Brain Salad Surgery?

Too bad they didn't nail the old progressive rock theme onto the end of Dino De Laurentiis¡¦ Oscar-prone sequel to the 1991 Academy bulldozer, Silence of the Lambs. It has everything but a Best Song locked and loaded for Tinseltown honors, and though Thomas Harris¡¦ novel was said to be substandard, Hannibal the movie is everything we could've asked for.

Though Award-winners Jonathan Demme and Jodie Foster backed off from the rematch due to its horrific climax, Ridley Scott (Gladiator) and Juliette Moore (End of the Affair) stepped into the breech without losing a step. Clarice Starling (Moore), a decade older yet none the wiser, becomes a scapegoat after a botched FBI/DEA drug operation. The publicized snafu draws the attention of Mason Verger (Gary Oldman), a convicted child molester and wealthy recluse who is Hannibal's only surviving victim. After Clarice's reassignment to the Lecter case, Verger bribes Justice Dept. bigwig Paul Krendler (Ray Liotta) into handing over the fruits of her labor for use in an elaborate revenge scheme. Only a Venetian detective with an eye on the $3 million reward for Lecter's capture begins siphoning Clarice's info from an FBI database. Lecter, a curator at a Venetian museum, catches onto the scheming cop and brings a kidnap gambit between the detective and Verger's Sardinian kidnap team to a bloody end. Returning to America, he finds that Clarice has been framed by Krendler and suspended from the Bureau. Lecter breaks into both Clarice's and Krendler's homes in an attempt to right the wrong but is captured by the Sardinians and brought to Verger. She is wounded while rescuing Lecter, regaining consciousness at Krendler's home where she and Paul are special guests at a macabre dinner hosted by the Doctor. The pulse-pounding finale, though nixed by both Demme and Foster, is certain to go down as one of the most unforgettable in cinema history.

The theme of revenge is laced heavily into the plot. Krendler, after being jilted by Starling, takes up Verger's offer with gusto as a means of coercing Clarice to submit to his desires. We find that Verger himself was victimized by Lecter as a result of the Doctor's strange sense of justice, and has concocted a grisly scheme to even the score between them. Lecter, finding the detective on his trail, explores the man's past and finds that his ancestors were victims of Venetian justice for crimes of avarice. It becomes Hannibal's motif as he lectures at the museum on the writings of Dante on the sin of greed, all the while planning an ironic demise for the avaricious cop. It is the act of vengeance against Krendler that nearly leads to his downfall, and only Clarice's own values allows a maimed Lecter to escape retribution at the hands of justice.

This one starts off like gangbusters and never lets up. Brilliant cinematography helps us appreciate Lecter's admiration for the beauty of the ancient city of Venice, and the action sequences hammer home the ironic themes with an impact reminiscent of Godfather III. Lecter becomes a mythical cinematic figure, larger than life, a twisted genius with a lust for life and freedom matched only by his cannibalistic desires and a compulsion towards atavistic justice. His fatal attraction to Clarice underscores the Harris trilogy, providing critics with a smorgasbord for analytical thought.

There's nothing close to this one for 2001 Oscar honors, people. VHS or DVD, this is one you don't want to be without.