Jack the Ripper Pits Depp v. Caine, London 1888

Analyzing From Hell (2001, Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes)

Hey, welcome back to Viewfinder!  In honor of Halloween, I thought I’d pick something spoooooky.
So, Alan Moore….

I love Alan Moore and you love Alan Moore and all of Comixdom loves Alan Moore. The heavily-bearded and heavily British writer has been a staple of cutting-edge comics for more than three decades (and battling with the ‘Big 2″, Marvel and DC, for almost as long) and his work has been bastardized for the silver screen many, many times.  He famously does not take screen credits for these adaptations, and a quick double-check reveals his position to be remarkably consistent. To quote James M. Cain, “People tell me, Don’t you care what they’ve done to your books? I tell them, they haven’t done anything to my books. They’re right there on the shelf.” Or to summarize Moore himself, “Fuck those movies.”

It’s a good attitude to take. 1983’s Swamp Thing (an early misfire from Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream impresario Wes Craven) is camp fun, but doesn’t even attempt the existential pathos of Moore’s books. Watchmen and V For Vendetta are both mostly faithful adaptations that left Moore’s fans (and, well, anyone over the age of 14) disappointed. I feel the same way about those movies that I feel about early Megadeath: thought-provoking for the denim jacketed hesher hanging out behind the AM/PM. Not much there for adults. Don’t get me started on the movie version of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. That movie caused Sean Connery to retire from acting for good, and all copies should be rounded up and burned.

So that leaves From Hell, Moore’s incredibly dense (572 pages of inky scratches) graphic novel about Jack the Ripper. The book spans decades and offers readers the POV of one Dr. William Gull, who Moore posits was one-half of the real Ripper killers. The other half was was Gull’s coachman (a fellow named Netley), and it’s in this “He’s old/young, tall/short, dark/fair” confusion that the police find themselves. I really liked the book. Hell, I sorta’ love the book, and was apprehensive when Johnny Depp was cast as the middle-aged protagonist Detective Inspector Frederick Abberline in the 2001 movie version.

It’s not a great movie. But it’s good, and because every other Moore adaptation has, to varying degrees of strength, sucked, it succeeds by sucking less. The character of Lees, the psychic who helps the police with his “visions,” is subsumed into Depp’s character (yes, yes – he’s now a psychic cop), and a visiting American actor whose name might as well be Red Herring is cut entirely. But it’s technically very well made and has its own charms, aside from the Alan Moore connection. It opened and closed in a week, and is mostly remembered now for being the least awful Alan Moore adaptation, and for offering viewers a good chance to ogle Heather Graham’s cleavage.

But what I love about it is this: It’s actually a remake of an old Michael Caine TV movie! Moore was quite open that the source material for From Hell was a non-fiction book from 1976, Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution, by Stephen Knight. The Gull/Netley theory had been around since the late 60’s, and Knight’s book was an inventive (if fantastical) take on the case. So, Moore based From Hell on Knight’s book, even as said source book was being adapted on its own as Jack the Ripper, a 1988 British TV movie starring Michael Caine that covers the exact same ground, with many identical scenes in both film versions.

For anyone who’s ever wondered who’s the better DI Frederick Abberline, please enjoy this compare and contrast!

Here’s Johnny Depp as Junky Abberline

Depp as Junky Abberline from Archie Oogley on Vimeo.

And here’s Michael Caine as Drunky Abberline

Caine as drunky Abberline from Archie Oogley on Vimeo.

Both introductions of Dr. Gull head straight towards “The nature of insanity.”
This is called foreshadowing. Here’s some no name actor:

Jack The Ripper’s introduction to Dr. Gull from Archie Oogley on Vimeo.

And here’s Sir Ian Holm:

From Hell’s introduction to Dr. Gull from Archie Oogley on Vimeo.

Here’s the psychic, Lees, having a hilariously over-the-top vision of “carriage wheels.”
(Please note his late-80’s bi-level haircut):

The psychic, Lees, sees “wheels” from Archie Oogley on Vimeo.

And here’s Depp’s (now psychic!) Abberline, having the vision that Lees would have had:

Our psychic cop sees Jack the Ripper! from Archie Oogley on Vimeo.

* * *

Purchase Alan Moore’s book, From Hell now.

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Posted by Rob Noble on October 20 2011. Filed under Viewfinder. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry