Red Dragon, is a much maligned prequel to Silence Of The Lambs, I personally think it gets far more hate than it deserves. I enjoy it quite a bit, its filled with great actors, from Ralph Fines, to Anthony Hopkins to Edward Norton, the production value is very high and it feels like it belongs to the same universe as the original film and Hannibal. In my opinion its a worthy prequel with one very minor issue, its subplot involving a blind women being the love interest of the serial killer "The Tooth Fairy".
Its not a huge problem, but I did find it hard to believe at times. I don't think someone as far gone as Fines's character would have any interest in human connection. I could be wrong, serial killers are people too after all, but he seems so out there that concepts like reciprocal love and romance wouldn't even enter his thoughts at all, other than that the film works for me.
Hopkins of course as always is great as Hannibal Lector, Norton is a decent stand in for Clarice Starling, they don't quite have the same dynamic but it works and Ralph Fines, while being a great actor is serviceable as the tooth fairy, through no fault of his own, he plays the part well but as previously stated it is not without its issues.
The film overall though is very entertaining and a worthy prequel to the original film.
The Silence Of The Lambs is one of the most influential thrillers ever made, its dark, gritty atmosphere has been copied by countless TV shows and films. This film is a stone cold classic within the psychological thriller genre featuring great performances from Jodi Foster and Anthony Hopkins, as Clarice Starling and the insane but eloquent Dr Hannibal Lector.
The best moments of the film are found in the interviews which Agent Starling conducts with Lector to create a criminal profile to determine the identity of an active serial killer known as Buffalo Bill.
Every interaction between the pair is battle of wits with Hannibal psychologically breaking down FBI agent Starling while she attempts to pry him for information. While Hopkins portrayal of Lector is purposefully theatrical, he nails how a psychopath is able to dominate and control every single interaction they enter.
I love how the director chose to use extreme close up shots of Hannibal and Clarice when they speak so you can catch every nuance of emotion and their response to what the other is saying. Its a brilliant technique.
The Silence Of The Lambs is without a doubt an iconic film.
Hannibal is an unusual way to end the trilogy.
I think it gets a lot of undeserved hate, but I understand where people are coming from who don’t like it; with Silence of the Lambs being quite a grounded movie for all of Hopkins’s eccentricities playing the role of Hannibal, this movie, however, is extremely over the top.
Hannibal is on the level of a supervillain in this film,
being tracked down by his nemesis, played by Gary Oldman,
who is so deformed in this film he is more make up than man,
with his face half cut off, mouth slacking at the side, eyes rolled white in their sockets.
This addition will either work for you or it won’t, personally I think its disturbing enough that it works,
my issues with the film are more to do with its ending, and some of the pacing, the middle drags a little and the film takes a big nosedive at the end, with Ray Liotta’s big scene in the movie being the precise moment the film becomes a little too silly for me when Hannibal is eating his brain with Ray Liotta half awake, its unbelievably silly.
Also I think its a shame that Jodi Foster had no interest in returning though i can understand why, admittedly though Julianne moore does a good job stepping into her shoes, the two are quite similar actresses and certainly have a resemblance.
I think a lot of the issues with the film come from Hannibal being an inferior story that tries to up the anty, well, at least it doesn’t end like the book with Clarice and Hannibal literaly shacking up together at the end, although it is implied.
Overall its an entertaining film,
but a very flawed one.
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