Hannibal (film)
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Hannibal is a 2001 film, directed by Ridley Scott, adapted from the Thomas Harris novel of the same name. Set ten years after The Silence of the Lambs, we find that one of Hannibal Lecter's surviving victims, the wealthy Mason Verger, is out to torture and kill him. The films begins in Italy and moves to the United States; one of the final scenes shocked audiences and critics alike.
Plot
FBI Agent Clarice Starling is disgraced after killing five people in a botched drug raid. One of the people killed by Starling was a female drug dealer, Evelda Drumgo, who is HIV positive and was holding a child at the time she was shot. (Drumgo shoots Starling with a submachine gun; Starling is saved by her bulletproof vest.) Following a hearing on her conduct she is sent to interview Mason Verger, having learned that he has information regarding Hannibal Lecter.Mason Verger--a faceless millionaire mostly confined to a bed-- tells his story: he was under a court order to have therapy sessions with Lecter after being convicted of child sex abuse charges. During a social call, Dr. Lecter suggested that Mr. Verger inhale amyl nitrite fumes ("poppers"); once Verger was high, Lecter also suggested that Verger rip his own face off with a glass shard and then hang himself. Verger later recounts that "it seemed like a good idea at the time". Lecter fed the remains of Verger's face to Verger's dogs.
Meanwhile in Florence, Inspector Rinaldo Pazzi is investigating the disappearance of a library curator. Here he meets Dr. Fell, the interim curator, whom he discovers is none other than Dr. Lecter. Inspector Pazzi turns this information over to Verger for a reward, who prepares his revenge. After a discussion at the library, Dr. Lecter murders Pazzi by disemboweling and hanging him from the Palazzo Vecchio, a fate that Pazzi's ancestor, Francesco Di Pazzi, suffered 500 years before. Lecter escapes to America.
Starling learns that Justice Department employee Paul Krendler is also working with Verger, using Starling as bait to lure Dr. Lecter out of hiding. Lecter is captured by Verger's henchmen and is taken to a barn, where he is anxiously awaited by several large, man-eating boars. Starling comes to rescue him and is nearly successful. Starling shoots Verger's henchmen and is in the process of cutting Lecter's other bond when a hidden henchman shoots her in the shoulder. Lecter cuts himself loose and picks up Starling in his arms. After Lecter shoots the remainder of Verger's henchmen, he convinces Verger's doctor that Mason doesn't deserve to live. Verger's doctor feeds him to the boars, with the assurance that Lecter will take the blame for the crime.
In the climax of the film, Lecter takes the wounded Starling to a lake-front house and performs surgery on her to remove the bullet. When she awakens, she finds that Lecter has dressed her in a cocktail gown. She comes downstairs, calling the police on the way, and discovers that she's in Paul Krendler's house. Lecter, incensed that Krendler tried to get Starling fired, has kidnapped and lobotomized him. As Starling watches in horror, Lecter removes the top of Krendler's skull and feeds him a small portion of his own brain after it has been sautéed in butter and herbs.
Starling tries to apprehend Lecter, but he traps her hair in the refrigerator. He pretends to bite her, but she doesn't shy away and with a 'That's my girl.' he kisses her on the mouth for a few seconds. While he is distracted in those seconds, Starling handcuffs him. Lecter offers Starling the chance to run away with him, asking if there is any possibility that she would ever love him. Starling says no, which is the answer that Lecter had expected. Asking her, "Above or below the wrist, Clarice?" with a meat cleaver, he raises the meat cleaver. He informs her, "Now this is really going to hurt.". We only then see Starling grimacing in pain, but then a moment later we view her outside with both hands.
In the final scene of the film, we see Lecter with his arm in a sling on a plane full of Asian people, with a small boy asking if he can have a taste of the meal Lecter brought along with him: Krendler's brains. Impressed with the boy's refusal to eat airline food, Lecter happily obliges.
Cast
Anthony Hopkins: Dr. Hannibal 'The Cannibal' LecterJulianne Moore: Clarice Starling
Gary Oldman: Mason R. Verger
Ray Liotta: Paul Krendler
Frankie Faison: Barney Matthews
Giancarlo Giannini: Inpector Rinaldo Pazzi
Francesca Neri: Allegra Pazzi
Zeljko Ivanek: Dr. Cordell Doemling
Trivia
- Frankie Faison is the only person to appear in all four Hannibal Lecter films, having played Lt. Fisk in Manhunter and Barney, the orderly from Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs. The character Barney has a more significant role in the book than he does in the films.
- Due to the length of the novel, a significant portion was left out of the film: In the book, Verger runs an orphanage, from which he culls children to verbally abuse as a substitute for his no longer being able to abuse them sexually. He also has a lesbian sister, Margot, whom he raped when they were children. When she discovered her sexual orientation, their father disowned her. As she herself is sterile due to steroid abuse, Verger exerts some control over her by promising her a sperm sample with which to impregnate her lover, who could then inherit the Verger fortune. At the end of the book, Margot and Starling both help Lecter escape during a shootout between Starling and Verger's guards. Margot, at Lecter's advice, stimulates Mason to ejaculate with a cattle prod, and then kills him by ramming a Moray eel down his throat. Following up on the fate of Krendler in the book, the crooked FBI official experiences a grisly fate when Lecter shoots him with an arrow.
- The book's extremely controversial ending has Lecter presenting Starling with the exhumed bones of her father, which he "brings to life" by hypnotising Starling, allowing her to say goodbye. This forges an odd alliance between Starling and Lecter, culminating in their becoming lovers and escaping to Argentina. At the end of the novel, Barney (the hospital orderly) sighted Clarice and Hannibal at the Opera house of Buenos Aires. A controversial reaction to the ending led the screenwriters to remove this ending from the film. Another reason was that Jodie Foster refused to appear in the film unless the ending was changed; by the time the re-write was done, she had moved on to another project. It was actually Thomas Harris himself who came up with the alternate ending for screenwriters David Mamet and Steven Zaillian to use.
- The scenes set in Starling's apartment were filmed in a house on Grove Ave. in Richmond, Virginia. Also, some scenes were set at Biltmore House.
- In the brain eating scene near the end of the film, the piece of brain Ray Liotta eats is actually a piece of cooked chicken.
- The gruesome brain eating scene was shot twice, once using Ray Liotta, and once using an animatronic of Ray Liotta. The best looking segments of both scenes were then edited together. Liotta maintains that, upon seeing the film, he could not tell when he was actually onscreen and when it was the animatronic. Animatronics were also used for the baby that Starling washes after the fish market shootout scene.
- Christopher Reeve was offered and turned down the role of Mason Verger, but he regretted it when Gary Oldman won rave reviews for his performance. Reeve then signed on to play reclusive scientist Dr. Virgil Swann in two episodes of the popular drama show Smallville.
- Gary Oldman originally wanted to share top billing alongside Anthony Hopkins and Julianne Moore. When the producers denied him this, he declined to have any billing at all and, in the original theatrical release, remained uncredited in the film's opening and closing credits. In the VHS and DVD releases, however, his name has been added to the closing credits only.
See also
- Hannibal - The Game
- Vide Cor Meum - the song from the opera in Florence
External links
- [Official site]
- [The Hannibal Lecter Studiolo]
- [}}}] at Rotten Tomatoes
- [}}}] at Box Office Mojo
- [In depth analysis of the book]
- [Full colour scans of a complete set of 12 English Lobby Cards from Hannibal]
| Hannibal Lecter Film>films Young Hannibal (based on Behind the Mask) Red Dragon / Manhunter The Silence of the Lambs Hannibal |
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