Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994 film)

Copyright: TriStar Pictures

Day 3 and we're checking out the Francis Ford Coppola produced film Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.  Two years after Dracula proved a hit, they decided to update another literary classic with Mrs. Shelley's book.  A couple years after this one, the Jeckyll and Hyde retelling Mary Reilley was also made, so historical period drama mixed with gothic horror seems to have been rather big.

The film starts in the Arctic, with a ship on a difficult journey, the crew attempting to find a passage to the North Pole.  Following a number of particularly deadly events, the captain has his men trying to chop their way out, despite his first mate's warnings of threats of mutiny.  They hear an unearthly howl from the horizon.  A figure approaches from a distance through the blinding snow, startling the crew watching.  The howl rises again, and the sled dogs of the expedition break loose of their bindings, only to be killed by something unseen.

The man is taken to the Captain's quarters where, upon hearing the captain's goal, compares it to his own past ambitions.  The man introduces himself as Victor Frankenstein and beings to recount his history.  From here, we follow Victor from his childhood, with his loving mother, and introduction to his adoptive sister, Elizabeth, to his teenage years, with his mother's death in childbirth.  This loss is what spurs Victor to try his hand at conquering death.

The film is really amazing, how it interprets the events of the book.  Instead of lightning, Victor uses the electricity from a mass of electric eels, combined with electrodes hooked to various parts of the subjects body (in a version of acupuncture, of a sort).  No neck bolts used in this creation!  We also get to see the creature learning to read and speak from watching over a poor family outside of the town after he's chased from it.  All in all, though, it does follow the formula we know from the original film.

Robert de Niro portrays the Creation, and the makeup used here, again, is rather well-done.  His face does have the look of stitched together skin.  He is, of course, one of the best known actors, with films like The Godfather Part II, Raging Bull, Bloody Mama and Taxi Driver.  Kenneth Branagh pulled double duty here, both as director of the film and playing Victor Frankenstein himself.  He also did several Shakespearean adaptations, as well as Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and the much reviled Wild Wild West.  Helena Bonham Carter played the adult Elizabeth, Victor's love.  She's been in quite a few of Tim Burton's films, plus the Harry Potter series, Les Miserables, and the live action Cinderella.

I give the film a 4 out of 5.  It was fun, exciting, and mostly pretty faithful to the original Mary Shelley work.  Frankenstein Week's almost over, just two more films to go!  Until next time, take care, and this is Red Hawk signing out!