In conclusion I would say that that the four films I have looked at show a clear development of how the vampire myth has become a representation of society’s fears and taboos. From the classical vampire figure of Dracula representing the tragic, lone figure endlessly searching for peace, we then have a distinct change when looking at the other film texts. While various theorists have argued that Bram Stoker’s Dracula puts across more than just this idea of a tragic Romantic figure I just cannot see any way whereby these concerns outweigh the film’s love story narrative. Simply, the character of Dracula is too easy to identify with, too easy to feel sorry for and sympathise with for it to represent any fear in society.
Furthermore, the very notion that Dracula must represent a fear in society must set up, in some respects at least, the idea that the audience will be repelled or afraid of Dracula himself and this simply does not happen anywhere within the text. The main reason we are neither afraid of nor repelled by Dracula is because everything he does is validated through his search for true love, the most righteous cause to exist, especially in the realm of cinema. Therefore, anybody doing anything at all in the name of real true love will always escape any idea that what he or she is doing is wrong or evil in any way. However hard you look, and no matter how cynical you are it would be near impossible to describe the idea of true love as evil.
The Lost Boys shows how the vampire can be manipulated to fit in with the society of the time in order to sell itself to an audience. We can clearly see a step away from the idea of the lone figure, as we are now presented with a gang. Through the characters and events in the film we then perceive a number of things occurring. First of all we are presented with a dangerous gang, thus we are given a challenge to the dominant order of society. However, with the ideas of true love removed from the text, the audience will not be able to justify siding with the vampire gang for very long. This is because any acts carried out by the gang are not justified in any way; they just do it because they want to.
This representation of the vampire through the gang allows what I believe is the dominant message of the film to come through. The audience, like the character Michael in the text, is allowed at first to consider the idea of rebelling and moving over to the vampire lifestyle. However, like Michael, the audience is likely to realise that the vampire gang’s life style is just too extreme and unacceptable to warrant moving away from the dominant ideology of forming the family unit. Instead it is likely to enforce an idea of a close escape from falling into danger, and so we must be careful not to do this in our own lives, rather than enforcing the idea that we should consider the vampire gang’s lifestyle as a realistic alternative to the dominant ideological view.
Blade then acts not only to remove all elements of romance and love from the narrative but also the identity of ‘the vampire’ as well. What we are presented with is the complete marginalization of the vampire through the ideas of science. The text is putting across the message that in a technologically advanced society, there is simply no room for the mythological and mysterious vampire to exist. Sooner or later science will find a way to explain any mystery away and once this has occurred any attraction towards the vampire lifestyle is removed. We are shown a ‘defective’ rather that an ‘alternative’ lifestyle neither as something dangerous nor appealing.
Blade completely reverses any notions of the vampire that we are shown in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. From being a lone, highly Romanticised, love driven figure, the vampire idea has developed into a many part, faceless parasite. The Tragic figure would not be able to raise the same level of fear around issues in society as a large, seemingly incredibly evil mass that just grows and grows like a plague. The message coming from the film is to embrace technology and science, another complete move away from the Romantic ideals of the character of Dracula.
However, Cyber City Oedo 808:The Vampire Case acts as a ray of light for the tragic vampire figure. What we are shown is a highly developed technological society that has simply gone too far, too quickly, without thinking about the consequences of its actions. What we see is that while Blade’s scientific premise is eager to completely destroy the vampire, if you follow the idea of progressing technology through, it simply ends up creating another form of vampire. Therefore, you could say that no matter what happens the tragic Dracula-like figure will always exist. The form may be changed but in the end something will always be created to replace it. Simply put, it is impossible to kill a vampire when they are searching for peace and their motivation is love because ‘true love never dies’.
Filmography
Blade (Norrington, US, 1998)
Bram Stokers Dracula (Ford Coppola, US, 1993)
Cyber City Oedo 808:The vampire case (Kawajiri, Japan, 1990)
Hunger, The (Scott, UK, 1993)
Lost Boys, The (Schumacher, US, 1987)
Bibliography
Bordwell, David and Thompson, Kristin (Film art an introduction, fifth edition, University of Wisconsin, US, 1997)
Crane, Jonathan Lake (Terror and everyday life, Sage publications, inc, 1994)
Dika, Vera (Games of Terror, Associated University Presses 1990)
Gelder, Ken (Reading the Vampire, London Routledge, UK, 1994)
Gordon, John and Hollinger, Veronica (Blood Read, The VAMPIRE as Metaphor in Contemporary Culture, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, US, 1997)
Grant, Barry K (Planks of reason, N.J./London, the scarecrow press, UK, 1984)
Jordan, John. J (Vampire Cyborgs and Scientific Imperialism, 1999)
Pearce, Lynne and Wisker, Gina (Fatal attractions, Re-scripting Romance in contemporary literature and film, London, Pluto Press, UK, 1998)
Silver, Alain and Ursini, James (The Vampire Film, from Nosferatu to Interview with the Vampire, Third edition, Proscenium Publishers Inc, New York, US, 1997)
Stoker, Bram (Dracula, Penguin, first published in 1897)
Storey, John (An Introductory Guide to Cultural Theory and Popular Culture, Hemel Hempstead, UK 1993)
Storey, John (Cultural Theory and Popular Culture, A Reader, Hemel Hempstead, UK, 1994)
Twitchell, James (Dreadful Pleasures, Oxford, Oxford University Press, UK, 1985)
Wexham, Virginia Wright (Creating the couple, Love, Marriage and Hollywood performance, Princeton, Princeton University press 1993)
Showing posts with label Dracula. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dracula. Show all posts
Monday, 11 March 2013
Monday, 25 February 2013
Using the Vampire to Mirror Societies Fears Part 1: Love Never Dies?
By using Bram Stokers Dracula (Ford Coppola, US, 1992) I intend to show how the vampire can be seen as a Romantic figure, as opposed to the idea that the vampire represents something evil, destructive or horrifying.
The film Bram Stokers Dracula is a perfect example of the vampire being represented to the audience as something other than simply a horrifying monster that must be vanquished by a heroic figure in order to save the day. In fact I would argue that Coppola’s film completely reverses the idea of good and evil within the text. By this I mean that the film is set up in such a way that the audience wants Dracula to win the girl instead of Jonathan Harker. This is achieved through a number of key factors which point the audience to the side of Dracula and show us that he is the true romantic figure in the film and not Harker, who at first appears to be the character with whom the viewer is expected to side.
First of all the film starts by laying out why Dracula becomes the incarnation of supposed evil he is later in the film. We are shown how his true love kills herself after hearing news that he himself has been killed in battle, this in turn then leading to him renouncing Christ. This can be read in a number of ways. On the one hand we have the idea that Dracula has now become nothing but a servant of the devil in renouncing God, thus lending weight to the argument that he is nothing more than pure evil. However, I would argue that killing his soul, which he effectively does, in the name of everlasting love is too classically noble a cause to just dismiss the character as evil.
Indeed, I would suggest that it even lifts Dracula above the other characters in the film. The loss of everything in the name of love sets him up as a very tragic romantic figure arguably equal to that of any Shakespeare tragedy. In comparison, the emotions of the other characters do not seem to make any form of serious impact upon the narrative of the film. Instead they just add to the idea that the film is focusing on Dracula’s pain of losing his true love, rather than Harker’s anxiety of trying to ‘rescue’ Mina from Dracula’s power.
Furthermore, in one scene we see Mina and the Count behind the screen in the cinematograph, situated so the screen frames them. Also it is in this scene where Mina finally begins to give in to the count, again focusing our attentions on the idea of cinema as romantic, as well as presenting Dracula to us as the cinematic figure set to sweep Mina off her feet, and in turn Mina’s surrender to the cinema and Count, setting us up with the classic Hollywood romance narrative.
By the classic Hollywood narrative I am referring to the structure whereby the narrative is primarily driven by the actions of ‘individual characters as casual agents’ (Bordwell and Thomson 1997: 108-110). In most films in order for the narrative to proceed it is driven by the characters desire for something. The desire sets up the goal that the character wishes to achieve. In a romantic narrative this would centre on the hero getting the girl. In Dracula this goal would seem to be centred around Jonathan Harker. His goal is to marry Mina, thus he would get the girl. The narrative would then centre on the character progressing to achieve that goal. Or in Dracula, Harker taking on the job of the Count’s affairs so he can earn enough money to marry Mina.
However, the classic Hollywood romantic narrative raises problems around the idea of Harker as the hero who needs to win back the girl. The main problem being the film is set up so we are clearly shown that Mina is not Harker’s girl to rescue in the first place. We are shown right at the very start of the film that it is Dracula who loses his true love. And thus it is Dracula not Harker who drives the narrative in order to get the girl back.
The idea of Dracula moving the narrative is confirmed throughout the film. It is always Dracula that moves first. He contacts the law firm to deal with his affairs, he comes to England to find Mina. It is always the other characters within the film that are following Dracula and Dracula always stays one step ahead. Furthermore, at the end of the film it is Dracula whose goal is achieved and not Jonathan Harker's.
Robin wood in ‘An introduction to the American Horror film’ helps to put Bram Stoker’s Dracula apart from other vampire films. This is done by Wood looking at the vampire in terms of folk law and myth. Wood's argument says that it is no longer useful to use Dracula in terms of today’s society, because vampires deal with folklore, which is often transferred to film, and this is no longer useful in terms of looking at the world we live in. Wood’s argument also centres on the fact that the vampire is not a romantic figure but a monster. This helps to distinguish Dracula from other vampire films, as I would argue that at no point during the film to we see Dracula as a monstrosity. Indeed he does commit horrific acts but it is always in a differing form than that of the charming Count, allowing us to distance his actions from his human form. Thus Dracula does not fit into Woods argument or idea of the vampire as a monster.
Vera Dika in ‘Games of Terror’ agrees in part with my argument that Dracula deals with the vampire as a Romantic figure. She says that the film is more of a fairy tale or a love story than a horror film. Furthermore, she reinforces the idea that we do not find the monster horrific and that the film is positive and connotes life, which I also agree with. However, Dika puts forward the idea that the film is concerned primarily with the idea of the vampire as spreading disease, and centre's on the idea of passing on a disease because you love somebody or loving somebody after death in terms of issues surroundings AIDS.
While clearly a film that focuses so heavily on the idea of transferring blood is open to reading about the spread of disease I would still say that this is not the primary idea within the text. I say this because Mina is more awakened than infected by contact with Dracula. Indeed by the end of the film Mina has become stronger than any of the male characters that surround her, if the film was focusing on disease I would suggest that Mina would have become weaker throughout the text not stronger. Then you have Dracula himself: while in many vampire films, the vampires are set up as non-caring creatures that seem to ‘infect’ without recourse, here we have a character that questions what he is doing. We see this in the scene where Dracula will not allow his blood to be tasted by Mina as he dose not want her to experience the tragedy of how he is. Thus, if Dracula is representing disease itself this becomes problematic. A disease would not stop and think about what it is doing it would just spread indiscriminately.
The idea of Dracula infecting Mina with a disease because they love each other can also be seen as problematic. First of all in the same scene where Dracula does not want Mina to taste his blood, Mina says, ‘Take me away from all this death’. I would argue that if the tasting of Dracula’s blood were meant to be seen as a disease that infects Mina, a disease, which she is willing to accept because she loves the Count, then this line would not exist. I would argue that the Count represents more of an ever-lasting love than representing a disease. If Mina tastes the Count’s blood, she will not die, just as the Count does not die. What it means is that the two of them can experience true love for all eternity. Mina will become removed from society and all its concerns, a society that is shown to rely upon money and class, where love dose not seem to have a place. Here we have two characters that want to love, but the only way they can love is to become removed from the society around them and I would argue that that concern outweighs the idea of disease.
Furthermore, the end scene would also suggest the focus of the film is away from that of disease. Mina saves the Count by killing him in front of the altar. Again, I accept that the idea of Dracula finally finding peace can be read as a release from a disease. However, first of all the mood of the scene strongly suggests that it is the true love of Mina that allows him to be saved, rather than him just dying because the disease has taken him over. Furthermore, the scene contains a lot of blood, if the film was focusing on the notion that Dracula’s blood spreading disease then surely either the blood would become absent from the final scene or more likely Mina would carry the ‘vampire’ virus with her after her true love’s death. This would indeed strengthen the argument that the film is dealing with an incurable disease or the notion of having a disease passed to you because you loved somebody. Instead Mina is presented as being in normal health to us, suffering no ill effects of contact with Dracula’s blood. It is the couple’s true love that is for-fronted as the determining factor in Dracula’s salvation not the idea that he has escaped from a disease. Again, this is focused on by the fact that before he dies he changes back to how he looked at the very beginning of the film, bringing the film in a circle so it finishes with the same Dracula who first loved at the beginning of the film.
Another argument which is prominent when it comes to the idea of the vampire, is the notion raised by James Twitchell in ‘Dreadful Pleasures (pages 104-110’) that the vampire represents an attack on Christianity. Twitchell brings forward points relating to various vampire films where the vampire would either take his revenge by trying to capture the daughter or girlfriend of a churchman or corrupting an innocent Christian girl. Another issue Twitchell raises is the idea that the vampire could not be killed due to the hero’s faith not being strong enough. While this idea may be prominent in many vampire films, especially those coming from the Hammer studios, I would say that the idea of an attack on Christianity is not prominent in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. While it is true that Dracula does renounce God at the start of the film, at no point during the narrative does he make a conscious attack upon Christianity. There is no attack on priests or churchmen, nor does he attempt to bewitch any innocent Christian girls. In fact there are moments where he appears to even respect the values of Christianity. For instance when Mina tells Dracula she is married, Dracula seems to cease his pursuit of her. It is only when she continues to talk to the Count that he carries on in his quest to make her love him.
While the conventional crosses and holy water persist throughout the narrative, it comes across more that while Dracula may be perceived as unholy, he is not attacking any form of religion in the narrative. In fact if anything Dracula acts to reinforce Christianity by the end of film. The scene where Dracula is laid to rest and seemingly is forgiven by God can be read as showing to the audience that he has seen that God did not take his true love away from him. I would suggest that you could even say that the way Dracula is guided to Mina can be read as showing to us his journey back to God and his being saved by Mina in front of the cross shows to us that he never truly gave up on God. For instance, if he were set up to attack Christianity why would there be a holy cross in his castle anyway? Not only does this show us that Dracula is not just an embodiment of evil it also enforces the idea that he is redeemed by love through the narrative by putting forward the idea that why he may have renounced God, the very fact he is saved shows that maybe even God understood why he did it.
To conclude this chapter, I would say that while it is clear that there are numerous vampire films which portray vampires as nothing but satanic embodiments of evil, this is not true in the case of Dracula. The film does an amiable job of showing us the struggle to find true love no matter the odds, and this message is so powerful throughout the narrative that any other issues are just set in the background. After all any film with the tag line ‘love never dies’ does not suggest the idea of a horrifically evil monster.
The film Bram Stokers Dracula is a perfect example of the vampire being represented to the audience as something other than simply a horrifying monster that must be vanquished by a heroic figure in order to save the day. In fact I would argue that Coppola’s film completely reverses the idea of good and evil within the text. By this I mean that the film is set up in such a way that the audience wants Dracula to win the girl instead of Jonathan Harker. This is achieved through a number of key factors which point the audience to the side of Dracula and show us that he is the true romantic figure in the film and not Harker, who at first appears to be the character with whom the viewer is expected to side.
First of all the film starts by laying out why Dracula becomes the incarnation of supposed evil he is later in the film. We are shown how his true love kills herself after hearing news that he himself has been killed in battle, this in turn then leading to him renouncing Christ. This can be read in a number of ways. On the one hand we have the idea that Dracula has now become nothing but a servant of the devil in renouncing God, thus lending weight to the argument that he is nothing more than pure evil. However, I would argue that killing his soul, which he effectively does, in the name of everlasting love is too classically noble a cause to just dismiss the character as evil.
Indeed, I would suggest that it even lifts Dracula above the other characters in the film. The loss of everything in the name of love sets him up as a very tragic romantic figure arguably equal to that of any Shakespeare tragedy. In comparison, the emotions of the other characters do not seem to make any form of serious impact upon the narrative of the film. Instead they just add to the idea that the film is focusing on Dracula’s pain of losing his true love, rather than Harker’s anxiety of trying to ‘rescue’ Mina from Dracula’s power.
Furthermore, in one scene we see Mina and the Count behind the screen in the cinematograph, situated so the screen frames them. Also it is in this scene where Mina finally begins to give in to the count, again focusing our attentions on the idea of cinema as romantic, as well as presenting Dracula to us as the cinematic figure set to sweep Mina off her feet, and in turn Mina’s surrender to the cinema and Count, setting us up with the classic Hollywood romance narrative.
By the classic Hollywood narrative I am referring to the structure whereby the narrative is primarily driven by the actions of ‘individual characters as casual agents’ (Bordwell and Thomson 1997: 108-110). In most films in order for the narrative to proceed it is driven by the characters desire for something. The desire sets up the goal that the character wishes to achieve. In a romantic narrative this would centre on the hero getting the girl. In Dracula this goal would seem to be centred around Jonathan Harker. His goal is to marry Mina, thus he would get the girl. The narrative would then centre on the character progressing to achieve that goal. Or in Dracula, Harker taking on the job of the Count’s affairs so he can earn enough money to marry Mina.
However, the classic Hollywood romantic narrative raises problems around the idea of Harker as the hero who needs to win back the girl. The main problem being the film is set up so we are clearly shown that Mina is not Harker’s girl to rescue in the first place. We are shown right at the very start of the film that it is Dracula who loses his true love. And thus it is Dracula not Harker who drives the narrative in order to get the girl back.
The idea of Dracula moving the narrative is confirmed throughout the film. It is always Dracula that moves first. He contacts the law firm to deal with his affairs, he comes to England to find Mina. It is always the other characters within the film that are following Dracula and Dracula always stays one step ahead. Furthermore, at the end of the film it is Dracula whose goal is achieved and not Jonathan Harker's.
Robin wood in ‘An introduction to the American Horror film’ helps to put Bram Stoker’s Dracula apart from other vampire films. This is done by Wood looking at the vampire in terms of folk law and myth. Wood's argument says that it is no longer useful to use Dracula in terms of today’s society, because vampires deal with folklore, which is often transferred to film, and this is no longer useful in terms of looking at the world we live in. Wood’s argument also centres on the fact that the vampire is not a romantic figure but a monster. This helps to distinguish Dracula from other vampire films, as I would argue that at no point during the film to we see Dracula as a monstrosity. Indeed he does commit horrific acts but it is always in a differing form than that of the charming Count, allowing us to distance his actions from his human form. Thus Dracula does not fit into Woods argument or idea of the vampire as a monster.
Vera Dika in ‘Games of Terror’ agrees in part with my argument that Dracula deals with the vampire as a Romantic figure. She says that the film is more of a fairy tale or a love story than a horror film. Furthermore, she reinforces the idea that we do not find the monster horrific and that the film is positive and connotes life, which I also agree with. However, Dika puts forward the idea that the film is concerned primarily with the idea of the vampire as spreading disease, and centre's on the idea of passing on a disease because you love somebody or loving somebody after death in terms of issues surroundings AIDS.
While clearly a film that focuses so heavily on the idea of transferring blood is open to reading about the spread of disease I would still say that this is not the primary idea within the text. I say this because Mina is more awakened than infected by contact with Dracula. Indeed by the end of the film Mina has become stronger than any of the male characters that surround her, if the film was focusing on disease I would suggest that Mina would have become weaker throughout the text not stronger. Then you have Dracula himself: while in many vampire films, the vampires are set up as non-caring creatures that seem to ‘infect’ without recourse, here we have a character that questions what he is doing. We see this in the scene where Dracula will not allow his blood to be tasted by Mina as he dose not want her to experience the tragedy of how he is. Thus, if Dracula is representing disease itself this becomes problematic. A disease would not stop and think about what it is doing it would just spread indiscriminately.
The idea of Dracula infecting Mina with a disease because they love each other can also be seen as problematic. First of all in the same scene where Dracula does not want Mina to taste his blood, Mina says, ‘Take me away from all this death’. I would argue that if the tasting of Dracula’s blood were meant to be seen as a disease that infects Mina, a disease, which she is willing to accept because she loves the Count, then this line would not exist. I would argue that the Count represents more of an ever-lasting love than representing a disease. If Mina tastes the Count’s blood, she will not die, just as the Count does not die. What it means is that the two of them can experience true love for all eternity. Mina will become removed from society and all its concerns, a society that is shown to rely upon money and class, where love dose not seem to have a place. Here we have two characters that want to love, but the only way they can love is to become removed from the society around them and I would argue that that concern outweighs the idea of disease.
Furthermore, the end scene would also suggest the focus of the film is away from that of disease. Mina saves the Count by killing him in front of the altar. Again, I accept that the idea of Dracula finally finding peace can be read as a release from a disease. However, first of all the mood of the scene strongly suggests that it is the true love of Mina that allows him to be saved, rather than him just dying because the disease has taken him over. Furthermore, the scene contains a lot of blood, if the film was focusing on the notion that Dracula’s blood spreading disease then surely either the blood would become absent from the final scene or more likely Mina would carry the ‘vampire’ virus with her after her true love’s death. This would indeed strengthen the argument that the film is dealing with an incurable disease or the notion of having a disease passed to you because you loved somebody. Instead Mina is presented as being in normal health to us, suffering no ill effects of contact with Dracula’s blood. It is the couple’s true love that is for-fronted as the determining factor in Dracula’s salvation not the idea that he has escaped from a disease. Again, this is focused on by the fact that before he dies he changes back to how he looked at the very beginning of the film, bringing the film in a circle so it finishes with the same Dracula who first loved at the beginning of the film.
Another argument which is prominent when it comes to the idea of the vampire, is the notion raised by James Twitchell in ‘Dreadful Pleasures (pages 104-110’) that the vampire represents an attack on Christianity. Twitchell brings forward points relating to various vampire films where the vampire would either take his revenge by trying to capture the daughter or girlfriend of a churchman or corrupting an innocent Christian girl. Another issue Twitchell raises is the idea that the vampire could not be killed due to the hero’s faith not being strong enough. While this idea may be prominent in many vampire films, especially those coming from the Hammer studios, I would say that the idea of an attack on Christianity is not prominent in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. While it is true that Dracula does renounce God at the start of the film, at no point during the narrative does he make a conscious attack upon Christianity. There is no attack on priests or churchmen, nor does he attempt to bewitch any innocent Christian girls. In fact there are moments where he appears to even respect the values of Christianity. For instance when Mina tells Dracula she is married, Dracula seems to cease his pursuit of her. It is only when she continues to talk to the Count that he carries on in his quest to make her love him.
While the conventional crosses and holy water persist throughout the narrative, it comes across more that while Dracula may be perceived as unholy, he is not attacking any form of religion in the narrative. In fact if anything Dracula acts to reinforce Christianity by the end of film. The scene where Dracula is laid to rest and seemingly is forgiven by God can be read as showing to the audience that he has seen that God did not take his true love away from him. I would suggest that you could even say that the way Dracula is guided to Mina can be read as showing to us his journey back to God and his being saved by Mina in front of the cross shows to us that he never truly gave up on God. For instance, if he were set up to attack Christianity why would there be a holy cross in his castle anyway? Not only does this show us that Dracula is not just an embodiment of evil it also enforces the idea that he is redeemed by love through the narrative by putting forward the idea that why he may have renounced God, the very fact he is saved shows that maybe even God understood why he did it.
To conclude this chapter, I would say that while it is clear that there are numerous vampire films which portray vampires as nothing but satanic embodiments of evil, this is not true in the case of Dracula. The film does an amiable job of showing us the struggle to find true love no matter the odds, and this message is so powerful throughout the narrative that any other issues are just set in the background. After all any film with the tag line ‘love never dies’ does not suggest the idea of a horrifically evil monster.
Wednesday, 20 February 2013
Using the Vampire to Mirror Societies Fears : Introduction
The purpose of this dissertation is to tackle issues surrounding how notions of the vampire and vampire mythology are treated by the filmmakers that manipulate them, and put them in front of an audience on the screen. I will look at issues that arise from the vampire being present within a text using four key films, Bram Stokers Dracula (Ford Coppola, US, 1993), The Lost Boys (Joel Schumacher, US, 1987) Blade (Norrington, US, 1998) and Cyber City Oedo 808: The Vampire Case (Kawajiri, Japan, 1990). I will track the progress of what the vampire is seen to represent to different audiences, and what fears are both being brought to the front of public consciousness and also what fears in society are being reflected by the vampire.
I will explore the vampire myth and its representation within three chapters. First of all I will look at Dracula. I will show the character is presented to us as a lone, tragic vampire figure. I will explore issues raised by a number of theorists such as Ken Gelder whose argument surrounding Dracula enforces the idea of a tragic, Romantic character. Also I will look at how the narrative of Dracula can be seen to have similarities with Bordwell and Thomson’s idea of a classic Hollywood romance narrative and how the audience can use this definition in order to side with the character of Dracula instead of the supposed band of heroes present in the text.
With other issues surrounding the film I will look at and consider the relevance of Vera Dika’s notion that we can read the text as a metaphorical representation of Disease; and also James Twitchell’s argument surrounding ideas of the film presenting an attack on the concepts of Christianity. I will consider both these arguments and position them in terms of what I believe the primary concern of the text is and how these ideas relate to it.
In the second chapter using the film The Lost Boys I will be looking at ideas the arise from the change of the vampire character from a lone figure into a gang along with a change in style from gothic surroundings and themes to a more commercial and contemporary surrounding, and how this changes our perception of the vampire. Also, I will explore issues which arise surrounding ideas of sexuality and how and what message the film is putting across is reflected in the dominant ideology of society in eighty’s culture, including how relevant Gramsci’s theory of hegemony is to this concept.
Other theories I will look at include Nicola Nixon’s ideas, which situate the film again, like in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, in realms of representing disease. I will discuss this and how plausible these ideas are in relation to the text. Rob Latham’s theories concerning ideas surrounding the consumption of youth through product are also explored. These along with my own concept that it is possible to read the film in terms of representing the idea of taking drugs will be used to see how far the vampires in this film differ from the classic Dracula figure and what they are now used to present to us.
For the final chapter using the films Blade and Cyber City Oedo 808:The Vampire Case, I will consider how the influence of science and its advancement has come to bare on how the vampire is presented to us. With reference to John J. Jordan’s discussion of the film and using my own observations I will show the different ways that the two films set up the idea of the vampire and science as being directly in opposition with one another. I intend to show that while the films set this opposition up, both the vampire and also science and progressing technology can be seen as being on the side of either good or evil depending on how they are presented to the audience.
In considering how both science and vampires are placed together I will look at the notions of the vampire as a disease that must be cured by science. In doing so I will show how the vampire is completely marginalized by science and turned into something outdated and something that is no longer believable whose acts relieve fears around the idea of advancing technology. Furthermore, I will show how the idea of the vampire as disease can be reversed so that it is the idea of technology that becomes the representation for disease, causing fear surrounding science rather than enforcing it as something that is necessary for the survival of humanity.
I will explore the vampire myth and its representation within three chapters. First of all I will look at Dracula. I will show the character is presented to us as a lone, tragic vampire figure. I will explore issues raised by a number of theorists such as Ken Gelder whose argument surrounding Dracula enforces the idea of a tragic, Romantic character. Also I will look at how the narrative of Dracula can be seen to have similarities with Bordwell and Thomson’s idea of a classic Hollywood romance narrative and how the audience can use this definition in order to side with the character of Dracula instead of the supposed band of heroes present in the text.
With other issues surrounding the film I will look at and consider the relevance of Vera Dika’s notion that we can read the text as a metaphorical representation of Disease; and also James Twitchell’s argument surrounding ideas of the film presenting an attack on the concepts of Christianity. I will consider both these arguments and position them in terms of what I believe the primary concern of the text is and how these ideas relate to it.
In the second chapter using the film The Lost Boys I will be looking at ideas the arise from the change of the vampire character from a lone figure into a gang along with a change in style from gothic surroundings and themes to a more commercial and contemporary surrounding, and how this changes our perception of the vampire. Also, I will explore issues which arise surrounding ideas of sexuality and how and what message the film is putting across is reflected in the dominant ideology of society in eighty’s culture, including how relevant Gramsci’s theory of hegemony is to this concept.
Other theories I will look at include Nicola Nixon’s ideas, which situate the film again, like in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, in realms of representing disease. I will discuss this and how plausible these ideas are in relation to the text. Rob Latham’s theories concerning ideas surrounding the consumption of youth through product are also explored. These along with my own concept that it is possible to read the film in terms of representing the idea of taking drugs will be used to see how far the vampires in this film differ from the classic Dracula figure and what they are now used to present to us.
For the final chapter using the films Blade and Cyber City Oedo 808:The Vampire Case, I will consider how the influence of science and its advancement has come to bare on how the vampire is presented to us. With reference to John J. Jordan’s discussion of the film and using my own observations I will show the different ways that the two films set up the idea of the vampire and science as being directly in opposition with one another. I intend to show that while the films set this opposition up, both the vampire and also science and progressing technology can be seen as being on the side of either good or evil depending on how they are presented to the audience.
In considering how both science and vampires are placed together I will look at the notions of the vampire as a disease that must be cured by science. In doing so I will show how the vampire is completely marginalized by science and turned into something outdated and something that is no longer believable whose acts relieve fears around the idea of advancing technology. Furthermore, I will show how the idea of the vampire as disease can be reversed so that it is the idea of technology that becomes the representation for disease, causing fear surrounding science rather than enforcing it as something that is necessary for the survival of humanity.
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