HANNIBAL
Hannibal is a 2001 American psychological horror[4] film directed by Ridley Scott and based on the 1999 novel by Thomas Harris. The sequel to the 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs, it follows FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling as she attempts to apprehend cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter before his surviving victim, Mason Verger, captures him. Anthony Hopkins reprises his role as Lecter, while Julianne Moore replaces Jodie Foster as Starling and Gary Oldman plays Verger. Ray Liotta, Frankie R. Faison, Giancarlo Giannini, and Francesca Neri also star.
Following the release of The Silence of the Lambs, Harris spent several years writing a sequel novel. Foster and Silence of the Lambs director Jonathan Demme initially planned to return for the sequel, but they and screenwriter Ted Tally declined because they found it too lurid. Scott became attached while directing Gladiator (2000), and signed on after reading the script pitched by Dino De Laurentiis, who had produced Manhunter (1986), the first Lecter film. David Mamet and Steven Zaillian wrote the screenplay, and principal photography commenced in May 2000, lasting sixteen weeks.
Hannibal was released on 9 February 2001, ten years after The Silence of the Lambs. It was highly anticipated and broke box office records in the United States, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, and grossed $351.6 million during its theatrical run. It received mixed reviews; critics praised the performances and visuals, but deemed it inferior to The Silence of the Lambs and criticized its violence. It was followed by a prequel, Red Dragon, in 2002, with Hopkins reprising his role as Lecter.
DETAILED PLOT
A decade after tracking down serial killer Jame Gumb,[a] FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling is blamed for a botched drug raid which results in the deaths of five people. Starling is contacted by Mason Verger, the only surviving victim of the cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter, who has been missing since escaping custody during the Gumb investigation. A wealthy child molester, Verger was paralyzed and disfigured by Lecter during a therapy session. He has been pursuing an elaborate scheme to capture, torture, and kill Lecter ever since. Using his wealth and political influence, Verger has Starling reassigned to Lecter's case, hoping her involvement will draw Lecter out.
After learning of Starling's disgrace, Lecter sends her a taunting letter. A perfume expert identifies a fragrance on the letter: skin cream with ingredients only available to a few shops in the world. She contacts the police departments of the cities where the shops are located, requesting surveillance tapes. In Florence, Chief Inspector Rinaldo Pazzi is investigating the disappearance of a library curator. Pazzi questions Lecter, who is masquerading as Dr. Fell, the assistant curator and caretaker.
Recognizing Dr. Fell in the surveillance tape, Pazzi accesses the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program database of wanted fugitives. He learns of Verger's US$3 million personal bounty on Lecter. Seeking the bounty, Pazzi ignores Starling's warnings and attempts to capture Lecter alone. He recruits a pickpocket to obtain Lecter's fingerprint to show Verger as proof. The pickpocket manages to get the print and gives it to Pazzi, but is fatally wounded in the process when Lecter severs his femoral artery. Lecter baits Pazzi into an isolated room of the Palazzo Vecchio, ties him up, disembowels him, and hangs him from the balcony.
Verger bribes Justice Department official Paul Krendler to accuse Starling of withholding a note from Lecter, leading to her suspension. Lecter lures Starling to Union Station. Verger's men, having trailed Starling, capture and bring Lecter to Verger. Verger intends to feed Lecter alive to a herd of wild boars bred for this purpose. After her superiors refuse to act, Starling infiltrates Verger's estate. After neutralizing two guards and freeing Lecter, she is shot by a third guard. Lecter picks up an unconscious Starling just before the boars break through the doors, devouring the two guards but ignoring Lecter. Verger orders his physician Cordell Doemling to shoot Lecter. At Lecter's suggestion, Cordell shoves his hated boss into the pen with Lecter offering to take the blame. Lecter carries Starling away while Verger is eaten alive by his own boars.
Lecter takes Starling to Krendler's secluded lake house and treats her wound. When Krendler arrives, Lecter subdues and drugs him. Starling, disoriented by morphine and dressed in a cocktail dress, awakens to find Krendler seated at the table set for an elegant dinner. Weakened by the drugs, she watches in horror as Lecter opens Krendler's skull, removes part of his prefrontal cortex, sautés it, and feeds it to him. Starling tries to attack Lecter with a butter knife, but he overpowers and traps her. She handcuffs his wrist to hers. Hearing the police closing in, Lecter is about to sever her cuffed hand to escape and brings down the cleaver. Starling surrenders to the FBI with her hands intact.
On a flight, Lecter, who is now one-handed, prepares to eat a meal he has brought himself, while wearing his bandaged arm in a sling. Lecter shares Krendler's cooked brain with a curious boy who was watching him eat, saying it is important "always to try new things". As the unsuspecting boy eats, Lecter looks on with an expression of restrained delight.
RED DRAGON
Red Dragon is a 2002 psychological thriller film based on the 1981 novel by Thomas Harris. It was directed by Brett Ratner and written by Ted Tally. A prequel to The Silence of the Lambs (1991), it sees FBI agent Will Graham (Edward Norton) enlisting the help of serial killer Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) to catch another killer, Francis Dolarhyde (Ralph Fiennes). Harvey Keitel, Emily Watson, Mary-Louise Parker, and Philip Seymour Hoffman also star.
The novel was previously adapted into the film Manhunter (1986). Both films feature the same cinematographer, Dante Spinotti. After turning down the Silence of the Lambs sequel, Hannibal (2001), Silence of the Lambs screenwriter Ted Tally returned to write Red Dragon. It was released on 4 October 2002 to mostly positive reviews from critics and was a box office success, earning $209 million worldwide.
DETAILED PLOT
In 1980, FBI agent Will Graham visits forensic psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter to discuss a case. Graham has been working with Lecter on a psychological profile of a serial killer who removes edible body parts from his victims; Graham says he has realized the killer is a cannibal. Realizing Graham is close to discovering he is the killer, Lecter stabs him, but Graham fights back, stabbing and shooting Lecter before they both fall unconscious. Lecter is imprisoned in an institution for the criminally insane, and Graham, traumatized, retires to Florida with his family.
Years later, another serial killer, nicknamed the Tooth Fairy, has killed two families — the Jacobis and The Leedses — during full moons. With another full moon approaching, special agent Jack Crawford persuades Graham to help develop the killer's profile. After visiting the crime scenes in Atlanta, Georgia, and Birmingham, Alabama, and speaking with Crawford, Graham concludes that he must consult Lecter. Lecter taunts Graham, but agrees to help.
The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun, ca. 1803–1805 Brooklyn Museum
The Tooth Fairy is Francis Dolarhyde, who kills as directed by his alternate personality, which he calls the Great Red Dragon, named after the William Blake painting The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun, which he has tattooed on his back. He believes that each victim brings him closer to becoming the Dragon, as his psychopathology originates from his childhood abuse by his grandmother.
Freddy Lounds, a tabloid reporter for the National Tattler who hounded Graham after Lecter's capture, pursues Graham for leads on the Tooth Fairy. A letter from the Tooth Fairy is discovered hidden in Lecter's cell, expressing admiration for Lecter and an interest in Graham, and suggesting that Lecter reply through the personals section of the Tattler, which he does with Graham's home address, forcing Graham's wife Molly and son Josh to relocate. While in hiding, Graham teaches Molly how to properly fire a handgun
Hoping to lure out the Tooth Fairy, Graham gives an interview to Lounds, in which Graham disparages the killer as an impotent homosexual. An enraged Dolarhyde kidnaps Lounds, glues him to an antique wheelchair, and reveals himself as the Great Red Dragon before showing Lounds first-person pictures he has taken of his victims before and after he murdered them. Dollarhyde then forces Lounds to recant his allegations on tape and then bites off his lips. Dollarhyde then sets Lounds and the wheelchair on fire and sends him rolling and crash into a company sign outside the Tattler offices.
At his job in a St. Louis photo lab, Dolarhyde gives Reba McClane, a blind co-worker, a ride to her home and they begin a relationship. However, his alternate personality demands that he kill her. Desperate to stop the Dragon's control over him, Dolarhyde goes to the Brooklyn Museum, tears apart the Blake painting, and eats it.
Graham realizes that the Tooth Fairy knew the layout of his victims' houses from their home videos. He deduces that he works for the company that edits the home movies and transfers them to video. He visits the company processing plant to ask for information, and is spotted by Dolarhyde as he returns from Brooklyn.
In a panic, Dolarhyde goes to Reba's house. She has spent the evening with a co-worker, Ralph Mandy. After Reba enters her home, Dolarhyde kills Ralph, kidnaps Reba, takes her to his house, and sets it ablaze. Unable to shoot her, Dolarhyde apparently shoots himself. Reba escapes as the police arrive.
After an autopsy is performed on the corpse, it is revealed that Dolarhyde used Ralph's body to stage his death. Dollarhyde later infiltrates Graham's home in Florida and takes Josh hostage, threatening to kill him. To save Josh, Graham loudly insults him, reminding Dolarhyde of his grandmother's abuse and provoking him to furiously attack Graham. Both are severely wounded in a shootout, which ends when Molly kills Dolarhyde.
Graham survives and receives a letter from Lecter praising his work and bidding him well. Lecter's jailer, Dr. Frederick Chilton, tells him that he has a visitor, a young woman from the FBI.