Frankenstein Film Review.

GCSE Coursework ~ Frankenstein Film Review

The 1994 film, Frankenstein, is an adaptation by Kenneth Branagh of the original book written by Mary Shelley.

The film has an interesting cyclical structure, in which the story begins at the end and, using a narrative technique, Victor Frankenstein relates his story to the crew on board a ship. There were very emotive parts of the storyline; one of the best would be through the quick succession of events preceding Justine’s death. Justine is found with Willy’s locket, which the monster had placed there as revenge. The consequences are very unjust and hurried, the judges are quick to jump to conclusions and she is murdered hastily without trial. It is so emotional because it is such a speedy, unfair event and the quick chase music adds effect; it is then contrasted with slow, emotive music to let the emotion sink in.

Excitement is built up in the film by the music, the weather, the background scenes and the actors/ actresses. Examples of this are when the monster is brought to life and when the monster rips out Elizabeth’s heart. The music is loud and dramatic, usually contrasting with the last scene and there is often a storm to symbolise unrest. The background scenes are usually dark with the fore-figures highlighted and enhanced for special effect and acknowledgement. Facial expression of the characters is very influential on the excitement, for example, when Elizabeth is brought back to life, she has residue memories and her expression tells us a lot about what she is thinking and feeling.

Music is used effectively for certain valuable effects throughout the film. It is used to create a sense of triumph, for example, at the end of the film when the monster dies with Frankenstein, by using heroic music and weather effects. A specific piece of music from the beginning of the film, where Justine is learning to play the piano, is repetitively played throughout to symbolise reminiscing by Victor, often painful yet loving memories. Classical music is used to represent wealth and status is reflected through different clothing. During times of death and mourning, slow emotive music is played to show the character’s feelings. When Elizabeth is brought back to life as part of Justine’s body, Frankenstein dances with her; the music begins orderly and shortly deteriorates to a distorted tune, to symbolise the severity of events around them.

The weather, alongside music, reflects the mood of the story. There are several dramatic storms, for example, during Victor’s mother’s childbirth or, when Frankenstein has a breakthrough with the monster, and the storm effectively reflects unrest and is therefore a foreshadow of what is to come in the future.

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The film was excellently cast, but was seemingly difficult to follow in places. The story was portrayed as exciting, scary and emotional at the correct times, mainly due to good choreographing with music and weather. The introduction to the film prioritises to entice viewers and keep them interested during the hardest to follow part of the film. The opening scene is a dramatic storm with loud music and effective lighting, where the characters are introduced and the story is revealed; Captain Walton’s voyage, an isolated obsession is a main factor at an early stage.

Character identity is a huge issue during the film of Frankenstein; people trying to identify their true roles in society and revealing to themselves through determination, and often obsession, who they are as a person. Victor Frankenstein begins as a man ‘one step ahead of the others’; he is very intelligent- if something ever went wrong, then he would be the one to fix it. He resulted in fortune through the adaptation of other people’s ideas. The professor knows that his ideas to create a new creature are evil and dangerous which will result in a hideous product; he realised the consequences before he even started, but Victor is a character ruled by obsession. Mingled with this unnatural obsession, is a sense of isolation, which is revealed after even the first few weeks of his project and he becomes a character dangerous to himself. Frankenstein rejects the closest thing to his heart, Elizabeth, and he feels the need to hide the creature from the person he loves, which shows he has a moral conscience, even if he isn’t considering consequences at this point in the story. Captain Walton is another character ruled by an obsession to reach the North Pole, a similarity in Frankenstein’s increasingly common case, in that he is greatly isolated.

‘Outsiders’ in the story include Frankenstein and his monster, who have similar characteristics, in that they are both different to others in the world around them. Victor is isolated, obsessed, what someone would call a “maniac”, but he genuinely wanted to help the world. The monster is different because he is unique, scarred and disfigured- unwanted by the rest of society. He has basic instinctual actions, for example, eating and the need to be loved, but he learns by the negative reaction of others, that he is different and has the new instinct to hide.

The monster, as the Professor realised before he pursued the project, has the potential inside him to be so overwhelmingly good, almost angelic, which is shown through the natural instinct to help the family he stays with, but the monster also possesses the potential to take up mostly evil actions, for example, when he murders young Willy as revenge for Frankenstein making him the way he did and creating how he is to live his as an outsider.

The monster has no identity; he is precariously composed of disfigured limbs and organs; no part of the body belongs to him as a person- all the personalities are mingled and therefore, Frankenstein’s monster cannot be described as an individual mind or body. As a result of being made up of so many different body parts- intelligent, criminal, thief- he has many different interchangeable personalities, which all come as natural to him. The monster is ugly, there’s no other word for it; his appearance is horrific, people hide and cringe at the sight of it, but there is the possibility for the monster to be loved by the human race. This is proven in the circumstances wherein the blind man makes friends with the monster, and therefore appearance does not matter, only the person inside; the monster can be loved although on the outside he is ugly, different and unnatural.

It is partly the monster’s fault that he ends up being hated by everyone, although Frankenstein holds most of the blame. He went against the Professor’s will through using his notes and didn’t consider the dangerous consequences that come of meddling with God and nature. He made a creature that had no say in how he was created before he was brought to life, it was brought into the world without consent and the monster cannot retaliate or control the consequences. He has to live a life of rejection as a result of his uncontrollable appearance, the main reason of hatred for him. The monster, often unintentionally for these were his natural reactions; part of his personality, inflicts the hatred upon himself. He undergoes deeds considered as demonic, but as revenge, a natural instinct.

There are many moral issues throughout the story, the strongest being that, all the innocent people are the ones who die, they are conquered by evil. Elizabeth, Justine and Willy are all murdered unjustly, whereas the monster lives for longer and provokes the murders. Another is that, Captain Walton, although having an obsession for reaching the North Pole, abandons his voyage after hearing Frankenstein’s story. Religion plays a large part in Frankenstein, God is referred to several times, for example, when Victor has an argument at university, he is said to be meddling with God and nature through the experiment. Also religion is represented when the monster is thought to be dead and rises in the chains to symbolise the crucifixion of Jesus. Here is a symbolic reading at Victor’s death, “God judges everything, good and bad, but also creates evil beings.”

The whole film was quite confusing and the cyclical narrative at the beginning enhanced this so I was often left pondering over what was happening. I thought that, although there were many changes to the original storyline, for example, when Elizabeth is brought back to life in the film and not in the book, this version was a suitable adaptation and flowed very well, enhanced by the excellent special effects.

By Natalie Davidson 10 ZA3