Movie Review of Frankenstein
Importance of Movie Screening:
Audio and video materials can be used to enhance learning resources by showing real life scenarios, explaining concepts, observing social groups, and acting as triggers for discussion. They are also able to bring experts and viewpoints to the student learning experience and are excellent at bringing subjects ‘to life’ to engage discussion and inspire learning.
Our brains respond to visuals quickly, much faster than reading words or other abilities we use to consume information. Also, images in motion ignite human senses. As a result, viewers find it easier to pay attention, focus, and remember information they consume from videos.
At the Department of English we had a movie screening of Frankenstein. The Frankenstein novel by Mary Shelley is a part of our syllabus. Screening of movies is also part of our learning.
Movies on Frankenstein:
- Frankenstein (1994)
This version is close to the original work.
Based on Mary Shelley’s novel, “Frankenstein” tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a promising young doctor who, devastated by the death of his mother during childbirth, becomes obsessed with bringing the dead back to life. His experiments lead to the creation of a monster, which Frankenstein has put together with the remains of corpses. It’s not long before Frankenstein regrets his actions.
- The Curse Of Frankenstein (1957)
- Frankenweenie (2012)
- Young Frankenstein (1974)
- Frankenstein (1931)
Frankenstein tells the story of gifted scientist Victor Frankenstein who succeeds in giving life to a being of his own creation. However, this is not the perfect specimen he imagines that it will be, but rather a hideous creature who is rejected by Victor and mankind in general.
Biblical effect in Frankenstein:
The film references the creation story from the Bible; God created man in his image and in the film, Henry Frankenstein creates the creature in his image. Frankenstein obsesses over creating life, and the film in a way addresses the socially unethical nineteenth century practice of body snatching.
The theme that fits Frankenstein best is that humans should not play God.
Genres:
Drama,Horror,Romance,Sci-Fi
It's R rated movie R (restricted, no children under 17 allowed without parents or adult guardians)
Motion Picture Rating (MPAA):
Rated R for horrific images
Violence :
This movie got rated R because of several scenes.
A dissected human body is shown, and several scenes of doctors cutting into bodies, just barely off-screen. The list of body parts includes a severed monkey arm which is re-animated and a human brain. There are close-ups of hypodermic needles entering a body, and body parts being stitched together with a needle. The creature steals a corpse from a grave and rips the heart out of the chest of a living person. A young boy is murdered off-screen, and the act is described in sadistic detail. Two characters set themselves afire. A woman dies in childbirth. A man is stabbed to death and his bloody body is shown. There are two hangings. People are shown to be dying from cholera, and the creature evades a mob by riding atop a cart filled with dead bodies. The creature is beaten with clubs. A sailor is tossed overboard into frigid water, and another is crushed by a falling mast.
Slip:
During the movie, the scars on the monster's chin and lip change. First his lip is split, later it's healed, but now he has other wounds on his chin. Then his lip and chin are healed, with no scars. But later we see big scars on both his chin and lip.
Is Frankenstein relevant today!?
A framework for examining morality and ethics. Frankenstein is not only the first creation story to use scientific experimentation as its method, but it also presents a framework for narratively examining the morality and ethics of the experiment and experimenter.
Real monster:
Victor is the true monster through his actions and personality throughout the book. Victor's hostility towards the creature, obsession with creating life, and the yearning for a God-like status and power all reveal the inner monster Victor possesses.
The monster, played by Robert De Niro, is abandoned by Frankenstein and forced to retreat into the wilderness. He yearns to share the emotions of a peasant family he watches in an isolated cottage but is unable to do so. When this ugly creature meets his creator, he asks, "You gave me these emotions but you didn't tell me how to use them." The monster's feeling function is wounded and so is Frankenstein's. Mirroring each other, they both turn to violence.
The early scenes have suspense and verve. When Victor Frankenstein (Branagh), the young scion of a wealthy Geneva family, arrives in Germany to study medicine, the movie draws us into his upstart idealism, his brash desire to break through the boundaries of conventional medical science.
Victor has everything going for him: passion, rebellious curiosity, a beautiful and devoted fiancée (Helena Bonham Carter). Yet he also has a demon in his closet. Even when he creates a creature and himself he treats him to a monster.
Film is also one part of Literature and it gives us a clear sight and a new way of seeing the world. Some educational films make learning easy.
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