From Hell (Widescreen Edition)
by Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Heather Graham, Ian Holm, Ian Richardson, Johnny Depp, Robbie ColtraneDirector: Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes
Brand: DEPP,JOHNNY
Producer: Albert Hughes
Producer: Allen Hughes
Writer: Alan Moore
Writer: Eddie Campbell
Writer: Rafael Yglesias
Writer: Terry Hayes
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 122 minutes
Published: 2002-10-01
DVD Release Date: 2002-10-22
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Movie Reviews of From Hell (Widescreen Edition)
Movie Review: But to lie in cold obstruction and to rot...
Summary: 5 Stars
Aside from taking a fresh and unique approach to the old mysteries of Jack The Ripper, From Hell delivers a gracefully languid storyline peppered with brutal killings and interesting musings into an old fashioned culture.
Inspector Fred Abberline (Johnny Depp) has a unique gift, a psychic ability to see murders in his opium dreams. Because of this talent, he is assigned to the case of a brutally murdered prostitute along with his partner, Sergeant Peter Godley (Robbie Coltrane). His suspicions turn away from the local gang of pimps and thugs, and towards a more educated and upper-class perpetrator as more and more girls are methodically butchered.
Abberline wins the confidence of one of the slightly more refined prostitutes, Mary Kelly (Heather Graham), and uses her knowledge of the dead girls to uncover the unlikely murderer.
From Hell definitely has its faults, a sometimes weak script and a far-fetched assumption of the identity and background of Jack The Ripper, but makes up for those faults with its stunning visuals and moody atmosphere.
Using subtle photography rather than graphical violence in the murder scenes, it leaves a lingering taste in one's mouth that is nonetheless bloody and haunting.
Depp plays Abberline with brilliant panache, a man who still cares but is void of the usual emotional swamps most humans swim in, evident in the scene where the coroner is retching but Abberline coldly and methodically examines the mutilated corpse. I love cold characters. Heather Graham is a beautiful woman, but not a very good actress. However, her character of Mary Kelly is probably the best performance she had done, in spite of the weak accent attempted.
There are also interesting notes to study while taking in the lush photography, the realism of the opium dens, the early lobotomies performed, a brief presentation of the Elephant Man, along with the cultural notions of the 1880's that well-bred and moneyed people simply could not be capable of such types of brutality.
The time frame is well done and interesting in that it also exposes the religious persecution of certain sects, not to mention total disregard for the prostitutes and those poor souls considered to be beneath the genteel societies notice or care. One's birth class stands out far above their deeds, and propriety rules the day. And ruling the propriety are a secret sect of Freemasons, answerable only to themselves and powerful enough to stop Abberline's investigation.
Perhaps because I am a very visual person I enjoyed the film more than many others did, but I encourage you to look beneath the slow, still waters of the movie's general flow, and pluck out the tasty treats in the form of interesting notes and speculations, and savor them for a bit. It was really at that point that From Hell went from four to five stars for me.
Languid, graceful, gory, suspenseful, atmospheric, and moody, don't miss out on this great sleeper film. Enjoy!
Summary of From Hell (Widescreen Edition)
A clairvoyant police detective must stop the most notorious serial killer in history - Jack the Ripper - before it's too late! Johnny Depp and Heather Graham star in this "engrossing, stylish thriller" (People) that "grips tighter than a chokehold and cut as deep as a knife" (Washington Post)Heavy on atmosphere and light on everything else, From Hell is visually impressive while lacking the depth of the acclaimed graphic novel it's based upon. Making their third feature since 1993's Menace II Society, twins Allen and Albert Hughes approach the Jack the Ripper case with physical precision, re-creating the gritty Whitechapel district of 1888 London in meticulous detail. What they've forgotten is the sheer terror that gripped Whitechapel in the wake of the Ripper's slaying of five prostitutes, investigated here by a Scotland Yard sleuth (Johnny Depp) who uses opium, laudanum, and absinthe to fuel his semiprescient visions of the slayings. Heather Graham attempts a slippery Cockney accent as a would-be victim, while Ian Holm steals the show as a has-been surgeon with devilish delusions of grandeur. Violence is obliquely suggested or briefly graphic, but no matter how you cut it, From Hell is only marginally thrilling as it treads familiar territory. --Jeff Shannon
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