Van Helsing

[paulgoatallen]

One of my favorite elements of Dracula is the conflict between Dracula and Van Helsing. I loved that an old Dutch professor was Dracula's most threatening adversary...

What makes Van Helsing such a great adversary?
Paul

[Curt42]

On paper this is an uneven match, Dracula is a big powerful man with great forces of evil behind him. He is working from the unknown. VanHelsing (in the book not the movie of the same name) is an older less physically powerful human. He is working against the unknown, but he has the courage to try. VanHelsing also works with his brain to attempt to best an opponent that he can not match physically.

[NickinColoma]

Van Helsing is a product of the time. He represents the traditional, conservative, old "school" if you will, of society of the time. Very sceintific, very traditional, very religious. Dracula represents the taboos and liberalization of society. The erotic sexuality, the blood drinking, the perceived dangers of the female. Van Helsing would win because of the sceintific approach against Dracula's strengh.

[PatienceP]

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NickinColoma wrote:
Van Helsing is a product of the time. He represents the traditional, conservative, old "school" if you will, of society of the time. Very sceintific, very traditional, very religious. Dracula represents the taboos and liberalization of society. The erotic sexuality, the blood drinking, the perceived dangers of the female. Van Helsing would win because of the sceintific approach against Dracula's strengh.

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Not just the scientific approach: if that alone had been enough, Dr. Seward might not have needed to wire Dr. Van Helsing for help.
As it is, even if Dr. Seward had been able to open his mind enough to scientifically believe in vampires, he wouldn't have been able to do much to protect Lucy or England. Van Helsing has resources no one else in this book has: he's the only one with ready access to vampiric lore, garlic, crucifixes, or transubstantiated communion wafers.

[paulgoatallen]

This is a total tangent but has anyone seen the 2004 flick Van Helsing starring Hugh Jackman? What did you think?
Paul

[LordRuthven]

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paulgoatallen wrote:
This is a total tangent but has anyone seen the 2004 flick Van Helsing starring Hugh Jackman? What did you think?
Paul

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Loved it. I love it even more now that Universal is not letting its box office failure spell the end of their monsters franchise (with the "Wolf Man" remake on the way, and Alex Proyas' "Dracula" origin flick as well).

The movie was cheesy. In extremis. But when I was a kid, I used to make up stories about the Wolf Man and Frankenstein's monster teaming up to beat up Dracula and the truly "evil" monsters. And that's what "Van Helsing" was all about. If I was 10 years old when "Van Helsing" came out, I have no doubt that it would have been my favorite movie in the history of filmmaking. Yeah, there are a lot of cringeworthy parts and I wish that Universal had shot for a more mature version of the subject matter...but I can't deny the smile on my face that I get when I watch that final battle between Van Helsing and Dracula.

And come on...Kate Beckinsale. Always a plus.

[stewiey]

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paulgoatallen wrote:
This is a total tangent but has anyone seen the 2004 flick Van Helsing starring Hugh Jackman? What did you think?
Paul

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Van Helsing was hired by the church. Very Very power forces on both sides of the war.
it good over evil nothing new.

[PatienceP]

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LordRuthven wrote:

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paulgoatallen wrote:
This is a total tangent but has anyone seen the 2004 flick Van Helsing starring Hugh Jackman? What did you think?
Paul

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Loved it. I love it even more now that Universal is not letting its box office failure spell the end of their monsters franchise (with the "Wolf Man" remake on the way, and Alex Proyas' "Dracula" origin flick as well).

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Ah, but Van Helsing the movie doesn't have to depend on box office. Monster movies tend to do well on DVD; Universal could make up its losses that way, now that Van Helsing is on DVD. I think that film did well there.

[LordRuthven]

Hmmm...that would explain why I have heard rumors that Universal was going to make a direct-to-DVD sequel to "Van Helsing," with none of the original cast, of course.

[Curt42]

One other important consideration is that every good literature hero needs a good villian. And vice versa. Sherlock Holmes had his Moriarity, Batman had his Joker, etc. The reader needed to see a force that was able to stop, and eventually to defeat, the threat of Dracula. Victorian times would not have allowed the bad guy to win. Since Dracula was such a physical force, he either had to be defeated by a greater physical force, which was not too likely in this case, or a mental force. Van Helsing, the book not the movie, had the knowledge to do it.