Ford - Blog Posts
I read Bram Stoker's Dracula right after changing the course of my studies. From a fine university I went to another brilliant one. Everything around me seemed to take new shape and I had to learn new customs. In this phase, when my brain was forced to let fresh things pass, I found myself absorbed in this piece of literature, which I had been meaning to read for quite some time then. And so it was, I read it and found it interesting and original. On the contrary, I felt it wasn't a perfect match for me, since it was set in and meant to be understood in another era.
Time passed and I concealed my Dracula experience in the back of my head. This period, however, came to an end, when, yesterday night, I stumbled upon Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula (1992), and I couldn't resist, so I watched it.
The cast is near perfect, Keanu Reeves being probably the only odd one out, since he looked way too young and inexperienced to take on the role of Jonathan Harker. But all in all, Gary Oldman (Dracula), Winona Ryder (Mina Harker) and Anthony Hopkins (van Helsing), acted so stupendously, that left me breathless at certain points of the film. The directing was also terrific--of course, what else could we anticipate seeing Coppola's name on the credit roll.
Before saying anything I must remark, that I'm a huge supporter of book adaptations, so I had a very positive attitude towards the movie beforehand. At the very end of the film, it sadly turned into bitter disappointment. But remember, I write this, having established, that it was almost perfectly made.
Dracula's original story operates with stereotypical characters and countless elements brought in from superstition--not strictly, just in comparison with contemporary ways. The story has its twists and mysteries but those aren't as shocking and sudden as it would be expected from a current book. It begins with a solicitor, Harker's visit at castle Dracula and an encounter with the monster, Dracula. From here the count goes to London, seeking new lands to hunt humans. Harker's fiance, Mina is staying at her friend's place, at the same time. This friend, Lucy, has a habit of sleepwalking. When Dracula arrives to England, she, conveniently, happens to be the easiest target. The count feeds on her regularly, killing her little by little, until it gets too suspicious and Lucy's noble admirers, joined by professor Abraham van Helsing, unite to discover what torments the woman. They come to a right conclusion eventually but then it's too late and Lucy's transformed into a hellish creature, so they are forced to kill her, in order to grant her eternal rest and avoidance of godly condemnation. The fellowship decides to hunt the original vampire down and through Mina they get acquinted with Harker, who just returned, having scarcely survived his stay at the count's castle but is now resolute to bring down destruction upon the demonic creature. Dracula, moving on from Lucy, also turns Mina into a vampire, or comes really close to it, and then the men (and Mina) enter into a tight chase him and kill him.
In Stoker's novel, Dracula is a very instinct-driven killer. He only seeks base things and is not a bit a human. We don't get to see his backstory’s smaller details, only that he used to be an important and extraordinary man, then, at some point, he attended the Scholomance and has been like this ever since, only growing greater in his abilities. The only thing he engages in, apart from killing and turning people into vampires, is experimenting with ways to become more efficient at his other pursuit. Stoker wrote him as someone, who is led by evil and nothing else.
Dracula has one equal: van Helsing, who is almost identical to him, with the crucial difference of being motivated by good--by christian ideas in this story, mixed with superstition.
The movie tried to remain true to the source material in regards of the plot and interfered where intellectually a renovation seemed due. For example Coppola kept the means, by which the mourners of Lucy hunted the count but fundamentally changed the motives of Dracula. He tried to give sense to the character and so came up with the idea, that it would be of bigger service to the plot if the count was led by romantic feelings. It is supposed to give depth and seriousness to the drama. However, it works only if we fail to understand Stoker's original intents or if we are reluctant.
In the movie the count is fueled by grief and longing, after his dead wife, tragically killed hundreds of years ago. This event is where the movie’s Dracula experiences his extreme disappointment in the church and turns to other sources. The director takes it even further: Mina is somehow the reincarnation of Dracula's dead wife--this is very explicit, since she has actual memories from her past life. They both recognize each other and are gravitated to each other, even so, love each other honestly.
The movie has another important aspect: All of the good characters are humanized. The screenwriter threw away the naive figures and applied contemporary materialist tools to repaint them.
Coppola took the good characters and made them as bad as any other man and took the evil one and made him as good as any other. But what are the vampire hunters without a high ground? Dracula, in the other hand, has a morose reason behind all his evil-doings and is thus legitimized, made the victim of the story.
Stoker painted a picture, that was clearly white and black and then came Coppola, saying 'Hey dude, life's more complicated, than that'. Of course life is more complicated, than that but Stoker had an entirely different meaning. In his story: There is a transcendent world, there are transcendent values. In Coppola's vision, what we get is very grounded: we all are the same (not equal but identical!), regardless from the appearances, and the idea that everyone faces something after they're dead is as old as Stoker's vampire, and just as much an entertaining element of folklore but nothing more.
The movie denied the concept of good and bad. It rationalized that if we were Dracula, we'd probably end up doing things that could be deemed wrong, yet we would be as valiant as humans ever were. This is not necessarily killing or whatnot but we wouldn't be perfect if our lives weren't perfect. Dracula was demonic but with a certain justification. He had to be killed, of course, but it was tragic, in contrast with Stoker's ending of the story, where it was a relief.
Originally I liked Dracula's story because everything the characters did, even when they killed the abominations created by the count, or the count himself, served other purposes, than to increase the spectacle of the story. The hunters freed souls and granted them such things, that were impossible for the victims to attain on earth any more but existed nonetheless. Stoker believed in morals that aren't based solely on practicality but on a grand concept, that there exists the metaphysical and good above the world we know--that there exists God.
I love that fords excuse for summoning bill was basically just because he was bored
This pops up when you type in break up >:)
I took her to my penthouse and I freaked it
introducing: ford feeding waddles 2.0 while stan finds himself in a not-so-ideal situation!
these r fun to draw =3
Ford in «The Owl House universe».
I think that Stanford in this universe would have such a defect, because of which he would not be able to conjure. I just doubt that in this world, Ford was teased because of six fingers. In the world of demons and all sorts of monsters, six fingers would probably not be something surprising and wrong. Therefore, I decided to deprive Ford of the ability to create magic. And so I think he could, like Luz, look for an alternative way to study magic, or even don't give a damn about it. Science is the main force. And he could study local creatures, like in the world of Gravity Falls, or invent something.
Pretty shy Ford-si😏 What else is needed for happiness?
Do not trust anyone
This art was painted for my girlfriend who recently had a birthday! Congratulations!
An alternative development is Weirdmageddon, where Ford is on the side of Bill Cypher. Inspired by AU One Of Us
Merry Christmas
Ururu is a sound full of joyful and impatient anticipation of something grand ...
Soon Christmas, which means you need to congratulate your family and friends on this wonderful holiday. So I drew this art for my good friend.
She loves BillFord (like me) very much and so I drew these cuties together.
I spent 3 and a half hours on this figure.
It took a lot of time for this colorful lighting around
But I really enjoyed painting them two.And so I want to draw something else later.
Stanford Pines from Reverse Falls. Here is such a solid uncle.
We all know such peyring as BillDipp, MaBill and BillFord. And so I decided to place all these three peyring in one arte. And I also thought, how would Bill actually react to such abundant attention from the Pines family? Hee hee ...
Of course, there are other spikes with this cute triangle, but I took the most popular ones. I am generally surprised how there is no peyring with Stan!
“he’s just a dude” and then I proceed to save almost 600 photos of him in one sitting
It was time and hot enough today to burn a reward Mocha Frappuccino Blended Coffee Mocha sauce, Frappuccino roast coffee, milk and ice all come together for a mocha... #starbucks #frappuccino #blendedcoffee #coffee #Starbuckscoffee #coffeebreak #starbucksfrappuccino #drinkcoffee #coffeetime #ford #fords #oldfords #blueoval #80sfords #icedcoffee (at Starbucks)
Side view of the Tonka Toy Gas Turbine model manufactured from 1965 through 1979 the No. 620 Cement Mixer. In 1965, Tonka introduced a sub series to the Regular series. a futuristic design referred to as "Gas Turbine". The design is thought to be based in part on Fords futuristic cab over prototype gas turbine of 1964. You should watch the short video about the 1964 Ford Gas Turbine Truck just 6 posts back. #tonka #tonkas #tonkacementmixer #toys #steeltoys #pressedsteeltoys #cementmixer #tonkatrucks #vintagetoys #tonkacementtruck #tonkacementmixertruck #hasbro #oldtoys #oldtoytrucks #mancave #mancavestuff #cementmixers #constructiontoys #truck #trucks #sacramento #tonkasofsacramento #toycollection #markparshall #tonkatoy #Ford #gasturbine #cabover #supertruck #vintagetoys #diecasttoy #toyaddiction #Fords #FordTrucks (at East Sacramento, Sacramento, California)
some dog knights for a world i’ve been creating for awhile now!! the border collie is Ford, and the Shiba Inu smiling in the back is Clara, the one peeking at eye is Levi and the three other dogs colored in the back are Novak, Keifa and Torben!
Just working away.. come on 11pm haha