hannibal thoughts.... (SPOILERS)

pretty gory...great performances...neat subliminal images of hannibal's face...hated the ending(i liked the book ending better)...ridley scott sort of turned a bizarre love story into a "hollywood" movie with a safe ending...mmm, brains!

[mutleyhyde]

*****SPOILER ALERT!!*****
Well, it's interesting that Scott leaves all the feminine connections completely out of the picture. No Ardelia Mapp; Clarice lives alone. No Margot Verger; Barney doesn't have anyone to get frisky with. And Scott didn't go into the deal with Lecter's sister at all. I know Scott didn't intend for this to be a cerebral movie, but it's just plain weird that there are no other women in the film, while they are a BIG part of Harris' book. Well, there's Evelda, but look what happens to her.

Other than that, I thought it was great! I thought Julianne Moore did a fine job of Clarice, yet didn't quite have that hunter instinct down. I tought she'd be a little more emotionally intense in going about bringing Lecter in. I didn't think Hopkins overplayed or trivialised Lecter at all, as I'd heard some reports say. I thought he was perfect, again. Pazzi's death was great. Like you said Nim, good gore. Not a whole bunch, just well done (heh, well done ).

And yes, as for the ending. I fully believe this outcome over the books outcome. I never believed that Clarice would just throw her convictions to the wind like she did in the book. Both Harris and Foster portayed her as far too set in going by the book to do such a thing. Sure, she has a weakness, one that Lecter exploits very well, but at the end of the day she's still first and foremost an FBI agent. I could see her having a breakdown at the hands of Lecter (hmmm, does Will Graham come to mind?), but riding off into the sunset with her saveur savior? Give me a frickin' break! If anyone got "Hollywood Fever", it was Harris, who tried to give Lecter and Clarice a sweet, happy ending in the book. I was with him all the way up to that point. I even half-heartedly convinced myself that Clarice could be drugged enough to eat the brain. I'm glad that didn't make Scott's version either. Julianne was certainly wearing a nice dress though! Nope - to me, this is how it should've been. Either that, or Lecter ending up dead at Clarices hands. Hell, this still leaves room for more sequels, which I'm sure Hollywood doesn't mind. Anyway, that's just me. I thought it was a great thriller, with good flow and good acting on everyones' parts. I highly recommend it .

I am a huge fan of the novel... especially the illuminating ending. I think the idea of it being a 'riding off into the sunset' ending is, well... not to put anone down, rather superficial. There's far more to it then that, Harris' novels are not merely surface reads, there is much more lurking down in the murk and the mud. They can not be taken in shallow context at all, and taking the finale of Hannibal as 'romantic' is just that. There is nothing romantic about it... it is domination of beauty by beast. Not only does this fully support the two minds and their ways, but also runs the gauntlet of the Harris universe. Its a sado-masachistic relationship, and anyone who has gone into Harris' world knows that it is populated with this kind of sexual perversity. It was the perfect way to go. I can not wait to read teh further exploits of these two perfectly drawn characters. The movies are good, but the novels are masterpieces.

[rhett]

Ahh, Ridley, you did not disappoint. Hannibal is a great film, and IMO much better than SOTL, (Manhunter is still shipping! ). While I thought Hopkins was great in SOTL, by giving him almost double the screen time this time around, I truely feel as if the film benefitted by being able to look deeper into the mind of the diabolical title character. Scott's direction should also not go unnoted, as he provides the film with style, be it his captivating use of camera effects or angles. Littered with irony and puns, Scott has also managed to masterfully pepper Hannibal with themes of suspense, action and black comedy to coincide with its main theme of Lector's lust and relationship with Ms. Starling. This film is a visual treat, but is much deeper in its script. I think Scott's choice of scrapping the other female characters covered in Harris' book was a wise choice, as I think they would have simply undermined Starling and her plight. The makeup was impeccable, far surpassing that of its predecessor, especially when it comes to Liotta's supper and Oldman's whole Verger character, who, for some reason he had uncredited. There isn't much to say, except that I went into this film with low expectations, seeing as I was such a fan of SOTL, but I was pleasantly suprized, and can't recommend this film more!

SPOILER:

On a side note, did anyone else notice the obvious goof in the scene where Clarice is being removed from the FBI? A boom can clearly be seen in the top center of the film for about 5 seconds. I was shocked when I saw it, thinking I was seeing things, but after the show I went up to the projection room (I work at the theatre) and sure enough, it is a boom in the upper center of the film. Now perhaps it is just my print, but I found it hard to believe that if a company spends nearly 90 million on a film that they would at least catch something like that!

I've said it before & I'll say it again: I'll definitely go see Hannibal, but I'll always have misgivings about changing the novel's ending.

I too found the original ending a little hard to swallow, but the more I think about it, the more I like it.

I need to re-read the ending of the book to confirm, but wasn't Lecter giving Starling drugs of some sort on top of his psychological tricks? This makes it a little more feasible (unless I'm mistaken...)

I think people, even us vile horror fans, are just unwilling to accept that such a good, pure character as Starling could be overcome by evil. It's just not very Hollywood; personally I dig it.

[mutleyhyde]

Rhett - there were booms all over the movie. It was truly weird. I thought the projectionist had misframed the print (or however you projectionist types call it), but that just wasn't the case. There are at least two other scenes that have the boom clearly visible. Just weird. And I didn't think that the absence of the literary female roles lessened the movie necesarily, I just thought it was an interesting oddity. I'd like to hear Scott's motives, just out of curiosity. (You're right, it did help to keep the focus on Clarice.)

Jeff - Sure, both in the movie and the book, Clarice was heavily drugged. That makes it feasible that Clarice would eat the grey fondue, and maybe even jump Hannibals bones. But don't you think that once the drugs wore off, she would've come to her senses?

Now y'all don't take me wrong. I still think it's a great flick, and highly recommend it. I'll definitely be getting it on dvd.

[rhett]

Mutleyhyde, I too will be picking it up on DVD, and I can't wait to see what kind of treatment it will get. But seeing as the film is a coalition between both MGM and Universal I hope the latter gets to handle it on DVD. Seeing MGM butcher this would be just too much. Does anyone know who owns the rights for the home presentation of Hannibal?

[Ash]

I just got back from seeing Hannibal and let me tell you was it was awesome. It was very entertaining from a horror fan's point of view. It was horrific yet humorous at the same time. Anthony Hopkins was great as always. The ending was awesome. I nearly shit my pants laughing. I thought it was lot was a lot better than SOTL. My only gripe is with Ridley Scott's cinematograhy. Has anyone noticed that he likes to use fast motion a lot in his recent films? It kind of bugs but overall I really liked the film. Definitely horror film of 2001 so far.

Just got back from Hannibal....Mmmmm, how delicious. This is a great black comedy that a whole bunch of people are going to hate and others will love.

I must say I enjoyed this one more than SOTL (and I enjoyed that plenty - still waiting for netflix to send me Manhunter ) mostly due to the increased presence of Hannibal himself.

The ending was great and I think most believable whereas the book's ending was not. Although I'll admit I haven't read the book, but just judging from what I've heard I would say that given the choice over that and having Starling remain true to herself, I prefer the latter.

As for the gore: I was pleasantly surprised by how well done (heh heh) it was and while there wasn't anywhere near the quantity that exists in genre fare, it was still pretty good for a mainstream film. The CGI at the end was very good, unlike the CGI I saw in The Mummy Returns trailer I saw before Hannibal. Man that sucked.

The only downside was, to echo Ash, Scott's rapid motion camera work. I hated it in Gladiator and I hated it here. I wish he would get over it already.

speaking of booms... did anyone see hamlet... it seemed like the boom was a character... it probably got more screen time than some of the actors. it was a laugh riot.

[Dave]

Excellent movie.

I saw this one last night and enjoyed it very much. For a mainstream horror film, it's great to see a few hardcore gore scenes. For most of us here on this forum, seeing some brains being eaten is no big deal. I tell you though, everyone in the theater (except me) was like, "Ewww...he's eating his brains". Everyone was really grossed out by it. Cool!

Hopkins was terrific as always. I also don't think he overacted at all - he was perfect as Lecter and I'm so glad he got more screen time. I do wish him and Clarice had more screen time together, though. As for Clarice, Moore did a terrific job filling Jody's shoes. I'm not a big fan of Foster, so I ended up enjoying Moore's performace as Clarice more than Foster's.

I haven't read any of the books, but I have put them on my "to read" list. I can say now that I believe a movie should always be as faithful to the original novel as possible. It is, after all, the author's vision - it's his story; like it or lump it. Otherwise I'd be bitching a lot more about how Stephen King is always killing off characters that he gets you to care about.

[TobalRox]

I saw it last night, and my friend next to me thought I was about to throw up, when in actuality, I was trying to prevent myself from laughing so hard because EVERYONE in the theater seemed to be reacting in unison, it was great! :-) Compared to other movies I had seen, this movie was nothing, but everyone else was jumping and turning all at the same time. My favorite part was seeing the guys that these girls were with, that were more sqeemish than the girls :-)

[hojimoji]

I went to see Hannibal last night, and I though well of the movie.

After the usual age discrimintation (That story should be saved for the MPAA discussion), I sat in the middle of the theater to a sparsly dense 7:40 crowd. The number of toddlers in the audience gave me pause, but other than that the audience seemed to be above 35, a demographic I wouldn't have expected on opening weekend.

Besides the occasionaly gasp, I noticed no serious audience disgust at any of the scenes in the movie. I found that strange considering none of the audience looked like genre fans, and the gore was pretty intense for a studio film.

All in all a good movie, one I'm going to enjoy repeat DVD viewings of, especially with a Scott/Hopkins commentary.


G.

[mutleyhyde]

You gotta remember Hoji, that all of us 35 year olds were 25 when we saw SOTL. Naturally, we've been waiting in anticipation for this event, so maybe that's why the big turnout on opening day of all us old foagies. I went to the first screening, 11:00 a.m. (that way I miss all the fun, wacky antics of the later crowds, like the pen-light lasers, phone conversations, and high school chat fests), and it was packed full. Heck, I thought I was going to beat the crowd. I mean, people just kept coming in. Soon, there was standing room only. But, all in all, like you say, the crowd was amazingly 99.9 percent old schoolers and well behaved. It was funny to see all the reactions. There was this one lady sitting a few chairs from me that kept going "Mmm... Uh... Uhh-uhh!" every now and then. Normally, I'd have been upset, but she really was trying to stay quiet, she just couln't handle her reactions, and it was pretty damn funny.

[Mark Relford]

I enjoyed it. Hannibal is the perfect antidote to the usual bullshit that passes off as horror. Hopkins, Moore, Oldman, and Liotta (Mmmm... something smells good.) turn in good performances. As usual, Ridley delivers the goods. and surprisingly, the fast motion cinematography didn't bother me.