Hannibal Lector Franchise Question

[nima_babii]

It has reached that time of year again in my household whereby we watch a series of 'linked' films on New Years' Day (last year was 'Willy Wonka' and 'Charlie & the Chocolate Factory').

We've chosen to watch the Hannibal trilogy - Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal and Red Dragon. Thing is, we have no idea in what order they are meant to be watched. I know one is a prequel to Silence, and another may be a direct sequel, but I seriously doubt we are meant to watch them in the order in which they have been produced/released.

Please help!

Thanks.

 

[AnonymousRandomKid]

In film order it should be

Hannibal Rising (how he becomes what he is)
Red Dragon or the original without Anthony Hopkins Manhunter
Silence of the Lambs
Hannibal

If you don't really care about who plays Hannibal watch Manhunter as it's a much better film than Red Dragon

 

[Babe!!1♥]

Hannibal is a great film. I rate it as one of the best love stories on film. People look at me with an odd expression when I say that.

 

[Ad Steiny]

Couldn't possibly disagree more. Manhunter is a terrible, terrible film.

 

[Caribou "QUIT" Barbie™]

Was Hannibal Rising the film that came out a couple of years back? It looked awful - aimed at the teen/slasher market, a completely different demographic to the other films. Then again, I only saw the trailers.

We only have Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, so we'll watch them in that order - thanks.

 

[tiger]

I managed to pick up Red Dragon and Hannibal in a set for only

 

[junglelion46]

I can't believe you've actually seen it.
Brian Cox' version of Lecter, alone, is worth the admission price: far better than Hopkin's panto effort.

 

[Shatter O]

They changed the ending from the book though. I would have prefered them to go with the book ending...

 

[sociguru]

it's miles better than Red Dragon with Brian Cox as Hannibal & William Petersen as Will Graham - it's worth watching for the soundtrack alone

 

[metric bike man]

I would say you are supposed to watch the films in the order they were produced/released. Red Dragon has a lot of foreshadowing and in-jokes that make little sense if you haven't seen The Silence of the Lambs first.

 

[barbhosrika]

I agree Manhunter is a better film than Red Dragon, but dont go along with the myth than Cox is better than Hopkins in SOTL.
Hopkins is brilliant in this, drily humourous one minute, then chilling in the next.

 

[Adrianna Gabriella j]

It's a rule of cinema that Brian Cox is always better than anyone else. When Adaptation was being cast, Robert McKee was given a list of eminent actors to play him in the film and asked which he preferred. He turned them all down and asked for Brian Cox instead.

 

[Doug Graves-Witherspoon]

I agree with you 100% watch in order of production. I feel you enjoy it better that way.

 

[BettYbOOpBaBY]

It was a criminal act not even to approach him to play Lecter again.

 

[Shandi]

In that case you need to watch Manhunter first as it was the first film to feature Lector

 

[♣ALT]

Lektor.

 

[firefly_for_you]

yeah , but it's such a weird ending in the book , I won't spoil it but I can see why they changed it .

 

[Hot Carl]

Good grief. And I thought I was mad

 

[-mija-]

Lecter in the books,
Lektor in Manhunter.

 

[austin]

Ironically, they originally changed the ending because Jodie Foster thought it was out of character for Clarice. Pity they didn't change it back when Foster backed out.