I, in turn, enjoyed RED DRAGON perhaps slightly better than
THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, the novel, and the casting of the
film of SILENCE, as bad as Hopkins was, wasn't nearly as
ludicrous as that of the film version of BLACK SUNDAY,
Harris's previous novel...I've gathered the impression that
Harris didn't want to write HANNIBAL, and took his
against-better-judgement anger out in the prose.
One of the bits of SILENCE the novel I thought very good was
Clarice Starling's shaming the local police out of her way,
using what she knew would be an effective emotional tactic.
This almost wasn't screwed up by the film, though the scene
immediately following most assuredly was. TM
-----Original Message----- From: JIM DOHERTY [mailto:
jimdohertyjr@yahoo.com] Todd and Miker,
Re your comments below:
> 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.
While I rather liked the film version of SILENCE OF THE
LAMBS, I did prefer MANHUNTER, and, moreover, prefered Bryan
Cox's version of Lector to Hopkins's
(which struck me as Cox-influenced), and, on balance, Dennis
Farina's version of the head of Behavioral Science.
Curiously, I preferred the novel SILENCE OF THE LAMBS to RED
DRAGON. Go figure.
> 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.
I happen to like Truth, Justice, and the American Way.
I don't really find the fact that Harris decided to
revolt against those verities a point of literary merit. Call
me reactionary.
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