History Film / BramStokersDracula

* LennonSpecs: Dracula wears them.

[[quoteright:336:[[{{Dracula}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/draculaffc_1255.jpg]]]]

** A minor example. The blonde vampire bride is the leader in the book. In this film Monica Bellucci's character is portrayed as the chief bride.

* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Given that they come out of literally nowhere and one of them ''bites him in the groin,'' Jonathan's encounter with Dracula's brides probably isn't entirely willing.

--> '''Dracula:''' You think you can destroy me with your idols! I ''served'' the cross! I commanded nations, hundreds of years before you were born!

** This backstory comes from the fact that Dracula is an {{Expy}} of Vlad the Impaler who did oppose the Turks and wage a "Holy War" on behalf of God and protected Europe from Muslim influence. So from his perspective he was punished for doing God's work when his wife died.

* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: During the battle montage early on. Well Dracula IS Vlad the Impaler...what did you expect?

* FontAnachronism: We see a ticker tape typing out the message sent to Van Helsing from Dr. Seward. The type appears to be OCR (optical character reader) font which was not created until 1968. Keep in mind that the movie takes place in 1897. That's a 71 year difference.

* ActingForTwo: Winona Ryder plays both Elisabeta and Mina, of course. More subtly and symbolically, the priest who informs Vlad of Elisabeta's damnation is played by Anthony Hopkins, who turns up later as Van Helsing.

* GlamourFailure

* FontAnachronism: We see a ticker tape typing out the message sent to Van Helsing from Dr. Seward. The type appears to be OCR (optical character reader) font which was not created until 1968.

* LicensedGame: Interesting in that the available versions barely resemble each other. The NES version plays like a horror-themed [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] (complete with ? blocks!), the SNES/Genesis version is a more generic action platformer, and the Sega CD version injects the previous with at-the-time high tech 3D rendered backdrops... and injects context-less clips from the film that suffer from house-sized artifacts. There is also a PC game played from the first person perspective as well as an Amiga version that fell somewhere between the Megadrive/Genesis, SNES and Sega CD versions gameplay-wise.

* AllStarCast: Most of the leads were A-listers at the time -- Anthony Hopkins was just coming off his ''Silence of the Lambs'' triumph -- with notable character actors rounding out the cast. This was effectively Gary Oldman's breakthrough role for mainstream American audiences.

* FakeNationality: Over half of the main cast, with the exceptions of Dr. Seward, Lucy, Arthur and Quincy.
** Since Dr. Seward's presumably not [[Creator/RichardEGrant Swazi/British colonial]] in this adaptation, he sort of qualifies as well.
** Averted with Romanian actress Florina Kendrick, as the Dracula bride who bites Harker in [[GroinAttack a sensitive spot]].
** Gary Oldman, who is British in real life, plays Dracula, who is Transylvanian.

* RecursiveAdaptation: The film was adapted into a novelization by Creator/FredSaberhagen.

* AdaptationalHeroism: Dracula gets this treatment in the film. He becomes a vampire for renouncing God after his bride kills herself (and the Priest declares that her soul would be eternally damned as a result) and then falls in love with Mina because she is her reincarnation. ** This backstory comes from the fact that Dracula is an {{Expy}} of Vlad the Impaler who did oppose the Turks and wage a "Holy War" on behalf of God and protected Europe from Muslim influence. So from his perspective he was punished for doing God's work when his wife died.

* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: During the battle montage early on.

* {{Deconstruction}}: The film deconstructs the ''Dracula'' myth by reconstructing many of the UnbuiltTropes of the original, such as clarifying the ''vampires are not killed by sunlight'' trope. (Rather, they are depowered.) More broadly, the film expands upon the book as a portrait of Victorian London and the changing mores of sexuality, women and the advances of science that was part of the time and goes on to expand on the sexual subtext of the story, which is what underlies the Mina-Dracula romance.

* AdaptationalHeroism: Dracula gets this treatment in the film. He becomes a vampire for renouncing God after his bride kills herself (and the Priest declares that her soul would be eternally damned as a result) and then falls in love with Mina because she is her reincarnation. Yeah, it didn't make much sense.

* BlatantLies: It was promoted as '' 'The Most Accurate Retelling of the original Dracula ever done' ''...but departed so drastically from the original novel that it needed its ''own'' {{Novelization}}! (That said, apart from the 1977 TV adaptation and the 1922 CaptainErsatz classic {{Film/Nosferatu}}, it ''is'' more faithful to the original novel than many prior adaptations, most of which were [[LostInImitation closer to the Lugosi movie and the play that it was based on]].)

* {{Deconstruction}}: The film uses many of the book's ideas about vampires, including the fact that the original book stated ''vampires are not killed by sunlight''. (Rather, they are depowered.) More broadly, the film expands upon the book as a portrait of Victorian London and the changing mores of sexuality, women and the advances of science that was part of the time and goes on to expand on the sexual subtext of the story.
** More importantly, it deconstructs Dracula's vampire image by never giving him a fixed human and vampire form, often changing and shifting identities in the course of the movie, never arriving at a fixed classical image.

* FallenHero: From the Christian perspective. Dracula was once a servant of the cross.

** InNameOnly: One reviewer quipped that it should have been called ''Bram Stoker's Dracula, If Francis Ford Coppola Had Been Standing Over His Shoulder Telling Him How It Should Be Written''. Whilst it certainly takes inspiration from the book, it is clearly Coppola's take on the Dracula mythos.

* DullSurprise: Keanu Reeves.

** Dracula's independent shadow and his rising from the coffin are taken from ''Film/{{Nosferatu}}'', while many famous quotes are included from [[{{Film/Dracula 1931}} the Lugosi version]]. Coppola also included a lot of [[ShoutOut Shout Outs]] to his old mentor, RogerCorman, with the film's style similar to Corman's Edgar Allan Poe films.

** Dracula's independent shadow and his rising from the coffin are taken from ''Film/{{Nosferatu}}'', while many famous quotes are included from [[{{Film/Dracula}} the Lugosi version]]. Coppola also included a lot of [[ShoutOut Shout Outs]] to his old mentor, RogerCorman, with the film's style similar to Corman's Edgar Allan Poe films.

** "[[IDoNotDrinkWine I never drink... wine]]" is used verbatim in a shout out to Lugosi's ''Film/{{Dracula}}'' (1930].

* UltimateUniverse: Gary Oldman's portrayal of Count Dracula incorporates both Bela Lugosi's distinctive accent and Max Schreck's "creepy and clawed" comportment from ''Film/{{Nosferatu}}''. As well, the romantic approach given to his and Mina's relationship was presaged by the 1979 version that toplined Frank Langella (in that version, the heroine doesn't feel shame for her longing to be with Dracula and is even nastier to the good guys who want to save her).