Here is a short movie of Massimo Polidoro, presenting the medieval armor in Wallachia and Vlad Dracula's impalement techniques and the psychological effect of the view of impaled people. This is a short sequence from a documentary he co-hosted for Dicovery Channel.
To make a distinction between the real and the fictional Dracula Polidoro uses Vlad Țepeș to refer to Vlad III and Dracula to refer to Bram Stoker's character.
Seems really good documented, I would like to see the full documentary:
Here is a short presentation of Dracula related places. We have the well-known image of Vlad's unique portrait, a statue of Vlad, the walls of Poienari Castle, the image of impaled people and a coat of arms of the Dragons (second 59 - 61), images from Snagov Monastery:
This is the third party of the movie Vlad Tepes, 1979 When the Ottoman Army reaches Targoviste, the capital of Wallachia, they find an empty city and a terrifying image: a forest of impaled (some estimates it to 20.000 people).
Vlad Dracula attacks the ottoman army by night, on on June 17th, 1462, in an attempt to kill Mehmed. Only missing the Mehmed's tent makes the action fail.
I found a very rare movie on youtube: Vlad Tepes - 1979 (Romaniafilm), directed by Doru Nastase. It has a good mark of 7.8/10.0 and it seems a good movie to me ( I enjoy history and historic movies, so I have seen quite a few):
This amatorial documentary aims to present the similarities and differences between Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler) and Count Dracula - the famous character of Bram Stoker's book. The movie is done by some kids, but it is pretty amusing and they present well documented data, starting with Vlad's birth in sighisoara, up to his reigns. The most interesting and original part is the one comparing the real Vlad Dracula with Sotker's Count Dracula.
Here is the second part of the documentary about Transylvania starts with the presentation of the cemetery of Sighişoara, in the heart of Transylvania, "unknown , but full of magic, mystery and superstitions".
A brief presentation of Bram Stoker's novel follows. Even if the inhabitants did not hear about Dracula the vampire, the vampires are well-known here in Transylvania. They area said to bring a lot of harm: after killing them own relatives, they call the other vilagers from the bell-tower of the church, so the villagers die suddenly. Very interesting is the comparison of vampire's killing with a steak thru it's hears, the same way St. George killed the dragon with a spear. Interesting because, indeed, in Transylvania I also noticed a lot of representations of this fight, cuminating with the 1373 bronze-cast statue, representation of the endless confrontation between Good and Evil, dragons, Lucifer's warriors, oposing God's Angels
While is true the merchants spread the legends about Vlad Dracula, is supposed that Matthias Corvinus contributed actively to this, in order to explain Pope why he didn't support Dracula in his fight against the Turks. Although in Rome and Venice Vlad Ţepeş was considered a hero of Christianity (due to his victories against the Ottoman Empire) the stories begun to "catch some roots", people start to believe this histories and exagerations.
This part of the documentary ends with a panoramic view of Sighişoara.
The short sequence below is the movie closest to the historic truth about Dracula. There are some doubts, like the Gothic church where he has to face the heads of the Orthodox church (it is presented like a church in the middle of the lake and the same church of that type is the one in the middle of Snagov Lake, an orthodox one, of course !
Here I found a short movie made from the Clock Tower in Sighisoara, birth town of Vlad III, Dracula If interested, here there is a presentation of the medieval Sighisoara , the town where Vlad lived his early ages.
This video compilation is a slideshow with images from what is considered not only by Romanians as the most beautiful medieval town in Central and Eastern Europe – Sighisoara, the birth place of Vlad III Dracula.
The slide-show starts with images of the Clock Tower, the symbol of the medieval town (seconds 6 – 19, 178 - 180) then continues with images from the street turning left from the opposite side of the main square, (seconds 20 – 40) , images of the middle age houses still inhabited.
Image of the house where Vlad Dracul lived from 1431 to1436 are to be seen at seconds 84 - 97, but one can also notice the stair going uphill, the gateways, the church on the hill.
Also the statue of Vlad Tepes (Dracula) , the orthodox cathedral, the Saxon graveyard on top of the hill.
Pictures of Legenda guesthouse (used by outdoor holidays in it's tours in Transylvania) anbd of Burg Hostel are also presented.
The remaining towers from Sighisoara defending system can also be seen (the image at 08:29 – 09:20 are taken from the clock tower), as well as an overview of the old and of the new town.
This part of the project “Dracula – The Truth” is grouping together short movie clips about Dracula (both artistic movies like the one of Francis Ford Coppola and documentaries), pictures, sound-tracks or songs, lyrics where available, etc.
Because one of the main purposes of this project is separating the myth from the truth about Dracula I think the best way to do this media library is splitting it from the very beginning in two main parts: artistic movies and documentaries. Therefore it’ll be easier to differentiate the Bram Stocker’s Dracula character from the real Vlad Tepeş, aka Vlad Dracula. The documentaries (but also the artistic part) will not be strictly limited to Dracula, but try to present the entire middle-age in Wallachia and Transylvania and to the places where he lived and that can still be visited.
I found some very nice media documents about Dracula’s Castle, for example and I took pretty good pictures of Snagov Monastery, Sighişoara, Târgşor and other places directly connected with the story of Vlad III Dracula.
Envisaging this I started the media library with the artistic part, presenting a nice scene from the movie Bram stocker’s Dracula, featuring Winona Ryder and Gary Oldman.
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