Boba_Fett1138
The story of Dracula is one of the best horror stories of all time but the story of the historical figure, Vlad the Impaler, on which Dracula is partly based, is at least just as good and interesting. This movie presents itself as the true story of Vlad the Impaler, or Dracula as they say but the movie has neither the quality, story or resources to really be considered to be the definitive story about Vlad the Impaler, or Dracula's origins.But most important thing; it isn't really being historically accurate in the first place. It doesn't do the true story of Vlad much justice and while watching this movie you're being left puzzled as to why he is still considered to be a national hero by the Romanian people. You can blame it on the budget really. Because the movie didn't had lots of money to spend, it sticked more to some of its melodrama and talking moments, while ignoring all of the important battles fought and the monstrosities committed by Vlad the Impaler.The movie seems to be afraid of it that we might start hating on the main characters. It's the reason why it makes Vlad look like a reasonable family man, while he in fact was a cruel, sadistic man, responsible for the death of tens of thousands, also mostly innocents. It might also be because of the miscast Rudolf Martin, who looks far too gentle and sophisticated for the main role of the villain-hero Vlad. He never comes across as a strong, powerful leader, that strikes fear into people's hearts.It's also quite puzzling as to why if this movie wanted to tell the true story of Vlad the Impaler, why does he end up becoming Dracula by the end, while of course in fact the historical person Vlad had nothing to do with the character Dracula. Perhaps they were planning or secretly hoping on doing on sequel, telling the Dracula tale with some of the same actors out of this movie.But there is really more wrong with the story, or rather said the way the story gets told. It's a quite short movie and this can be seen back in its way of storytelling. The movie too often makes sudden jumps, especially toward the end. It's quite ridicules at times, for instance when Vlad bans his wife from his castle. 2 minutes later he is asking her for forgiveness and 5 minutes later again they are living together again happily, like nothing ever happened. Or when Vald gets captured and set free again, in the time-span of maybe just 2 minutes. This approach completely ruins some of the movie its potential good dramatic or powerful moments.However when taking into consideration that this is a low-budget TV production, I have to say that it's really not a bad one. Sure it tells a kind of weak story but the movie at least never becomes a bad or uninteresting one to watch. I have seen far worse, that's for sure!6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/
icfarm
This 2000 TV film, which, I believe, originally aired on Lifetime for Halloween of that year, is excellently done.It begins with Vlad (Rudolph Martin) meeting with his spiritual adviser, Father Stephan (Peter Weller). He is to appear before the authorities of the Orthodox Church to face charges that he has committed heresy/blasphemy by converting to Roman Catholicism.Vlad tells his tale, which begins with the "folk-tales" he says he is familiar with: to-wit, an engraving of the Blessed Virgin wept tears of blood at the moment of his birth, a sign that he is an Antichrist. Also tales of hideous torture which he describes as "forgeries and lies", maintaining that only "those who broke the law" were punished.Then we go back to when he and his brother Radu were children; they were captured by their father's enemy, the Sultan, to be held prisoner until their father, Prince of Romania, agrees to the tribute the Sultan demands. Radu, it is implied, becomes the Sultan's personal plaything, while Vlad is subjected to torture for refusing to comply with his (the Sultan's) desires. Eventually, as a young man, Vlad is released. He seeks out the King of Hungary (Roger Daltrey) for financial/military aid to fight Turkish oppression, as well as those in his own country of Romania who are complicit with the Turkish overlords. The king agrees.At a banquet with the King, Vlad meets Lidia (Jane March) and her father, Aaron. He learns that Lidia intends to join a convent, but the two soon fall in love, and instead, she becomes his bride. The two soon have a son. One night, Vlad hosts a banquet for Romanian nobles, who he believes are in league with the Turks and are also responsible for the death (by being buried alive) of his father. The men, after a few drinks, are told the real reason Vlad has called them there; the are captured at swordpoint, soon to be impaled. But Lidia, upstairs in her bed, hears their cries. She comes out of their bedroom to see what is happening but goes into labor. Their son is born.As the child grows, Vlad gains a reputation for brutality. His method of justice includes public impalements. At one point, a group of Romanian emmisaries who have come to make a final demand for tribute from his country - and are led by his brother, Radu, who has stayed with and decided to side with the Turks - refuse to remove their turbans when asked to do so. Vlad thinks of an appropriate punishment for this - their turbans are nailed to their foreheads. He spares only his brother.Lidia witnesses this, and it is the final straw. She has already begun to be driven mad by her husband's methods, having witnessed impalement firsthand. She imagines that she hears the victims of such punishment crying out to her. She decides that she must leave her husband and take their son with her, before his father has any further influence on him. Instead, Vlad keeps their son and sends his wife to a convent. His battles with the Turks continue.Eventually, he calls for his wife to be sent back to him and asks for her understanding and forgiveness for what he must do. His wife stays with him, but, after Vlad seemingly comes back to life after his soldiers were convinced that he was killed in battle, she becomes convinced that her husband is a damned soul; that is to say, that his spirit is doomed to remain in limbo on earth forever because neither Heaven nor Hell will receive him. She commits suicide, which, according to her own beliefs, will damn her own soul.Lidia's father, who blames Vlad for his daughter's bad end, devises a plot against him; going to Radu, Aaron has given him a set of forged documents that indicate that Vlad was conspiring against the King of Hungary, his greatest ally. When Vlad appears before the King to ask for further aid, he is instead imprisoned for years. However, he is released when the King uncovers the plot. "Would you like to become Prince of Romania again?", he asks Vlad. But there is one condition; he must marry the King's daughter, which would also entail converting (even if in name only) to Roman Catholicism. And from now on, when he battles, it will be on behalf of the Catholic Church.This is what leads to the trial Vlad must face before the Orthodox priests. They are determining whether to excommunicate him from their Church. Although he insists that he "accepted the Pope's money, never his religion", they ultimately decide to do so.There follows a final revelation of betrayal (I won't give the twist away), a final battle with Radu, and Vlad's death. When Father Stephan does not want to bury Vlad inside the Orthodox church where he had worshipped in his lifetime, Vlad's son pulls a sword on him and says, "or you die with him".But one night, Fr. Stephan hears strange noises coming from below his study, where Vlad's coffin his being kept. He goes downstairs and finds said coffin empty. Then Vlad himself, very much alive, appears before him. "I wanted to thank you", he says. You see, by excommunicating him during his lifetime, the Orthodox Church has supposedly damned him to remain immortal on earth forever by damning his soul. The final shot is what makes this a dark-tinged romance more than anything else; Vlad and Lidia, walking hand-in-hand through a thick mist, two souls, we are led to assume, that are now spending their eternal damnation together.Well worth a watch, especially this time of year (note date of my review). And yes, if I neglected to mention it, Rudolph Martin is gorgeous! And for you gentlemen, Ms. March is still no slouch herself.Cheers.
scobbah
Here's another take on the legend of Vlad III a.k.a. Vlad Dracula, prince of Romania during the late Fifteenth century. Luckily, this flick is not the regular vampire stuff, but an effort to partly cover Vlad's biography and partly to make another plot out of this infamous prince's actions in history. I must say that for being an adapted release aimed at television, this flick does pretty OK. Too often flicks which are aimed at television release only, become pretty poor due to low budgets in combination with wet director dreams. Here, they've somehow managed to pull all things pretty well together and it doesn't really feel as though it really is a super-B-flick.The actors' performance is generally OK, nothing that spoils it that is. For the plot and the development of it, those who are interested and have studied Vlad III might wrinkle their eyebrows a bit now and then, as the chronology skips a little now and then. All in all, it's an OK release and I'm happy to see a piece which is actually trying to cover more of the real Vlad III, compared to the more classic two-holes-in-the-neck vampire flicks which there are too many of already. 5/10 - an OK grade that is, you won't spoil your time completely and the flick is neat to kill some time with.
