One thing that has been criticized for this film is that as a detective film, its reasoning and case-solving process is too weak, and there are too many conjectures. The male protagonist is endowed with a superpower that can see into the future crime scene. This setting already shows the insincere attitude of this film as a historical detective film. For audiences who seek historical truth, such as me back then, this drama is suspected of being a disappointment. However, many years later, when watching it carefully again, from another angle, "From Hell" actually gave the audience a lot of surprises.
From the perspective of historical scenes and social background descriptions, the show does a good job. The social status quo in London at that time, the living conditions of various groups, the contradictions and fusions between various classes, and the connection of various long and short shots are like the brushstrokes of oil paintings, which are chic and smooth, and the composition is clear and complete. There are prostitutes, Jews, Asians and gangsters, there are detectives, doctors, nobles to the royal family. They are integrated and blended with each other. This is London at the end of the century, full of chaos and undercurrents. A series of bloody murders that occurred in this context, like a ritual, became the footnotes of the society at that time. This is the film's take on the Jack the Ripper case, and perhaps one of the reasons why its handling of the detective process is weak, because the director's intention was to draw a picture of London's dark and clear waters.
So from the perspective of social description, the film is very successful. High society is ruthless, and the heroine, who is a prostitute, commented on the queen at the time, saying that she was the embodiment of coldness and terror. The lower class suffers from hunger and cold, and suffers from all kinds of discrimination and prejudice. The Elephant Man can be said to be a symbol of the lower class. He was ugly and sick. After enduring the inhuman abuse in the circus, he was rescued by the "upper society" as a savior, given food, clothing and treatment, and at the same time was publicly exhibited. . This is a metaphor for the upper class to treat the lower class. The young doctor, well-dressed and full of poetry and books, arrogantly expressed his contempt for Jews and Orientals as soon as he opened his mouth, and this attitude has shown a rare sincerity in this class. On the other hand, the prostitutes portrayed in the play seem to be vulgar and sloppy, but they are actually sincere and straightforward. It seems that they seem to have more human warmth. No wonder the prince at the top of society went incognito, mingled with prostitutes, and even officially married one of them. The relationship between the other sisters is also the relationship between the painter and the model. Obviously, the prince could not find love and friendship in the splendid civilized society he was in, and needed to seek solace in the muddy social scum.
It seems a bit far-fetched to interpret the magical reasoning plot of the film as a way to better illustrate the bizarreness of the society at that time, but there are advantages and disadvantages, both of which are so obvious.
View more about From Hell reviews
