So I have been doing book reviews for nearly 5 years and now and again I do book and movie comparisons. I have done this for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone as well as Requiem for a dream, but I wanted to do something different, so I have decided to start doing some TV show/Movie series. I picked Hannibal as my first choice for this new series of posts because it has both a film and book counterpart. The films are well known, Jodie Foster (who I am named after) and Anthony Hopkins portray Clarice and Hannibal so well in Silence of the Lambs and Julianne Moore adding something extra to Clarice’s character in Hannibal (the movie). However, there is far more to Hannibal Lecter’s story for those that haven’t read the books.
The books in order of publication are; Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal and Hannibal Rising, but if we put these in chronological order of how the events happen, it changes to Hannibal Rising, Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal. At first glance, the TV show seems to be following the events of Red Dragon, but I think it far more than that. In Red Dragon, Francis Dolarhyde is the main character who Jack Crawford and Will Graham are trying to catch as Hannibal Lecter is already in prison after trying to kill Will after he figures out his killings. The TV show from the first episode alone seems to be taking elements for all the books and combining them to create entirely new content in the Hannibal universe.
For example, the killings in the first episode are all girls taken from the same locality with shared characteristics much like the girls Buffalo Bill kills in Silence of the Lambs (book and movie) but the manner of these killings are shared with precise calculation and imagination that Hannibal used in his own killing and the victims of Francis Dolarhyde as well. The characters remain largely the same with some slight and major changes to some. Two of the most noticeable changes are in Doctor Alan Bloom, who has now become a woman by the name of Alana Bloom played by Caroline Dhavernas in the TV show and Jack Crawford himself. Jack is the character who has changed the most for me, in the book he is described as a thin, gaunt, white man who has quite a strange personality as he is devoted to his job but also lusts after Clarice in the second book given him quite a slimy personality. In the TV show he is played by Laurence Fishburne, a tall, bulky man of colour who displayed the same devotion in his portray but makes Jack someone far more likeable and focused that his book counterpart.
Will and Hannibal remain largely the same played by Hugh Dancy and Mads Mikkelsen respectively. Another difference I noticed is that Will’s “gift” is named in the TV show as being closer to autism than psychopathy which doesn’t happen in the book he is just referred to as having a gift. Molly and Willy have also not made an appearance yet as they feature heavily in Red Dragon which is the only book Will seems to play an active role. Now, onto the episode itself, the killings are cleverly done and the episode in concluded in its entirety meaning that this could be a stand-alone episode but there are hints to what is going to come later which come from conversation between Jack and Alana as well as a few conversations that take place between Will and Hannibal. The special effects are brilliant and the changing from reality to Will’s perception of reality is masterfully done with one slight camera movements and transitions indicating the change. The use of camera angles to indict suspicion and to direct the viewer’s attention is brilliant.
The use of music also features heavily throughout the episode and it is wonderful, form the classical piano that plays in the background as Hannibal sits to get, to the eerie score that overtakes the final few minutes of the episode. It manages to evoke a variety of emotions from the viewer ranging from anger, disgust to empathy. However, one issue I had with the episode is how easily it revealed some elements of Hannibal’s character that the readers of the books don’t discover for quite a while. The two main features being his cannibalistic tendencies which are briefly mentioned but we don’t actually get a lot of detail on it until much later and the second being his very caring and compassionate side which we see right at the end of episode 1 where he could have let someone die but chooses to help them and even stays by their bedside at the hospital because in his eyes this person is innocent and doesn’t deserve what has happened to them which is a huge part of Hannibal’s philosophy.
I will most definitely be continuing the series despite putting it off for so long because of my love for the books and movies. While there isn’t much else to talk about from the pilot episode I have a feeling as more unique content is revealed there will be a lot more to discuss.
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