The Hannibal Lecter Collection (Manhunter / The Silence of the Lambs / Hannibal)
by Jonathan Demme, Michael Mann, Ridley Scott
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Actor: Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster, Julianne Moore, Scott Glenn, William PetersenDirector: Jonathan Demme, Michael Mann, Ridley Scott
Brand: Sony
Writer: Michael Mann
Writer: David Mamet
Writer: Steven Zaillian
Writer: Ted Tally
Writer: Thomas Harris
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Italian (Original Language); Japanese (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 369 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-01-30
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD Reviews of The Hannibal Lecter Collection (Manhunter / The Silence of the Lambs / Hannibal)
DVD Review: Enter the mind of a serial killer... you may never come back.
Summary: 5 Stars
PLOT:
I. Manhunter (1986): The film starts off from the point of view of a serial killer breaking into a house while his intended victims are all asleep. Suddenly the film shifts to a beach in Florida. Two men are talking about a serial killer. The men are retired special agent Will Graham (William Petersen) and his old partner Jack Crawford (Dennis Farina). Graham was an expert FBI profilist but retired after being attacked by brilliant psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lektor, who turned out to be a serial killer that Graham was hunting down all along. Crawford informs Graham that there is a new serial killer on the loose, dubbed as "The Tooth Fairy", and that he has already killed two families. He pleads with Graham to consider coming back to the FBI in hopes of trying to find the killer before he kills again. After careful consideration, Graham says goodbye to his wife Molly (Kim Greist) and son Josh and goes back to the FBI. Graham carefully studies the case file and sees that the Tooth Fairy killed both families in the exact same manner. He inserted mirror shards in their eyes after killing them and even left jagged bite marks on some of them (hence the nick-name). After reaching a dead end, Graham can't find any connection between the two families or why the Tooth Fairy chose to murder them. He decides to consult Dr. Lektor (Brian Cox) who now resides in solitary confinement in a maximum security facility; after all, Lektor did help Graham catch other serial killers early on in his career. Dr. Lektor decides to help Graham and looks at the case file. Graham knows that only Lektor can help him get in the mind of such a bizarre serial killer, but he hopes that he finds him before the next full moon, the only time the Tooth Fairy (Tom Noonan) strikes.
II. The Silence Of The Lambs (1991): The film starts off by showing a young FBI trainee named Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) running through an obstacle course. She is suddenly summoned by Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn), head of the FBI division of physchological serial killer profiles. Crawford asks Starling to present a questionnaire to the briliant psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter (now played by Academy Award-winner Anthony Hopkins). Lecter was once a well-respected doctor who helped the FBI track down serial killers, until it was discovered that he was in fact a cannibalistic serial killer himself. Nick-named "Hannibal the Cannibal", Lecter was now serving 9 consecutive life sentences in solitary confinement in a Baltimore mental institution. Starling meets with Lecter and finds him to be quite intelligent and polite (despite the fact that he is insane). She presents him with information about a new serial killer dubbed "Buffalo Bill". He got his name from the Kansas City Police who theorized that "this one likes to skin his humps." All of Bill's victims were heavy-set women. He would abduct them, keep them alive for 3 days before killing them, remove portions of their skin, and then dump their bodies into a river. Starling hopes that Lecter can help her in leading to the capture of Buffalo Bill. Lecter asks Starling to find an ex-patient of his named Ms. Mofet. Through some research, Starling finds that a Ms. Mofet rented out a storage unit in the early 1980s. Upon searching the unit, Starling finds the decapitated head of a male transvestite in a jar of formaldehyde. Starling visits Dr. Lecter again to find out the identity of the head. Lecter informs her that the storage unit was really rented out by his former patient Benjamin Raspail. Raspail had a gay lover named Klaus. Raspail's former lover, Buffalo Bill, killed and decapitated Klaus in a fit of jealousy. When Bill's 6th victim is found, Starling is present at the autopsy and discovers a moth cocoon which was deliberately shoved in the victim's throat. Starling brings the cocoon to the Smithsonian, where it is identified as the cocoon of the Death's Head Moth, named after the striking mark on it's back which resembles a human skull. The strange thing about it is that they are only native to Asia, meaning they would have to be specially bred in the U.S. Later on, Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine), abducts Catherine Ruth Martin (Brooke Smith), who happens to be the daughter of Senator Ruth Martin. It is feared that if Catherine is not found within a few days, she will become Bill's next victim. After this event, Starling is assigned to help with the effort to find Catherine. She only hopes that Lecter will give her enough help to save Catherine.
III. Hannibal (2001): The film begins 10 years after Dr. Hannibal Lecter's incredible escape from prison. Barney Matthews (Frankie Faison), the former orderly who watched over Lecter at the Baltimore hospital, is at the home of the horribly disfigured Mason Verger (Gary Oldman). Barney is giving Verger information about Lecter. He also sells him Lecter's original restraint mask for $250,000. Meanhwhile, FBI agent Clarice Starling (now played by Julianne Moore) is in the middle of a sting operation. The operation is botched when Starling kills her intended captive in an act of self-defense. The FBI reprimands Starling for her actions. She is then summoned by Mason Verger. Verger was one of Lecter's original victims (one of two to survive his attacks.) Despite his exceeding wealth, Verger was a brutal child molester. He was referred to Dr. Lecter after being arrested on molestation charges. One night, Verger invited Lecter to his estate. He got drunk and showed him the noose that he used for erotic asphyxiation. Lecter gave Verger mind-enhancing drugs and then convinced him to peel off his own face with a mirror shard. Lecter fed the chunks of flesh to Verger's dogs. Verger also ate his own nose. Afterwards, Lecter broke Verger's neck with the noose. Verger, however, survived only to be reduced to a monstrously disfigured paraplegic dependent on life-support. Verger hopes that Starling can help him to capture the elusive Lecter and bring him to justice. It turns out, Lecter is living in Florence, Italy under the false name of Dr. Fell. Lecter is met by Inspector Rinaldo Pazzi (Giancarlo Giannini) who is investigating the disappearance of a library curator. Lecter happens to be the curator's temporary replacement. Starling later receives a letter from Lecter. With help from scent experts, she concludes that Lecter is somewhere in Europe. Starling contacts several European fragrance stores (who sell ambergris: a scent found in the letter) in hopes of maybe spotting Lecter in a surveillance tape. After spotting Dr. Fell in Starling's requested surveillance tape, Pazzi discovers that Fell is in fact Dr. Hannibal Lecter. He secretly contacts Mason Verger in hopes of getting a $3 million reward. What Starling doesn't realize is that Verger doesn't wish to bring Lecter to justice, he wishes to put Lecter through unimaginable suffering.
COMMENTS: This is an incredible collection that features the most infamous (and beloved) serial killer ever seen on screen, Dr. Hannibal (The Cannibal) Lecter. The iconic character first appeared in Thomas Harris's novel Red Dragon in 1981. Manhunter is director Michael Mann's film adaptation of Red Dragon. The reason he changed the title was because he feared that audiences would think it was a karate movie. Michael Mann was famous at the time for being the director of the series Miami Vice. The film has a Miami Vice sort of feel to it, through it's use of visuals and soundtrack music. Michael Mann adapated the screenplay himself, but made quite a few changes from Harris's novel. Hannibal Lecter has been renamed "Hannibal Lektor." The character of Lecter himself has been extremely down-roled. There is no mention made about him being a cannibal. He only appears on screen for about 6 minutes in the entire film. Mann's script focuses much more on Will Graham and his psychological struggle. Elements of the Tooth Fairy (Francis Dolarhyde) have also been cut out of the script. In Harris's novel, Dolarhyde is obsessed with a William Blake painting called "The Great Red Dragon and the Women Clothed in the Sun." Dolarhyde believes that he is controlled by the Red Dragon (Satan). In essence, the Red Dragon is an alternate personality of his. Unfortunately, there is hardly any mention of the Red Dragon or Blake's painting in the film. Mann also extremely watered down the reasons behind Dolarhyde's madness (i.e. his abusive childhood, his insecurity about his hair lip, etc.) Tom Noonan asked that none of the other actors see him until the final confrontation at the climax of the film. This technique turned out to be extremely effective, for the other cast members were really afraid of him. Mann radically changed the ending of the film from the original novel. I thought Harris's ending was much better. I had a hard time accepting Brian Cox as Hannibal Lecter. Although I think he is a tremendous actor, I can't imagine anyone else as Hannibal Lecter other than Anthony Hopkins. As for William Petersen, I think he did a tremendous job as Will Graham. I can't decide whose performance I like better, his or Edward Norton's in the 2002 remake Red Dragon. The film was ultimately a bomb at the box office. It later gained a cult following on DVD, after the other films were released. Director Jonathan Demme decided to adapt Harris's sequel novel, The Silence of the Lambs, to the screen in 1991. Manhunter producer Dino De Laurentiis gave Demme full permission and rights to use the names of characters used in Manhunter; since that film never took off, he had no interest in producing a sequel. Silence was never intended to be a follow-up to Manhunter. Demme wanted to start everything over clean-slate. He actually watched Manhunter before shooting, but decided early on that Brian Cox was not his Hannibal Lecter. The role ultimately went to the actor who made the character immortal, Anthony Hopkins. Ted Tally adapted the screenplay from Harris's novel, and did an extremely faithful job. Demme gave the film an extremely creepy feel. Hopkins' performance is breathtaking. He studied serial killers and fanatics and noticed that they never blinked (Hitler never blinked.) This was a technique that he used in the film, and it was extremely effective. What most people don't realize is that Lecter is only seen on film for about 17 minutes out of the whole film, but thanks to Hopkins' stellar performance, it seems much longer. Ultimately the film won five Oscars for Best Director (Jonathan Demme), Best Adapted Screenplay (Ted Tally), Best Actress (Jodie Foster), Best Actor (Anthony Hopkins), and Best Picture. In the years following, Harris wrote another sequel novel simply titled Hannibal. Since interest in the Lecter character sky-rocketed, original Manhunter producer Dino De Laurentiis re-obtained the rights for adapting Harris's novels into films. He approached director Ridley Scott to take the helm for the new film, Hannibal. Scott said that he would only direct the film if Hopkins returned as Lecter, something he was more than happy to do. Upon reading the novel, the filmmakers knew right away that Jodie Foster would not want to reprise her role as FBI agent Clarice Starling. In Harris's original ending, Lecter and Starling were supposed to run away together, most likely due to romantic reasons. Foster said she would only return if the ending was radically changed; by the time Harris changed it, she had already moved on to another project. Hopkins suggested that Julianne Moore be used as a replacement. Moore gave such a great performance as Starling, that at times I forgot she was a different actress. Released in 2001, Hannibal was a huge success at the box office. Ridley Scott gave the film a much different feel than the one Demme gave to Silence, but that's what I like about it. Technically it is a sequel to the characters from Silence, but in a way the film is almost it's own seperate entity. Gary Oldman was another highlight of the film. Oldman is a brilliant character actor, and I actually had no idea that it was even him until the end credits started rolling. His monstrously hideous make-up is incredible, and that added with his southern accent made him totally unrecognizable. The only film not included in this set is Red Dragon, the 2002 remake of Manhunter. The remake featured Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter, as well as actors who appeared in one or both of the previous two films, including Frankie Faison as the orderly Barney Matthews and Anthony Heald as Dr. Frederick Chilton. The reason it isn't in this set is because it was distributed by Universal Pictures instead of MGM. A prequel film based on a new Harris novel, Hannibal Rising, was released in 2007. It tells the story of the young Hannibal Lecter, and how he became a cannibalistic madman. After Red Dragon, Hopkins announced that he would never portray Lecter again, so unfortunately he wouldn't appear in Hannibal Rising for a brief cameo or even a narrative. All three discs in the this set have had the picture and sound digitally remastered. They are all shown in the original theatrical widescreen ratio. Unfortunately there are very little special features.
More The Hannibal Lecter Collection (Manhunter / The Silence of the Lambs / Hannibal) reviews:
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Description of The Hannibal Lecter Collection (Manhunter / The Silence of the Lambs / Hannibal)
Disc 1: HANNIBAL Disc 2: THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS Disc 3: MANHUNTERManhunter:Though it will always be remembered as the movie featuring the "other" Hannibal Lecter, Michael Mann's 1986 thriller Manhunter is nearly as good as The Silence of the Lambs, and in some respects it's arguably even better. Based on Thomas Harris's novel Red Dragon, which introduced the world to the nefarious killer Hannibal "the Cannibal" Lecter, the film stars William Petersen (giving a suitably brooding performance) as ex-FBI agent Will Graham, who is coaxed out of semiretirement to track down a serial killer who has thwarted the authorities at every turn.
Graham's approach to the case is a perilous one. First he seeks counsel with Lecter (Brian Cox) in the latter's high-security prison cell--an encounter that is utterly horrifying in its psychological effect--and then he begins to mold his own psyche to that of the killer, with potentially devastating results. As directed by Mann (who was at the acme of his success with TV's Miami Vice), this sophisticated cat-and-mouse game never resorts to the compromise of cheap thrills. Predating Anthony Hopkins's portrayal of Lecter by four years, Cox plays the character closer to Harris's original, lower-key conception, and he's no less compelling in the role. Petersen is equally well cast, and as always Mann employs rock music to astonishing effect, using nearly all of Iron Butterfly's heavy-metal epic "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" to accompany the film's heart-stopping climactic sequence. All of this makes Manhunter one of the finest films of its kind, as well as further proof that Harris's fiction is a blessing to any filmmaker brave enough to adapt it. --Jeff Shannon
The Silence of the Lambs: Based on Thomas Harris's novel, this terrifying film by Jonathan Demme really only contains a couple of genuinely shocking moments (one involving an autopsy, the other a prison break). The rest of the film is a splatter-free visual and psychological descent into the hell of madness, redeemed astonishingly by an unlikely connection between a monster and a haunted young woman. Anthony Hopkins is extraordinary as the cannibalistic psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter, virtually entombed in a subterranean prison for the criminally insane. At the behest of the FBI, agent-in-training Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) approaches Lecter, requesting his insights into the identity and methods of a serial killer named Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine). In exchange, Lecter demands the right to penetrate Starling's most painful memories, creating a bizarre but palpable intimacy that liberates them both under separate but equally horrific circumstances. Demme, a filmmaker with a uniquely populist vision (Melvin and Howard, Something Wild), also spent his early years making pulp for Roger Corman (Caged Heat), and he hasn't forgotten the significance of tone, atmosphere, and the unsettling nature of a crudely effective close-up. Much of the film, in fact, consists of actors staring straight into the camera (usually from Clarice's point of view), making every bridge between one set of eyes to another seem terribly dangerous. --Tom Keogh
Hannibal: Yes, he's back, and he's still hungry. Ten years after The Silence of the Lambs, Dr. Hannibal "the Cannibal" Lecter (Anthony Hopkins, reprising his Oscar-winning role) is living the good life in Italy, studying art and sipping espresso. FBI agent Clarice Starling (Julianne Moore, replacing Jodie Foster), on the other hand, hasn't had it so good--an outsider from the start, she's now a quiet, moody loner who doesn't play bureaucratic games and suffers for it. A botched drug raid results in her demotion--and a request from Lecter's only living victim, Mason Verger (Gary Oldman, uncredited), for a little Q and A. Little does Clarice realize that the hideously deformed Verger--who, upon suggestion from Dr. Lecter, peeled off his own face--is using her as bait to lure Dr. Lecter out of hiding, quite certain he'll capture the good doctor.
Taking the basic plot contraptions from Thomas Harris's baroque novel, Hannibal is so stylistically different from its predecessor that it forces you to take it on its own terms. Director Ridley Scott gives the film a sleek, almost European look that lets you know that, unlike the first film (which was about the quintessentially American Clarice), this movie is all Hannibal. Does it work? Yes--but only up to a point. Scott adeptly sets up an atmosphere of foreboding, but it's all buildup for anticlimax, as Verger's plot for abducting Hannibal (and feeding him to man-eating wild boars) doesn't really deliver the requisite visceral thrills, and the much-ballyhooed climatic dinner sequence between Clarice, Dr. Lecter, and a third unlucky guest wobbles between parody and horror. Hopkins and Moore are both first-rate, but the film contrives to keep them as far apart as possible, when what made Silence so amazing was their interaction. When they do connect it's quite thrilling, but it's unfortunately too little too late. --Mark Englehart
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