Lovestruck: How Bram Stoker's Dracula gave an iconic monster an iconic love story

Filmmakers’ reinventing and putting their own unique spins on classic stories is not a new phenomenon. From Shakespeare to popular contemporary authors of our times, authors have had their works manhandled, twisted and repackaged by filmmakers as a loving tribute, which may or may not be unrecognisable to its source material for die-hard fans. In Hollywood, it would not be an exaggeration to say that few filmmakers have been able to do so as remarkably as the revolutionary Francis Ford Coppola.

Rightfully called a pioneer in the film industry, Coppola’s work pushed the envelop when it came to book-to-screen adaptations, with his 1972 classic The Godfather even redefining a whole genre. And who better than the visionary director to bring forth yet another literary classic to the silver screen, in form of Bram Stoker's Dracula. And in doing so, he helped make a tale about one of the finest monsters in horror history into one of the greatest love stories ever told as well. Admittedly, the 1992 film was not the film screen adaptation of Stoker’s novel to explore the idea of Dracula in love, but Coppola’s poignantly beautiful rendition was particularly stirring to behold.

From its very first act, the film sought to establish the depth and profoundness of the monster’s love for his beloved, the intensity of which actually drove him to attain his monstrous form in the first place. With his love cruelly taken away from him, and finding himself forsaken by the very religious institution which he risked his life protecting, and which inadvertently caused his beloved’s death, the fearsome warrior pronounces his renouncement of a merciless God. Instead, he turns to darkness which grants him the wicked powers he needs to seek revenge on those who wronged him.

Thus began his long wait, as he saw empires rise and fall to dust, counting the centuries till he could be given an opportunity to reunite with his beloved again. And reunite they did, as Dracula’s carefully chalked out plans to bring his ‘business’ to London found him to discover Mina Murray, a spitting image of his lost love.

Stoker’s evocative novel was not much of Dracula’s story, as the story of the people who encountered his monstrous form and fell victim to it. In fact, readers hardly get to know anything else about him other than his horrible deeds, with the rest of him coming under a cloak of the enigmatic explanations offered by his victims. The film not only helps to provide a much more in-depth picture of everyone’s favourite monster, but also does so in a way that humanises him with the most universally human trait there is - love. The film’s story conveys all that, which marks the greatest love stories of our time without leaving out the rough edges, the uncertainty, pain and of course, the inevitable separation.

Gary Oldman’s exceptional portrayal of Dracula undoubtedly added another layer of marvel to Coppola’s beautifully told love story. His nuanced depiction, perfectly captures not only the count’s intense passion, which is, of course, part of the iconic vampire’s allure, but also manages to convincingly convey the gut-wrenching agony he had to endure after years of being parted from her.

Bram Stoker's Dracula is available to stream on Netflix.