Monday, February 23, 2015

Dracula: Dead and Loving it



Dracula, Dead and Loving It is a satirical comedy mocking the novel written by Bram Stoker. Many films portraying Dracula are very similar. They are serious, frightening, and subtly sexual. Mel Brooks adaption creates a light-hearted atmosphere while also following the story. 

The film begins with Thomas Renfield, rather than Jonathan Harker. After arriving at Dracula’s castle, Renfield can be seen sleeping peacefully in bed by himself. He is then joined by two women with extremely protruding cleavage. They dramatically and unashamedly rub their bodies against his as he rejects their advances. These sequences differed from the book in more ways than one. Dracula did not greet Renfield at the door and warmly welcome him in. Renfield was not offered accommodations such as dinner and a cigar. Also, there were two sisters in the film rather than three. I believe these differences show Dracula to be a more selfish, absent minded being; only giving attention to those which he may feed from. 



Through the film, the appearance of women’s cleavage was seen more than Dracula himself. Every woman looked as if her breasts were pushed up towards her chin. This was done ironically to emphasize the symbolism of blatant female sexuality.

I noticed quite a few times in the middle of the film when Lucy and Mina can be seen wearing a white night gown, symbolizing their purity and innocence. Lucy is the first of Dracula’s victims. However, in this adaptation, she opens the window to her bedroom and stands in front of it while removing her robe. She reveals her neck and cleavage, as if to purposefully tempt Dracula. 

After Lucy and Mina are bitten, they became promiscuous, each trying to seduce Jonathan. With failed attempts, their condition is found out by Dr. Van Helsing who repels them with a silver cross. Subsequently, after this encounter, Mina begins to only wear black gowns. 



Color symbolism is a major part of this film. Jonathan Harker, Dr. Seward, and Dr. Van Helsing wear similar black suits. Yet, Dracula is the only character that is shown wearing red. His cape could be viewed as a way to shield himself. It is colored black on the outside to indicate his surface-level similarity to those around him, but red on the inside to portray his eternal lust for blood. 



The treatment of gender was extremely obvious. Although the actors purposefully used the art of humor to get their point across, gender stereotypes were heightened. Women were often 
represented as forgetful, soft spoken, and obedient. A scene in the film illustrates Dracula puts Mina in a trance in order to lead her out of the house. He commands her to walk through the door, prompting her to walk into the closet. The maid arrives, also falling under the trance, causing both women to become completely absent minded and unable to follow direction.

However, the men were seen as problem solvers. When Lucy had to face the true death, Jonathan drove the wooden steak through her heart. When there was a medical problem, Van Helsing was not far behind with his silver cross. Lastly, Dr. Seward gave the same answer to every difficulty which he faced: “Give them an enema”. 

In conclusion, Dracula: Dead and Loving It created a new approach to an old story. The majority of the film followed closely to the novel, yet put a humorous spin on the situations. Men and women were portrayed as stereotypes in order to force the audience to think deeply of the different ways each gender is treated. 

3 comments:

  1. I really liked how you paid close attention to the gender roles in the film and how they were played off as humored stereotypes. I particularly liked your observation of the clothing worn by the characters in the film that represented their inner vampire. The film seems like a great adaptation with a humorous spin and you really grasped the female gender roles in the film.

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  2. Seeing as we both watched the same movie, and actually watched it together, we have wrote about a lot of the same things, but I did not even think of some of the points you made! When you pointed out that Renfield's welcome to the house was not as warm and inviting as Jonathon's in the novel, I never even noticed or would have connected it to Dracula's selfishness, so I think that was a really good point. I talked a little bit about the color of the dresses and the purity behind the color white, but I didn't even think of the color of the men's suits and how only Dracula wore red. Saying the red lining of his cape could represent his "eternal lust for blood" is a very good assumption while also relating the act of biting to sex and pleasure.
    Just like the novel, the men are the problem solvers, but unlike the novel, Mina is not one of them. I like how you wrote about each over-sexualized female character was a way for Mel Brooks to point out the irony and ridiculousness of how they were portrayed in the novel during the late 1800's. Great job!

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  3. I thought that you did an extremely good job summarizing the important points of the movie. I have never seen this before so I found it very interesting to see how women are made to be sexual beings whereas the men are portrayed as the "problem solvers". Because I have never seen this movie this helped me compare it to the movie I watched where the female characters were portrayed in similar ways. I also like how you focused on color throughout the film because that is an interesting aspect I would not have thought of. Good job!

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