Hannibal Lecter

some added comments on what ive read so far ;p

the sister wasnt killed because she was fatter, but because she was going to die anyway. you get that info in one of those flashback thingeys, also hannibal must enjoy being a monster in some way because even when said love of his life, gives him a last change he ravages his fallen enemy...

though maybe he just had too little humanity left in him anyway

in some ways he is more like a machine than like a man.. wich is another aspect that really draws me to his character *nods*

I just recently saw 'Hannibal Rising.' I didn't think there was by any means sufficient character development in early parts of the film to validate the extremes of thought and behavior he shows. If he had shown pathological behavior prior to the traumas, or if he had had further, extended traumas, it would have been more credible to me. I've lived through a lot of trauma (not kinds that would likely make me a cannibal, or even a murderer), and know many other people who have horrible things in their pasts that have happened to them. I think a Hannibal Lecter derives from a combination of predisposing pathology (i.e. incipient mental illness), plus triggering traumatic events.

The movie just jumped from apparently normal little boy, to admittedly severe trauma, to calculating predator. It was oversimplified and to me lacked credibility.

Perhaps it was better-developed in the book, which I have not read. Can anyone tell us?

I have seen Silence of the Lambs, and Manhunter (actually the first movie which precedes SotL but was made years before & is not nearly so well-known, but I thought excellent - it starred William Peterson, now famous in CSI, as an FBI profiler who's brought out of retirement after having been nearly killed by Lecter, to help find a new serial killer with connections to Lecter). I haven't seen the other one - Red Dragon, is it? - which I understand is a remake of Manhunter. I thought both of these first two movies were very good; of course in them the Lecter's roots aren't really an issue, as at these points he's an established serial killer.

A side note - I actually once met a serial killer, and had a brief, amicable conversation with him in the store he had. This was one of the lesser-known ones, Bob Berdella. It was a real shock a few years later when his truly crazed crimes were discovered and in the local media. I never would have known; he acted pretty normal - the only 'tipoff' and it wouldn't have necessarily meant anything, was that I was buying a pair of dragon earrings, and he made a comment about it - said it was a good choice and he was quite fond of dragons himself, something to that effect. When he was in the news, part of the story was that he identified himself as a 'dragon.' Creepy. I threw the earrings away! This was in Kansas City, for anyone who cares . . . .

I can do without serial killers, though I admit their psychology is interesting.

I think what happened right between the 'normal little boy' and 'monster' step is that something in him was broken. Perhaps empathy, perhaps morality, or perhaps something else entirely. They make reference to it first in the orphanage when the headmaster says something along the lines of "You don't follow the rules Hannibal, you hurt the bully" In reference to how he is unaffected by the bully's taunts, and very calmly takes revenge.

Anthony Hopkins sure is a good actor.