[quote]R115: Then the movie should have been clearer on that, [R114], as how many people had read *all* of the books?

Which movie? Hannibal? They completely re-wrote the ending to comply with Foster's demands, and the rest of the screenplay reflected the new direction they were taking. It wasn't an issue germane to the movie.

'Red Dragon' was perfectly clear on the issue of protagonists "becoming a monster."

[quote] And there's no way you buy them becoming world-traveling lovers with zero sexual chemistry between the two in either movie.

Again, 𝑏𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑠, not the 𝑚𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑠.

Whatever chemistry was being built, it was done in the books. As a film, 'The Silence of the Lambs' still possessed that possibility.

[quote]Also, if I recall correctly, didn't he keep Clarice drugged up or hypnotized?

At first. But then he gradually reduced the sedation until at last she was clean, and she still stayed with him. I have to admit, I struggled with the drugging part. But psychotherapy often involves the use of both medication and talk therapy to make someone see things differently; what Lecter was depicted as doing was not entirely out of the ordinary, except in the sense of his relationship with his patient. Oh, and killing and eating people. :)

Perhaps it wouldn't have worked as a film, at least not successfully. But I would still have preferred to see it on the author's terms, rather than on the terms of an actor who teased her participation, but then ditched out on the project. Anyone can say, 'I don't buy that,' and often do; it's probably the laziest statement of criticism out there. And filmed the way it was written, one would still be at liberty to say that. Ultimately, having seen it, maybe I would have said that. But it wasn't filmed the way it was written. Now we will never know.