Document Type
Review Essay
Abstract
[First paragraph]
Allen and Albert Hughes' film version of From Hell is visually striking and strong on memorable images. For those who enjoy attending films based on graphic novels they have read, the first framed shot of a London skyline beneath a scarlet sky is superbly reminiscent of the menacing and yet enticing comic world of the novel. Moreover, the film develops its theme visually as well as narratively; the impulse behind the ripper murders is chillingly realized in some ensemble scenes at the Royal College of Physicians and police barracks where single female victims are counter-pointed against a metaphorical wall of uniform, uniformed men gazing at the dismembered victims of misogyny. Correspondingly, each victim preamble is intercut with shots of London's phallic skyline in a surprisingly subtle synergy that links Big Ben effortlessly to the more pagan obviousness of Cleopatra's needle. Further, the image of Queen Victoria dominates many of the signs employed in the movie. In scene after scene she appears in person, on coins, on official notepaper and in gallery portraits, with the accumulative effect that she floats like a spectre through both the juxtaposed worlds of Spitalfields and Westminster.
Repository Citation
Sharkey, Rodney. "On Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's From Hell (1996) and the Hughes Brothers' From Hell." Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture vol. 2, no. 2, 2002, pp. 1–6. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/reconstruction/vol2/iss2/8
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