jonathan demme

By: Garrett Collins

Last week, I mentioned that I had two some would say unusual film viewing holiday traditions. One is watching all of the Superman films. While I proceeded to defend the much maligned Superman III in that instance, here there will be no defending. Do not ask me how it started, but each and every Christmas from about 2008 on, I have watched all the films starring the one and only character of Hannibal Lecter. Maybe it’s because it goes against anything that Christmas is traditionally about. Maybe it’s because two of my all time favorite directors -Ridley Scott and Michael Mann- are responsible for two films of the series. Or maybe it’s because one December I woke up with a hangover and saw the Silence of the Lambs box sitting next to me and thought, ‘I should make this a tradition.’ No matter the case, every December I feel the need to watch all five films. And every December I dread the moment I put Hannibal on.

Before I lace into the movie itself, let me go into a theory as to where I feel this movie’s source material stems from. Before Hannibal‘s incarnation, author and former newspaper reporter Thomas Harris had already written two books, with his infamous character playing a vital part in both. One was Red Dragon. Made into a feature called Manhunter by director Michael Mann and released to little fanfare in the mid 80s, producer Dino de Laurentiis sold the rights to Orion, who proceeded to make the much more successful and multi Oscar-winning feature Silence of the Lambs. Starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, the cat and mouse game between the two stars still makes for one of the most brutally captivating films to ever be released. Of special note is the film’s screenplay. Written by Ted Tally, the script does an excellent job of filtering out and condensing the book’s manuscript to a lean, mean two hours.

After this success, de Laurentiis got the rights back and started pressuring Harris to do another book starring the character so he could make another movie (ie more dollars). Eight years later the novel Hannibal was released. To say the book was a departure and massive mindfuck would be an understatement. In rereading the material fairly recently, I am here to say that the goings on in this book are nothing short of ridiculous. You have a character who was raped by her brother as a child grow up to be a lesbian bodybuilder who wants nothing more than to harvest some of her brother’s sperm in order to fulfill a clause in her father’s will. You have Hannibal and Clarice moving off into the sunset. You have wild boars causing slasher-inspired havoc. My theory is that Harris himself did not want to do this book, and did it out of spite for the character that Hollywood was putting pressure on him to resurrect. About the only stuff that works are the scenes that involve Hannibal being pursued in Italy by a money hungry investigator. Hannibal, now wearing a new face due to plastic surgery, is found out. But of course, him being Hannibal, gets away. I actually found these scenes, along with Harris’s vivid descriptions of Italy, fascinating, and it felt almost like a fictional journal entry from Harris himself describing how much he loved the country. The rest of the book, however, is an almost travesty of fiction.

Which is why is was not surprising when Jodie Foster and Jonathan Demme both gave the sequel the finger and turned down the opportunity to make, as Foster stated in interviews, ‘the most money (they) would ever see in their lives’ in order to keep the character of Clarice Starling the way she remembered it. The book itself is exactly as Foster describes it. It is a flat-out betrayal of the character. And while I have always maintained that Michelle Pfeiffer turning down the role was a real shot in the arm to who that character could have been, Foster played it very good and to the seams. She accomplished the toughest thing to do in acting: she made a character both strong and weak at the same time.

The role eventually went to Julianne Moore. Now, I have absolutely nothing negative to say about Moore as an actress. I think she was the only thing that made 2013’s Carrie remake remotely watchable, and she can definitely captivate the screen when given a chance. But she is really bad in Hannibal. Her accent goes in and out many times. When she tries to be strong it is almost laughable. And her scenes with Hannibal in this film are nothing short of cringe worthy. Again, not a complete knock on Moore, as the source material was far from the best. If anything, the way Moore plays Starling proves Foster to be completely right on the nose: Hannibal was a betrayal to the character, and no one, not even Pfeiffer, could have saved it.

Which leads me to the behind the scenes principles in the film. Steve Zaillian has proven time and again that he is a fantastic screenwriter. How he tried to condense this material into something nearly watchable has to be commended. But I do not feel even Tally -who also turned down the chance to come back- could have made the film that much better. When Demme turned down the directorial job, de Laurentiis turned to a proven -and by the time Hannibal‘s filming ended Oscar winning- director of films such as Alien and Gladiator. I have nothing but respect for Scott as a director. But no decision he makes here feels like the right one. From the cheesy opening titles, which consists of pigeons forming the face of Hannibal, to a boring shoot-out (a few shot soda cans and hastily put together car crash do NOT make for exciting to me), Scott really drops the ball here.

Yet, in an ironic way I feel what makes me most angry about Hannibal is all that I have described should have been avoided. You can put down Moore’s performance. You can put down Scott’s directing. You can put down the lack of condensing. But the simple truth is Thomas Harris’s book was not worth making in the first place. Wait, let me rephrase. The movie ended up making $362 million, so that is not true. What is true is that the material was not good. About the only wise choices made were not including Margot Verger -the character I described above- and keeping the suspense of when Clarice & Hannibal finally meet an edge of your seat experience. But even then, I do not like him stroking her hair. It felt cheesy and unnecessary. All of which describes the making and result of this film.