To everyone on here... what was your reaction when you first saw "From Hell"...

[KatBradshaw]

No one would come and see it with me because they knew that I would be moaning about the problems.
The problems that I had with it though were issues which in truth, given the type of film it is, were to be expected.
I thought that they way that the victims were cast and portreyed was very very wrong. They didn't evoke anything of what these women would really have been like and worse than that chose to protrey Liz Stride as a lesbian which I thought was odd.
The detectives were completely wrong for the real men and I found Robbie Coltrane a bizarre choice for Godley.
That being said when you look at this not as a 'Ripper Film' but as an adaptation of a comic it is not so bad. Although the actual 'From Hell' is clever in the way that the film isn't and as a piece of fiction based on the murders I love it! The film loses much of the spirit of the comic so is in a sort of limbo.
If you can get passed the 'Ripper' issue then its a good piece of entertainment!

[Ally]

I thought, "As always, Johnny Depp makes for an adorable spanky toy".

[DarkTaleProductions]

Imagine what a Jack the Ripper movie would be like in the hands of , say, Christopher Nolan or PT Anderson.

Or maybe even Scorsese as long as he does not cast Cameron Diaz as Mary Kelly.

Agree with you there deckard. Christopher Nolan is actually my favorite film director of all time, Scorsese being my 3rd favorite.

I don't care how inaccurate it was, if Nolan did a Ripper film, I know I would really enjoy it.

I guess it's my turn to input my opinion on the "From Hell" film. Personally the first time I saw it, I knew nothing about the Ripper case. This was back in 04 or 05. Didn't care for it, I thought it was boring.

Last year, I saw it again, knowing more about the actual case, and honestly, I barely remembered the movie, but I enjoyed it. Even though I did point out the inaccuary to my friend, who was watching it with me.

Personally, I liked it more on my second viewing. But honestly, I admit, if you watch it as just a film, then you'd most likely enjoy it more. If you watch it as a 'Ripper' based film, then you'd probably want to blow your head off with .44.

But I do agree Depp did great with what he had to work with. Graham was okay, I guess. I agree the sets looked great, as well as the murder scenes. I thought the costumes were pretty good as well.

But anyway, one of my dream movies is to either make a Mary Kelly film or a Jack the Ripper film that sticks to the facts.

[c.d.]

Maybe it's a guy thing but to me the lesbianism added to the movie. Why they don't feature that in more movies is beyond me.

c.d.

[KatBradshaw]

Yes CD, its a guy thing.

[Mitch Rowe]

Considering what we are left with concerning "Historical Facts" Im open to just about any interpretation around these events as long as one isnt trying to deliberately change what little "facts" we have left.

I always try to remember everything I know about the case comes to me with very few of what could be considered "Official" Documents.

Of course From Hell is ridiculus but so was Titanic. At least anyone who is really interested can find Casebook and find out what we know. Then do what we do. Let our imagination run wild when we run out of "facts" too.

I think a more entertaining movie would have been JTR as a team effort with Freddy Krueger as Druitt and Leatherface as John Pizer. We would be praising it!

[protohistorian]

expectations

What can one expect from a film that opens with a quote from an unknown and possibly fictional killer? Dave

[Bloofer_Lady]

I wasn't expecting an exact account of the Ripper murders when I saw it since I knew that it was based on a graphic novel. It's a really gorgeous looking movie in my opinion and it still scares the heck out of me even thought I've watched it many times. Sure, historical facts are messed up in the film, but then again Hollywood isn't known for getting those sort of things right are they.

[Jerry P.]

It's funny with "historical fiction" the things that bother you.

For example, I can accept them making Aberline a psychic drug addict (I don't know why), but the fact that they receive the "From Hell" package PRIOR to the "double event" just drives me nuts.

[DarkTaleProductions]

What bothers me is that they call him "Jack the Ripper" (the scene with Gull whose sick and Abberline is talking to him) before Abberline first reads the Dear Boss letter and Saucy Jacky postcard. I didn't really understand why they had him first read it after the double event for the first time before he reads the From Hell letter.

[DanaeChantel]

The first thing that caught me on this movie is how nasty a place London was back in those days. The second thing I noticed is the fact that Mary Kelly stated, "Ere wha r ya doeng buttons are ard ta come by." It seems funny to those of us of today that buttons were a dear and precious commodity.

The other thing that caught me was when Polly Nichols had sex with a John back in the alley and she was pretending that he was um . . penetrating her, once he realized what she was doing he practically raped her and then threw change on the ground at her feet.

I feel sorry for these poor women as they didn't have much they could do to make money or make ends meet other than working in some dirty factory or being prostitutes.

Anne Crooks looked sexy tossing back her blonde locks during the sex scene.

Johnny Depp was sexy looking as ever.

The movie still scares me to this day. Love it!!!!!!

[Jonathan H]

That it was boring, flat, grotesque, and hopelessly inaccurate.

This flop was joined by other subsequent awful adaptations of Alan Moore's work: 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' and the absolute bottom of the barrel: 'Watchmen'.

[DarkTaleProductions]

I actually liked Watchmen from beginning to middle and Haley's performance as Rorschach. After the middle, it gets a bit lame. I prefer the graphic novel. Although I'm glad they took out Tales of the Black Freighter in the movie, as that was my only complaint about the GN.

Haven't seen or read League.

I did love V For Vendetta though.

[j.r-ahde]

Hello Jonathan!

Yes, I find "The league of extraordinary gentlemen" as the most made-up movie of all time, so to say!

All the best
Jukka

[tnb]

I had been expecting it to be historically inaccurate and was fully prepared to enjoy it simply as a film; but the thing that really struck me and ruined it for me even so was how unoriginally innacruate it was. I haven't read the graphic novel so didn't know quite what to expect - and by the same token I don't know if some of my criticism of the film is more so, or would be better directed as, criticism of the source - but I knew they had picked Gull as their 'Ripper', yet still I assumed the theory underpinning the film (even in impluasible, which doesn't bother me, in a film) would be something new. But it was the same old tired Royal Conspiracy nonsense right from the first scene, practically - and from thereon the repeated innacuracies kept stacking up - from the Old Nichol Gang to many, many more. This wasn't 'poetic licence', it was taking someone else's mistakes as gospel.

As it was, the one that annoyed me the most was the old cliche about the 'group of friends'. That, and the fact that Abberline, Godley and, in a fashion, Anderson appeared to be the only police officers involved in the whole case. Abberline being somehow in charge is of course another 'old' mistake.

I watched it on DVD with my wife who knows very little about the case, and for about the first 30 minutes she was constantly saying 'is that true?' cause even she could tell it was up the wall. Needless to say 99.9% of the time my reply was a flat 'no'; she then even gave up asking.

In summary, I tried my hardest to appreciate it as a film in its own right, but it just seemed sloppy. Stylised, innacurate - I can cope with. But sloppy is something else entirely. The Lusk letter seemed just one symptom of that - there was no need (in the film) to receive it then ,narrative wise - it just seemed like they couldn't be bothered to check the accuracy. Which makes SPE's involvement a little curious! Messing with facts for a reason, stylistic or plot or whatever, is one thing but for no reason is another.