Tags:
Film: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Year: 1994
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Writer: Steph Lady and Frank Darabont
Starring: Robert De Niro, Kenneth Branagh and Helena Bonham Carter
Review:
This is a film that I remember when it came out. It was on the heels of Bram Stoker’s Dracula that was directed by Francis Ford Coppola. This was produced by him as they tried to go grander in the retelling of these classic stories. I originally caught this on the film channels but didn’t remember a lot of it in my rewatch right after college. It had been almost close to a decade before revisiting it for the Summer Challenge Series on the Podcast Under the Stairs. I gave it another watch for my Foray through the Fours.
Synopsis: when the brilliant, but unorthodox scientist Dr. Victor Frankenstein (Kenneth Branagh) rejects the artificial man that he’s created escapes and later swears revenge.
We start at the North Pole on a ship that is looking for a passage there. They’re looking to be the first to make it. The year is 1794 and the man runs into issues when he’s caught in a storm that strands his ship on the ice. The captain is Robert Walton (Aidan Quinn), who wants to push on. They can’t though until the ice breaks. There is then weird yelling heard in the distance. Capt. Walton and his men then meet Victor. He’s taken aboard. He warns them about the phantom that will kill them and that they need to flee. Robert is determined to continue and asks Victor to tell him his story.
This goes back to when Victor was a boy. He’s living with his mother, Cherie Lunghi, and father, Ian Holm. A young girl, whose mother passed away and named Elizabeth, is going to live with them. Victor’s mother is pregnant and dies in childbirth. This happens though when Victor is an adult and Elizabeth has grown into Helena Bonham Carter. The family is distraught, but Victor makes it his life journey to conquer death.
Victor expresses his love to Elizabeth before heading to Ingolstadt to study medicine. He befriends Henry (Tom Hulce) and makes an enemy of a professor, Krempe (Robert Hardy). In secret, Waldman (John Cleese) reaches out to Victor as he’s working on an experiment similar to this young student’s beliefs. When Waldman dies in an accident with a sharp featured man, Robert De Niro, Victor steals his notes and continues his work.
He shuns those around him, including Elizabeth. She travels to Ingolstadt to see him, just as a breakout of cholera hits, quarantining the city. Victor throws himself into his experiments and goes about finishing what Waldman started. He is able to bring life to his creature, which is played by De Niro as well. Victor has a change of heart and tries to kill his creation. It flees before he can though.
The two end up living two completely different lives. Victor goes back home to marry Elizabeth. The creature becomes the ‘spirit of the forest’, living in a barn of a family. He does things to help and ‘remembers’ how to read. When this living situation is ruined, he decides it is time to face his creator with an ultimatum. He wants a mate so he can experience life and not be alone. This requires Victor to break his word and go back to his research.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. I’ll then start by saying that I commend this version is that they stayed faithful to the novel in that they played out the major parts that I can remember. It’s been a while since I’ve read the novel, let me put that information there. That aspect works for me. They did include new things here as well.
With that set up, let me start delving deeper and including Victor’s reason to try to conquer death is good. He was close to his mother and it was difficult for him after she passed. On top of this, there’s something that happens on his wedding night that forces him back to his experiments. It’s hard to fault him there, especially after everything he’s lost. This is staying in line that Victor is a villain. He tries to play God, creates life and then decides that he doesn’t want it to live. Elizabeth and his professors try to talk him out of it, but he persists. Since we’re following him and I thought that Branagh does well, it blurs that line where we worry about him which works in the movie’s favor.
Let’s then discuss his creation. He’s such a tragic character. He didn’t ask to be born and is shunned by the townspeople. They call him a monster at every turn. This is an interesting commentary on humanity with how bad society is, as they aren’t giving him a chance due to his looks. He just wants to have someone to love him and can’t find that. I don’t blame him for the change and trying to ruin the life of Victor, as he tries to get everything when this creation has nothing. I also like the idea that there could be residual memories in the parts which allows it to learn to play the recorder and read so quickly, especially with the brain that is used to revive it. It actually explains a lot for something I don’t recall being in the novel and adds something to this. Plus, for a long film, having those aspects prevents it from lingering on things. I’d say here that like his co-star, De Niro is good here as the monster. His size helps as well to fit what they needed.
I think that next should be discussing issues I had. I didn’t care for the concept that electric eels are used to bring things back. The switch here is interesting. Usually it is lightning, so going a different route is fine. This one is mimicking the womb with this giant balloon thing that they’re kept in during the experiment. It is more logical way of doing it to ensure the body is getting the electricity that it needs. They’re also using placenta that they stole, which would make sense. This version seems to lean too much into showing us the science where other versions gloss over it to prevent us from critiquing it. Credit though for the attempt.
I’ll end the story and include the pacing. This film has a 2-hour run time. Despite that, it doesn’t drag. We move through the different plot-points of Victor learning and then applying what he has. My favorite part though is showing the duality of the Creature and Victor as they’re living separate lives. I think by showing it that way, it is way more impactful to what the Creature decides to do, by humanizing him. He’s surviving tragedy at every turn. I do like that the ending as is in line with the novel and fitting for humans as they face their own morality.
Next to the acting which I’d say is strong. I’ve already said that I like De Niro as the creature. He’s an actor that I feel later in his career is given a bad rap and we forgot how good he can be. His portrayal here is menacing, but with a touch of tragedy at the existence he is forced to live. There’s a lot without talking and he is quite profound as he remembers to read. Branagh is good as Victor. His thirst for knowledge and his level of obsession with his studies. Hulce is solid in his supporting role. I liked Carter as well as Victor’s love interest. She’s more there to ground him and humanize this ‘mad scientist’. I thought the rest of the cast did round out the film for what was needed as well, with shout outs to Quinn, Holm, Cleese and Hardy.
I’ll then finish out with filmmaking. The effects were good. I love the look of the monster. It is more realistic than what we in the classics. They make it look ugly in a much different way. It is done in a way where you can tell that the body has been stitched together, which in turn makes it ugly. There is another creature later in the film as well that I liked. I don’t mind the CG effects. It was early there, but there weren’t a lot used. The cinematography helps to hide the seams so that is part of it. This captures the era it is set, which is good. Other than that, the soundtrack fit what was needed.
In conclusion, I think this is a good adaptation to the classic tale from Mary Shelley. I like the additions to it and keeping the events together here. Despite its longer run time, it still moves at a good pace and I never got bored. The acting is great to create the duality of two characters, one with it all and one with nothing. It becomes a tragedy through this. This is well-made from the effects to the cinematography and framing. Overall, I’d say this is a good film and one of the better adaptations out there. This one despite being darker than the Universal version, I still would recommend to all audiences. It’s a classic gothic horror tale with some interesting themes.
My Rating: 8 out of 10