Dracula
by John Badham
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Donald Pleasence, Frank Langella, Kate Nelligan, Laurence Olivier, Trevor EveDirector: John Badham
Brand: UNI DIST CORP. (MCA)
Producer: Marvin Mirisch
Producer: Tom Pevsner
Producer: Walter Mirisch
Writer: Bram Stoker
Writer: Hamilton Deane
Writer: John L. Balderston
Writer: W.D. Richter
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); Dutch (Original Language); English (Original Language); Romanian (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 109 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-10-19
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Universal Studios
Movie Reviews of Dracula
Movie Review: Eucharistic Anomalies in DRACULA, Starring Frank Langela
Summary: 5 Stars
Probably the most compelling Dracula yet made, with certainly some of the most interesting and suggestive details in the storytelling. Let's just take the obvious metaphor of eating. There are some good questions here that should be addressed.
I can't be the only person to have noticed that Van Helsing places FIVE quarters of the supposedly single sacrificial host into the coffin dirt... were there two hosts, three quarters of which were eaten by the persons there, making them Eucharistic "ministrants?" Does a magical quarter host come out of nowhere? Let's say there was no magic - the five quarters come from two hosts, one of which we simply weren't shown - nothing wrong with that - meaning the rest of the second host was eaten on the spot? In other words, the rite is a Holy Communion, which only makes sense to use the host for, since there is in fact no such thing as the use of a host for the purpose Stoker proposes. Therefore, the host quarters are for eventual consumption... as part of the same rite in which they were distributed; such a use does not require a Eucharistic Minister to have already been appointed; the hosts can wait until they are used, preferably soon of course. Other critics have already observed that there could never be the "dispensation" Stoker's Van Helsing claims he has, to use the host to ward away evil - but perhaps if it were certain the hosts would be found by the correct party or parties, might an exception be made for the purpose of the delivery of the host to Celebrants unable to attend... perhaps due to illness? It is at least more in line with Catholic practice... or that of the Church of England. For Van Helsing has children, therefore he is either a married priest, i.e., C of E, or he is a lay Catholic, performing an extension of the duties of a Eucharistic Minister, for example one who brings the host to the site, but does not know how many attendees there will be, therefore leaves the host unbroken until ready for use? And if it is in fact not a lie that the soil is holy, then leaving the hosts there is perhaps not out of line? (Or is the dirt we are told is holy meant to be eaten? Rather a stretch, but I remember eating tar off the hot street with my friends as a kid... we thought it was a bonding... therefore, it was a bonding...) (Don't worry, I'm not going to say that sniffing glue together can be a bonding experience. I didn't say that.) Must we believe that everything he says that might damn Dracula must be a lie on his part?
Next question, are the hosts for consumption by one person five times? Or by five people? Assuming one Mass per host, the usual practice, the answer would be, by five people, one time, each, and not necessarily together. Two bits in one Mass is not illegal, if part of the same ceremony, sometimes the bit breaks as it is delivered to the mouth, or a celebrant takes a couple of bits and puts them in the mouth. So some lenience in the number of recipients would be in order (if any of this speculation is in order). But the usual fact is that there is only supposed to be one Mass per delivery of the host by the Eucharistic Ministers. So, probably, we are being told, there are FIVE other recipients. Who are they? Not the celebrants or ministers... some other five, who are not there for the ceremony. Next item, what is the total company of Eucharistic Ministers - for there is no reason that more than one person cannot do the work. Who is the one doing the transporting of the host (or, if this is two-stage delivery by Eucharistic Ministers, the remaining stage or stages of the transporting)? Whoever carries the coffin? Or perhaps the ship's captain? And speaking of the ship's captain, could this a wedding, something ship's captains are allowed to perform? Is the soil a Rumanian Embassy? None of this speculation is meant to be of some kind of "Black Mass," whatever that is - merely a series of exceptions to known Orthodoxy.
More conventionally, the theme of eating is worked into the nature and actions of many characters, notably Dr. Seward, who is almost always eating his sweets, popping those little pills at moments of need, or enthusiastically eating some meal, even on his feet, while walking through a door. What is this supposed to suggest? It certainly is not normal - it is clearly an eating disorder. He takes those pills to reassure himself, apparently absent-mindedly, they are his habitual "security blanket." Is he somehow participating in the same strata of exceptional Eucharistic delivery? Whether there could ever be a real religious case made, in terms of the way literature works, this is clearly the case. Perhaps Dr. Seward is one of the ones enjoying the fruits of the exceptional Eucharist - he certainly is the most evident candidate for this. Hey, I didn't bring the idea of the Eucharistic in - I only saw the five when we were seeming to be told there were four quarters.
There is also the question of Dracula himself as food - isn't that a giant fishhook with which Van Helsing impales him, dragging him into the sunlight? Where we can clearly see he gets cooked? Dracula as a fish, drawn up on a hook? Hey, that makes Van Helsing a "Fisher of men," just what Christ said he wanted to make of us... un-Orthodox, yes, contrary to what we usually understand as the spirit of holy writ, but not to its letter. Oops, I seemed to forget, Christ invited us to eat him... maybe there is letter AND spirit going on here. And if, willingly or not, Dracula is himself the Eucharist, then can he be so bad? Is this why he gets to fly away - because there is a whole dimension to the story that only close analysis can reveal? Certainly, Seward understands more than he lets on. And what does Renfield know that makes him willing to eat bugs?
Summary of Dracula
THE VAMPIRE COUNT SCALES WALLS AND VISITS BEDROOMS AT ANENGLISH MANOR: VAN HELSING INVESTIGATES.Similar DVD Movies
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