Hannibal (2001)

Hannibal returns to America and attempts to make contact with disgraced Agent Starling and survive a vengeful victim's plan.

Director:

Ridley Scott

Writers:

Thomas Harris (novel), David Mamet (screenplay),

Stars:

Anthony Hopkins, Julianne Moore, Gary Oldman

5 wins & 14 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Anthony Hopkins	...	Hannibal Lecter
Julianne Moore	...	Clarice Starling
Gary Oldman	...	Mason Verger
Ray Liotta	...	Paul Krendler
Frankie Faison	...	Nurse Barney (as Frankie R. Faison)
Giancarlo Giannini	...	Insp. Renaldo Pazzi
Francesca Neri	...	Allegra Pazzi
Zeljko Ivanek	...	Dr. Cordell Doemling
Hazelle Goodman	...	Evelda Drumgo
David Andrews	...	FBI Agent Pearsall
Francis Guinan	...	FBI Asst. Director Noonan
James Opher	...	DEA Agent John Eldridge
Enrico Lo Verso	...	Gnocco
Ivano Marescotti	...	Carlo
Fabrizio Gifuni	...	Matteo

Storyline

The continuing saga of Hannibal Lecter, the murdering cannibal. He is presently in Italy and works as a curator at a museum. Clarice Starling, the FBI agent whom he aided to apprehend a serial killer, was placed in charge of an operation but when one of her men botches it, she's called to the mat by the Bureau. One high ranking official, Paul Krendler has it in for her. But she gets a reprieve because Mason Verger, one of Lecter's victims who is looking to get back at Lecter for what Lecter did to him, wants to use Starling to lure him out. When Lecter sends her a note she learns that he's in Italy so she asks the police to keep an eye out for him. But a corrupt policeman who wants to get the reward that Verger placed on him, tells Verger where he is. But they fail to get him. Later Verger decides to frame Starling which makes Lecter return to the States. And the race to get Lecter begins.

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Plot Keywords:

italy | hannibal lecter | fbi | fbi agent | cannibal | 

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Taglines:

His genius UNDENIABLE. His evil UNSPEAKABLE. His name... HANNIBAL.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong gruesome violence, some nudity and language

Details

Official Sites:

MGM Studios [us] MGMawards.com [us] reviews

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English Italian Japanese

Release Date:

9 February 2001 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Silence of the Lambs 2

Filming Locations:

Asheville, North Carolina, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$87,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£6,402,540 (UK) (16 February 2001)

Gross:

$165,091,464 (USA) (3 August 2001)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Universal Pictures, Dino De Laurentiis Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

131 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Claire Danes was suggested for the role of Clarice Starling by Jodie Foster.

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Goofs

The typeface on Lecter's copy of the Washington Post is different from what the Post uses for their headlines and text.

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Quotes

Hannibal Lecter: I imagine your little brother must smell almost as bad as you do by now.

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Crazy Credits

After the credits, we hear Lecter say "Ta ta, H.", the closing line of the post-script in his letter to Clarice.

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Connections

References Persona (1966)

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Soundtracks

"VIDE COR MEUM"
Written by Patrick Cassidy
Libretto taken from Dante's "La Vita Nuova"
Produced by Patrick Cassidy and Hans Zimmer
Performed by Danielle de Niese and Bruno Lazzaretti

User Reviews

Silly And Uneven

I don`t know if it existed in the novel of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS but the impression I got from that film was that Clarice Starling was very uncomfortable in the presence of men . This character trait is totally ignored in HANNIBAL as the film opens with Agent Starling asleep in a police van surrounded with men and as the film continues we see that the Clarice Starling of this version is a strong willed and assertive woman at odds with the timid insecure girl of the 1991 film . I guess some people may say this is character development but I`d call it a lack of internal continiuty and I wasn`t too happy with the way the character was underused either.

Julianne Moore made little impression with her portrayal of Starling though that`s through little fault of her own because it`s always the most difficult job of an actor playing a role made famous by someone else , and as I said Starling is sidelined in much of the film . But still I would have liked to have seen Jodie Foster return to the part . As for the other actors Hopkins is competent but by no means spell binding , Liota gives the impression that a robot played his role throughout the film and not just in * THAT * scene , Giancarlo Giannini is good , but Gary Oldman absolutely steals the show as Mason Verger playing the role just the right side of camp complete with some great make up .

As for the other aspects of HANNIBAL Ridley Scott directs with an almost operatic touch , and I mean that both figuratively and literally . You really do get the feeling watching this that Scott`s ambition in life is to do a remake of AMADEUS with Hopkins in the role of Atonio Salieri . But the one major flaw with HANNIBAL is the script by Mamet and Zaillian . Again I have little idea of what the novel is like since my entire knowledge of it is confined to what I`ve read about it on this site but a couple of screenwriters with their great track record should be able to produce a satisfying screenplay no matter how poor the source novel . Here they fail , especially with the ending which is riducously over the top . But it was probably a good idea to omit Verger`s lesbian sister as this would have made the film descend into a camp joke