| The duality of good and evil... Last we saw hannibal the cannibal was at the end of silence of the lambs. Wearing his panama hat he took time to call sterling and inform her that he was late for a dinner date with a dear old friend. And thus the story continues. After a nine inch nails intro (MTV video editing still does not work in a full length feature) that ends in a morphed shot of a pidgeon filled square bearing lectors face, we are thrown into the movie. And that is where things start off wrong. If anything needs to be said about hannibal is that Jody Foster is sorily missed. What’s her face (a good critic would remember names, but i am neither a good critic nor someone who cares to much for details such as names and dates… that is why i never passed history!!!) tries to portray agent Sterling, with her cocky attitude and her southern charm, but she misses the boat. An accent does not make a character, just thinking of christian slater in Robin Hood proves my point. But, i shall not pick this lacking quality to death, for that would be nitpicking and totally unfair. Sterling screwes up a drug bust, killing a woman holding a baby and thus ruining her career. Ray Liotta (excellent role for mr i rocked in wiseguys and have not been able to do nothing right since) decides to use this incident to make a media circus out of sterlings failure as a FBI agent, and thus putting his own mug in the spotlight so that he can propel himself into the senate (or some kind of political position). Meanwhile, on the other side of the ocean, we find Lector trying to become the archivist/librarian of a library in Florence. What we are shown is a person who is well educated, tranqual, bohemian in a not so bohemian way. The pace of the movie is slow, very slow… till the flashbacks start to happen. The producer, mr di laurentis (sometimes i do remember names) decided that shocking was the way to go… it worked in se7en, why not in hannibal? We see Lector biting the cheecks off of nurses, we see how the only Lector victim who ever survived and lived to tell the tale, was forced to selfmutalate himself while under heavy narcosis. This is where the true moral of the movie comes into play. From the first two instalments of the trilogy (with shame i have to admit never having seen the first chapter, but we all got to like Star Wars without seeing the first three chapters either, so who is counting right?) we get the impression that if there is an anti-christ walking the earth it would have to be hannibal lector. A man who seems to enjoy, thrive, on the fear of his victims. This is what is told to us through agent Sterling as she tries to educate one of italy’s finest on Lectors profile. But this is far from the truth. Lector is not evil encarnate, on the contrary, he is the messenger send to us to point out our own inneptitude as human beings. As a matter of fact there is a close parallel to be drawn between hannibal and se7en. Both spacey and hopkins earned oscars for roles of psychotic preachers trying to open up the eyes of a society doing the downward spiral to the 5th ring of hell. Is it mere coincidence that lector, while living the life of librarian, walks around in neatly pressed clothes, wears a tie, a hat (white one at that… synonimous for goodnes in the western’s of yesteryear), and tries to educate people. However, when time comes to prove the lessons that deaf ears have fallen on, we find lector standing behind his tormented victems, with slicked back hair resembling more of a mechanic recently bathed (no offense scott ;-) then a sociopath about to feast on some liver with a nice bottle chianti and some faderbeans (however you spell it, and whatever they are)? Does modern society only listen when there is a show of brawny muscle instead of a finely tuned cerebral muscle? Is it coincidence that Liotta’s character is fed his own brain? Do not get me wrong, i am not pretending that lector is good. Several times in the movie there is blatend prove that lector is all but holy and might even be associated with the devil. Then again, the fact that the dog fears lector, and that the swines just walk past him and feed on the screaming pighandlers, does not prove lector to be the devil. Lector just does not fear the terminal effect mortality brings. It is my opinion that lector is a firm believer of kharma. What happens happens due to past actions. This also gives him carte blanche to do with his victims as he pleases. The afore mentioned italy’s finest is sentenced to the same death his ancestor suffered, pretty much for a modern version of the same crime. His great great great great grandfather stole food to survive, the modern day thief married a much younger woman who he could not afford, and thus was forced to sell lector off for money. Liotta is an insuferable macho, even in a morphine induced state while his brain is being fried in some chives, garlic and olive oil. Sterling is seen as nothing more then a body that need’s his “lovin”. The pig handlers, ironically meet their maker after the razor sharp tusks of the animals they have trained tear through them. They never handled out of anything but their need for the clinck of the coin. The only surviving victim of lector. He lives for revenge, thrives on the knowledge that he will see the fear in lector’s eyes as a fate far worse then the one cast on him by lector. So blind is this man’s goal that all people are nothing but servants to his selfish needs. Most of all his faithfull butler. I do not think there was a person in the theater who felt bad that this man met his end crawling in the dirt before the pigs got him. And that leaves us with agent Sterling, the woman who also has made a fall from grace, albeit not totally due to her own control. When lector is about to chop of her hand (even asking her if she wants to be cut below or above the wrist) so that he can free himself from the phsical handcuffs (the emotional handcuffs were placed the moment they met in the previous installment… do you still hear the cries clarice?) and make his escape to spread the gospel somewhere else before he is incarcerated again. “Finally!!!” i thought. No more hollywood, just lector being lector, chopping off a hand to free himself. But that would have disproven my theory of lector’s goodness. And thus he now walks the earth with one hand missing. This selfish act showes beyond a doubt that there is a sanity to lector’s madness. That there is good to his evil. That hannibal is a dicotomy trying to do nothing but “lector” to the deaf. And thus, my reading people, i have proven my point… right??? Comments and criticism can be forwarded to me together with a personal check for $1,25. … |