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Why Dr. Hannibal Lecter continues to
fascinate
Copyright � 2001 Nando Media Copyright � 2001 Christian Science Monitor Service By DAVID STERRITT, The Christian
Science Monitor
(February 16, 2001 10:18 a.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - Hannibal
Lecter, popular culture's most celebrated cannibal, is back.
He's been in hiding for the past 10
years - ever since his wide-screen debut, "The Silence of the Lambs," swept the
"big five" 1991 Academy Awards and racked up higher box-office profits than
Hollywood ever expected.
Some give the credit for his success
to director Jonathan Demme, who injected "Lambs" with a heavy dose of
high-intensity suspense sequences and shock effects. Others argue that the film
simply rode the coattails of Thomas Harris's bestselling novel. Still others
praise the emotionally effective acting of Anthony Hopkins as the cannibalistic
psychiatrist and Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling, the FBI agent who's both
fascinated and repulsed by his inexplicably evil ways.
Which theory is right? A clue lies in
the title of the movie's long-awaited sequel, which opened last weekend to
generally good reviews and packed theaters.
Unlike the first picture, "Hannibal"
is named after its own main attraction: Dr. Lecter himself, still a ruthlessly
charming protagonist even if his new adventures lack the sense of audacity and
surprise that marked his previous incarnation.
What's shared by "Lambs" and
"Hannibal" is a steady preoccupation with Lecter's unique blend of smoothly
refined traits - his brilliant mind, impeccable manners, seductive smile,
ingratiating voice - and brutally depraved crimes, which are far more repellent
than the standard-issue murder and mayhem that most thrillers thrive on. It's no
accident that the sequel is named after its complicated villain, and it's
unlikely the picture would have been made if Hopkins hadn't agreed to reprise
the villain.
For better or worse, Hannibal Lecter
stands as one of today's most vivid pop-culture icons.
What accounts for his wide-spread
appeal? Mikita Brottman, a professor at Shippensburg (Pa.) University who has
written extensively on horror tales and "cannibal culture" in film and
literature, makes a key distinction between the Lecter movies and more ordinary
shockers.
"Most of the 2/16thrillers 6/16 that
kids watch have an anonymous killer who stalks a series of victims, usually
wearing a mask," she says. "You don't know who he is, so he can't have much
personality. But you know exactly who Lecter is, and he has all kinds of
personality. So you feel much closer to him than to all those faceless bad
guys."
Along with his personality, Lecter's
profession may be a key to his charisma.
"He's a psychiatrist," Brottman
explains, "and to many people that's the equivalent of a wizard or shaman. This
comes partly from childhood fears, when you think your father can see
everything, and there's no limit to his insight and intelligence. People
attribute quasi-magical powers to psychiatrists - in a sense, they can read your
mind and absorb your thoughts.
"Lecter's cannibalism is a metaphor
for his ability to get into people's minds, which we fear even more than our
bodies being eaten.... Lecter does what people are subconsciously afraid any
psychiatrist might do, which is to absorb your brain. Absorbing your adversary's
power is a basic motif of cannibalism."
Brottman sees an important moral
implication in the fact that Lecter is depicted as an expert - albeit a wicked
one - in the workings of the human mind. "This is particularly relevant to our
time," she argues, "since to some extent our society's moral vocabulary has been
replaced by a therapeutic one," using ideas of dysfunction and treatment as
models.
"In this atmosphere, a psychiatrist
is seen as a moral authority because he's an arbiter of the therapeutic
approach. This makes him seem even more powerful and magical, and also more
scary."
This may make Lecter the perfect
villain for our postmodern age, but Brottman also finds a link between his
movies and the premodern fairy tales that have captivated children for
centuries.
"There's a lot of fairy-tale imagery
here," she says. "Dungeons, cells, people being tossed into pits and thrown to
the pigs." The clever, vulnerable Clarice is also a folk-tale figure. "She's a
Little Red Riding Hood, a little-girl figure who enters the 'forest' and has a
special ability - because of her innocence and honesty and integrity - to get to
the ogre...."
For Brottman, Lecter is too contrived
a character to frighten in more than a "fairy-tale ogre" way. Still, she gives
the filmmakers credit for making him a compelling villain who simultaneously
repels and attracts us.
"We're afraid of him," she says, "but
we also side with him, because we want him to use his powers to get the other
bad guys. And you're on his side because you don't want him against you!"
Though Hopkins's engaging character
remains essentially the same in both pictures, "Hannibal" diverges in several
ways from "Lambs." It has a different director in action specialist Ridley
Scott; a different female star in the versatile Julianne Moore; and a different
kind of story, with Lecter on the loose instead of mostly in prison.
"Hannibal" also takes a penetrating
interest in traditional European culture, from the background music (we hear
Bach during the opening credits) to some of the settings (various landmarks in
Florence) to the use of Dante's poetry as a leitmotif, sometimes lyrically
romantic and sometimes explicitly horrific.
This serves two important functions.
On one level, it gives the movie's over-the-top violence a high-culture veneer
that may make it more acceptable for mainstream audiences.
On a deeper level, it conveys the
implicit message that chaos and depravity are nothing new, but have always
lurked in the shadows - and even the intellectual monuments - of Western
civilization.
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