Hannibal Rising
James V Davis
American Intercontinental University

Abstract
This analysis of the fictional character, Hannibal Lecter, from the movie Hannibal Rising, describes the actions taken by Hannibal used to reveal his nature. The author describes scenes in which to inform the reader about the nature of the character. Some dialogue from the movie is used to reveal the nature of the character and his motives. Other characters say things about Hannibal and portray his traits as a character. These are depicted as well. At the end of the movie, more information about Hannibal is unveiled and changes his whole perspective, or perhaps intensifies it.

Hannibal Rising
The movie starts with the scene in which Hannibal is but a boy. The land in which his parent’s castle is occupied is under attack. They move to a close by shelter; maybe a guest house. A Russian tank comes through the forest and crushes some of their house. The men occupying the tank force everyone out but have the children stay inside. Hannibal’s father is shot. A plan comes crashing down, explodes on the tank and kills everyone but Hannibal and his sister, Misha. The Russians rob them of their valuables. A battle continues while the children take cover inside the house. Hannibal loves is sister so much. He feeds her and tries his best to protect her, even as a young boy. The Russians come back and torment Hannibal and Misha.
{8 years later} Hannibal lives in the people’s orphanage. He doesn’t speak at all but at night, he has nightmares about his past. This causes him to scream and shout about in his sleep. During the scene in the dining hall, Hannibal Lecter is not so much as murmuring a sound while all the other boys sang a song in unison. He is yelled at and taunted about him not speaking/singing but while he sleeps he can yell. Being a mute is not a viable excuse, as someone defends his actions. He is locked away in a dungeon. While the person who has him locked away is sleeping, Hannibal plots to harm him. The next morning, a couple guys come down, maybe to check on Hannibal and the front man steps on a bear trap and falls to the ground. Next to him, written in the dirt is the word, “SING.” Hannibal has escaped. He’s travelled all the way past Lithuania, Poland, East and West Germany; all the way to France. He finds his aunt (by marriage). She allows him to stay with her. She informs him that his uncle has died within a year prior to the current date. When she tells him, “speak to me,” he replies, after a brief hesitation of thought to find the right words, “Thank you.” (Hannibal Rising. 2007).
She is Japanese and teaches him about her traditions. He speaks to her. She also shows him how to fight like a Japanese warrior. At a market, the aunt is assaulted and a butcher makes rude remarks towards her. Hannibal doesn’t like this at all and fights with the men.
Later, Hannibal meditates and finds the butcher at a pond. The butcher is fishing. Hannibal surprises him and riddles him, then slices him all over with the sword of his aunt’s ancestor. Before the butcher is killed by Hannibal, Hannibal shows him a picture that he has drawn that frightens him beyond measure. It is the picture of the butcher’s head on a chopping table. He, then, cuts the butcher’s head clean off. Hannibal offers the head of the butcher to his aunt as a sacrifice of some sort. When she finds this, she seems as though she is in a state of shock, maybe even terror. He has changed from an absolutely mute person to a person who speaks, but only very strange things to say. He seems deranged. He says to her, “Good evening, my lady.” He looks at the sword of her ancestor while he holds it and walks closer to her. “I hope you don’t mind. I would’ve used the butcher’s knife, but this sword seems appropriate. Not a nick in the blade, I promise you. The butcher was like butter.” He wipes the sword clean with one swipe. Then, he carefully places it back in its place. As he kneels down, he seems as though he’s performing a ritual of some sort; like he’s giving honor to the ancestor. While the police come to the house and take Hannibal in for questioning, his aunt gets him off the hook by planting the head on an outside post of the station for the police to find. (Hannibal Rising. 2007).
Hannibal is the youngest student ever to get accepted into medical school. It’s a work scholarship in which most of his free time will be spent preparing dead bodies for the classes. He goes to the Institut de Medecine St Marie in Paris. He wants to stay with his aunt but she tells him to stay in school.
Hannibal injects himself with some Sodium Thiopental as a truth serum and he gets very clear memories of the men who killed his family. He finds the first man and tortures him until he tells Hannibal the location of all the others. He tied the man up with a rope and the past round around his neck, to a tree. The other end of the rope, he attached to a horse. Needless to say, he killed the man this way. He has a deranged look on his face when he licked the blood off his fingers which he wiped from off his face. He enjoyed the taste, or maybe even the thrill. He decapitated the man, ate his cheeks and left the head on a stump for the police to find. The men are all in Fountainebleau. His aunt rides out with him.
There is a scene that takes place, in which the main detective on the case of these dead persons visits the aunt at her house. He says that he knows that she lost her family. He asks is this shy she protects Hannibal; because he lost everything, just as she did. She replies, “Do you see your family in your dreams, inspector?” “Yes,” he says.” She inhales, “So do I… So does he.” This tells about why Hannibal is so passionate about the unbearable deed he does. Hannibal’s aunt understands him. The detective does no harm and no further action is taken but the look on his face as he leaves shows that he, too, understands Hannibal Lecter. (Hannibal Rising. 2007).
While in his laboratory, Hannibal is snuck up on by one of his prey. The man is avoiding Hannibal’s eye and is trying to find the perfect shot at him to kill. He loses Hannibal and in a split second, the man is stabbed in the neck, by Hannibal, with a needle. This puts him out of consciousness for a while and Hannibal chains him up in some sort of trap, in a tank filled with a water-like fluid and dead bodies. He questions the man and torments him. He lowers the man under the surface and closes him under metal doors. The man is released from the trap but still under the water-like substance, as the tank filled more and more, steadily. Hannibal is then visited by the detective and is questioned and threatened that if he kills in France, the detective will see his “head in the bucket.” (Hannibal Rising. 2007).
The detective says to his colleagues, after Hannibal is no longer around, “In the asylum, the doctors can examine him and find out what he is. The little boy Hannibal died in 1944 after that snow. His heart died with Misha. What he is now, there is no word for it, except monster.” (Hannibal Rising. 2007).
He and his aunt share a very intimate relationship. They are very close and she knows about his killing, but she seems as though she is in love with him. They kiss a few very romantic kisses throughout the movie. She begs him to promise her to give the men to the police. He declines. He has already promised Misha. He, then, departs from her. After the man in the tank has drowned to death, Hannibal eats his cheeks and leaves his head in the burner.
The final scene takes place and Hannibal is faced with his final opponent. It doesn’t go quite as smoothly as the others. Its more challenging and he bargains with his opponent’s partner to give the location of the opponent and set his aunt free, in return for his children’s life. He tricked the man and they end up fighting. Hannibal has the man get ready to shoot his own self and steals the opportunity by killing the man, himself. He stabbed the man up from under his chin through the top of his head. He finds the opponent and gets into a struggle with him. After a long struggle, the man reveals to Hannibal that Hannibal must kill those who ate his sister, but so did Hannibal. He was fed his sister in a broth. Therefore, he must kill himself, just as well. Hannibal, in a frenzied rage, eats the dying man’s cheeks right off of his face. The movie ends.
Hannibal is a victim of circumstance. Each event that took place in his life brought him closer and closer to the deranged, cannibalistic killer he turned out to be. He eats the rude. Hannibal is trying to exact revenge on those who caused him heartache and pain throughout his life. He is a very smart person and he finds ways to get to those who have caused these misfortunes. In his own mind, he is paying back the same deed to his enemies, in which they have previously committed to him.

References
Webber, P. (Director), & Harris, T. (Writer). (2007). Hannibal Rising [Motion Picture]. Prague: Barrandov Studios.