Hannibal

Review

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Having poured over every word written about this most-anticipated adaptation of Thomas Harris' third (and presumably, final) "Hannibal Lecter" novel, and feeling more than a few tremors of uncertainly over casting and script changes (by now, you know the ones I mean), I was thrilled to leave my screening of "Hannibal" having enjoyed a delightfully wicked, and frequently witty romp. Not since Cronenberg's "The Fly" has there been such a winning blend of melancholy love story and outrageously gruesome "Fangoria"-patented freak show.

Like Mel Gibson's "Mad Max", it took a second screen appearance for Hannibal "The Cannibal" to connect with audiences en masse. It all seems rather calculated with the benefit of ten years of hindsight, but at the time of "Silence"s debut, few were expecting that a new classic movie menace was being born with that film's soft February 1991 release (usually, the season where films go to die). Michael Mann's earlier 1986 thriller "Manhunter" had been dismissed by most mainstream critics as nothing more than a big-screen "Miami Vice" episode (a reactionary stigma, it once seemed, that the talented Mann would never shake), and audiences, perhaps weary of the title (something about it just oozes "Dolph Lundgren" doesn't it?) and unaware of its connection to the bestselling novel, stayed away in droves. I know, I saw it three times in one week, in increasingly empty theatres. Brian Cox's memorable interpretation of the character was comparatively low-key, serving the story's treatment of Lecter as a malignant Jiminy Cricket, the voice of conscience (and a demented subconscious!) to William Peterson's troubled FBI agent. [SEE ALSO: Red Dragon]

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"The Silence Of The Lambs", which stuck closer to the source material, scored with audiences and critics and became a contemporary terror classic. Instead of Mann's cold, pastel-hued mindscape seen through the eyes of an enigmatic protagonist, Jonathon Demme's thriller positioned an accessible police procedural as the backdrop to an involving, original character drama. Jodie Foster's likeable young agent sparred with Anthony Hopkins' endlessly quotable boogeyman and together formed a twisted "Nick And Nora" relationship to stop a serial killer. It all ended with a crackerjack "house of horrors" showdown and a killer of a final line. Amazingly, "Silence" went on to clean up in all of the major Oscar categories, a first for such a horrific film.

It's unlikely that Ridley Scott's "Hannibal" will win such positive kudos, or be lauded with a series of gold statuettes beyond those, perhaps, for technical credits. The same-titled source novel was as harshly received as the unofficial followups to "Gone With The Wind" and "Lolita", even though Harris himself wrote it after nearly ten years of research, and clearly was aspiring to something decidedly different than a mere clone of its predecessor.

Over three novels, Hannibal has gradually moved to the forefront of Harris' cynical, sardonic worldview, to eventually become the only free and truly "moral", character in a corrupt, impersonal world where even pure souls like Clarice Starling are compromised and essentially "devoured". Dr. Lecter may literally eat people, but his impulses are not irrational and serve his personal Machiavelli-meets-Ed Gein philosophy: as former nurse Barney explains to Starling, "he only eats the rude". [More]

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