HINDSIGHT IS 20/21: HANNIBAL

For this instalment of Hindsight is 20/21, I revisited the most controversial film of the Hannibal Lecter saga, simply titled Hannibal. Released in February 2001 and set ten years after The Silence of the Lambs (1991), it broke the record for the largest opening weekend for an R-rated film by more than $15 million; safe to say, audiences were highly excited for the continuing adventures of everyone’s favourite cannibalistic serial killer. Anthony Hopkins, who had won an Oscar in 1992 for the role, returned to his most famous character, yet Hannibal was rather a critical disappointment upon its release, receiving mixed-to-negative reviews and dissatisfying plenty of casual fans with its gruesome violence, grotesque imagery, and gross distortion of the characters. Much of the criticism for the film originated with Thomas Harris’ source novel, published in 1999 to controversy and discontent, and having read it just prior to rewatching the film, it’s easy to see why: not only does the plot, involving disfigured Lecter victim Mason Verger seeking vengeance, tend toward the ghastly and grisly, but the character assassination done unto the ostensible heroine, FBI special agent Clarice Starling, is borderline blasphemous.