Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Review
by Freddie Elmer Mullins (femm AT pluto DOT clinch DOT edu)November 7th, 1994
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MARY SHELLEY'S FRANKENSTEIN
A film review by Freddie Elmer Mullins
Copyright 1994 Freddie Elmer Mullins
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Goes Back To Its Source For Inspiration
The original FRANKENSTEIN, released in 1931, is one of the most beloved, imitated, and spoofed movies of all time. It presented Boris Karloff with his square head and electrodes on each side of his neck. His characterization of the monster endowed it with a childlike innocence that underlined the malevolence it was forced into. Tackling such an enduring screen image is a daunting task, but actor-director Kenneth Branagh (HENRY V, DEAD AGAIN) has managed to carve out his own niche in the gallery of monster movies.
The plot closely follows the original novel by Mary Shelley, and this may result in some surprises for anyone with preconceptions of how a horror movie should be. Branagh plays Victor Frankenstein as a person who becomes immersed in the quest for forbidden knowledge instead of your stereotypical "mad scientist." Frankenstein is influenced early in his life by the death of his doting mother due to complications from childbirth.
This leads Frankenstein to resolve to find a way to improve the quality of life en route to his ultimate goal of cheating death. Frankenstein takes these ideas with him when he travels to medical school. His professors dismiss his "radical and immoral" postulations of ways to combine new discoveries being made(this is the middle of the Scientific Revolution) with ancient philosophers. Frankenstein finds a kindred spirit in Professor Waldman (Monty Python's John Cleese in a fine dramatic turn), who had the same type of questions and striving for the elusive mystery of life. With access to Waldman's knowledge and equipment, Frankenstein soon decides to try to "construct" a life, using the corpses of the victims of a recent outbreak of cholera.
The death of Waldman accelerates Frankenstein's plans and he collects all of the necessary materials: bodily organs, the body of a recently hanged beggar (Robert De Niro), and most importantly Waldman's brain. The sequence where the creature is brought to life needs to be and is extremely impressive. Branagh runs through his lab bare-chested pushing buttons and flicking switches, until finally unleashing the electric eels onto the piecework body to give the necessary electrical charge. Branagh cautiously underplays these scenes in contrast to Colin Clive's famous scene in the original movie where he runs around screaming "It's alive! It's alive!" Branagh thinks his creation is dead, but it escapes along with his journal.
All of the action up to this point is extremely involving and exciting. However, after De Niro's version of the monster escapes, the story gets bogged down in soggy melodrama. Frankenstein is having complications with his fiancee/foster-sister, Elizabeth (veteran of numerous Merchant/Ivory films, Helena Bonham Carter), and the monster tries to learn about human nature by helping out a family who ultimately shun him.
The best sequence in the movie occurs towards the end when the monster gives Frankenstein an ultimatum: make him a mate or the good doctor will lose his wife. Frankenstein and Elizabeth try to flee, but the monster exacts his revenge in a manner similar to something out of an Indiana Jones movie. Branagh obviously can't accept loss very well because his denial of Elizabeth's murder leads him down the same path of self-destruction. He tries to bring Carter back to life, and the results are predictably bad. The sequence of Carter's re-animation and her subsequent reaction is the eeriest in the film, and one wishes the tone established could have been present through the whole movie.
MARY SHELLEY'S FRANKENSTEIN is an elaborate production which has obviously had a lot of blood, sweat, and tears invested in it. Robert De Niro's (MEAN STREETS, GOODFELLAS) interpretation of the monster is a complex characterization that can be easily misconstrued. He is truly a menacing sight. A literal version of Mr. Potato Head with his stitched together appearance, shaved head, twisted features, and his characteristically gruff voice, De Niro is quite a menacing sight. His character's role is wrote solidly, and De Niro manages to interject a feeling of sympathy for the tortured character that he plays. It is a combination of Max Cady from CAPE FEAR (1991) and Jake La Motta from RAGING BULL (1980).
The major problem with the movie is Branagh and his portrayal of Frankenstein. Instead of being a deranged man approaching knowledge not meant for mortals, Branagh comes off as a normal guy who just wants to make sure no one else's mother ever has to die. He needs to add a larger dose of neurosis to his character, and he approaches that level towards the end of the movie when the mental strain of his marriage and dealing with the problem he himself created begins to show. There needs to be more a mad gleam in his eye, and it just isn't there. Another problem is some of the set design. The staircase in the Frankenstein mansion looks like the one out of CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1919). It doesn't seem possible that these stairs could exist if the audience is supposed to believe it exists in the house shown in the exterior shots.
In 1992, Francis Ford Coppola (APOCALYPSE NOW) re-defined the modern horror picture by taking a well-defined character and presented it in its original context with BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA. This set off a trend of examining classic characters in their contemporary setting. This is important to remember when viewing MARY SHELLEY'S FRANKENSTEIN. Shelley's novel dealt with the consequences of man learning too much about the ways of the universe and the ramifications of the application of such knowledge. It examines important issues such as dangerous obsessions, the true nature of knowledge as good or evil, and how we must take responsibility for our actions. Kenneth Branagh has managed to craft a motion picture that captures the intentions of Shelley's original work and its original implications.
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