About Lambs and Dragons
Post 533:
The Netflix told me to watch Silence of the Lambs after work a couple nights ago. Being a mindless herd animal, I pressed play. No better way to wind down from a night of playing 6000 songs to screaming nutcases.
I’m all about relaxation. Not sure if that came through right there.
This will contain some spoilers. I guess there are people that don’t watch every movie. So weird.
Lambs is so fantastic. Thirty years old and still one of the best thrillers ever. If you want to get technical, Hannibal’s on the good team. Yeah, it’s a complex story and he’s doing everything for himself, but them’s the facts. There’s a missing girl, and they need psycho face-eater to spot the breadcrumbs. So good. It’s iconic for a lot of reasons. Perfect performances. Singular weirdos for bad guys. The layers aren’t too obvious, and the final scene creates a situation where you truly want Jodie Foster to kill this frigging nutter. One of the most tense conclusions ever, and that can only be achieved through well-timed plotting and characterization.
So… last night I thought I’d give Red Dragon another look. I remember really liking it. If you haven’t seen it, this is a prequel to Silence. One could argue that it’s more exciting than Lambs, but it’s not as thick. By not as thick, I mean there’s not a lot of layers. It relies on the fact that we already know about Hannibal and his mountain of psychosis. It’s hard to blame the scriptwriter; you don’t want to cover the same ground over again. I’ve written all kinds of stuff, but I’ve never penned a sequel or prequel; it’s probably really hard to make it work.
Empire Strikes Back ain’t normal, far as sequels go.
I’d like to say both films are a little convenient. Clarisse shows up at that house not expecting that she’s stumbling on the elusive killer.
In Red Dragon, the killer who doesn’t like people looking at him happens to meet a blind lady, just as the crack investigator is closing in. Coincidences! Eh.
All aside, both are great movies. I think depending on the day, I might prefer one or the other. In the end I think Silence is more memorable because of Clarisse and her wounded yet willing persona. The way Hannibal drills down into her emotional scar tissue is fantastic. I love her character. Will Graham, the protagonist in Dragon, sometimes seems like he doesn’t want to be on screen. It makes sense with his backstory, but Clarisse’s drive works better for the watcher. Also, I can’t imagine how wigged out general audiences in 1991 were. I picture shocked suburb-dwellers walking out of the cinema, clutching tissues, saying, “I thought it was about pretty lambs and quiet things…”
That makes me happy. And yeah, I get 1991 wasn’t that long ago. But it was so long ago.
Anyway.
My two cents about two great movies. Cheers and see you after.
