*** Official "HANNIBAL" Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Adam Sanchez]

I never saw Hannibal in theaters. From what I heard I think it might get to me too much... but now I'm curious. Does anyone know of a site that has screen shots of the... bad scenese? Like Gary Oldman all messed up or the ending? (Yeah I already know what happens)
Curiosity is getting the best of me... I may even rent the movie.
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[Frank L]

I personally thought the movie was amazing. Unlike many who got it wrong, Hannibal is a story of unrequited love, masterfully told by Ridley Scott. If you like Scott's movies (Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator) then by all means pick it up.
The movie is not a gross-out trip as some would make it either, I thought it was subtle. If you still not certain then I'd suggest you rent the title first and give it a try, as I don't think there are any sites out there that will specifically show pictures from those key-scenes you mention.
You might want to try and see the movie trailer, which can be found here:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/mgm/hannibal/

 

[Don Myles]

Strange one really.
I watched the movie for the first time last night on DVD. Main problem was that I didn't have dinner before I watched it and it kinda put me off.
I enjoyed the film but I don't think it is in the same league as SOTL (mho of course). Watched the deleted scenes with interest as well - definitely preferred aspects of the alternative ending but there was nothing I would have left out of the one which is there.
Sorry, prolly could have explained that better but it may have ended up as a spoiler for those who haven't seen the movie.
Would recommend it as a rental at least - just make sure BB give you the second disk as well.
Don

 

[AdrianJ]

I agree that Hannibal isn't in the same league as Silence of the Lambs, but then how many movies are. (I think only 5 movies have won all 5 major oscars!) However, I wasn't really expecting much from the movie after I had read the book. Personally, I think the book could have been much considering that Harris had 10 years to write it! Oh well, that aside, maybe you could tell us some movies that were too graphic for you because I doubt that you will find screenshots--Mainly due to possible league problems from posting screen shots!--and if you do find some screen shots, it probably won't be of the graphics parts.
Anyway, you could try just renting it and covering your eyes during the parts you don't like.

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Adrian Jones

 

[Paul_D]

This movie sucks. All this rubbish about it being a story of unrequited love is absolutely ludicrous. All the elements that made Lector so scary and disturbing in the first 2 films goes out the window in Hannibal. The perverse mind games he played to demonstrate his devilish intelligence are replaced in this movie by pitiful jokes (e.g. 'okey-dokey').
It isn't the direction - Ridley Scott is an awesome director. Technically, its superb. The DP has done an incredible job making the locations look wonderful, and giving the film a terrific atmosphere.
It isn't the performances - the cast is filled with superb actors, who do the best with what they've got. Julianne Moore is a fine match for the character, and Anthony Hopkins is one of the greatest actors alive.
Lector's appeal in Silence was highly controvercial at the time - a gruesome serial killer who was seductive and charismatic. And though his presentation in SOTL walked the line between good and bad taste, 'Hannibal' leaps across that line with the portrayal of grisly murders, accompanied with flippant jokes.
Simply put, its the source material. Harris's sequel to Lambs was a notoriously awful book, with an ABSURD ending. The biggest mistake they made was in choosing to adapt his novel. If your a fan of the character/earlier films its worth seeing, just for the technical merits of the film. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother.

 

[Dan Brecher]

Moving this to the 'Movies' forum.
Dan (UK)

 

[Julie K]

I enjoyed Hannibal. I think many people don't like it because they were expecting something entirely different than what it is - a horror movie. As a lover of horror movies, I found Hannibal most tasty. And while I was mildly surprised at the level of gore in such a mainstream movie, it was nothing compared to classic genre fare.
I enjoyed SOTL too, but, to open myself to flames, I enjoyed Hannibal more, probably because it was more in the horror camp than SOTL.
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[Edited last by Julie K on August 21, 2001 at 10:35 AM]

 

[Ron Eastman]

Adam - I'd be happy to email you a few screenshots from the scenes you are interested in. Send me an email detailing what you want and I'll shoot them back when I get the chance.
BTW, I liked Hannibal.
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"The last thing I want to remembered as is an annoying blabbermouth." - Del Griffith
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[Chauncey_G]

I really disliked this film, though I actually enjoyed the book. I'm going to try to explain why so I don't get slapped with any of those annoying black spoiler bars, so please bear with me (it never seems to make a difference if you announce "spoiler" anyway, so why bother?).
I thought the end of the book, when Hannibal successfully does what he does with Starling justifies all the weird, out-of-left-field stuff that goes on. Hannibal Lector is beyond any classification they have. They don't know what to call him, all they do know is that he is probably the most dangerous man alive. Anyone who comes into contact with this man ends up in a bad way; either he just flat out kills them horribly or scars them mentally and/or physically. This theme is consistent in all the books. Clarice Starling, IMO, was living on borrowed time: she got closer to Lector than anyone and came out of it OK. Lector, though, was fascinated by her and was by no means done with her yet. Ultimately, with what he does to her at the end of the book, he changes her...makes her into his version of Clarice Starling. To me, this fulfilled the inevitable. She had to pay for knowing Lector. Everyone who knew Lector paid for it sooner or later.
Now for the movie: they take away the ending of the book. Gone. For me, the book's end justified the means. Now that the ending had been fundamentally changed, there was no reason (IMO) for all the stuff that came before it. Because of that, I feel for the movie what many critics disliked about the book.

 

[Scott Weinberg]

Hannibal was a real strange case for me. I really loathed the novel...and yes I read the whole damn thing and I "got it". Yet I was still really looking forward to the movie. Aside from a gorgeous visual sense, I found very little to enjoy in this movie. I found it slow, ponderous, pretentious and overall quite dull.
I blame Thomas Harris for supplying source material that he knew could never make a good film.
And just for the sake of everyone about to blast me, here:
"IMO"
Of course I need to get a hold of the DVD and give the movie a second chance. It deserves at least that much.
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Scott
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[Ben Motley]

Paul, no offense, but you sound like Annie Wilkes in Misery. Basically, what I hear you saying is that you're upset at what "they" did to the characters, and not how well "it" was done to them. It is a cold fact indeed that we cannot control what authors and directors do. Too bad we couldn't have forced Harris to write exactly what we wanted him to write, and not what he wanted to write.
Now on to the material in question. I liked the book, and I liked the movie. Actually, I REALLY liked the movie. The book wasn't that well written, but it did hold my attention. The only real problem I had with the book was, surprise, the end. And not at all from Lector's point of view, but Clarice's. I'm sorry, but...
Spoiler:at some point, the drugs would wear off, or Clarice would grow a tolerence for them, and she would come to her senses. She would NOT have rode off into the fucking sunset, so to speak, with Lector. Sorry, but that was just plain ridiculous. I think the film rectified the ending very well. A case could be made that if Lector kept Clarice in captivity long enough and properly doped during this time, she would fall for him, as in that syndrome which I can't remember the name of right now, the captive falling in love with their captor deal, you know? But that wasn't really established in the book. It was more like Clarice just dropped everything at the drop of a hat to go trottin' off with her new beau. Phahh!
And yes, all that, IMHO.

 

[Paul_D]

RE-readinh my earlier post, Ben, you're right! It does read like i'm Anne Wilkes re-born. However I simply not that big a fan of the characters/books myself. Of course I've seen SOTL and enjoyed it. The point I was trying to make about Hannibal, was that I!!! thought it was a missed opportunity to capitalise on what made SOTL great. THey basically DUMPED everthing that was popular about the original, which TO ME doesnt make sense, and was a badly judged creative decision.... Anyway I'm much more of a Manhunter fan!
And also... my tone in the earler post was partly repsonsible for the fact that I neglected to insert an IMO (which is obvious, and shouldnt need to be put anyway).

 

[Ben Motley]

That's cool Paul, like I said, no offense meant. I do agree that they lost out by not being faithfull to Silence, but realistically, do you think Ridley Scott and David Mamet could re-create the atmosphere and impact of that film? I feel that they knew they could not, and opted for a different approach; more of an action film than a suspense pot-boiler. Even if Johnathan Demme and Ted Tally had come back for the sequel - and as you said, the source material itself drastically veered from the style and quality of it's predecessor, perhaps due to the lengthy period of time between writings - they would be hard pressed to come close striking gold again. As I said, I did like Hannibal, the book, but Silence was an incredible book, as is Red Dragon and even Black Sunday. I think Harris basically wrote the book as an obligation, both to film producers and to millions of demanding fans. I feel he "wrote the book his fans wanted", probably really didn't have much heart in writing it, and tagged on a "fuck you" ending for everyone whose hounded him for this for ten plus years. That is total speculation, but after having read all of his fiction, which ain't much, it boggles the mind that the same person wrote this last book. Again, I'm not bashing Hannibal - it's a decent read - but it just has absolutely nothing on Black Sunday, Red Dragon, or Silence of the Lambs. Maybe one day, he'll write something new, get back to form, and really surprise us. And if that means writing something other than another Hannibal book, that's just fine by me.
[Edited last by Ben Motley on August 22, 2001 at 05:35 AM]

 

[Brett_B]

I know this is a little bit "off-topic" here, but did anyone notice the outline of Hannibal's face, made out of the birds, in the opening credits?

 

[Ron Eastman]

Yes, the outline of Hannibal's face was something I didn't notice at the theater. That could be due to it being a packed house and me and my girlfriend stuck in the front row, craning are necks up to see the screen.

I haven't seen a movie in a multiplex since.
I replayed the opening credits a second time and noticed that there were a couple other times his face appeared.
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"The last thing I want to remembered as is an annoying blabbermouth." - Del Griffith
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[Craig Chatterton]

as in that syndrome which I can't remember the name of right now

It's called the Helsinki Syndrome, as in Helsinki, Sweden.
Actually, it's called the Stockholm Syndrome, as in Stockholm, Finland.

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Virgo: All Virgo's are extremely friendly and intelligent, except for you. Expect a big surprise today, when you wind up with your head impaled upon a stick.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

I enjoyed the film and the book, largely because I was not expecting "more of the same" w.r.t. Silence of the Lambs. In both cases, though, I liked the Pazzi sequences in Italy more than the events in the US. It was a wonderful variation on the Pardoner's Tale where a character doggedly pursues his own demise.
It would have been an interesting choice if the filmmakers had chosen to do a film based solely on this part of the novel and Starling had been left out altogether. Audiences would have screamed bloody murder (...ahem... ) if they made a sequel that didn't center on the Lector-Starling relationship, though. MGM and Universal execs would probably not have dropped that much bank on a film without a character in whom the audience would have a "rooting interest" besides a cannibalistic psychopath.
Regards,
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Ken McAlinden
Livonia, MI USA

 

[Joe D]

I really enjoyed Hannibal. All three of the Thomas Harris book to movies are very different, and that is what makes Hannibal interesting. I'm glad they didn't try to go for another Silence of the Lambs type of movies.
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Joe Dahlen
"Take hold of the flame, you've got nothing to lose, but everything to gain."

 

[Zack Scott]

I was pleasently surprised with this film. I wasn't a big fan of SOTL so I had my reservations on wether to see this film in theatres or wait for the DVD. But man oh man did I wish that I saw this in theatres. I was totally immensed in the entire story. ANd the ending, my god, I couldn't stop laughing (a sick sense of humor laugh). This is one of those horror films that you could savour over and over again. (pun intended

) I'm so glad that in the special features they included the audience reactions to the dinner scene. THat alone is worth the price of the DVD.
[Edited last by Zack Scott on August 23, 2001 at 07:50 PM]

 

[cafink]

Adam, did you ever get those pictures you wanted?
If not (or if anyone else is interested), I took some and posted them online. If you haven't seen the movie and don't want it spoiled for you, don't click the links below!
http://members.aol.com/mrabout/han1.jpg http://members.aol.com/mrabout/han2.jpg http://members.aol.com/mrabout/han3.jpg http://members.aol.com/mrabout/han4.jpg http://members.aol.com/mrabout/han5.jpg http://members.aol.com/mrabout/han6.jpg