The Hannibal Lecter Masterclass - Hannibal (2001)

Catching Up On Cinema

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This month is Masterclass Month at Catching Up On Cinema!

September 2024 marks our 6th anniversary of podcasting, and to commemorate the occasion, we take a month to do a deep dive on a popular, long-lived movie franchise.

For this year's Masterclass, we'll be reviewing the Hannibal Lecter series of films!

Created by author Thomas Harris, Hannibal Lecter is a charismatic serial killer that, across multiple novels, films, and most recently, TV series, has consistently captivated global audiences since his inception in 1981.

This week, our Masterclass continues with a review of Ridley Scott's, Hannibal (2001)!

An adaptation of the third of Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lecter series of novels, Ridley Scott's, The Hannibal (2001) is a messy adaptation of the lewd, nasty, and messy novel of the same name.

Produced by Dino De Laurentiis (who also produced Manhunter, but passed on the more critically and financially successful The Silence of the Lambs), Hannibal is a lavishly orchestrated, and borderline melodramatic film, that unfortunately lacks the clarity and focus of its predecessors.

Contributing massively to the entertainment value of the somewhat messily constructed film, Anthony Hopkins returns to reprise his role as the titular Hannibal Lecter, though Jodie Foster is replaced by the very capable Julianne Moore for the role of Clarice Starling, reportedly due to Foster objecting to the depiction of Clarice in both the novel and screenplay.

Special mention needs to be given to Gary Oldman's (apparently uncredited) performance as Mason Verger, which is truly one of a kind, and unforgettable, the late Ray Liotta as Paul Krendler, in one of his slimier villain turns, and Giancarlo Giannini as Inspector Pazzi, who in an alternate universe, could have made for a fine protagonist for the entire film, rather than an extended chapter of it.

Handsome to look at, and featuring at least 1 or 2 excellent, and highly memorable scenes, Hannibal is not a film without value, however it suffers dreadfully from having too many moving parts, a meandering pace in it's latter half, and perhaps most important of all, from being a tamed and sanitized adaptation of a bizarre, sleazy, and not especially great novel.

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