Bram Stoker's Dracula (30th Anniversary Steelbook) [4K UHD] [Region Free] [Blu-ray]

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All of this allows Coppola to bring something new and delightfully decadent to the material, akin to the bottle of absinthe Dracula and Mina share, even if Bram Stoker’s Dracula, like the Stoker novel, ultimately reconciles itself with the status quo. I was actually intrigued that Copolla and company decided to give him an origin story that seemed fitting for the monster. Hopkins and Oldman regularly compete to see who can devour the most scenery in a given scene, and they both bring oddball flourishes to their roles, like the moment where Hopkins suddenly sniffs Ryder’s face like a bloodhound. The film is definitely a bodice-ripper, literally so on several occasions, that unabashedly traces out the arc between sexual repression and erotic liberation.

The movie also depicted the scene from the book where Jonathan Harker was dominated by three vampire women, a concept that was unheard of in the late 1800s. After already enjoying an excellent release, Bram Stoker’s Dracula celebrates its 30th Anniversary with a new 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release offering up the same excellent transfer now with Dolby Vision HDR, Atmos audio, and a terrific assortment of bonus features in a classy SteelBook. Being an R-rated film, I wasn’t immediately allowed to see it so my parents bought me off with the condition that if I read the book then I could see the new movie. Next Level Chef’ season 3 episode 1 recap: Who makes the cut in ‘Auditions – Social Media’ premiere episode? But you know… he’s in love with Winona Ryder’s Mina so he’s actually kind of good and he’s worthy of redemption somehow?After countless film adaptations of the iconic vampire, Francis Ford Coppola hammers his own stake into Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The use of shadow play to show Vlad’s victories in battle is in keeping with the film’s overall reliance on deliberately old-fashioned camera trickery and the aesthetics of early cinema. Dracula was shot with all manner of cinematic techniques as already detailed, including rear projection, multiple exposures, miniature effects, compositing images with a forced perspective, matte paintings, front projection and reverse motion. As anybody familiar with the fictional but likely all-too-close-to-the-truth Paramount+ TV Show, The Offer, will probably know too well, the decade of making cinema-defining classics like Apocalypse Now and The Godfather Part I and Part II was not a particularly forgiving one for Coppola. Much like Michael Palmer summarized in his 2017 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray review, this film’s visual mileage and impact may rest on an understanding of the time this was filmed and the techniques used.

The 4K version of the film scores a BD-100 disc with a Region Free BD-50 serving up the 1080p version and the bulk of the bonus features. While most of the bonus features for this film are exactly the same as before, this 4K disc now picks up the Annie Lennox “Love Song for a Vampire” music video as well as the vintage Blood Lines: Dracula - The Man The Myth The Movies featurette. Interestingly, two of the film’s more innovative narrative conceits—the conflation of Dracula with his historical analogue, Vlad the Impaler, and the idea that Mina is somehow the reincarnation of Dracula’s beloved wife—can be traced back to the Dan Curtis adaptation of Dracula that was made for television in 1974 (though in that version it was Lucy who had been Dracula’s bride). Even though the novel came out in 1897, there is no denying the sexual overtones in this story with Dracula admitting he is comfortable trying to “seduce, penetrate, [and] drain another male.Don’t get me wrong, I love Keanu, but he wasn’t right or ready to play an aristocratic Englishman like Harker. This UHD disc improves on the already handsome Blu-ray presentation of the film in the anticipated ways: Colors are brighter and more densely saturated, clarity of fine detail more evident, and black levels deeper and darker. Within any given scene, there are a lot of printed optical effects at play that can affect grain stability, clarity, softness, and other aspects of the image. Another reason some might not have predicted too many Oscar noms for “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” was the academy’s aversion to recognizing horror films, and that was certainly the case for previous “Dracula” adaptations. That’s appropriate for Frankenstein's monster since he’s a creature who didn’t ask to be born and has to figure out the terrifying world while frightened people try to kill him, that’s fine.

There’s a music video for the Annie Lennox song, “Love Song for a Vampire,” that plays over the film’s end credits, and a behind-the-scenes piece that has relatively little overlap with the making-of featurette on the Blu-ray disc that’s included in this set. After everything he put into making The Godfather, and all the Box Office success he found there, he blew almost all of it on Apocalypse Now, taking his health with it too, for good measure. The script itself is a triumph for the character considering that it stays the truest to Stoker’s 1897 novel.Like a throwback to something out of John Boorman's Excalibur, Coppola's blood-drenched Romeo and Juliet-inspired setup informs the entire rest of the movie, which somehow manages to evoke the feeling of Stoker's original letter-based structure whilst also remaining resolutely coherent in terms of actual narrative. Coppola went all-out to produce one of the most heavily effects-laden non-CG productions in the history of cinema, and all of these should rightly take their toll on the final product when held up to close - say, 4K - scrutiny.

Anthony Hopkins soon after received more Oscar nominations for “The Remains of the Day,” “Nixon” and “Amistad,” and later won a second trophy for “The Father” in 2021. It did even better at the Academy Awards because not only did it earn four nominations there as well — Costume Design, Makeup, Sound Effects Editing and Art Direction-Set Decoration — but it actually won in the former three categories. Those experiencing it for the first time will find that it is a wonderful upgrade to a thirty-year-old classic . Independently owned and operated publications like Slant have been hit hard in recent years, but we’re committed to keeping our content free and accessible—meaning no paywalls or fees. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores.Despite the fact that the now-renowned actor was far from enamoured by the idea of playing Dracula, like anyone at the time - not least a Brit trying to make his way in Hollywood - the mere opportunity to be in Francis Ford Coppola film, let alone star in it, was more than enough reason to commit his heart and soul. Aside from that, there's a half-hour Featurette, Bood Lines - Dracula: The Man, The Myth, The Movies, which is actually pretty substantial despite its limited runtime, packing in an awful lot of background detail, interesting at that, and making for a nice little addition to round out an already packed package. With Gary Oldman as the titular classic monster, the film is an artistic masterpiece even if it doesn’t completely stay true to the novel.