Hannibal
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The movie version ending, or movie vs. book
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message 51:
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Chelsea
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rated it 5 stars
Oct 21, 2013 10:27PM
I definitely liked the book version better. A lot of people say it's out of character, and I can see that as an initial thought, but at the end it mentions that we shouldn't let them catch us trying to get too deep. Otherwise, it's lethal. So, I don't think it was a complete 180, I just think that Harris left out most of their relationship because it's none of our business. Loved the book ending!
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Also, Clarice may have been a strong heroine in Silence of the Lambs, when she was naïve and hopeful, but after a "reality check" at the beginning of Hannibal, she declines throughout the book. She is never really the same person. This makes it more realistic to me how she changed.
The movie has very successfully managed to murder the book, a dozen times over. Even Sir Hopkins couldnt save that tangled mess of a train wreck. made me so bloody angry. After the incredible performance in silence of the lambs, this nonsense.. eeek made me want to cry
Sidra wrote: "The movie has very successfully managed to murder the book, a dozen times over. Even Sir Hopkins couldnt save that tangled mess of a train wreck. made me so bloody angry. After the incredible perfo..."Very true . Well said.
the book is better than the flim
Chelsea wrote: "Also, Clarice may have been a strong heroine in Silence of the Lambs, when she was naïve and hopeful, but after a "reality check" at the beginning of Hannibal, she declines throughout the book. She..."Absolutely. Well said.
Nor will I ever read another book by him. What a travesty of a novel. Pure crapola.
Lots of people, I am sorry to say, are seduced by evil, even people in the police force and those that work as social workers, look at the number of letters sent to serial killers even now. Fred West and his ' adult' worker formed a strong bond . Sutcliffe and his army of fans!!!Thomas Harris spent a long time with Criminal physiologists before writing his books. Just because we don't like the ending it does not mean that it is "crapola".
I found Hannibal the movie equiped with a better ending than the book did have, it left the two characters more faithfull to their growing curve than Harris did with his characters.And the movie Hannibal is for me the best Hannibal movie of the three, it was such a beautifull and sad story. A story of loss and how to cope with it or not. Ridley Scott did a great job but then again his movies are always visually brilliant.
Long time since I read these books or watched the film but didn't the film leave out one of the main characters. I think it was a sister who stuck some awful creature down someones throat?
Janet wrote: "Long time since I read these books or watched the film but didn't the film leave out one of the main characters. I think it was a sister who stuck some awful creature down someones throat?"
The book left out a few characters, the sister was one, Starlings roomie was another, Cordell and Dr. Doemling were two different people in the book.
I saw the film before reading the book, I know backwards, but I loved the film still. To me the film was a different story based upon the book. There were so many differences that you can't really call that the same story.
Just for funsies, watch the film, you'll see what I mean. :)
The book left out a few characters, the sister was one, Starlings roomie was another, Cordell and Dr. Doemling were two different people in the book.
I saw the film before reading the book, I know backwards, but I loved the film still. To me the film was a different story based upon the book. There were so many differences that you can't really call that the same story.
Just for funsies, watch the film, you'll see what I mean. :)
Mark wrote: "I found Hannibal the movie equiped with a better ending than the book did have, it left the two characters more faithfull to their growing curve than Harris did with his characters.
And the movie ..."
I agree, the ending of the film, in regards to Starling, was more true to her character as a whole.
And the movie ..."
I agree, the ending of the film, in regards to Starling, was more true to her character as a whole.
I agree with you, Debaparna. Not only did Moore not portray a good Clarice, I don't think the film version did justice to the scenes in Italy. In the book the milieu was a perfect backdrop to what was taking place. There half of the passion in the film as there was in the book. The ending in the book was perfect. The film version, I was so disappointed in what I saw. I love Ray Liota, but I didn't fell as if he captured his role as well. And come on. That kitchen scene? Lecter wouldn't have done that. I spoke with a movie producer about one of my books. The first thing I told him was, hey, let's not Hollywood this up and keep it as close to the book as possible. Harris' ending of Lecter and Clarice in the opera house seeing someone from their past was classic and had just the right touch. It was the perfect closing in my opinion.
Red Dragon SUCKED!!!!!"You're right...but you also weren't watching the right version. What you want is Manhunter, directed by Michael Mann, with William Petersen as Will Graham. Brian Cox is *so* much better as Lector than Anthony Hopkins, IMHO. Sir Anthony was just chewing the scenery.
JDK1962 wrote: "Red Dragon SUCKED!!!!!"You're right...but you also weren't watching the right version. What you want is Manhunter, directed by Michael Mann, with William Petersen as Will Graham. Brian Cox is *so..."
I think I need to see Manhunter, because I'm with JDK1962. The movie version of Red Dragon AND Hannibal sucked IMO. I like Ed Norton as an actor, but he portrayed Will poorly in this movie version. The book was so freakin awesome and then you see this movie and say, 'What the hell!'
A friend of mine also told me to check out Manhunter. I guess now is the time, now that I have someone else saying the same thing.
Shelley wrote: "A friend of mine also told me to check out Manhunter. I guess now is the time, now that I have someone else saying the same thing."I did enjoy Manhunter, and as much as I like Ralph Fiennes as an actor, Tom Noonan did a better job as Dolarhyde in Manhunter and was more terrifying than Fiennes was in Red Dragon!
I hear Manhunter is somewhat responsible for the surge in CSI programs too (Quite fitting to the CSI series as the lead character is played by the same actor, William Petersen!)
I did enjoy Manhunter, and as much as I like Ral..."Okay, now I have to watch this movie. I'm going to find it online. I loved the book. It's one of my favorites.
Manhunter is streaming on Netflix now.
Mark wrote: "I found Hannibal the movie equiped with a better ending than the book did have, it left the two characters more faithfull to their growing curve than Harris did with his characters.And the movie ..."
If you actually think the movie's faithful to the characters then, trust me, you know very little to absolutely nothing about the characters.
I'm gonna have to agree with you, French. The characterization depicted in the movie was contrary to the books.
Priscilla,Very profound, by the way. Loved what you wrote and agreed with most of it. Interpretation is everything to the reader, and regardless how well authors like myself offer what we perceive of our characters, readers will and can interpret things differently and I think this is great. So for readers who have read the series - readers who ARE hopeless romantics - they may see the ending quite differently. They may see it as Starling realizing that she NEEDS Lecter. The reasoning behind this is too many to list, and I won't go into them. But in the end, both feel as if their self/world can no longer exist without the presence of the other, which in turn can be interpreted as soul mates, which in turn can be interpreted as a love deeper than most love. So cutting love entirely out can be viewed by some as unacceptable. And I'm not too sure if Lecter would lose his cannablistic urge. If I remember correctly, when they're inside the opera and they spot somoeone they know, and correct me if I'm wrong because I'm going off memory here, Lecter is ready to do what he does best! This is the beauty of what they have between them. Starling doesn't tell him no, but the writing eludes (at least to me) that Starling would allow Lecter to be Lecter if it means the two of them can remain in peace together. Loved what you posted, though! This is one of the best convos I've engaged in since joining Goodreads.
Priscilla,Aw yes! I'm totally with you now. Still under hypnosis? Really?? Sex slave? Seriously? I see I missed the point entirely, because I'm unaware of such reviews as you mentioned. Perhaps I have purposely avoided them, as seeing them would make my snatch myself bald-headed! I'm curious to know of all three books, is there one that you enjoyed more than the other? I have a soft spot for Red Dragon. I don't know why. Or any particular scene that gets you everytime you view it?
Shelley wrote: "Priscilla,Aw yes! I'm totally with you now. Still under hypnosis? Really?? Sex slave? Seriously? I see I missed the point entirely, because I'm unaware of such reviews as you mentioned. Perhaps I ..."
The Silence of the Lambs will always remain quite special to me. While I do admire Red Dragon, I like how Starling is courageous and does not shy away from Lecter like Will Graham did. SOTL sowed the seeds for the iconic couple.
Shelley, I removed my previous posts as I just found out that I've been reading 'Hannibal' wrong all this time. I'm afraid that these supposed "sex-slave" allegations might be true after all. I just realized it.
Pricilla, how so? You're gonna have to point that out to me. If you prefer doing so in private, no problem. You have my curiosity piqued!
The movie ending makes sense-the book ending does not-it's obvious it was just an attempt to shock and stun people. Harris screwed up so the filmmakers made the fix. The film ending is very satisfying-Clarice is a good soul-she would NEVER go off to be Hannibals' lover. Foster was right.
Yeah I think the movie chickened out and didn't think it could relay it to the audience right or something. Loved the book and its ending, definitely superior.
Craig wrote: "No pun intended, but both were a little hard to swallow. I just can't imagine in reality Starling choosing the course of action she took in the book. Unless the "therapy" he took her through was so..."It's pretty clear it was. He kept her in the hypnosis state for quite awhile with the injections and 'one light on in the room', then the deliving into the psyche and implanting suggestions during deep hynopsis. Did some miss these chapters? It was pretty clearly stated.
Apologies, coming into this quite late. I've just finished reading RD, SOTL and now Hannibal. I'm not sure what I make of the ending yet, in terms of being true to the characters. I did find Starling eating Krendler's brain a bit hard to swallow (sorry!) but that's about it so far. I did feel like I'd started reading a different book at the end though, the style seemed quite rushed, and dreamy. Doubtless that was the author's intent, but it did feel somewhat out of place.It's been a long time since I saw the film, so I'll have to catch up on that to remind me about the alternate ending. I watched SOTL again after reading the book and was very disappointed. Starling in the film seemed a very weak character to me, her knowledge and strength watered down significantly.
What brought me to read the books was watching the Hannibal TV series, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It's very disappointing that they got axed before finishing the story - I'd have loved to see what they did with Starling. Hopefully they'll be able to continue it with a new studio.
I thought the ending of the novel was very weak. For one,the author literally silenced her. For both novels, the readers saw Clarice's POV.She was the moral core of the novels. Then, he poisons her,brain washes her and we no longer are able to know what she thinks.
It was not even Hannibal's voice at times. The author just stepped in and started telling,not showing the story.
I found the ending of the film to be an improvement. Clarice never backed down.
I commented before but I have to add that after time rewatching the film Hannibal was a bit hard for me. The boom kind of ruined the film for me even tho I see them as vastly different stories. I like the ending of the film better tho because I couldn't swallow that starling would break like that even under the manipulation of Lecter's genius. There are parts of the book that I liked better like the fact that Verger had a sister who played a vital role in his life and the dynamic between her and Barney. We got to hear how big a role Barney really played in Verger's. The book was more fleshed out of course expounding on elements of each character's personality and wicked deeds.
Kahlil wrote: "I commented before but I have to add that after time rewatching the film Hannibal was a bit hard for me. The boom kind of ruined the film for me even tho I see them as vastly different stories. I l..."I can totally understand why they changed the ending in the film. It addresses the "romantic" vibe whithout betraying the female character. I can´t even imagine the outrage in the mainstream audience back then if they had filmed the book ending.
I don´t know what Thomas Harris was thinking while finishing his book, (and for a moment I believed Clarice had actually tricked Hannibal,but no, he brainwashed her completely) but the only way I could forgive how he slaughtered his heroine is for Clarice to appaer in a future book having manipulated and outplayed Hannibal the way Bedelia does in the Tv show.
Love the tv show btw. Beautiful reimagining of the universe and masterful analisys of the seduction of evil.
if they kept the ending it would have been one of the best ending in the history of cinema
Lemontr33 wrote: "I'm not sure how I feel about the endings.
I've recently become obsessed with Harris' novels, and finished Hannibal yesterday. I hated the ending. I felt like it was entirely unrealistic and not t.
I agree that perhaps their relationship was rather odd - to us normal people (define 'normal)? As such, we tend to view their relationship from our perspective, but it should be borne in mind that both Hannibal and Starling had been shunned by the professions that they held so dear. Starling, despite her beauty, Starling was an efficient killer and Lecter was an erudite Psychiatrist and both were outstanding in their respective fields. Thus, perhaps it is little wonder that their relationship was a little bizarre? It is worth noting that Starling willingly went along with Lecter and warned her friend not to try and find her.
I've recently become obsessed with Harris' novels, and finished Hannibal yesterday. I hated the ending. I felt like it was entirely unrealistic and not t.
I agree that perhaps their relationship was rather odd - to us normal people (define 'normal)? As such, we tend to view their relationship from our perspective, but it should be borne in mind that both Hannibal and Starling had been shunned by the professions that they held so dear. Starling, despite her beauty, Starling was an efficient killer and Lecter was an erudite Psychiatrist and both were outstanding in their respective fields. Thus, perhaps it is little wonder that their relationship was a little bizarre? It is worth noting that Starling willingly went along with Lecter and warned her friend not to try and find her.
I know the last update to this chat thread is 10 years old but I just read the book and I need to talk to somebody, I need to say what's on my mind!! lol. I am disappointed at the author for making the most important character (in my onion), Clarice, betray her own values and dragging her through the mud. I agree she respected and admired Dr. Lecter for his intellect but ending up by his side was too much of a stretch. She saved him from being fed to the pigs because she did not believe the worse human being deserved to be killed that way, that was how high her values were. In the end, the author makes her Lecter's lover and a cannibal herself. That was too much for me.
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