Beautiful blending of history & legend

Film review: Dracula Untold

MANILA, Philippines - The film Dracula Untold mythologizes the legendary and historical prince of Romania, Vlad Dracula III. If you’re familiar with history, you’d be able to predict the plot more or less: Vlad will triumph against an invading Turkish Empire.

Like many legends passed on by word of mouth though, the excellence of the tale — or film in this matter — is not in the simplistic plot but the way the plot is skillfully retold. Dracula Untold does a very good job in retelling the tale of Vlad, doing so in legendary proportions.

Historically, Vlad Dracula III was not known to be a vampire who got his power from demonic sources. The vampire legend came out around the early 1900s when Bram Stroker associated the name Dracula to vampires. In fact, in Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula, a film released in year 2000, Vlad is portrayed as an ordinary human, at most gaining immortality. Dracula Untold is able to pleasantly reconcile the historical Vlad who ruled over Romania, and the vampire myth that added to our hero’s vampiric traits like sensitivity to sunlight and magical powers.

Perhaps, one weakness of Dracula Untold is that compared to the other works made by Legendary Pictures, this one is not as action-packed. The fight scenes are simpler, and I found that I was yearning for more action after watching. It falls one star below the average of Legendary Pictures’ usual. If you want to watch this film with your kids, I’d say it’s more or less okay, as it does not portray that much gore.

Cinematically though, Dracula Untold is at par with the other films made by Legendary Pictures. The framing of shots is excellent, the color balance is pleasant, and the sets show the hard work put in by the filmmakers. You will feel that you are back in medieval Romania, albeit a bit stylized version, when you watch this film.

If you ask me, however, what makes the film really worth watching is how Vlad is portrayed. Unfortunately, popular culture sees Vlad in a bad light due to his false association to vampires.

However, if you go to Romania, Vlad is considered a hero and a defender of his people. Had Vlad allowed Romania to be conquered by the Turkish Empire, the rest of Europe would have been conquered more easily.

In Dracula Untold, Vlad is portrayed as a king who loves his family and his people. Fathers can emulate the way he treats his wife and child — with affection, encouragement and good words. The scenes with his family are short, but they are packed with family values. Rulers can emulate Vlad in the way he honored his country, with an enduring faithfulness that is backed up by deeds of self-sacrifice.

If you’re a dad and you want to watch a film with your children, I believe this would be a good film to watch and discuss later with your son. The film brings out the concepts of fatherhood and serving others; you’d end up having a lot of good things to talk about.

All in all, I’d say Dracula Untold is a good film that blends history with legend, and contains very good morals like fatherhood and self-sacrifice. I’d recommend this to my friends, especially to fathers and/or husbands.