Overrated

One of my all time favorites.

From my favorite movies..

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

After I Saw The BtVS Episode "Buffy V.S Dracula" I Loved Rudolph Martin's Dracula Performance When I Found Out He Made This I Looked For It. This Was Not As I Thought "Vlads Transformation" No Its About His Actual Life Separating Fact From Fiction. From The Point Of View From A Guy Who Only Knows Dracula As The Vampire I Enjoyed It. If This Version Is Accurate Of What Vlad III The Impaler Was Like...I Would Know Not To Get Him Ticked Off Seriously The Guy Put Spears Through Anyone Who Was "Asleep On The Job" & "Did Not Serve His Country" Well Kings Or Princes Could've Had You Killed If You Looked Bad So All I'll Say Is "Even Though This World May Not Be Perfect Its Not As Bad As It Could Be" & This Also Explains Why Dracula (Vampire) Was Believed To Have Had Those Weaknesses. Let Me Explain He Grew Weary Of The Sun Because He Was In That Prison, The Rumors About Him Having The Blood Of His Victims In His Wine Cellar, He Made A Memorial To His Wife Over A Mirror & He Was Unloyal To The Catholics, Need I Go On. The Ending Did Not Make Sense To Me Vlad Comes Back To Kill The Priest...If This Film Is Implying Something Did Kill That Priest But Nobody Ever Found Out Then The Director Can't Just Throw A Wild Accusation...The Thing That Kinda Made Me Think "Wow" Was The Explorers Dug Up Dracula's Tomb & Found Nothing But Animal Bones In 1931...Weird. There Should Be More Vlad Dracula Movies I'm Not Talking About The Vampire...We've Seen Enough Of That I'm Talking About The Actual Man Too Many Films About Other Kings That Are Famous For Who They Were Not Fiction(King Henry VIII Springs To Mind Not That I Hate Movies About Henry) People Know Too Much About The Myth & Too Little About The Man So I Am Trying To Force You, The Reader, To Watch This. So You Know More About The Man & Not The Vampire...Even Though I Liked The Book I Liked This Movie As Well...AS MUCH AS THE BOOK! You Will Love This Movie If You Love The Book. Rudolph Martin Does The Best Vlad III EVER!

The movie deals with the so-called historical figure of Vlad Tepes (phonetically that is "Tzepesh" and it literally means "Impaler"), not the vampire of Bram Stoker but the tormented Wallachian (Romanian) medieval ruler that stood against the might of the Ottoman Empire with nothing but a few trained men of his own and his reputation as master of psychological warfare by means of sheer terror and unprecedented scale of prisoner execution through impalement (Google on that for detailed info). Vlad's father, also called Vlad, was a member of the Teutonic knightly order of the Dragon, which had been established in Germany with the purpose of protecting Christianity against the rise of Islam at the gates of Europe. His affiliation with this order gained him the surname "Dracul" which is a Romanian translation for "Dragon" and also a synonym for "devil". Vlad the Impaler, that is the son of Vlad Dracul, inherited his father's membership into the order of the Dragon, but because he was the son of Dracul, he was named "Draculea", or "Dracula", which means "son of Dracul", son of the Dragon, and ultimately son of the devil. His reputation as a mad executioner would be well justified by today's standards, although he was just a babe when compared to other rulers of his time (his own cousin, Stephen the Great, ruler of Moldavia, "the Athlete of Christ" as he had been named by the Pope for having repeatedly beaten the crap out of the Turks, had reportedly killed many more people through impalement than Vlad but because he had always been politically correct, he never went down into history as a deranged butcher). Vlad Tepes had the Saxons of Transilvania account for their transgressions against the conquered local Romanian population and it was because of the vengeful literate Germans who wrote exacerbated stories about him that he was later on remembered as the sadistic figure we now read of in the history books. He had also been ruthless with the breaking of the law in his own land. The only punishment instituted for whatever crime committed, regardless of its seriousness, was the one and only impalement. It's because of this that, during his reign, crime had reportedly dropped to nil. That is why, for the Romanians, he's still, up to this day, considered a national hero of special importance, unlike any other, because his name is called upon in times of great oppression, when corruption and plundering of the national economy by the oligarchic political class bring the common, ordinary citizens on their knees. When confronted with such disasters, Romanians cry out the verses of Mihai Eminescu (1850-1889), the greatest national poet of Romania, who had even written a poem in Tepes's honor which, in time, became a sort of a prayer for those crushed by the arrogance of the ruling class. In a few words, it goes something like this (in free translation): "Where are you, lord Tepes / So that, by grabbing them / You would divide them in two packs: / Lunatics and scoundrels. / And in two large jails / You would forcibly gather them / And then set fire to the prison / And the madhouse."(sounds much, much better in Romanian...lol :)))

The true story of Vlad Dracula (The Impaler) is often confused by the propaganda that was circulated at the time by the Turks, and borrowed by his enemies on the Christian side of the frontier. Although this film portrays Vlad as more loved than feared by his people, which history disputes, the basic structure is very accurate. The acting, the sets, the scenes are all excellent; if all films made on this sort of budget were as good, Hollywood could close tomorrow. Even if the history doesn't interest you at all then watch it just for the quality of production. Please note that this is not a horror film - just a realistic representation of the Balkans in medieval times.

I was watching the Sci-Fi Channel when this movie started and when I saw the title, I thought someone finally did a biographical movie and started watching with interest. I admit Peter Weller starring in the movie got my attention too. It started OK with the maps like Bram Stoker's Dracula had, but when the first ever scene started, I knew this was another fantasy Dracula movie without the vampires. Expect only a very few points of facts from the actual history here. I compared it to history and might sound like too much criticizing but since it claims to be a true story I couldn't help it. If it was to have just the title, I would have watched it as fiction.*POSSIBLE SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT. There are really no spoilers here but just some historical comparisons. But if you don't want to see it or think you'd be bored by it, or that it can be a spoiler, then I'd suggest not to read beyond this point* The costumes of the Turks are far from accurate (They look like they wear WWI British desert hats made out of metal. The outfits are not even close to the actual uniforms of the Ottomans.), the sultan wears an Arabic outfit rather than the actual historic Ottoman one, is made to look like a gay, dark and long haired Fabio who has a crush on Romanian boys (Which is funny because the Sultan himself was rarely present there if not never). The Sultan tortures a kid in front of his soldiers which is unseen in actual history. All of Vlad's atrocities and sadism, while shown in a few hints in the movie, are actually reversed and reflected in the Turks and Vlad himself is shown like a poor innocent victim of the circumstances who couldn't help it. If I didn't know any better, I would have sworn that the movie was made by Romanian fanatics of Vlad Tepes. Not a lot other than his atrocities and sadistic pleasures is known about Vlad himself since most of his historical records were burned to ashes by Romanians themselves since they've tried to cover up Vlad's attempts at helping the Turks conquer his own country to save himself from execution for what he's done to the Turkish prisoners of war. The Sultan in actual history offers several chances at peace to Vlad before commanding his generals to have Vlad's head brought to him after hearing what has been done to prisoners of war and his messengers. The death of Vlad Tepes in the movie is not even remotely close to actual history either. Sure there are a few scenes which have historical facts in them but like I've said before, they are very few.I think movie makers are starting to abuse the quote "A True Story" or "Based On A True Story" taking only a grain of fact and building a mostly fictional story on it. As a fantasy movie with very few hints of facts it's very entertaining. But to call this movie historically a true story would be a crime and be like calling The Adventures of Baron Munchausen a true story. I have yet to see a movie based on the true story of Vlad Tepes with historical accuracy. Don't get me wrong, this movie tries very hard to look real, but it's not.As an entertaining movie I'd give it more than 5 stars but calling it a true story, it gets 5.I hope those who've read this found it informative. Those who think I'm getting into a flame fight, I really am not. I'm merely sharing my own opinions about this movie and everyone is entitled to their own if yours is different.