From Hell?

[RonnieKray]

I saw the movie FROM HELL on Tv just the other day. It starred Jonny Depp and Robbie Coltrane. What is the general feeling of this movie here?

Personally I thought it was a travesty of truth. Why embelish a story that needs nothing to make it more exciting or interesting.

What is your opinion?

[Mascara & Paranoia]

I think it's good and gets a bad rap just because it used the Royal Conspiracy story, which is just that, a story. Plus, the Ripper didn't even dress like that in real life.

Sure enough a lot of the 'facts' were wrong, but it's a movie, not a documentary. I think it's the closest film we're gonna get that depicts Victotian Whitechapel so well, and the film had a wicked atmosphere. Though I do wish they'd changed the plot and had Jack 'just' be the serial killer that he was without the whole royal connection crap. xD

[Mike Covell]

As a fictional who dunnit it was ok, as a ripper film, it stunk!

The film was based on the book "From Hell" by Alan Moore and Eddie Cambell, which I suggest you read, and there is a thread devoted to the book and movie in "Ripper Media"


From Hell Graphic Novel Thread

http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?p=68092#post68092

From Hell Movie Thread

http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?t=762

From Hell Flyer Thread

http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?t=1370

From Hell IMDB

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120681/

From Hell Goofs

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120681/goofs

From Hell Wiki Graphic Novel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_Hell

From Hell Wiki Film
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_Hell_(film)

[ken]

from hell was never meant to be a docu/drama or an historical account of anything or kind. it was a piece of work that borrowed characters and some events from 1888 and used them as a backdrop for its own purpose which was a story based on alan moore's graphic novel. historical fiction can vary in quality i've found. for a good example check out peter ackroyed's dan leno and the limehouse golum (sp?). personally, i really enjoyed from hell simply because i wasn't expecting to be educated, just entertained.

[brummie]

I tried to watch the film, really I did, but it wasn't long before I had to turn it off the 'plot' was just so laughable. I didn't realise it was fom a graphic novel that would explain why the charachters were so typically comic book and the weak script was secondary to the visuals. Overall from the portion I saw it rates 2/10

[Malcolm X]

I tried to watch the film, really I did, but it wasn't long before I had to turn it off the 'plot' was just so laughable. I didn't realise it was fom a graphic novel that would explain why the charachters were so typically comic book and the weak script was secondary to the visuals. Overall from the portion I saw it rates 2/10

yes it was a pile of rubbish, yet another very poor Ripper movie...

very hard to film though, because you'd have to include every single top suspect and mention in detail his life..or as much about him as poss...

best as a documentary over a couple of months, one week you'd have
1..maybrick
2...tumblety
etc etc

the viewer needs to know who are the top suspects...and not that royal conspiracy garbage all the time... because right now 98% of the population believes its the royal conspiracy, they know of no other suspects..mind you, most of them dont even know when WW2 ended

[Mike Covell]

from hell was never meant to be a docu/drama or an historical account of anything or kind. it was a piece of work that borrowed characters and some events from 1888 and used them as a backdrop for its own purpose which was a story based on alan moore's graphic novel

Then why did the Hughes brothers pay good money for both historical advisor's and ripperologists?

[RonnieKray]

The JTR story is just so rich, fascinating and has massive public interest....what is the need to make up a story?

The movie was pants!!!

[ken]

"Then why did the Hughes brothers pay good money for both historical advisor's and ripperologists?"

if the aim is historical fiction (which is what i believe 'from hell' to be) the subject obviously needs to be researched in order for it to be rejected, in whole or part, at a latter stage

[Lord-z]

What the graphic novel did was to use, pretty much, every known fact and wrap a fictional story around them to fill out the gaps. The Royal Conspiracy is, of course, bunk, but that still made it a fantastic story. What the movie did was to wrap a fictional story around a couple of fact. The facts in question being "prostitutes were murdered in the latter half of the 19th century" and "There once existed people by these names. They didn't look or act anything like these actors, but they had the same names".

I am aware that the graphic novel is a 500+ page tome, and that there was no way that it could be filmed properly in a two hour movie, but they didn't appear to try. If they wanted a Ripper movie, they might as well have written an original story and saved the money they used to buy the rights. Seriously, they took everything that the graphic novel tried to do, and they threw it out.


And Brummie: You should try reading the graphic novel. Seriously. It is anything but a typical comic book.

[ken]

agreed. the graphic novel and comic are always saddled together, understandably so, but, the graphic novel always suffers as a result of this pairing i always feel.

I've never read anything positive about any ripper movie on this site. not even 'murder by decree' which i thought was excellent in all its foggy atmospherics

[DarkPassenger]

From Hell was a good movie, shame about the factual errors. By that I mean, virtually every aspect of the movie.

The victims did not know each other in real life,
Tabram is not a canonical victim
It wasn't Albert Victor, or Gull. It just wasn't.
Abberline wasn't...need I even say it?
I could go on.

[Mary_Jane_Kelly]

'From Hell' was a very good giggle and a very good example of a classic horror film it has all the ingredients: suspense, atmosphere, a scary knife carriying maniac, sex, and not forgetting lots of over the top gore. the film is supposed to be based on the graphic novel also of the same name. but, alas, i have got both the film and the graphic novel and the two hold no simalarities apart from the sir william gull theory. they were both a good source of entertainment but held no real ripper facts.

---MJK---

[RonnieKray]

I think a movie on JTR would be best served if they, as far as possible, film it without trying to prove who did it.

It would be great seeing it from the police, press and public perspective.....without all that cloak and top hat stuff going on.

They do not need to add or change things.

[Bailey]

I think a movie on JTR would be best served if they, as far as possible, film it without trying to prove who did it.

It would be great seeing it from the police, press and public perspective.....without all that cloak and top hat stuff going on.

They do not need to add or change things.

No, it would be a lousy film. There's no narrative structure, no character development, or even a character who is consistently involved from start to finish to focus on, and no audience outside of us lot would sit through it with no indication at all of who the killer is. It would lose the absolute fortune it would cost to recreate the period accurately and be a total disaster. Anyone with even the most basic understanding of drama writing would tell you that there is not a decent film in the Ripper story if told exactly as it happened.

As for From Hell - as someone with an interest in the case, it's utter bollocks. As an adaption of the amazing graphic novel, it's a wasted opportunity. However, visually, technically and stylistically it's superb, and as a fun trashy horror movie, it's awesome. Take it for what it is, folks, and you'll have a good time, Johnny's dubious accent aside.

And Heather Graham as a redhead? Who could ask for more...

B.