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Dr Hannibal Lecter - best portrayal
laurence1870
Posts: 213
Forum Member
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Made a similar post for the Joker yesterday, but this time here's a poll to vote on.
Who played the best Hannibal Lecter? 47 votes
Brian Cox
29%
14 votes
Sir Anthony Hopkins
51%
24 votes
Gaspard Ulliel
0%
0 votes
Mads Mikkelsen
19%
9 votes
0
Comments
I love Hopkins' portrayal, and was not expecting Mikkelsen to be anywhere near as good when I first heard of the TV series, but he turned out to be bloody brilliant.
Nicholson and Ledger were very different portrayals of the same character so hard to judge in a head to head comparison without taking the themes of the films into account.
Mikkleson has had two series to develop the character - plus from a different point of view to the films.
Never liked Hopkins in 'Lambs, but admittedly he had some fun with the role in Hannibal, a bizarre and trashy oddity. Bet he got a fair wage for it an' all.
I think there's a fair bit of that in relation to Hopkins. These days, the cool kids are all saying that he was a pantomime villain. I don't recall anyone saying anything of the kind at the time the film was released and the Academy clearly didn't think so either.
I remember saying when the film came out that Hopkins was cartoonish in the role. To me, the understated Brian Cox performance was more fitting to the character.
The same goes for Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates and Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance.
Manhunter received attention because of Heat. It didn't get much if any attention during the release of Silence of the Lambs, mostly because Manhunter still wasn't available on VHS. I think it was finally available on VHS when Heat was released at cinema.
Some British film geeks, on the other hand, was aware of it before SOTL because of Alex Cox. The nearest we could get to see the film was when it appeared in Cox's Moviedrome on BBC 2.
The majority loved Gravity, but as we've seen from here, there were some who didn't. So it stands to reason that SOTL would have its share of dissent voices during its theatrical release as well.
Either way, there's no denying that Hopkins's portrayal left an impact on British pop culture. French and Saunders's parody, anyone?
I think that's partly true but he still had real menace (despite relatively little screen time), whereas by Hannibal and Red Dragon his performance had become pure ham.
He only has a few scenes but with HL less is definitely more. What you imagine about Lecter is far worse than you ever see (until the TV series anyway) and seeing him actually killing people just seems crass.
Anthony Hopkins for me (though I've only seen him and Cox as Hannibal).
Mikkelsen is just perfect, the right amount of charm & threat.
Cox was completely intimidating and more a physical threat than a psychological one.
Hopkins was great but a little too theatrical.
Agreed. He also has a sinister look about him. He looked like a badass psycho in the movie, Valhalla Rising.
"Dream much, Will?":o