From Hell is such a shockingly brilliant graphic novel, that even filming only 2/5ths of it was a odd success.
The Hughes brothers essentially flattened the book to its basics for the screen, the killed and the killer. Much of their focus was in homaging the style of films they admired, like Apocalypse Now. Known for modern street films, their sensiblity was to compress it into a two-hour mystery drama. And they tweaked it, especially in the denouement. The results vary, but its strengths come from the source.
If the directors were wrapped up in running time, the timeless book goes far beyond its moment in scope. Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's labyrinthine masterpiece treats the London murders of Jack The Ripper as a crux point that unleashes the horrors of the coming 20th century. Lacing geography with history and ideologies (and bigotries) of the the time, they diagram and decry the thinking and actions that would erode the future. It is a black chandelier, gorgeously ornate and complex, but horrid in its light. Aware of this horror, it becomes a cry against hell and for compassion.
From Hell was released in serial flux through the '90s and collected fully into a masive book in 1999. It is so well-researched and thoughtfully considered that it came with 40 pages of exhaustive footnotes alone. Someday, it should be faithfully adapted into a long mini-series on an uncensored network, to honor the breadth and depth of this crucial and brave work.
