May not really rate a 10/10 for great movies like Citizen Kane, or It's A Wonderful Life or something, but it has everything a movie needs - fun and excitement. Ken Russel loves any excuse to have a psychedelic dream/hallucination scene, and or some sacrilegious rant but this one goes all out. The most psychedelic movie scene ever made is probably the last "tank" scene in Altered States, but this movie has it all.
and Amanda Donahoe is probably the sexiest villain ever created!
For background , my next fav. is The Wicker Man (1973 original, the recent Nic Cage remake was awful). Then "Elizabeth" with Blanchet, heartbreaking, and Gladiator (Ridley Scott. With Russell Crow). Scott is probably the better director, but not as fun as Russel.
But for all of us who love this movie - READ THE BOOK by Stoker! (Don't remember the URL, but there are a lot of old books published for free online, for free download and I found it and printed the whole thing out. maybe e-books.com or some such?) Russel made something fun and watchable out of a complete mess of a book. In the original, there's a few extra characters that serve no purpose and it's impossible to follow the plot as characters are in one place then appear somewhere else that makes no sense and there's tons of logical flaws in it. There is kind of a cool, kite in a thunder storm thing.
Finally, my band did a version of the theme song for fun. Then we researched more lyrics and it turns out that it's a very old (1800's) traditional song from the British isles, based on an actual legend. With two more verses that the movie didn't use.
So, to wrap up.. it's a wonderful movie based on a terrible novel that was based on a fun song based on a silly legend.
Kudos for Russel for even thinking of doing it and doing such a great job.
and Amanda Donahoe is probably the sexiest villain ever created!
For background , my next fav. is The Wicker Man (1973 original, the recent Nic Cage remake was awful). Then "Elizabeth" with Blanchet, heartbreaking, and Gladiator (Ridley Scott. With Russell Crow). Scott is probably the better director, but not as fun as Russel.
But for all of us who love this movie - READ THE BOOK by Stoker! (Don't remember the URL, but there are a lot of old books published for free online, for free download and I found it and printed the whole thing out. maybe e-books.com or some such?) Russel made something fun and watchable out of a complete mess of a book. In the original, there's a few extra characters that serve no purpose and it's impossible to follow the plot as characters are in one place then appear somewhere else that makes no sense and there's tons of logical flaws in it. There is kind of a cool, kite in a thunder storm thing.
Finally, my band did a version of the theme song for fun. Then we researched more lyrics and it turns out that it's a very old (1800's) traditional song from the British isles, based on an actual legend. With two more verses that the movie didn't use.
So, to wrap up.. it's a wonderful movie based on a terrible novel that was based on a fun song based on a silly legend.
Kudos for Russel for even thinking of doing it and doing such a great job.
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