Customer Reviews

The Hannibal Files

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I had expected something with a little more depth, but perhaps that's because I'm a member of a vanishing species (someone who majored in literature in college). Harris' novels are arguably the most "literate" crime thrillers around, displaying not only loving research of forensics and police work but a command of European literature and culture much deeper than mere "props" for the erudition of Hannibal Lecter. I have seen very little commentary on them that discusses this, or the deft mingling of "our common squalor" (a phrase from "Lambs") with images from Donne, Eliot and Dante. Lecter is also a character with a grand ancestry in history and myth, and I would have loved to see an exploration of what he owes both to genuine killers and the demons of fiction and tradition.

What I got was a book that would have been half the length had it not been padded out with the resumes of the films' stars, producers and directors. While it's interesting to know why the first Red Dragon movie, "Manhunter," contained some puzzling alterations and omissions, I don't need to know everything about the filmography of everyone involved, or the minute studio politics -- that doesn't do much to elucidate the novels or the finished pictures.

By contrast, author O'Brien's appreciation of Harris' abilities and intentions as a writer is culpably shallow. One example: his interpretion the title-page quotation in Lambs, "Need I look for a Death's Head in a ring, that have one in my face?" While he sources it correctly (Donne's Devotions) he doesn't even bother to connect it with the Death's Head Moth used by killer Jame Gumb to mark the flayed remains of his victims and to represent his ambition to be transformed through wearing their skins; instead he suggests it is chiding the reader for interest in fictional killers when so many real ones can be found in the newspaper. The deeper implication that Lecter's monstrosity parallels something that might be mined out of all our psyches (given greater play in HANNIBAL) doesn't even occur to him. I throw up my hands.

As for the all-but-operatic repetition of theme, imagery and incident that occurs throughout the novels, or the delicious subtle parallels between characters -- such as Will Graham's relationship to his family as a stepfather versus Francis Dolarhyde's as a stepchild, pointed up by Graham's facial mutilation at the end of the book -- well, let's say I was hoping to see a good critic go to work on that, and I'm still waiting. In fact, it's clear that O'Brien is interested in only the most banal conventions of storytelling (allowing Graham to "be a hero" versus the sometimes scalding insights Harris includes in his internal monologues) and doesn't much care whether the author was trying to do anything other than keep the reader's attention.

An intriguing book for a student of cinema, but not much use to a reader.

The book begins with a brief introduction, followed by Parts 1-5, each part going over one of the Lecter movies and its source novel, with the exception of Part 4 (Red Dragon), which does not go over the novel since it is covered in Part 1 (Manhunter). (The other three movies/novels are Hannibal, The Silence of the Lambs, and Hannibal Rising.)

The basic structure of each part is as follows:

A basic description of the source novel is given, including the story line. This is followed by information on its conversion to a screenplay, including background information on the screenwriter. Then follows acquiring of the movie rights; background on the studio and producers; formation of, and background on, the cast and crew; making of the movie including deviations from the novel; and finally, the relative success of the movie and criticism from the press. In the part on Manhunter, there is also a little information given on 'Black Sunday', Harris's 1975 novel which was also made into a movie.

The first two parts, on Manhunter (based on the novel Red Dragon) and The Silence of the Lambs, are the longest chapters, at 59 and 67 pages of text respectively. The author seems more familiar with these two productions than the other three, bearing in mind that part 4 (Red Dragon) need only cover the movie. The Hannibal chapter (part 3) is only 43 pages in length, followed by 14 pages on Red Dragon and 19 pages on Hannibal Rising. There are three sections of pictures spread throughout the book, including photos of the major actors both on the set and off, plus a couple photos of Thomas Harris.

Parts of the book which may be of particular interest include information on why Jodie Foster, Ted Tally, and Jonathan Demme all eventually declined to participate in the making of Hannibal; why some people consider Brian Cox's take on the Lecter character ('Lecktor' in Manhunter) to be superior to Anthony Hopkins' portrayal; and opinions on why both Manhunter and Hannibal Rising failed at the box office. There are a few places where it is evident that what is being said is speculation or 'hear-say', but O'Brien generally lets the reader know when this is the case.

The thing I personally like best about this book is that it conveys a lot of what seems like 'inside information' on creation of the movies.