As Mina begins changing the same way Lucy had, 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 the port of Varna to intercept him, but Dracula reads Mina's mind and evades them. The Hunters split up, with Van Helsing and Mina traveling to the Borgo Pass and the Castle, while the others try to stop the Gypsies transporting the Count.
At night, Van Helsing and Mina are approached by Dracula's brides. They frighten Mina at first, but she gives into their chanting and attempts to seduce Van Helsing. Before Mina can feed on his blood he rebuffs her with the Eucharist, leaving a mark of it on her forehead, and surrounds them with a ring of fire to protect them from the brides. In the morning, he infiltrates the castle and decapitates them. As sunset approaches, Dracula's carriage appears on the horizon, pursued by the hunters, and arrives at the castle. A fight between the hunters and gypsies ensues and at sunset Dracula bursts from his coffin. Harker slits his throat while a wounded Morris stabs him in the heart. As Dracula staggers, Mina rushes to his defense. Holmwood tries to attack but Van Helsing and Harker allow her to retreat with the Count, turning instead to Morris, who dies surrounded by his friends.
In the same chapel where he renounced God centuries earlier, Dracula lies dying, now in an ancient demonic form. He rebuffs Mina's attempts to pull the knife from his heart as he asks her to give him peace. They share a final kiss, as the candles adorning the chapel miraculously light in God's presence, and the hole in the cross heals itself. Mina shoves the knife through his heart. The mark on her forehead disappears as Dracula's curse is lifted, as well as Elisabeta's soul. She then decapitates him and gazes up at the fresco of Vlad and Elisabeta ascending to Heaven together.
Cast
•Gary Oldman as Count Dracula/Vlad III the Impaler
•Winona Ryder as Mina Murray-Harker/Elisabeta
•Anthony Hopkins as Professor Abraham Van Helsing
•Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker
•Richard E. Grant as Dr. Jack Seward
•Cary Elwes as Arthur Holmwood
•Billy Campbell as Quincey P. Morris
•Sadie Frost as Lucy Westenra
•Tom Waits as R. M. Renfield
•Monica Bellucci as Dracula's Bride
•Michaela Bercu as Dracula's Bride
•Florina Kendrick as Dracula's Bride
•Jay Robinson as Mr Hawkins
Reviews
Dracula received considerable attention upon release, being greeted with generally positive reviews from critics. Based on 44 reviews collected from notable publications by popular review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an overall approval rating of 82%.
Box office
The film was a notable box office hit, grossing $82,522,790 domestically and $133,339,902 overseas for a total worldwide gross of $215,862,692, making it the most commercially successful adaptation of the novel to date.
Awards and honors
The film won three Academy Awards, Best Costume Design (Eiko Ishioka), Best Sound Effects Editing (Tom C. McCarthy, David E. Stone) and Best Makeup (Greg Cannom, Michèle Burke, Matthew W. Mungle) and was nominated for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Thomas E. Sanders, Garrett Lewis).
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