Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula (2000)

Just perfect...

Better Late Then Never

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Interesting, subtle and nice. New exploration of a old subject with the desire to present the truth about a Romanian hero.Good exercise of image and form of rehabilitation.A childish story, with delicate emotion and many clichés.Tale for West sensibility about a Prince Charming in the skin of vampire. And parts of real facts for a decent taste."Dark Prince" is interesting for good intentions of script, for the temptation to create another image of Dracula, for presence of Romanian good actors (Maia Morgenstern like example), for the historical atmosphere. The only problem is the respect for real facts. For a stranger the film may be a revelation. For a Romanian is a caricature. Names of fiction and of reality are mixed for create a flavor. The relation with Orthodox Church is simplificated with some shadows like in "Da Vinci Code". Vlad Tepes is a puppet of time and religion. And the end is last element of romantic puzzle.So, I don't know if it is a good film. The intention is generous but the result is mediocre. For many reasons it is a film " ad usum Delphini", good for a image about a character, fake for the image of a Romanian ruler.

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.

Here's another take on the legend of Vlad III a.k.a. Vlad Dracula, prince of Romania during the late Fifteenth century. Luckily, this flick is not the regular vampire stuff, but an effort to partly cover Vlad's biography and partly to make another plot out of this infamous prince's actions in history. I must say that for being an adapted release aimed at television, this flick does pretty OK. Too often flicks which are aimed at television release only, become pretty poor due to low budgets in combination with wet director dreams. Here, they've somehow managed to pull all things pretty well together and it doesn't really feel as though it really is a super-B-flick.The actors' performance is generally OK, nothing that spoils it that is. For the plot and the development of it, those who are interested and have studied Vlad III might wrinkle their eyebrows a bit now and then, as the chronology skips a little now and then. All in all, it's an OK release and I'm happy to see a piece which is actually trying to cover more of the real Vlad III, compared to the more classic two-holes-in-the-neck vampire flicks which there are too many of already. 5/10 - an OK grade that is, you won't spoil your time completely and the flick is neat to kill some time with.

I have always been fascinated by the history of Vlad Dracula, and am glad that someone finally decided to make a film of this fascinating man. Low budget or not, this film is a great interpretation of the history of the legend.Not your typical Dracula film, this film tells the story of the real Dracula, who inspired the story by Bram Stoker. It shows his birth, to his reign as prince of Romania, to his death. Some of the scenes are based on fact, others, I'm sure, were written just for the film. I have quite a few historical books about the man, and yes, the atrocities shown in this movie, were in fact done by the man.The film was filmed in Romania and Hungary, so that does add to the realism of the story. The film is low budget, but even so, the sword fights had excellent choreography, and the special effects were above par for the budget. The only drawback for me was the length. Only 90 minutes.All in all, this movie is worth a rental by both historical buffs, and horror fans. Hopefully someone will make a big screen version of this story one day. It sure does deserve one.