Books2Movies Club discussion

The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris is actually the second in the series tackling the very special serial killer called Hannibal Lecter. You are free to read and watch Red Dragon first, but as I understood, the books themselves are stand-alone novels, so it is not necessary to read them in chronological order. (Stickler as I am for order - desperately failing in achieving any of course - I'll probably read them chronologically. Holidays should give me enough time to read them both.)

They are now so immersed in popular culture, that you probably know everything about this book and the movie, even if even if you haven’t read or seen either. Apart from the movies that covered the whole trilogy, there are also two series worth checking: Hannibal (2013-2015) and Clarice (2021-?) (not very inventive titles, right?)

I'll gladly hear your thoughts about books, movies and TV shows. Freely share your impressions below :)

I believe there were allusions to Will Graham in the book, SOTL and the end of the movie "Manhunter" (Red Dragon) was different from the book's ending. Also, Manhunter came in Michael Mann's "Miami Vice" era and had a lot of that look, lighting, musical score. I liked it much better than the later remake, "Red Dragon."
But I was thinking about SOTL recently when I watched "LA Confidential." I read both books, and both were very long, detailed and complex and it must have been hard to condense them to a 2 hr screen play without losing the "feel" of the book - I think both did a very good job.

Barbara wrote: "I believe there were allusions to Will Graham in the book, SOTL and the end of the movie "Manhunter" (Red Dragon) was different from the book's ending. Also, Manhunter came in Michael Mann's "Miami..."

I have now conflicted feelings as in should we have another thread for this first book. I finished Red Dragon two days ago and I am preparing myself to watch both Manhunter and Red Dragon in the next week or two.

I simply couldn't make myself to read Silence before Red Dragon :)

BTW, the book was good. The twist was especially good, I didn't see it coming. It was clever so much it made me very eager to read the next book.

I liked the fact that police officers here all cooperate. Many detective stories I watched (or read) play that superiority angle in which general police force is either incompetent or arrogant, and hero detectives are superior to them all. Not so here, they are all as capable as Graham, they just have different abilities. I like that.

The only thing I didn't like was how dark it is. I know it is sort of horror story, but it is so desperate and hopeless. To make matters worse, I understand why it is so for Graham. Not for his wounds, but for how huge emotional toll this work of his takes.

Watched both Manhunter and Red Dragon this weekend.

The first one changed the essence of the book - things I praised there were gone in the movie, and the characters became just typical 80s cliche heroes and villains. In short, movie was ok-ish as a regular 80s thriller, with style and music of that time. Will Graham was also weirdly expressing his thoughts, mostly by yelling to the air. Brian Cox was ok as Lecter however not as sinister and enigmatic as Hopkins. Didn't appear as intellectual either.

Red Dragon was really really good movie. Some bits were different from the book, and I was ok with that (view spoiler)[(such as troubles at home - changed in both movies - even I admit that this aspect would have unnecessarily complicated the plot already difficult to track) (hide spoiler)]. The movie was actually very faithful to the book, even though they gave more screen time to Lecter, who wasn't so present in the book. I liked especially the intro - it was different but better from the book. In the book Lecter was caught pretty much by chance and that was mentioned in only a few words, here Lecter was more relevant to Graham and the shock was more appalling.

One curiosity - as I watched it a day apart - I noticed at once that one actor, Frankie Faison, was in both movies, playing totally different characters. He was also in The Silence of the Lambs, playing Barney as in Red Dragon. I wonder if he knew when he was first cast in Silence that these books are connected :)

Finished The Silence of the Lambs last night - that was quick considering how busy I was this week!

The book was very good, I'll say even better than the first. Characters and relationships were more fleshed out (pun not quite intended). It sickened me more though. Both Hannibal and Buffalo Bill were twisted beings, I noticed how difficult it was to stay calm with them. Chilton on the other hand was the most splendid villain, I loved to hate his incompetent arrogance!

Has anybody read the third book, would it be worth reading too?

Watched the movie. Anthony Hopkins was impressive, Jodie Foster, Ted Levine, and Scott Glenn too. Overall very good and intense thriller - I wouldn't say it was that scary as some say, I guess because we had many thrillers of that kind afterwards.

A bit of trivia: a subplot from the book, about Clarice's clash with senator and Krendell, was actually filmed, but they (prudently) decided against using it, considering how long the movie already was, and adding nothing much to it. It was already established that Clarice was a young rookie and a lone woman in the tough men's world. Some things from the movie, like the way they dragged her from Lecter's cage, suggest how it continued from that previous (deleted) scene.