"Hannibal"- A Lack of Direction Overpowers Humanistic Qualities

Julianne Moore's confusion as to the direction of her character may be partly to blame by the loss of direction within the script. For viewers who are expecting the book to come to life on-screen, don't. The film "Hannibal" is its own creation, with the similarities from book to film almost stopping at the main characters names. The screenplay, written by David Mamet and Steven Zaillian, decides to shock readers by not giving them the ending they already are familiar with. This would be fine so long as there was some change within the main characters that viewers felt like they were taken on this journey for some reason when the credits finally roll. Instead, Hannibal and Clarice almost seem unchanged from the beginning of the film to the end. The film takes the characters nowhere, and viewers will feel like they are missing something because of this.

This is a shame since the film progress at a reasonable rate up until the end. Director Ridley Scott intercuts graphic and horrifying scenes into the film when the main story is coming across as almost soothing, and beautiful artistic scenery shots to truly give viewers a sense that they are in Italy. These cuts within the film keep the story from seeming long and add both background and character to a character that could come across as inhuman. Unfortunately, the script doesn't compliment Scott's vision of Hannibal and takes Scott's attempt to make Hannibal relatable to viewers a bit too far. Scott portrays Hannibal as both educated and humorous well enough without the script supplying the character with numerous one-liners. While the script to 'Silence of the Lambs' mixed these one-liners in with enough intellectual conversation on Dr. Lecter's part, in "Hannibal" the two aren't balanced. This causes Hannibal to come across as more of a stand-up comedian than a cannibalistic killer, and destroys everything Scott built around the character to try and make him seem like both a human and a demon during the film.

While the script takes away from Scott's vision and direction of the film, the musical score by Hans Zimmer only adds to the film's aesthetic qualities. The score is both beautiful and captivating, grabbing the audience's attention from the first note and never letting them go. Rather than distracting audience from the story at hand, it adds mood to scenes overpowered by Moore's lifeless presence and character to the

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