RE: RARA-AVIS: RED DRAGON and MANHUNTER: MikeR

From: Robison Michael R CNIN ( Robison_M@crane.navy.mil)
Date: 16 Aug 2002


Todd Mason said: A new RED DRAGON is indeed in the offing; I rather preferred the unspectacular MANHUNTER as a version of RED DRAGON to the hamming of Anthony Hopkins and the dumbing-down generally of THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS in the film version of that one. Haven't read nor seen HANNIBAL yet.

*********** I thought SILENCE OF THE LAMBS was spectacular. HANNIBAL is not quite on the same level as SILENCE, but its still a good book. There are parts in it that really shine. In one part Hannibal is in a miserable environment and he withdraws into his mind, and there's a mansion that he lives in here. And there are paintings he can look at and appreciate the details, and there are books he can read. The impression it gives is of a breathtaking level of genius beyond my imagination. But in this many-roomed mansion, there are doors to rooms that he dare not open, for fear of what lies behind. This novel way of suggesting an absolutely stunning level of intelligence, mixed with the knowledge and fear of the darker regions of the mind, just knocked my socks off.

And the ending blew me away. WAHOOOO!!! Thomas Harris, you kick butt, dude! The ending was so revolutionary, so much of a breach of everything we hold holy about the good guys, such an ultimate transgression of truth, justice, and the American Way, that they pitched it and wrote a more conventional ending for the movie.

miker

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