#but i cannot actually confirm whether they were successful in how faithfully they held to the text

[riotbeankai]

I've watched several Dracula movies from between 1920 and 1973 in the last few days, and I have some thoughts. I think that for a film to be considered an adaptation that is "faithful to the text," it should include:

- Beginning with Jonathan Harker, soon-to-be-lawyer, as a damsel in distress in Castle Dracula

- Dracula is charismatic and confident in a way that makes people overlook things they would otherwise find unnerving

- Features ALL 3 of Lucy Westenra's suitors, and EVERYONE loves Lucy so much, which is why it is all the more impactful when she dies, undies, and has to be killed again

- Quincy Morris is properly an American cowboy with a gun and a Southern US accent

- Dr. John Seward runs a mental hospital, and he is melancholy, a workaholic, and skeptical

- Lord Arthur Holmwood is very emotional, throws a lot of money around, and uses his title to get around obstacles

- Dr. Abraham Van Helsing is a highly respected and renowned scholar, and he is appropriately Dutch, friendly, and eccentric

- garlic FLOWERS, crushed up communion wafers, stake thru the heart AND cutting off the head, basically all the lore rules should match the text rather than popular or historical mythos

- Mina Murray is appropriately obsessed with trains and their schedules, and her knowledge is integral to defeating Dracula, and both Jonathan and Van Helsing are obsessed with how smart and cool she is

- Jonathan is so devoted to Mina he would fight God for her, and he has a big knife and his hair turns white in the middle of the story

- All the vampire-hunter cast are/become extremely close friends that frequently express their admiration for each other

I can honestly accept a lot of the plot being condensed or implied, to limit the number of locations or repetitive scenes so you don't end up with a 4 hour movie. However, I'm not a fan of the way so many of the film adaptations I've watched have condensed, reinvented, and/or switched around the names or relationships of the characters. It feels to me like a very different story when the characters and their dynamics together are changed so much, and the ending usually feels anticlimactic without the appropriate "we defeated the evil with the power of friendship" vibe.