Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula is a movie based on the historical account of a man who committed horrible crimes towards humanity. The main character in the film is Vlad Tepes a Romanian prince who fights the Ottoman Empire and the rival nobles to regain is title and freedom for people. The film portrays Vlad as a national hero, a barbaric murderer and the Anti- Christ in league with the devil. The purpose of the movie review is to summarize the thesis and compare it to the Hollywood version of Dracula starring Keanu Reeves and Gary Oldman. The conclusion is an outline of how well the film done in the cinema along with my opinion of both films.

In the opening segment of the film, our main character Prince Vlad Tepes is a hero to his people because he fights the powerful people known as the Turks and the traitor noblemen. He never attends church, so the priest summons him to a hearing to defend his life. At the hearing, Vlad tells his story from a young man to an adult life and his death. Vlad father loves him more than his younger brother Radu. Evidence of this love is between 8.43 and 9.00 of the video where his father gives him a sacred ring, making him the trusted heir if he is to die. (Youtube, 2017)  The film portrays his younger as weak in the eyes of the father and possibly a homosexual. The father goes off to fight for his country but he his betrayed by enemies who send his sons to Turkey to serve the sultan. Radu is shown favoritism by the Sultan whereas Vlad is closely watched and imprisoned under harder condition.  Years later Vlad is released to return to the homeland, but he travels to Hungary to seek help from an old friend of his dead father. At 12:10 of the video the storyteller explains how his father was buried alive by the nobles of Romania. (You Tube, 2017)  The King of Hungary gives Vlad money, and he arranges for Vlad to marry a beautiful lady from Romania who had fled to the King of Hungary with her father for protection.  So Vlad returns to his homeland uniting his people, seeking revenge on the nobles who killed his father and waging war on the Turkish ruler. Vlad is a hero the movie portrays him as a hero to the poor and savior to Christians. My research showed me that the rulers of Turkey in that period were known as leaders of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire is an Islamic Empire with much wealth and power in that world at that time. (Woodward, Para 1)  Vlad is a hero to his people and the Christian faith. The next paragraph briefly explains Dracula in the modern versions. 

The current version of Dracula is quite romantic yet thrilling and dark. Gary Oldman portrays Count Dracula, who returns to England in the nineteenth century to seek his long-dead bride, now reincarnated as Keanu Reeves fiancée. The current movie portrays Count Dracula as a romantic man to the ladies, a man of romance with a dark secret. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (or simply Dracula) is a 1992 American romantic horror film directed and produced by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. (Dracula, Para 1) The 1992 movie hold similarities to the real history, but much of the plot is fantasized such as Dracula becoming a vampire after denouncing Christ and drinking the blood of Jesus from the cross. The real account of Vlad Tepe’s life portrays him dying as a hero to some and an anti-Christ to the Church. The romantic Dracula is seen as a love interest to Mina and some of the video and at the end of the movie a man forgiven by God. The end is strange but compelling because he would rather die than have his love suffers centuries of his demonic faith.  The next paragraph explains the villain in the real story of Dracula.

In the real story of Vlad Tepes, he is considered a villain and a tyrant by the noblemen, his wife father, and the church. Historians describe Vlad as the impale known for the exceedingly cruel punishments he imposed as rulers of Wallachia. Impalement was his preferred method of torture; his cruelty has inspired Vlad for the horror character of Dracula. (Vlad T, Para 1) To continue his wife hears rumors of his cruelty and barbaric behavior from her Christian father. She encounters evidence of his brutality with a visit to the town. At the town, she meets men that are impaled on huge stakes and left to die the slow and painful death. Furthermore, the guard who lets her escape to the town because he fell asleep he is impaled on the stake. Many noblemen flee the country including his wife’s father. From 14 minutes and 26 seconds into the movie, Vlad wife Lydia sees eyewitness account of his barbaric acts. (You Tube, 2017) The 1992 version of Count Dracula depicts him as a romantic demon as previously mentioned and a cruel monster who feeds on the blood of innocent victims. The two character hold similar personalities in that they only show mercy for their loyal subjects and woman they love but death and inhumane punishment for the innocent.

The Romanian ministers named Vlad the Anti-Christ. My research shows that society as called countless men in history the anti-Christ. Adolph Hitler, Napoleon, in Chinese history Genghis Khan and his ancestor of the Yuan dynasty have been compared to a demon an Anti –Christ. Vlad Tepes is given the name Anti-Christ because of the thousands of people he killed, but he still gained the love and the trust of the common man. At the ending of the movie, I realized that Vlad real enemy and true power is the Church. Vlad friend is the Hungarian king, but his wife father frames Vlad, and the Hungarian King imprisons him for a long time. Eventually, he releases Vlad, on condition that he gives up his Eastern Orthodox religion for Roman Catholic. The Eastern Christian religion is characterized by its continuity with the apostolic church, its liturgy, and its national churches. Its adherents live mainly in the Balkans, Greece, the Middle East, and former Soviet countries. (Meyendorff, 2017, Para 1) The true of Dracula, Vlad explains to the Eastern Church leaders that he renounced his faith for the pope. (You Tube, 2017) The Eastern Minister calls him the Messiah or Christ. It is no Christ they believe him to be the false God or son of the Devil. The minister reveals in his record books that he killed more than 10000 people. The minister at 1 hour and 13 minutes into the video state that, Vlad only salvation is to renounce Catholicism. (You Tube, 2017) In the end, the Eastern Church killed Vlad by tricking him into a meeting with his brother Radu and the Turks. It is a sad ending for Vlad because he realizes it is the Church who sacrifices men who fight the Sultan. The Eastern Church killed Vlad. The Dracula movie from 1992, portrays, Count Dracula or Vlad Tepes as the son of the devil or dark prince because he turned away from God to choose eternal life with Satan. Dracula heartbroken because he lost his wife who committed suicide thinking him dead.  The Vlad in 1992 movie, can change into rats and demons and walk in the day with protective glasses and weak sunlight. The difference is one chooses dark secrets of Satan whereas the other is a man who committed had many followers, but he committed many barbaric murders.

In conclusion, the story of Count Dracula received a 60% vote of liking the movie. Most people felt that it had some real action and historical facts.  One person rated as quoted from the site, “I thought this was a vampire film. Nevertheless, I watched the whole thing. I thought it was pretty good for what it was a historical / horror film. (Rotten Tomatoes, 2017) Bram Stoker Dracula is well received in that 80% of the people thought this to be an excellent movie. One of the critics a man named Richard Corliss stated that the luscious film restores the creature’s nobility and gives him peace. (Rotten Tomatoes, 2017)  My final thoughts I liked the modern version of the vampire tale from 1992 because the creature at times he is romantic with his lady. Furthermore, the movie is exciting. My thoughts on the actual story of Dracula is the sadness of the film and how primitive life was so many years ago. I enjoyed the assignment and the movies.