Frankenstein (1994)

When the brilliant but unorthodox scientist Dr. Victor Frankenstein rejects the artificial man that he has created, the Creature escapes and later swears revenge.

Director:

Kenneth Branagh

Writers:

Mary Shelley (novel), Steph Lady (screenplay)

Stars:

Robert De Niro, Kenneth Branagh, Helena Bonham Carter

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 13 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Robert De Niro	...	Creature / Sharp Featured Man
Kenneth Branagh	...	Victor
Tom Hulce	...	Henry
Helena Bonham Carter	...	Elizabeth
Aidan Quinn	...	Walton
Ian Holm	...	Victor's Father
Richard Briers	...	Grandfather
John Cleese	...	Professor Waldman
Robert Hardy	...	Professor Krempe
Cherie Lunghi	...	Victor's Mother
Celia Imrie	...	Mrs. Moritz
Trevyn McDowell	...	Justine
Gerard Horan	...	Claude
Mark Hadfield	...	Felix
Joanna Roth	...	Marie

Storyline

In 1794, in the Arctic Sea, Captain Robert Walton is a man obsessed to reach the North Pole, pushing his crew to exhaustion. When his ship hits an iceberg, it is stranded in the ice. Out of the blue, Captain Walton and his men overhear a dreadful cry and they see a stranger coming to the ship. He introduces himself and Victor Frankenstein and he tells to the captain the story of his life since he was a little boy in Geneva. Victor is a brilliant student and in love with his stepsister Elizabeth, an orphan that was raised by his father Baron Frankenstein. In 1793, Victor moves to Ingolstadt to study at the university and he promises to get married to Elizabeth. At the university, Victor befriends Henry Clerval who becomes his best friend. Victor gets close to Professor Waldman and decides to create life to cheat death, but Waldman advises him that he should not try this experiment since the result would be an abomination. When Waldman dies, Victor steals his notes and tries to create ...

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Plot Keywords:

experiment | birth defect | chained | monster | fleeing a city | 

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Taglines:

It's Alive.

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Genres:

Drama | Horror | Romance | Sci-Fi

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for horrific images

Details

Country:

USA Japan UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 November 1994 (USA)

Also Known As:

Frankenstein de Mary Shelley

Filming Locations:

England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$45,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$11,212,889, 6 November 1994, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$22,006,296

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$112,006,296

Company Credits

Production Co:

TriStar Pictures,Japan Satellite Broadcasting (JBS),IndieProd Company Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

123 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS (8 channels) Dolby SR Dolby Digital

Color:

Color Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Kenneth Branagh and Sir Ian Holm appeared in Henry V (1989).

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Goofs

When the grandfather is playing the recorder he takes breaths on notes instead of between notes.

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Quotes

The Creature: I am done with man.

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Alternate Versions

There is a workprint circulating which contains gore which was cut to earn an "R" rating, as well as other scenes, including the Fay Ripley scene and the re-animated dog scene.

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Connections

Featured in Violence and the Censors (1995)

User Reviews

An Embarrassment

When Cinemafantastique interviewed Kenneth Branagh on his recently-released version of Frankenstein, the writer asked Branagh to describe his viewpoint, his thematic slant on the story. Quite a natural question for a film maker to be asked, as the notions of theme and point of view are not optional, they are mandatory. A director must decide beforehand on the ideas he wishes to set forth, and craft the means to set them forth clearly. When dealing with a classic, oft-filmed work, he must choose a new slant, and exploit themes that have not been emphasized before (at least, in quite that way), if his work is to be at all original.

Branagh's breezy response was something on the order of, "I didn't really have a theme in mind, I just wanted to tell a good story."

This is precisely why Branagh's version fails: is an unanchored, misguided mess. Herewith is a barely coherent hash of styles, a series of boneheaded choices (a snotty Helena B. Carter as the "liberated" Elizabeth Frankenstein), a tangle of hanging threads -- beautiful clothes with no one in them; beautiful sets that form a backdrop to utter nonsense.

And it is dreadfully miscast. Branagh's ego trip as Dr. Frankenstein aside, the worst performance of all is that of Robert DiNiro as his creature. In this role, DiNiro proves that Pauline Kael was right all along. For years, Ms. Kael kept telling us that this mediocre talent was considered a great actor just because everyone said he was. In other words, he had been in the right place at the right time, and had stumbled into his undeserved reputation by pure chance. (Check out the way he sleeps through his role in Casino.) The spectacle of Frankenstein's creature mumbling in that repellent, thick New Yorkese is really one of the sorriest moments in all of filmdom -- there is simply no excuse for such a thing. Did anyone bother to tell him the story is set in Switzerland? I saw this movie in New York, at an East Side theater, and the audience was giggling nervously every time DiNiro opened his mouth. Why nervously? Because they "know" DiNiro is a "great" actor... Because they were embarrassed, pure and simple.

And they should have been. Branagh's desire to "tell a good story," while arrogantly disregarding the most basic elements of storytelling, quite naturally produced the opposite effect. In short, it produced an embarrassment.