The ‘Why?’ of Lecter
On February 9th fans of the Hannibal Lecter series of stories will finally be treated to the question that has plagued them since the release of “Silence of the Lambs” way back in 1991. In that landmark film starring Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn and Ted Levine we were introduced to Hannibal for the first time on the big screen and learned just how he managed to kill his victims.
In “Red Dragon,” the sequel 11 years later, Edward Norton got into the mind of Lecter (Hopkins) so that we learned a great deal about the man Hannibal, who he was — but, both movies still left the one important question about this genius of a madman unanswered, the Why! Why did Lecter, a man graced with culture, an over abundance of intelligence and worldly opportunities for great pursuits, take that long path into emotional and psychological destruction that would give him this unsatiated desire to do such unbelievably horrid acts against his fellow human beings?
The next film in the franchise hopes to do just that. Answer that deep penetrating question of Why. “Hannibal Rising” is a prequel to the first two films and takes place near the end of WWII in war-torn Eastern Europe. Before his very eyes, a young Hannibal Lecter witnesses his parents being brutally murdered. He and his younger sister are forced into a terrifying ordeal just to survive minute to minute. They eventually find themselves wards of a Soviet Orphanage, living in their home that has been converted to house other children left homeless and parentless as a result of the war.
After a short time Lecter flees his beloved country and goes to France to track down a relative and lives with his wealthy Aunt. His mental faculties are genius level and soon he enters medical school. But, hidden deep within Hannibal is a secret lust and once his skills with a surgeon’s knife reach the pinnacle of success, he begins to reap vengence against certain war criminals. After a while that vengence turns to an appetite that can never be quenched and suddenly is born one of the world’s most horrific serial killers.
“Hannibal Rising” stars Gaspard Ulliel (Alias) as the young Lecter, Helena Lia Tachovska as his sister Mischa and Li Gong as his Aunt. The film is directed by Peter Webber from a screenplay written by the novel’s author Thomas Harris.
I hate to be pedantic, but Silence of the Lambs wasn’t actually the first appearance of Lecter on the big screen.
That was the 1986 Michael Mann film “Manhunter” (an adaptation of Red Dragon) which had Brian Cox as the good doctor.
damn matt, beat me to it!
Also, Red Dragon was the first book in the Hannibal trilogy.
Yes, yes yes, but aside from a precious few, who ever heard of “Manhunter?” And yes, we are very aware that Red Dragon was the first novel, but we are talking film here and let’s face it..go on the street and ask the average moviegoer (not geeks like us who can recite lines and know in fine detail what camera angle is being used for each scene shot) which was the first Lecter movie and you can guess what they will say.
I think we are forgetting to ask one important question. Is Dr. Lecter a Zombie?
You totally forgot a movie. Red Dragon came out in 2002, but Hannibal came out a year before in 2001, this is the 4th film in the SotL series, not the third.
Yeah….we try and forget Hannibal. The site of Anthony Hopkins dishing out Ray Liotta’s sweetbreads to Julianna Moore as if he were a friggin’ perverted Wolfgang Puck, left a little to be desired as to what I would call a quality film……although Ray’s expression was priceless…