Review of From Hell (2001) by Julian T — 14 Dec 2011

Read the book. It is an absolute masterpiece. It makes the movie look like an absolute piece of garbage. In fact, I would say the Allan Moore penned graphic novel is one of the greatest pieces of historical fiction ever produced. But this is not the book unfortunately, and it has about as little to do with it as humanly possible.

The Hughes Brothers later admitted that they didn't even read Moore's novel until after the script was written, and you can tell. Characters are mutilated past the point of recognition, others are left out entirely. The entire backbone of the story is changed. The book is all about The Ripper, and his inward journey. You know who the bad guy is by pg 25. The movie is (of course...) all about Johnny Depp playing a character who is a horrible splicing of two of the novels characters, and its a 'who done it?' film.

It does offer up enough to be a decent film if you look at it as a separate story. The acting is crap, but what it succeeds at is creating a really grimy and dirty feeling of 19th century Whitechappel. The real highlight is the score, which really captures the mood and feel of Moore's brilliant story.