Am I the only one, who had a problem with it?
shareNo you aren't. I haven't seen this in a long time, but I remember a scene where he says "so we cut off her head" and then laughed. Very cringeworthy.
I admit, he isn´t like the Van Helsing in Stokers book, but no character of this movie is like their novel-versions.
But in the book Van Helsing does make some "jokes" or statements without thinking first.
The scene, when he gives Lucy the blood of Holmwood, he says "I would give my last drop for her", and Van Helsing replies "Your last drop? Thank you, we can need you here" or something like that.
In the book it´s this:
“What can I do?” asked Arthur hoarsely. “Tell me, and I shall do it. My life is hers, and I would give the last drop of blood in my body for her.” The Professor has a strongly humorous side, and I could from old knowledge detect a trace of its origin in his answer:—
“My young sir, I do not ask so much as that—not the last!”
“Do you forget,” he said, with actually a smile, “that last night he banqueted heavily, and will sleep late?”
Did I forget! shall I ever—can I ever! Can any of us ever forget that terrible scene! Mina struggled hard to keep her brave countenance; but the pain overmastered her and she put her hands before her face, and shuddered whilst she moaned. Van Helsing had not intended to recall her frightful experience. He had simply lost sight of her and her part in the affair in his intellectual effort. When it struck him what he said, he was horrified at his thoughtlessness and tried to comfort her. “Oh, Madam Mina,” he said, “dear, dear Madam Mina, alas! that I of all who so reverence you should have said anything so forgetful. These stupid old lips of mine and this stupid old head do not deserve so; but you will forget it, will you not?
No. He was terrible.
shareWell, at least Hopkin's val Helsing wasn't boring, or a stupid caricature.
I liked his portrayal.
I liked his portrayal, it made his character a little mad but still quite switched on.
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I like the eccentricity that he brought.
Dracula (1931) and other films suggest otherwise, but as has been pointed out, Stoker's Abraham Van Helsing did have a sardonic wit.
I would like to think that a man of the science of the time, who also believes in the supernatural and religion too, would be at least a little mad. As a woman whose own father in law was the stereotypical nerdy collage sciences professor, I can attest that there ARE a few people out there who are quite like the Van Helsing Hopkins portrayed. His mind would often override his common sense and he'd spit out something that would have him cracking up, but the rest of us like WTF?!? But when you got to know him, you'd be able to laugh, too, knowing wasn't trying to be creepy or mean or dramatic; that was just the way his brilliant yet socially challenged mind worked.
shareIt was meant to convey the sense that he was idiosyncratic, which aligns with his rare knowledge of the supernatural and occult
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