Apr 07 2010
Streaming Dracula Online
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Streaming Dracula Online.
Movie Title: Dracula Dracula is available for streaming or downloading. |
From 1979, this is the sensual Dracula…Frank Langella, repeating his hit stage performance in this John Badham directed version, plays the Count as seductive and irresistible…with his calm as honey direct and flowing costumes. The first thing you peruse of him is his hand, slowly emerging from a fur mask…it’s one of my very current moments on film.
Kate Nelligan is stunningly fine as Lucy. She plays her as strong and liberated and a willing participant in the Count’s plans. Laurence Olivier is fantastic as always, in a performance that’s about as “over the top” as he’d ever done. Also edifying are Donald Pleasence, marvelously insubtle as Dr. Seward, and Trevor Eve, as a more “macho” than usual Jonathan Harker.
John Williams’ lush secure adds a lot to this film, which though it departs radically from the novel book, has a lot of atmosphere, exotic sets, and sumptuous (though darkly hued) cinematography.
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I score the Dracula anecdote attractive, and don’t assume I’ve missed a single filmed version…this is one of the two I have watched the most, the other being the Coppola one, and both films rep better with repeated viewings…so if you’re a Drac fan, don’t miss this voluptuous twist on the broken-down legend.
Odd how this 1979 tiny gem of a “different purchase” on “Dracula”, based on Frank Langella’s Broadway version, was fairly well-reviewed when it was first released, and considered a ravishing and sumptuous updating of the passe Bram Stoker chestnut, only this time with a mesmerizingly charismatic Count, with lush locations and costars like Laurence Olivier and Kate Nelligan.
Buy,Download, Or Stream Dracula! Click Here
Perhaps it wasn’t perfect (they salvage Mina and Lucy, for one thing, mixed up— but then, how many filmed “Dracula” versions are all THAT faithful to the book?!? ) but it had a discouraged mood and texture that was quite involving and did quite well, justly, in ‘79.
Today, it’s reputation has fallen from ‘good’ to ‘mediocre’ to ‘huh? ‘
Buy,Download, Or Stream Dracula! Click Here
It’s been said that Langella’s stage performance “gets lost” amongst “trendy special effects”, and I have to confess that I never saw Langella do the Count on stage [I understand he turned taking-off his cape into an artform], but anybody who can virtually wipe even Olivier off the hide as Langella does in the movie can’t have had ALL of his stage-presence removed in the film!
And as for “trendy special effects”? The “effects” are subject-appropriate; nothing excessive. Wonderful job of directing by John Badham, and music catch by John Williams.
Of course, I’ve yet to examine the DVD quality- hope it’s excellent.
UPDATE 3 MONTHS LATER AFTER POSTING THE ABOVE REVIEW (8/04) …. Well, guess what? — it’s NOT beneficial (the DVD) . I unbiased got mine and what should I win? It’s virtually now in black-and-white. And guess what else? Director John Badham did this DELIBERATELY for the DVD release. In the DVD commentary for the film, Badham states that they couldn’t “drain” the color out of the film to his satisfaction in 1979, for mood purposes, so now he can [and DID] for the DVD.
The predicament is: the movie didn’t NEED this “improvement”. The current photography (now completely counteracted on the DVD) was rich and atmospheric and, as it was shot in England so artfully, it had been plain and drab in all the fair spots— but SOME scenes, expecially the low-lit interior moments [like the candlelight dinner between Langella and Kate Nelligan] had been wonderfully warm as an effective “counter”…. Well, not no more, Drac-fans… The skins tones are gone, anything once orange is now slow white…
The DVD has been ruined, and on Badham’s misguided orders…
There’s even that one scene by the cemetery between Langella, Lord Olivier and Miss Nelligan at sunset— and during the commentary, Badham talks about how the actors and crew had to wait all day in order to fetch fair the factual natural light, and that “today” they’d unbiased effect in the sunset with computers… But Badham’s stating this as you inspect the scene with the sunset now REMOVED by computers, ’specially for DVD! The pink stripe across the sky they waited for hours to derive is no more! It could be fair another foggy noon in England- in which case, the Count should be in bed… And after seeing this travesty, so should I.
I feel SOOO ripped-off… Why do directors go encourage, so many years later after they’ve lost all objectivity, and “fix” gracious movies they got apt to start with (’cause aint nobody fixin’ the Abominable ones!)?
One last knife-turn: during the closing credits, Badham states he now wishes he could re-edit the film and bustle it up “so it kicks ass”…. [long leer roll on my share here] Terrific. So then it’ll be yet another shrill, frenetic, off-paced fragment of incoherent tripe we’re getting in the theaters today, where you can’t even follow the location and the “mood” is non-existent because everything is screaming at you at mach-speed without relent.
Only Mr. Badham would apparently also do so in virtual black-and-white, which is now the approximate color-scheme the “Dracula” DVD.
Thanks, Mr. Badham… It’s yours to ruin.
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