I never really thought about this until I was watching this movie tonight, but Dr. Jekyll is a rich doctor who operates a free clinic that treats people who can't afford a doctor. Holy crap, Dr. Jekyll is a socialist! And he appears to be a good guy, but he's mocked by his friends because they believe he's only good because he's repressing his true nature. Some friends. Unfortunately, it appears to be true, and when Dr. Jekyll develops a potion that he believes will split him into two people, one containing all the good inside him, and one containing all the bad, he ends up releasing all his inhibitions into one man, the evil Dr. Jekyll.
It's said that when Robert Louis Stevenson wrote the original book "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," it terrified his wife so much that he destroyed the manuscript, but ended up writing it again and publishing it. It's a classic story because of how it deals with good vs. evil and how all of us have the capacity within ourselves to do good and evil, so no one is really a "good guy" or a "bad guy," but we're all capable of being both good or evil, and if we repress the evil inside us, it can escape and turn into something monstrous.
This movie is an interesting analysis of this concept, though I think most of us will have an easier time reconciling the good and evil within us if we don't try to drink a potion that will separate us into two people, one only capable of being good and one only capable of being evil. It will also possibly help of we don't surround ourselves with assholes who mock us every time we try to do good. This movie is another cool little classic that's fun to watch this time of year. The Dr. Jekyll in this movie is a disheveled, hairy guy with long hair who leers at the world through a crooked grin and probably looks like a guy you'd meet at a gas station at 2 AM. This would be a fun movie to watch with little kids who might not be ready for graphic horror yet.
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