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From Hell

 
 
Shortfatdyke
15:04 / 29.01.02
i'm rather jumping the gun with this one as the film hasn't been released in the uk as yet, but when i heard johnny depp was involved, i thought it had a chance of being good.

that said, the posters i've seen ("think you know fear? you don't know jack") and the website www.fromhellmovie.com are totally lowest common denominator rubbish. another film about women getting terrorised and murdered? oh great.

i've been reading up about the whitechapel murders since i was a tot, because of the possible high-level conspiracy involved. would like to see the film in a way so as to be able to give an opinion, but don't want to sit through another politically dodgy slice and dice.

so - does anyone know if the film is intelligent/worth seeing?
 
 
videodrome
15:31 / 29.01.02
Intelligent? Not really. Ian Holm has some good bits, but on the whole it's pretty thin. That being said, it's also quite pretty. Peter Deming shot it, the same chap behind the camera on Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive among other things. His work really makes the film wtchable and I found it to be worth sitting through for that. But if you really could give a shit about the photography, then it's probably better to stay away.
 
 
Captain Zoom
16:45 / 29.01.02
SFD, I think the general concensus here was that if you've read the graphic novel of From Hell, avoid this film like the plague. Like you, I rather thought the presence of Mr. Depp in this film would lend it some credibility, but I was disappointed.

It was visually impressive (he said in an attempt to not be too one-sided), but when stacked up against the source material (both factual and fictional), it was a dodgy affair at best.

Zoom.
 
 
videodrome
16:50 / 29.01.02
Though Heather Graham wasn't nearly as bad as I would have expected....
 
 
ghadis
17:01 / 29.01.02
Havn't they re-written history slightly by having Mary Kelly escape from the Ripper and a life of prostitution and re-locate to a nice cottage in Ireland for a happy ending?!!??
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
19:45 / 29.01.02
No,

S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S

Alan Moore did that. And there's the argument that this doesn't "re-write history" (not that it would matter much if it did, eh?), since forensic evidence of the time was possibly not sufficient to identify the Ripper's last victim 100%.

[ 29-01-2002: Message edited by: Flyboy ]
 
 
The Strobe
19:45 / 29.01.02
The TV trailer is APPALLING.

Like, heart-tearingly appalling. It physically hurt.

/me cries about all the people who'll never read the comic on the basis of the sucky film.
 
 
ghadis
19:53 / 29.01.02
You're quite right....I'd compleatly forgotton abt that...i havn't read it for a couple of years...i think a re-read is in order...maybe after i've seen the filum though...
 
 
The Natural Way
06:56 / 30.01.02
Yeah, SFD, I suggest you have a gander at the original text and see what you think. Less murder as sexploitation, I imagine (though I havney seen the film).

But the book does get very, very....uncomfortable. It is nasty, but it is also brilliant.
 
 
Spatula Clarke
07:03 / 30.01.02
Previous thread.

And the one before that.

[ 30-01-2002: Message edited by: E. Randy Love You Long Time ]
 
 
Shortfatdyke
07:11 / 30.01.02
ok, big confession time.....i didn't know there was a comic version of from hell. i wondered which 'theory' the film would follow......actually there was a sherlock holmes film with christopher plummer (i think) that explored the masonic conspiracy thing and was fairly close to the stephen knight book.

will check out the comic for sure.

joan smith wrote about the film for the guardian recently. she was spot on with the 'heroisation' of serial killers, but way off when she suggested that the walter sickert/william gull theory was to make the ripper seem 'special/important'. bloody hell - if there was a big cover up that reached right up to the royal family, i think we need to know. i also heard that the files on the case (closed for 100 years) were due to be opened and the office where they were kept was burned down. hmmm.

edited to add: oh shit! many apologies for repeating this topic. will shut up about it now.

[ 30-01-2002: Message edited by: shortfatdyke ]
 
 
The Return Of Rothkoid
08:05 / 30.01.02
[holds up big "diversion" sign that points at the threads E. Randy linked to]
 
  
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