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

[DarkTaleProductions]

The movie was on television and I watched it briefly but I was curious what people on here thought of the movie when they first saw it in theaters or video?

I'm almost certain this question has been asked so I'm sorry.

[Wolfgang_Parker]

I'm certain you will rue posting this thread for the ****-storm it will most certainly stir-up.

I didn't see From Hell until it hit DVD. I wasn't impressed with the story or the acting at all. The film isn't anything like Moore's novel, and the plot played out in the same old tired fashion that so many uninspired Ripper tales have done before.

However, the set design was great! The Whitechapel neighborhood that you see in the film was built in a field. The sets and locations for much of the film were really well done. I thought the attention to detail in this respect was wonderful. The costuming, however, was just that--costumes.

It wasn't much of a film as films go. The Hughes brothers are masters of the mediocre, and with such bad casting choices, and irritating false accents, its par for the course. Nothing new there.

As far as a Ripperologist-friendly film, forget it. Anyone that has done their homework on the case will get a headache from rolling their eyes. From Hell sells the face value romanticism that JtR has come to embody in popular culture, and nothing more.

[johns]

I ranted and raved and shouted at the screen. My mate was like "Oh shut up you boring sod." I was pointing out innacuracies which took up the entire film. How he sat there and tried to watch it I don't know.

Nice sets and costumes etc but here's the thing...

WHY GLAMOURISE OR JAZZ UP THE GREATEST MURDER MYSTERY IN THE WORLD, WHEN THE FACTS OF THE CASE MAKE A FAR BETTER "STORY" ON THEIR OWN WITHOUT ENHANCEMENT.

[Jane Coram]

Hi DTP,

Funnily enough, I was watching it last night, followed directly after by the Michael Caine version, and tonight it's Murder by Decree and a Study in Terror. (research )

I'm sorry to say, that From Hell is unmitigated crap. I've watched it several times, hoping that I might see some merit in it eventually, but unfortunately the crappiness didn't diminish, but instead accumulated like a pile of horse manure in a badly neglected stable.

It's certainly much easier to point out what they got right, rather than what they got wrong. It's patently obvious that the producers ignored everything that Stewart Evans suggested to them, well everything that didn't fit in with their ideas anyway. It was quite atmospheric, and there were moments in it when I didn't join fellow poster 'johns' in swearing every obscenity I could think of at the screen, but they were few and far between.

The film reminds me a bit of those horrific Orange adverts when the producers get famous Hollywood stars to work on a film that totally revolves around mobile phones in completely ludicrous situations.

From Hell has great actors, acting well, but prostituting themselves to a script that makes the Orange advert scripts look sophisticated.

Johnny Depp did his best to overcome a ridiculous portrayal of Abberline, as a drug induced psychic, who eventually succumbs to an overdose. At least he was very nice to look at while he struggled so manfully with it, and he acted well, which is a miracle in itself given the script he had to work with. My hat off to him. Heather Graham similarly with her portrayal of Mary, who was at least believable as a character, if nothing like Mary Kelly.

The cast stagger through nonsensical and staged scenes at water troughs and in squalid rooms, bemoaning the fate of the working girl, and demanding bottles of gin, in between dreaming up plots to blackmail the government. Of course there has to be a bit of lesbianism thrown in so two of the cast can have a snog on screen. Poor Annie Crook ends up boss-eyed and dribbling, having bounced about quite a lot on top of Prince Albert Victor earlier on in the film, and Robbie Coltrane as Godley, goes through the whole film spouting poetry for some inexplicable reason.

Other than that, it is a masterpiece.

Out of the Ripper films, Murder by Decree is certainly the most sensitive and best portrayal of the totally unbelievable Royal Conspiracy/Mason theory, with a superb performance by James Mason as Watson and a very acceptable and unusually sensitive portrayal of Holmes by Christopher Plummer. Michael Caine's Jack the Ripper was the best by far for sets as they were mainly very accurate indeed. Shame about the plot, but at least the actors played it with conviction.

If you fancy a good laugh, go for A Study in Terror. Barbera Windsor as Annie Chapman is hilarious.

Hugs

Jane

xxxx

[The Grave Maurice]

Oh, Jane, that's a bit harsh. As we all know nobody has yet made a decent Ripper film but, as you say, Depp and Graham should be commended because they did the best they could with the material they were given. Also, the sets and costumes weren't too shabby.

To answer your question, Dark, when I first saw it in a movie theatre, I liked the look and the feel, but not the facts.

[Phil Carter]

Hello all,

I agree with GM. Look and feel-wise, good...entertaining in parts too. Factually, poor, knocking on awful. Far too sensationalised and Hollywood-ised for my liking.

I also agree with Jane about Murder by Decree. Probably the best of the lot. With Gielgud and Mason amongst others, the quality of the acting made it very realistic, even if the basis for the story probably wasn't.

Although From Hell entertained, and although Depp is a superb actor, Abberline's "part" in the story was horribly distorted.

best wishes

Phil

[Jane Coram]

Hi,

Okay, I was a bit harsh, but I did feel the same way about it the first time I saw it at the cinema. I was expecting great things because of the cast, but was sadly disappointed. I think that Phil hit the nail on the head by calling it 'Hollywood-ised'. Hollywood seem to generally, (although not always) have problems dealing with history in an authentic way. From Hell is probably typical of many of their efforts.

I'm watching Murder by Decree at the moment, and compared to From Hell, it really is a superior effort. It is actually very moving in comparison to the soulless way the victims are treated in From Hell.

Particularly moving is the way Catherine Eddowes is shown in Murder by Decree, in comparison to her depiction in From Hell. In the former, she is possibly the closest to the real Catherine, a vulnerable middle-aged woman, who was in the wrong place at the wrong time and the moment she is picked up is really very sad and poignant. In the latter she was a hard faced woman with little heart who made it hard to feel much compassion for her.

That's what I think I objected to so much. Mary came out as a sympathetic character, and Polly as a vulnerable and sad one, in From Hell but the portrayal of the victims was generally insensitive to say the least. Liz was particularly insulted, being portrayed as quite a vile character. It was not that she was portrayed as a lesbian, but the real Liz was a hard-working, generally well like woman, who did have flaws, but was nothing like the creature she portrayed in the film.

From Hell was visually satisfying for the most part. It was really only the total disregard for the facts and the cavalier attitude towards the victims' real characters that rankled me.

I bet I've put the cat amongst the pigeons now.

Hugs

Jane

xxxxx

[The Grave Maurice]

I don't notice any cats. Well, except for the two that live in our house. I agree with what you say and I've always liked Murder By Decree but mostly for the Holmes-Watson interplay and because it's chock full of Canadian actors (Christopher Plummer, Donald Sutherland, Genvieve Bujold). John Gielgud wasn't Canadian, unfortunately, but I always liked him too.

[mattwill]

I saw it in theaters after waiting patiently for months. I was pretty disappointed with the inaccuracies and the fact that it was based on the royal conspiracy theory. I knew it was based on the Alan Moore novel but I didn't know what it was about. I was hoping for a laundry list of suspects and red herrings, but all I got was BS. I plan to write a movie some day with the history intact. I agree that's a much better story.

[kensei]

I was still learning the real facts of the case when I first saw "From Hell," but I still knew it was riddled with inaccuracies. In retrospect, while I'll admit to squirming in my seat when the Ripper sat down on the edge of Mary Kelly's bed and paused dramatically before beginning his work, thinking, "Oh god, how gruesome is this going to be?", my main criticism on Heather Gramm's MJK (apart from the very end of the film) is in how knowing that MJK was described as ginger-haired should not mean flaming orange!

[Bob Hinton]

First reactions

I think you have to watch the film with the absolutely certain knowledge that what you are about to see has absolutely nothing to do with Jack the Ripper. That said it does have a good, fast paced plot with good actors and actresses turning in good performances.

The sets were brilliant (built just outside Prague) and the costuming well above standard. There were however two incidents that made it worth watching.

One was the technique of shooting up through a glass tank of water as the murderer plunges his bloody hands in to it to wash them. Brilliant and I noticed copied on several films since.
The other was the brilliantly atmospheric shot of the coach’s steps unfolding. All you could hear was the click clack as they released. Absolutely fantastic – so creepy!
For those two things alone From Hell gets the patented Bob’s Seal of Approval.

[RJM]

Funnily enough, I was watching it last night, followed directly after by the Michael Caine version, and tonight it's Murder by Decree and a Study in Terror. (research )

As long as you're doing research, Janie, you might as well add The Ripper (1997) with Patrick Bergin to your list. Whitechapel has an Australian feel to it. Not only do you have to suffer through a familiar storyline, but some real people (Sir Charles, Mary Kelly) are mixed in with a lot of fictitious ones. Who needs an Abberline addled by drink and drugs when you have Insp. Hansen on the case!



Robert

[DanaeChantel]

I tried to post something and it disapeared. Has this ever happened to anyone else. Very strange.

[belinda]

My reaction to From Hell isn't really printable.I didn't like it.I hate the way they portrayed Abberline. I can't watch films where they change the facts around so much. A bit like the new Marple films they've been making.Too many changes to the original story.

Hi Jane I just bought a copy of Murder By Decree it's a real sentimental favourite. I hope your research is productive

[deckard1]

An overall disapointment, and a missed oportunity.
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.

Furthermore, most here seem to feel that Heather Graham did the best she could and I agree. She was just tragicaly miscast by the Hughes brothers.

Greetz, Chris.

By the way, the extras on the dvd are worth the effort, espescially the doc on Absinth, with a curious interview with a strange fellow who seems to have hit the green stuff a little to often.