Review of Hannibal

Introduction

Time to start with another confession. Hannibal is yet another of those films that I didn`t see at the cinema, but with the speed that films are now arriving on DVD I knew that it wouldn`t be long before I could watch it in the comfort of my own home, which is a much more pleasurable place to watch films than my local flea pit.

Hannibal is of course the follow up to the critically acclaimed, award-winning, huge box office hit that was The Silence of the Lambs. If you`ve seen Lambs (and who won`t have by now?) then I`m sure you`ll agree that it`s an incredibly hard act to follow, and to even attempt to make a film that could come close to it is a thankless task.

Ridley Scott doesn`t scare easily though, so when eventually offered the director`s chair (after Demme turned it down) he jumped at the chance. Anthony Hopkins (who`s probably sick of being offered fava beans and a nice Chianti by now) decided to return to perhaps his most famous role after changing his mind about allegedly going into retirement.

The other notable absentee though is Jodie Foster, who declined to return as Clarice Starling for various reasons, mostly relating to the overall tone of the story and to the development of Starling herself.

Video

Given the age of the film you`d expect nothing less than a flawless anamorphic transfer - and that`s just what you get. An excellent 1.85:1 transfer which shows off some of Ridley Scott`s excellent visuals and some rather good special effects. Detail levels are high and the transfer copes well with a large number of darker scenes.

Speaking of special effects, there are probably a lot more than you might first realise, and you`ll definitely want to watch some of the extra features to find out how they were done. There`s quite a bit of gore on show as you`ll probably know if you`ve ever read anything about the film, but this is a film about a vicious killer after all, and not a Disney film.

Audio

A choice of sound for you - DD5.1 or dts, but you`d be hard pushed to tell the difference between the two. If you`ve got dts support you`ll probably select that soundtrack, but if you haven`t then you`re not really missing out on much as they are almost identical. The dts track might just have the edge in a few scenes but it`s a very close call.

So once you`ve made your choice you`ll find plenty of sound to entertain you, including the sonically excellent market scene and the more gentle but still powerful opera scenes. The opera scenes are enhanced by Hans Zimmer`s excellent score which is very distinctive and fits the film just perfectly.

Features

A 2 disc set means another bumper selection of extras.

Staying with disc 1 for a moment we have an audio commentary from Ridley Scott. If you`ve listened to a Scott commentary before (e.g. Alien or Gladiator) then you`ll know exactly what to expect - a very detailed and very informative commentary track. A very worthwhile extra indeed.

Now we move to disc 2, where we first find a proper "making of" type documentary, which runs for over an hour, and can be viewed in shorter 15-20 minute segments. This isn`t the usual studio PR rubbish, as it actually tells you things that you want to know and gives you lots of insight into the film and the various stages of production, including pre-production, music and special effects.

You`ll also find more than 20 trailers and TV spots and a massive selection of stills, behind the scenes photos and poster artwork. Not everyone`s cup of tea, but there`s masses of material.

There are also some sections that allow you to make use of that little known "multiple angle" button on your remote control. You can flick through different angles of the market place scene, viewing footage from 4 different cameras or from all 4 at once. There`s another section which allows you to view a breakdown of the title sequence, with 4 different selections of footage and 4 different audio tracks to accompany the footage (including 2 commentary tracks).

And as if to make up for the lack of use of the aforementioned button, you can also use it on the "RidleyGrams" section, which allows you to flick through an interview with Ridley Scott, storyboards or storyboards and the actual scene from the film. You could potentially be flicking through all of these for hours if you wanted to.

And we`re not finished yet either! There`s about half an hour of deleted scenes for you to watch (14 in total), all with commentary tracks too! They include an alternate ending and some scenes that might usefully have been left in the finished film.

And finally, look out for an Easter Egg too.

Conclusion

I mentioned in the introduction that The Silence of the Lambs was a hard act to follow. Ridley Scott has done his best, and done it in his own style. Hannibal is very different to The Silence of the Lambs and your overall judgement probably depends on how you choose to look at the two films.

Hannibal is a pretty good film in its own right if you can forget what you already know about the characters and forgive some of the annoying little plot holes. But when you hold it up against its predecessor you begin to find more holes and begin to be less impressed with what you`re seeing. You can certainly understand why Jodie Foster declined to be involved. I would suggest that you`ll enjoy it more if you`ve not seen Lambs.

As for the DVD itself, you have an excellent package on offer here with fantastic picture, excellent sound and an absolute mountain of extras that will keep you going for quite a while. If you like the film enough to buy it, this is a good investment, and if you`re only renting then you`re getting a bargain - make sure you`ve got plenty of time to view the extras before you have to take the disc back!