Self Review::
He cut his left arm instead of hers...He wants her...he aches for her but he wanted to eat her...eat her alive...NO!
I've watched this movie maybe thrice or twice but I'm not yet satisfied and I watched it again and again. Way back my dark college days I read the book...I read it with the intention of deciphering the depth of the mind of the sharpest, wittiest, cunniest, and the most refined and sophisticated criminal in the fiction world...no other than Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
Hannibal, the forensic psychologist who is guilty of lots of bizzarre murders and hair-raising one-manned massacres. He's the cunning psychologist in Red Dragon who had been jailed to the asylum by FBI agent William. And he is the melancholic yet witty prisoner in The Silence of the Lambs who became fond of FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling. And then became the FBI's top ten most wanted criminal who has a bounty of three million dollars in Hannibal.
After giving FBI Special Agent Starling some clues on who's Buffalo Bill (the transvestite serial killer in The Silence of the Lambs)is he had wittingly escaped from his new jail, leaving three guards dead after attacking them using her sharp teeth and strong arms. He bit one guard on the face to death and the other one by merciless beating. And then he escaped from USA. He went to several countries and then make a name on his own in Florence, wherein he's known as Dr. Fell.
Lecter's whereabout in Florence has been traced by a local Police who became aware of the large amount of bounty whoever can pinpoint the doctor to the Federal people. But then Francesco (the local police) met his very tragic death at Lecter's hand. Lecter hung him to death and slashed his saccular abdominal organ causing all his other organs along with his intestines, testicles, and feces hanging and spilling out on the open air and seen by the terrified public. But well, Lecter had a near encounter with death when Mason Verger (the malformed wealthy businessman, one of Lecter's clients who he hyptonized by telling him to cut his face off with broken glass mirrors and whom Lecter fed his face's fleshes to his dog) abducted him and planned to feed him to his wild monster hogs in his farm in Sardinia. But then FBI Starling saved him and it was Mason Verger who ended up being fiested by his hungry multi-molar beasts. And then the movie ended up with Dr. Lecter feeding FBI Agent Krendler (Starling's co-officer who is Mason's subordinate in the abduction of Lecter and the cause of Starling's suspension in the Bureau) his own brain's left frontal lobe's meat, cooked in the skillet and served with wine. Kendler is actually conscious when the doctor slowly cut his upper head's skull off using a very sharp scalpel and slowly sliced a part of his brain and fried it in the skillet. The poor sedated agent ate his brain and even commented how great tasting it is. Clarice saw all of it and is terrified to death. The FBIs are coming and she tried her best to prevent the doctor to escape. But she's fully sedated and when she wittingly handcuffed him, he mindlessly cut his left arm off and escape.
Hmmmn..when I first saw the movie I was quite disappointed. I mean the book is more detailed and more interesting. Well, that's just my opinion. But still the movie doesn't lose the essence of the story and Anthony Hopkins (the one's who gives life to Hannibal Lecter's character) is very convincing and he actually received few awards because of his role. And I can say that Jodie Foster (she's the one who played Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs) and Julianne Moore (Clarice Starling in Hannibal) looks quite similar and Moore is adequate in portraying the role of Clarice. And Anthony Hopkins is quite consistent in playing his role as Dr. Hannibal Lecter from Red Dragon up to the Hannibal and I'm quite excited for the coming prequel (Hannibal Rising) this year.
Thomas Harris, the author of the three novels (Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs, and Hannibal) had actually based Hannibal's character in one of the notorious serial killers in the US and combined it with that one in Japan. I actually forget their names. I've read it when I was in college and I couldn't remember where I digged it. But then of all the fictional villains Dr. Hannibal Lecter's character impressed me a lot. Well, not his prowess in murders and cannibalism...but the patina of his thinking. He's very clever and he is very sharp and very talented, very shrewd yet very cunning and very dangerous. And well, he loves classical music as what most genius mortals do and he is so into fine dining which made him the most sophisticated cannibal in the fiction history . But then, he only loves two mortals in his whole life...and they are Mischa (his younger sister axed, chopped, and eaten by some disserters) and Clarice Starling, the FBI Agent who is desperate to capture him alive.
Ok...I guess this is such a long review. I may now rest in peace...I mean I'm going to sleep now. Avrio mortals!!!
~eod~