Posted on 06/17/2023 7:07:48 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Today — or rather, tonight — in history, Vlad the Impaler launched a midnight raid against Muslim invaders that would cause his name to live on forever as Dracula, the terror of the night.
The year was 1462. Ottoman sultan Muhammad II (“Mehmet”) had demanded tribute, by way of gold and Romanian boys, to serve as his slave soldiers (janissaries). Vlad III Dracula — better known as Vlad Țepeș, or the “Impaler” — the ruler of Wallachia (in modern-day Romania) responded by sending the Muslim emissaries back to Muhammad with their turbans nailed onto their heads.
So it would be war. Muhammad mobilized one of the largest Ottoman armies in history, according to some estimates — between 150,000 and 300,000 — and invaded Wallachia, terrorizing all and sundry and engaging in unspeakable atrocities, especially against women and children. With only some 30,000 men — many of them peasants whose “armor” consisted of sheep’s wool, their weapons axes, scythes, and hammers — Vlad was forced to resort to guerilla tactics. Though he launched several successful sorties against the Islamic invaders, these barely made a dent in the Ottoman force, which consisted of “Allahu Akbar”-hollering jihadists “as numerous as the stars in the sky,” to quote an early source.
Knowing that he could never defeat the invaders, Vlad decided to do the next best thing: decapitate the head of this vast Islamic snake ravaging his country. In an effort to demoralize and disband the Turks, Vlad decided to assassinate the sultan.
Thus, on the pitch black night of June 16-17, 1462, somewhere near the foothills of the Carpathian mountains, where Muhammad and his vast Turkish host were encamped and asleep, Vlad, with anywhere between two thousand and seven thousand horsemen, violently blitzed into the lion’s den in search of the sultan’s head.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
Truer words have never been spoken ... or posted.
Couldn’t stand that movie, but I DO like that plot twist. If it had been done with skill and class, perhaps.
That chapter is by far the creepiest part of the book.
The Captain is writing his log while his men are disappearing one by one, and the crew are seeing strange things at night, surrounded by a fog that seems to follow them no matter where they go.
Will check it out.
YES! It's great, the whole thing is free on YouTube. It's very close to the book; probably the closest cinematic adaptation.
My only issue is they omit Quincey Morris entirely, just like almost all film adaptations. Or more accurately, they combine Quincey and Arthur into one character, although he's mostly Arthur.
Quincey was always my favorite character; an Indiana Jones type from Texas who carried a Bowie knife. Coppola's version was the only one to show Quincey, but they stole the long lost love story between Mina and Dracula (where Mina is the reincarnation of Dracula's dead wife) from Hammer's 1959 Mummy movie.
It was unnecessary since Mina from the novel was repulsed by Dracula and would never have given into his charms.
Great to find someone who appreciates it as much as I do.
Saw it first run on PBS as a young teen and was hooked for life.
Much as I love Keanu Reeves and Gary Oldman I was not crazy about that version.
Frank Langella was good and really ramped up the erotic undertones of the book.
Interview was good despite Tom Cruise chewing the scenery.
Book was better but Pitt was perfect as the conflicted naïf.
George Hamilton was hysterical as the count.
And there’s always Christopher Lee.
/humming Blue Oyster Cult’s Nosferatu in my head now. ;)
An old friend from Romania told me that, in Romania, Vlad/Dracula is considered to be a folk hero.
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