Blasphemy

My August Storytellers Unplugged essay is online. It’s called Publishing…and publishing well and discusses my philosophy about publishing book-length works.

Canada is coming alive at the Olympics — we’re up to seven, now. Two gold, 1 silver and four bronze. Inched up into 16^th place.

I suspect I’m swimming against the current with this opinion: I really liked the film version of Red Dragon, the remake with Edward Norton, Harvey Keitel, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ralph Fiennes, Mary-Louise Parker and Emma Watson. And, of course, Anthony Hopkins reprising his seminal role. I think it must have been difficult for him to go back to Hannibal Lecter and simultaneously go backwards in the character’s chronology. The Lecter we see in Red Dragon is slightly less self-assured than in Silence of the Lambs (and I think the movie’s biggest mis-step is in establishing in the final shot that the two stories are almost consecutive chronologically). Lecter is still off-balance at being caught, a tad uncertain about his place in the pecking order. If he’s not as menacing as he is in Lambs, that’s the reason I see for it.

I really liked the way they compressed Dolorhyde’s backstory into a few moments of what seemed almost like a dream or a hallucination, which was later reinforced by what Graham found when he leafed through the giant diary.

I had no problems with Norton’s portrayal of Graham. Graham is a complex character, deeply disturbed by his affinity for people like Lecter. He’s smart, but his real power is his empathy. I’m not sure what criticisms people have of his performance, but it rang true to me. My favorite line in the movie came after Chilton asked him what his trick was in catching Lecter. “I let him kill me.”

Fiennes came as close to Dolorhyde as I could have imagined. Certainly true to the novel and head and shoulders beyond Manhunter. Emma Watson (Reba) was a real standout. I never believed Joan Allen as a blind woman. Watson was convincing, but she was also frisky, like the character in the book. Forward, determined, vivacious.

The scene at the end where Mary-Louise Parker is forced to finish off what her husband started had amazing impact. Her visceral response to what she had to do was palpable. She’s one of my favorite actresses.

Graham’s poor (step-) son gets yet another name in this adaptation—he was Kevin before, now he’s Josh. I liked that we got to see the final confrontation between Graham and Lecter, and all that led up to it. It ventures a little outside of the known history between them (the fact that Lecter was shot multiple times, for instance), but Harris himself has been revising Lecter’s past throughout the novels, so that can be forgiven.

Both adaptations lift scenes and dialog directly from the novel, so there are times when the remake seems like it’s rehashing things from the original film, but I can’t see myself ever wanting to rewatch Manhunter whereas I think Red Dragon is a decent movie and very faithful adaptation.

Okay, let me have it…