Coppola's adaptation of Bram Stoker's DraculaThe legendary creature Dracula has enchanted readers and viewers for nearly a century. In Bram Stoker's masterpiece, Dracula, the infamous monster affects each reader differently. Some find the greatest fear to be the unholy nature of his blood-sucking attacks, while others find themselves more afraid of Dracula's omnipresent shadow-like nature. The fascination with Dracula has assimilated into all parts of society. Dracula can now be seen selling breakfast cereals, making appearances on Sesame Street and on the big screen. Countless film adaptations of Stoker's original novel have been undertaken by some of Hollywood's most accomplished directors, including Francis Ford Coppola who completed a film adaptation of Dracula in 1993. In creating his film, Coppola strove to create a that remained faithful to Stoker's original creation. In fact, he insisted on calling the film Bram Stoker's Dracula, but in reality the film fell far short of his lofty goals. Coppola realized the complexity of Dracula's character and hoped to combine all the compelling qualities that made him legendary. Coppola, however, became too fond of Dracula's loving and seductive nature and overlooked the monster's horror. Stoker's original novel focuses on the fear created by Dracula and the omnipotent nature of his existence. Dracula appears directly in the novel only in a few places. Most of its existence takes place on a subtextual level, in stark contrast to the more recent film version. In Coppola's film, Dracula plays a very active and visual role in almost every scene. Coppola's temptation to show Dracula a... half of paper is quite understandable... it's not. The film is simply a money-making vehicle and is not truly a retelling of the original Dracula. The story is not Stoker's and is simply Coppola's representation of what he thinks Dracula means to people of the twentieth century. The film has some aspects of fear but it is drastically less than the fear that exists in the classic Stoker story. The film will simply be added to the long list of films that have attempted to recapture the magical horror of Stoker's novel but failed dramatically. Works Cited Holte, James Craig. Dracula in the Dark: The film adaptations of Dracula. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1997. Stoker, Bram. Dracula. New York: Signet, 1992. Bram Stoker's Dracula. Screenplay by James V. Hart. Director Francis Ford Coppola. Perf. Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu Reeves. Columbia Tristar, 1992.