Subject: REVIEW: MARY SHELLEY'S FRANKENSTEIN

From: [email-masked] (Freddie Elmer Mullins)
Date: Mon, 7 Nov 1994 20:56:02 GMT

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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.