Dr Hannibal Lecter

Between Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs we can see exactly how an insane character should be portrayed to the viewer. Anthony Hopkins’ intense and heart throbbing performances ensure that each and every viewer is chewing their finger nails with anticipation. The question on whether or not he his of a stable mind is clear, his psyche is long gone and although he is an intellectual he cannot be trusted due to previous convictions of murder and cannibalism. Hopkins has received outstanding reviews on his depiction of the twisted character that is Hannibal Lecter, ‘filling the screen with expressive close-ups. No problem when you’re faced with an unblinking Hopkins’ (total film).

Red Dragon follows the stomach turning investigation surrounding Francis Dolarhyde or commonly known as the ‘Tooth Fairy’ who is given this name due to the fact he bites each of the victims he murders, he is passive towards this name and refers to himself as ‘The Great Red Dragon’ after William Blake’s Painting ‘The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun’. The fact Francis believes he is a reincarnation of the ‘Great Red Dragon’ is a testimony to his mental state and looking at this from Freud point of view we can link these issues back to his childhood. The total abandonment by his mother forces him to take solace in a different role model, unfortunately this is the painting. The image created by this scenario is that he is almost possessed and his own life is sacrificed in order to fulfil, what he feels, is necessary for the ‘Great Red Dragon’.

In direct comparison to the ‘Tooth Fairy’ Hannibal is in complete control of his emotions and thought. If anybody were to speak to him in a different environment to the psychiatric ward they might deem him a completely stable man, maybe even a clever man. Even whilst conversing with Agent Starling in ‘Silence of the Lambs’ we get a glimpse of Hannibal’s intelligence but in the end it is clearly over ruled by his psychotic mannerisms and whitty replies to questions. His intelligence can be seen whilst producing comments about the criminal at hand i.e. Buffalo Bill in Silence of the lambs, he states

‘Hannibal Lecter: Look for severe childhood disturbances associated with violence. Our Billy wasn’t born a criminal, Clarice. He was made one through years of systematic abuse. Billy hates his own identity, you see, and he thinks that makes him a transsexual. But his pathology is a thousand times more savage and more terrifying.’

This quote shows he is not brain dead. He has a clear grasp of the ideologies put forward by Sigmund Freud in that one significant moment has caused ‘Buffalo bill’ and the ‘Tooth Fairy’ in Red Dragon to become the monsters that they are in the film. Contradicting this clear and focused state of mind we see a much darker side to his intelligence.

‘Hannibal Lecter: A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.’

These two different aspects of Lecter’s portrayal create a sense of schizophrenia due to how extremely different the two sides to him are. As we all know he is declared medically insane and is kept in a high security prison. As a reward for working with the FBI he is clever in asking for a transfer and it is almost as if he is running the investigation pure and simply because he knows the criminal and can so easily delve into another psyche in order to analyse their issues and their day to day routines. We get a glimpse of this ability in Silence of the Lambs’ whilst consulting with Clarice again, it forces her to retaliate.

‘Hannibal Lecter: You know what you look like to me, with your good bag and your cheap shoes? You look like a rube. A well-scrubbed, hustling rube with a little taste. Good nutrition’s given you some length of bone, but you’re not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you, Agent Starling? And that accent you’ve tried so desperately to shed: pure West Virginia. What is your father, dear? Is he a coal miner? Does he stink of the lamp? You know how quickly the boys found you… all those tedious sticky fumblings in the back seats of cars… while you could only dream of getting out… getting anywhere… getting all the way to the FBI.’

Clarice Starling: You see a lot, Doctor. But are you strong enough to point that high-powered perception at yourself? What about it? Why don’t you – why don’t you look at yourself and write down what you see? Or maybe you’re afraid to.’

This exchange is particularly interesting to me as not only do we get a glimpse into Dr Lecter’s ability to analyse a person upon first meeting them but we also get a glimpse into how his mind works and how this may have caused him to wind up in a cell all alone.

For me Hannibal Lecter is the icon to which all other psychotic characters in films should aim for and Anthony Hopkins’ acting is so bone chillingly good that we could even believe him to suffer from a psychotic breakdown and lead a non-fictional life based on Dr Hannibal Lecter.

In relation to the effects this film may have on the stereotypical opinion surrounding psychotic patients within films, I feel it challenges the ‘norms’ that society has created. Although the film was released in 1991, it is far from dated. Hannibal is like no other character in movie history and I feel that it opens up the possibility that even though he is clearly disturbed and has many underlying issues he offers reliable information on a lot of topics due to his background as a doctor. This is unusual as in films before this date and films since have stuck to the stereotype that mentally ill characters cannot be trusted, either the corruption of their mind is due to crime or they have become useless. This can be seen in Analyse This and Analyse That which involves Robert De Niro pretending to be insane in order to escape a stretch in prison.  Watch clip