Raw L. The Ridley Scott Encyclopedia

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The script was described by one reviewer as competent,

but “without a great deal told about the various scams that

the conmen use against their unsuspecting dupes ...Unfor-

tunately, for me, I saw what was coming fairly early on and

it was a matter of movie run time before I was proved cor-

rect. This transparency in the story took things down a

notch . . . ”

References

Robin Clifford, “Matchstick Men,” www.reelingreviews.com/match-

stickmen.htm (accessed 9 January 2009); Nick and Ted Griffin,

“Matchstick Men: Shooting Draft” (14 October 2002),

www.imsdb.com/scripts/Matchstick-Men.html (accessed 4 Janu-

ary 2009); Production Information: Matchstick Men (Los Angeles:

Warner Bros. Pictures, 2003), 3–4.

Bibliography

“The Dialogue: An Interview with Ted Griffin (2006),” www

.youtube.com/watch?v=k6wdoHGXcPI (accessed 9 January 2009).

GRIFFITH, MELANIE (1957– )

Born in New York City, the daughter of actress Tippi

Hedren, Griffith shot to stardom in the title role of Working

Girl (1988), a box-office hit for which she received an Oscar

nomination as Best Actress and won the Golden Globe

Award as Best Actress in a Comedy. She won strong reviews

in independent films like Another Day in Paradise (1997),

which helped her obtain the role of Marion Davies in RKO

281. Described in JOHN LOGAN’s script as “a shimmering

and lively presence, [who] can still charm and captivate with

almost effortless grace,” Griffith’s Davies bears strong resem-

blances to the actress herself, who struggled throughout the

1980s and 1990s with drugs and other related problems.

One of her most poignant scenes comes late on in the

film, where she is shown dancing with William Randolph

Hearst (JAMES CROMWELL) in the ballroom at Xanadu.

Director BENJAMIN ROSS’s camera tracks through

deserted rooms, now shorn of all their furniture and expen-

sive antiques, and finally focuses on the two of them alone.

On the soundtrack Bunny Berigan’s poignant song “I Can’t

Get Started” can be heard, whose lyrics in a sense sum up

Hearst’s and Davies’s relationship: “I’ve got a house, a show

place, [but] still I can’t get started with you/ ’Cause you’re so

supreme . . . And I scheme just for the sight of you, baby,

what good does it do?” Davies knows she and Hearst will

never have a happy life, but she cannot leave him. Against all

odds she actually loves him; and love is a rare commodity in

early 1940s Hollywood. Her line—“I started out as a gold-

digger, ya know, but goddam if I didn’t fall in love with the

guy”—seems especially poignant.

Reference

John Logan,“Draft Script for RKO 281” (dated 1 May 1997), http://

sfy.ru/sfy.html?script=rko218 (accessed 16 November 2008), 12.

GUINNESS—PLOUGHMAN

GB 1979 Commercial r/t 30 sec col. Production Company:

RSA Films for J. Walter Thompson. Director: Ridley Scott.

This commercial opens with a close-up of a bottle opener,

and a top being removed from a bottle, then cuts to a shot of

a plough being lowered onto hay. Scott cuts back to a close-up

of bread being cut (recalling the HOVIS BREAD advertise-

ment) then to a shot of a cold Guinness being poured into a

glass. The action switches to an exterior shot of the plough

being operated in a field, followed by a close-up of cheese

being cut and the Guinness glass being filled. Scott cuts back

to a shot of the ploughman finishing his work and getting out

of the cabin; then back to a shot of the complete ploughman’s

lunch—bread, cheese, tomatoes, onion, and Guinness. The

Guinness is handed over to a pair of hands emerging from the

left of the frame. The advertisement finishes with a dissolve to

a shot of the ploughman sitting at a table in the pub, flanked

by two of his friends, sipping the beer and beginning to eat.

The slogan is heard in voiceover: “If you want to know how

good a bottle of Guinness is, ask a ploughman.”

GUINNESS—WHAT’S MY LINE

(aka GOOD FOR YOU)

GB 1975 Commercial r/t 30 sec col. Production Company:

RSA Films for J. Walter Thompson. Director: Ridley Scott.

A commercial showing how Guinness can relax people.

It begins with a shot of two young men in a pub drinking

their beer, while all around them the other patrons seem to

be under stress. A man is shown playing a fruit machine; two

women drunkenly gossip with one another; another man

upsets a chair in his excitement; and a secretary drums her

fingers on the table as she waits for her companion to fetch

a drink. The soundtrack emphasizes the pressure these cus-

tomers experience with specific sounds: the man plays the

fruit machine to the sound of a factory drill; the woman

drums her fingers to the sound of a typewriter. Meanwhile

the two men drink their beer calmly and silently. On the

soundtrack a voice tells us,“After work, there are some peo-

ple who relax” and enjoy “the first, slow rewarding taste” of

the beer, rather than continuing to work.

This is another commercial demonstrating Scott’s inter-

est in telling a story while selling a product. As in BLADE

RUNNER, many of the people in the pub are portrayed as

dehumanized—so wrapped up in their working lives that

they have lost the capacity to think for themselves. It is only

when they relax that they can become human once again.

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GRIFFITH, MELANIE (1957– )

HALF HOUR STORY : “ROBERT”

GB 1967 TVM r/t 30 min b/w. Production Company: Redif-

fusion. Producer: Stella Richman. Director: Ridley Scott.

Writer: Jeremy Paul from an original story by Stanley Ellin.

Cast: Angela Baddeley (Miss Gildea), Frank Windsor (Mr.

Harkness), Suzanne Neve (Miss Reardon), Robert Langley

(Robert).

A contribution to Independent Television’s weekly

anthology series of single dramas, about the relationship

between a school mistress and one of her pupils; an eleven-

year-old boy named Robert, whose inattentive behavior in

class belies a manipulative and malevolent nature. This was

episode 12 (out of 29) in the first series, broadcast live on 2

August 1967. The series ran from 16 May to 30 September

1967. Half Hour Story ran three seasons until 29 July 1968,

with a total of thirty-seven episodes.

HAMPTON, TIM (?– )

Production Manager on British films such as The Ruling

Class (1973) and Superman (1978). Associate Producer on

Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979). Hampton co-produced

LEGEND, being particularly responsible for the filming at

Pinewood Studios.

HANNAH, DARYL (1960– )

Born and raised in Chicago, Daryl Hannah attended the

University of Southern California, and made her debut as

Pam in Brian DePalma’s The Fury (1978).

Cast as Pris in BLADE RUNNER, Hannah portrays the

character as someone young, naïve, almost like a four-year-

old child in her reliance on Batty (RUTGER HAUER), who

never has the capacity to relax with Sebastian (WILLIAM

SANDERSON). According to PAUL M. SAMMON she is

simply “working on a deadline.” Likened in one of the pro-

duction’s scripts to “a savage doll with a bleached white face

and black ringed eyes,” she sniffs Sebastian like a cat stalk-

ing its prey; her eyes glow, reminding us that she is a REPLI-

CANT. When she hears that Zhora (JOANNA CASSIDY)

and Leon (BRION JAMES) have been “retired” (i.e., killed

off) she idly twirls the torso of a broken doll between her

fingers, reminding us that despite her strength she is as

expendable as them.

In a scene with strong sexual overtones, Pris scissor-

grips Deckard’s (HARRISON FORD’s) head between her

thighs and forces him on to his back. Visually speaking, he

resembles the monstrous child of the replicant emerging

from her body, rather like the creature emerging from Kane’s

(JOHN HURT’s) stomach in ALIEN. This underlines the

inherent corruption of the Blade Runner world—in a soci-

ety where replicants assume the responsibilities once under-

taken by human beings, “natural” births no longer exist. Pris

jams her fingers into Deckard’s nostrils and lifts his head off

the floor, causing his nose to bleed. She moves across the

room and cartwheels towards Deckard for her final assault,

but Deckard kills her with his gun.

In PHILIP K. DICK’s original novel, Rachael and Pris

are identical types, making it difficult for Deckard to kill

Pris. Scott thought it would be unworkable to have the two

look alike. However, he does allow Pris an honorable death,

as Batty puts her tongue back in her mouth and kisses her.

In a later sequence, the grief-stricken Batty touches the

wound in her stomach and then his lips, retracing the spot

where Pris touched him when they last met. This moment,

according to Scott (interviewed in the New York Times prior

to the film’s American opening), provides the “trigger” for

Batty to take revenge on all those people—Deckard

included—who seek to curtail the replicants’ lives.

References

Glenn Collins,“Blade Runner,” New York Times, 30 June 1982, C19;

Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, “Blade Runner,” Unpub-

lished script dated 23 February 1981, now in the British Film Insti-

tute, London; Paul M. Sammon, Future Noir: The Making of Blade

Runner, 2nd ed. (London: Gollancz, 2007), 140.

HANNAN, PETER (1941– )

Australian-born cinematographer whose work includes The

Meaning of Life (1983), Withnail and I (1987), and Not With-

out My Daughter (1991).

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As cinematographer on the Ridley Scott-produced film

THE GATHERING STORM, Hannan worked with director

RICHARD LONCRAINE to produce a film which moved

away from a picture-postcard image of England in the 1930s

to a more realistic depiction. In an interview with Matthew

Bell he recalled, “It’s been dark and miserable [filming The

Gathering Storm] and the only scene we have in the sun is

scripted for rain. It used to be that this was one of the best

times to shoot . . . We were allowed to shoot at Chartwell and

one of the reasons we were there was to be able to see out-

side but we haven’t been able to because of the weather. It

has an extraordinary dining room with almost three sides of

glass looking out over a wonderful valley ...It’s meant to be

bright and sunny; that’s the reason the Churchills were there

and it even comes up in the script. He bought the house

because he particularly loved the view. We’ve provided arti-

ficial sun, filters endlessly on and off, and basically got away

with murder.” Loncraine explained his aims in an interview:

“I was very anxious that we should not have a film that was

all about regal buildings and historical buildings . . . not just

high society in pillared halls ...Opening out the movie. Giv-

ing it more air.”

References

Matthew Bell,“Location Story: A Lonely War Brings Churchill Back

to Life,” Broadcast B+, 7 December 2001, 3; “Interview with Richard

Loncraine,” The Gathering Storm: Artist Interviews, www.hbo.com/

films/gatheringstorm/cmp/interviews.shtml (Accessed 24 Decem-

ber 2008).

HANNIBAL

US 2001 r/t 132 min col. Production Companies:Metro-

Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, Inc., Universal Studios, and Scott

Free. Producer: Dino de Laurentiis. Director: Ridley Scott.

Writers: David Mamet and Stephen Zaillian from the novel

Hannibal by Thomas Harris. Director of Photography: John

Mathieson. Production Designer: Norris Spencer. Music:

Hans Zimmer. Cast: Anthony Hopkins (Hannibal Lecter),

Julianne Moore (Clarice Starling), Ray Liotta (Paul Krendler),

Gary Oldman (Mason Verger), Frankie R. Faison (Nurse Bar-

ney), Giancarlo Giannini (Insp. Renaldo Pazzi), Francesca

Neri (Allegra Pazzi), Zeljko Ivanek (Dr. Cordell Doemling).

The idea for making Hannibal, a sequel to the money-

spinning THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, was mentioned

throughout the 1990s. JODIE FOSTER felt that director

JONATHAN DEMME’s film had equaled author THOMAS

HARRIS’s achievement of blending the popular with the

cerebral: “I loved Silence. It’s a movie that’s stuck with me . . .

It’s both very complex and very literary, and at the same time

great entertainment.” ANTHONY HOPKINS likewise spoke

enthusiastically of playing Hannibal Lecter once again and

reuniting with Foster and Demme: “However, we must wait

for the author Tom Harris to finish the story. You cannot

rush him.” Having passed on the film rights to The Silence of

the Lambs, producer DINO DE LAURENTIIS did not intend

to let the third installment in the Hannibal saga elude him.

In May 1999, media reports claimed that he was close to

buying the film rights for a reported $9 million, reportedly

the biggest book-to-film deal ever. Eventually he came to an

agreement with Universal Pictures to make the film, but

Metro-Goldwyn Mayer claimed that it held all rights to Jodie

Foster’s character Clarice Starling, purchased from Orion

Pictures when the latter went bankrupt. Industry insiders

predicted a major bidding war for the rights, de Laurentiis

and Universal going head-to-head with MGM. In the event,

however, the parties settled on a co-production: MGM

would distribute Hannibal in North America and Canada,

while Universal handled the overseas markets.

Thomas Harris’s sequel finally appeared in June 1999,

becoming the fastest-selling hardback fiction work of all

time in the United Kingdom. Most reviewers welcomed it,

but there were certain dissenters who objected to the ram-

bling plot, the graphic violence, and the finale. At the same

time, Demme announced that he would not be directing the

film version, in the belief that “irresponsible violent screen

images could influence aggressive male behaviour, going out

and performing real violence against other people.” Daniel

O’Brien speculates that Demme also was wary of working

with De Laurentiis, as the producer was not known for

granting his directors full creative control over their work.

TED TALLY, the screenwriter of Silence, also refused to work

on the sequel. De Laurentiis’s first choice to replace Demme

was Scott, who had previously worked with the producer on

an adaptation of Frank Herbert’s DUNE (1984)—even

though Scott himself had left the project, to be replaced by

David Lynch. Unlike Demme, Scott loved the book, finding

Hannibal Lecter “a very charming character” and resolving

to inject the sequel with the kind of humor that was conspic-

uously absent from Silence: “I shall be very disappointed if I

hear that people aren’t smiling. When they’re not scream-

ing.” Ridley Scott recruited key members of his GLADIATOR

crew for the new project, including director of photography

JOHN MATHIESON, film editor PIETRO SCALIA, com-

posers Klaus Badelt and HANS ZIMMER, and costume

designer JANTY YATES.

However, there remained problems over casting: Fos-

ter still did not like the book. Harris agreed to supply a less

repulsive ending for the film version, replacing the canni-

balistic original. However even the new ending could not

convince her to repeat her role: “The original movie worked

because people believed in Clarice’s heroism. I won’t play

her with negative attributes she would never have.” Eventu-

ally she passed on the role, concentrating instead on a new

directorial project Flora Plum. De Laurentiis claimed in an

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interview that he didn’t really want Foster at all: “I don’t

believe Judy [sic] Foster from day one was right when I read

the book.”

Hopkins was furious because he had committed him-

self to the part and Universal was already over budget. The

studio apparently considered abandoning the project, but

the success of Gladiator assured them that Hannibal could

work without Foster on board. Scott interviewed various

leading ladies, including Gillian Anderson and Cate

Blanchett, before settling on JULIANNE MOORE, whom he

believed brought “a sharp intelligence and intensity” to the

role of Clarice, even if she lacked Foster’s “fan expectations

of toughness and sexual enigma.” Finally convinced that the

new Lecter film would not be a “tawdry follow-up” to

Silence, Hopkins finally signed on for a fee of $15 million

plus a share in the profits. The third lead part of Mason

Verger was filled by GARY OLDMAN, with other roles

played by RAY LIOTTA, GIANCARLO GIANNINI, and

FRANCESCA NERI.

The screenplay was originally written by DAVID

MAMET, but STEVEN ZAILLIAN was brought in later on

to go through the Harris novel and the Mamet screenplay,

deciding which characters and story details would have to

be changed, rearranged, or dropped altogether. In collabo-

ration with Harris, he produced a new ending, in which

Lecter and Clarice did not go off together. Despite the

changes, Zaillian still felt that Hannibal was primarily a kind

of “bizarre love story.” Scott told Douglas Eby that he was

satisfied with the finished product: “This has been a rather

good experience. The problem with the book . . . is distilling

long form into shorter form . . . and I think we’ve managed

to do that . . . Only those who ask for it; only, as Hannibal

puts it, the ‘free-range rude’ get retribution. So those who

find their own comeuppance, certainly deserve it.”

Budgeted at a healthy $87 million, Hannibal was filmed

in Florence, ITALY; Richmond, Virginia; Washington, DC;

and Asheville, North Carolina. The shoot was largely

uneventful, but at the post-production stage Orion Pictures

threatened legal action, claiming all rights to the Hannibal

Lecter character traits in The Silence of the Lambs film that

were not in Harris’s original book. If Hopkins reused any of

his distinctive such as the reference to eating a human being

“with fava beans and a nice chianti,” Orion would sue Uni-

versal and MGM. Rather than risk a lengthy expensive court

case that might delay Hannibal’s release, MGM made cuts to

the finished film.

Philip L. Simpson suggests that the various controver-

sies over casting—which did not end once filming had fin-

ished, as Gary Oldman refused to take screen credit—served

mainly to increase interest level in the finished product. As

with many of Scott’s films, the reviewers were divided. While

Sean Macaulay described the effect as “strangely haunting,”

Mark Wilson of The Independent observed that while the

film “might make a play for the high moral ground as a

meditation on taste . . . it can’t make up for a hollowness at

its centre.” Alexander Walker of the Evening Standard

observed that the director’s “pacing, editing and photogra-

phy are all impeccably attuned to keeping your nerves on

edge and the sick bag handy.” Hopkins’s performance gen-

erated similarly diverse opinions: Will Self thought it “car-

toon-like,” while J. Hoberman likened it to “a sinister

Truman Capote—portly and soigné, peeking coyly from

beneath his trademark Panama hat” and Peter Bradshaw of

The Guardian described Hopkins’s performance as “a show-

stopping turn at the centre of the picture.”

The film was a huge hit both in America and Great

Britain, more than doubling its original budget by August

2001. It also inspired a cult of fashion: Alison Roberts in the

Evening Standard reported that Hannibal’s style was so chic

so as to resemble anything on the cover of Gentleman’s

Quarterly.

Hannibal returns to the theme of the maverick law

enforcement officer explored in earlier Scott films such as

SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME and BLACK RAIN. Like

Mike Keegan (TOM BERENGER) in Someone, Clarice Star-

ling considers herself a model professional, concerned to

stamp her authority over her male colleagues. When Officer

Bolton (Terry Serpico) tells her that he is in charge of the

drug raid at the fish market, Starling replies icily, “You’re

here ...because our mayor wants to appear tough on drugs,

especially after his own cocaine conviction ...I’d appreciate

if you took a step or two back, you’re in my light.” Bolton

responds weakly, “You got a smart mouth, lady.” In another

sequence deleted from the finished film she threatens the

nurse, Barney (FRANKIE FAISON), with the full force of the

law unless he returns the stolen X-ray of Hannibal’s broken

arm: “[Your] reward is I don’t have my friend the postal

inspector nail you on Use of the Mails to Defraud, you don’t

get ten years, and you don’t come out with a janitor’s job.”

However, this devotion to duty comes at a price, as it ren-

ders her incapable of experiencing a personal life. Hannibal

is well aware of her plight: “You fell in love with the

bureau—with The Institution [the FBI]—only to discover,

after giving it everything, that it doesn’t love you. That is

resents you, more than the husband and children you gave

up to it ever would.” Clarice’s professionalism proves futile

in the end, as her department suspends her without pay for

incompetence and orders her to clear her desk. Scott shows

her returning home with a cardboard box full of mementoes

of her working life—ornaments, stationery and the like. She

has nothing left to remind her of her service to the FBI

except these few belongings.

Unlike Starling, the other members of the Bureau are

portrayed as corrupt, ever ready to take bribes or manipulate

HANNIBAL

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the law according to their own ends. Agent Krendler (Ray

Liotta) is more than willing to accept Mason Verger’s (Gary

Oldman’s) forged postcard (allegedly written by Hannibal

to Clarice) as evidence in the case against Clarice, in return

for a five hundred thousand dollar bribe. Although Clarice

publicly reveals Krendler’s motives (“[he] is in collusion with

him [Verger] and wants the FBI’s effort against Dr. Lecter to

work for Mr. Verger”), no one listens to her. Assistant Direc-

tor Noonan (Francis Guinan) threatens her instead: “You’ll

be entitled to full reinstatement without prejudice—if you

don’t do—or say—something in the meantime that would

make that impossible.” Krendler consciously prevents Clarice

from pursuing this course of action by commending her on

television as “one of the best agents we have . . . I would be

very surprised if the accusations [against her] turn out to be

true.” If she were to make her accusations public, it would

reflect badly on her, not the Bureau. Like the two presidential

candidates in THE LAST DEBATE, Krendler understands the

importance of sustaining a reliable public image, even if it

means consciously manipulating the media.

Like Krendler, the Italian police officer Renaldo Pazzi

(Giancarlo Giannini) becomes a victim of corruption as he

accepts a financial reward in return for passing on informa-

tion to the FBI about Hannibal’s whereabouts, in spite of his

concern for his “so-called reputation.” He writes down the

telephone numbers in pen on the back of his hand and dials

them. Once the deed has been done, Pazzi is shown scrub-

bing his hands “like Lady Macbeth, trying to get the stain of

the phone numbers off his skin, the black ink clouding the

water pooling in the sink before going down the drain.”

However much he might try, he can never rid himself of the

sin he has committed.

On this view, Hannibal’s determination to kill Pazzi and

Krendler can be seen as justified; like the avenging angel, he

sees his task as ridding the world of the “free-range rude”—

those people lacking a proper understanding of the differ-

ences between right and wrong. He reminds Pazzi of his

ancestor, who was hanged outside the Palazzo Vecchio in

Florence for having killed Giuliano de Medici. During his

lecture in the Palazzo, Hannibal espies Pazzi in the back-

ground and shows a slide of Judas Iscariot on the doors of

the cathedral, hanging with his bowels falling out, as St. Luke

the physician described him in the Acts of the Apostles. It

comes as no surprise to find Pazzi being put to death in sim-

ilar fashion, as he is tied to a lectern and hanged out of a

window of the Palazzo, his bowels spilling out onto the

ground below. In a macabre parody of the Last Supper,

Krendler—another Judas-figure—is served part of his own

brain, lightly fried in butter.

Throughout the film Scott contrasts the new world of

America with the old world of Renaissance Europe. This is

sustained not only visually—with the modern buildings of

Washington, DC, set against the Florentine architecture

(described in the script as “one of the most magnificent

views in the world”)—but also in terms of value-systems.

America is equated with superficiality, a world of casual

affairs where sexism runs rife and where true friendship

between men and women no longer exists. Krendler has no

respect either for his wife or for his colleagues, repeatedly

describing Starling as a piece of “cornpone country pussy.”

Nonetheless, he would be more than willing to enjoy a one-

night stand with her. This world depends first and foremost

on money; those who possess it can enjoy almost unlimited

freedom. Mason Verger boasts at one point that he has

“immunity from the US Attorney . . . immunity from the DA

in Owings Mills . . . [and] immunity from the Risen Jesus

and no one beats the Riz.”

The world of Europe, as portrayed in the film, is one

where the past never goes away: Pazzi is haunted by the mis-

deeds of his ancestor. Even at the opera house he witnesses

a performance of the “Vide Cor Meum” (composed espe-

cially for the film by PATRICK CASSIDY), which symboli-

cally reenacts the murder of Giuliano de Medici. Europe is

also identified with permanence—as shown, for instance, in

the perfume on Hannibal’s letter to Clarice, comprised of

Tennessee lavender, mountain sage, fleece, and ambergris (a

whale product ensuring that the smell stays fresh for years).

The same also applies to Hannibal’s love for Clarice, which

is likened throughout to DANTE ALIGHIERI’s enduring

affair with Beatrice Portinari. In a long speech to Pazzi’s wife

Allegra (Francesca Neri), Hannibal quotes from a sonnet

written by Dante in which he experiences a disturbing

dream in which “My lady lay asleep wrapped in a veil. He

[the poet] woke her then, and, trembling and obedient, she

ate that burning heart out of his hand.” Incredulous, Allegra

asks whether it is possible that a man could become so

obsessed with a woman; Hannibal responds that anyone

“might feel a stab of hunger for her [and] find nourishment

in the very sight of her.” The violence of the imagery here

foreshadows the sequence at the end of the film, when Han-

nibal cuts his own hand off with a meat cleaver, so as to free

himself from being handcuffed to Clarice. His love for her

is so enduring that he is prepared to mutilate himself rather

than cause harm to her.

The fact that the two will remain together eternally

is also suggested in the final shot of Clarice, who stands

at the boat dock in her evening gown watching Hannibal’s

distant signal—fireworks, the traditional film code of

consummation—from another shore.

There have been numerous critical evaluations of the

film. Linda Mizejewski admires Clarice’s stoicism—even

though she is badly treated by the FBI, she refuses “to go

over, to turn outlaw.” She concentrates on the ways in which

the actors have in a sense determined the audience’s

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responses to the characters: Jodie Foster’s screen persona

informs Clarice to such an extent that it shapes the way in

which the character has been written in both the novel and

film versions of Hannibal: “Though the novel’s focus is Han-

nibal Lecter, its treatment of Clarice reveals repeated themes

of stardom; the public image of this character, its interroga-

tion, and its incitement to discover its private counterpart

constitute a powerful subtext.” Philip L. Simpson expresses

a similar view, by arguing that “Hannibal is a horror event

film ...[with] a plethora of style but only an echo of sub-

stance ...Ifthe horror event movie is designed to soothe the

consumer with pleasant reiterations of a loved and familiar

formula given a certain ironic distance, Hannibal succeeds

on those terms.” He does not see any significance in the

Dante references, other than a “rather obvious and spectac-

ular application of ...poetic justice to the ‘free range’ greedy

and rude, such as Pazzi and Krendler.” In similar vein, Ernest

Mathijs argues that “those responsible for establishing Han-

nibal as horror (producers, marketers, critics, fans) have,

consciously or not, been building upon a reference frame

that has been in development since The Silence of the Lambs

(hereafter SOTL). This reference frame focuses on the film’s

main character, Hannibal Lecter, and his function as the

quintessential monster in/of culture. The presentation of this

character as the kind of “cultural thing” that horror films

have always dealt with, has not only guaranteed the ancillary

labeling of Hannibal as horror.”

David Schmid contrasts the novel and the film versions

in detail, and concludes that the film is a good example of a

“subversive adaptation”: “It is the film’s subversion of Har-

ris’s novel that makes the film superior and this superiority

is especially clear when we consider how the filmic Hanni-

bal represents Lecter’s violence.”

References

Peter Bradshaw, “Take Me to the Liver,” The Guardian, 16 February

2001, 12–13; Jonathan Demme, quoted in Daniel O’Brien, The

Hannibal Files: The Unauthorised Guide to the Hannibal Lecter Tril-

ogy (Richmond, Surrey: Reynolds & Hearn Ltd., 2001), 139; Dino

de Laurentiis, quoted in The Hannibal Files, 148; Douglas Eby,

“Ridley Scott: The Director on Adapting the Thomas Harris Novel,”

Cinefantastique 32, no.6 (February 2001): 15; Jodie Foster, quoted

in The Hannibal Files, 137; J. Hoberman, “Appetites for Destruc-

tion,” Village Voice, 13 February 2001, 127; Anthony Hopkins,

quoted in The Hannibal Files, 137; Sean Macaulay, “What’s Eating

You?” The Times, 5 February 2001, Section 2, 21; Ernest Mathijs,

“The ‘Wonderfully Scary Monster’ and the International Reception

of Horror: Ridley Scott’s Hannibal (2001),” Kinoscope 2, no.19 (2

December 2002): www.kinoeye.org/02/19/mathijs19.php (accessed

3 August 2008); Linda Mizejewski, “Stardom and Serial Fantasies:

Thomas Harris’ Hannibal,” in Keyframes: Popular Cinema and Cul-

tural Studies, ed. Matthew Tinkcom and Amy Villarejo (London

and New York: Routledge, 2001), 161; Daniel O’Brien, The Hanni-

bal Files, 143, 147, 151; Alison Roberts, “Lecter: Style to Die For,”

Evening Standard, 16 February 2001, 30–31; David Schmid, “The

Kindest Cut of All: Adapting Thomas Harris’ Hannibal,” Litera-

ture/Film Quarterly 35, no.1 (2007): 7; Ridley Scott, quoted in The

Hannibal Files, 143; Ridley Scott, quoted in Linda Mizejewski,

Hardboiled and High Heeled: The Woman Detective in Popular Cul-

ture (London and New York: Routledge, 2004), 193; Will Self,

“Hannibal,” Independent on Sunday Culture, 11 February 2001, 1–2;

Philip L. Simpson, “The Horror ‘Event’ Movie: The Mummy, Han-

nibal and Signs,” in Horror Film: Creating and Marketing Fear,ed.

Steffen Hantke (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2005), 92;

Alexander Walker, “Hannibal’s Second Bite,” Evening Standard,6

February 2001, 8; Mark Wilson, “Lecter’s Bloody Second Course

has a Hollow Centre,” The Independent, 6 February 2001, 9; Steven

Zaillian, “Hannibal: Screenplay Based on the Novel by Thomas

Harris,” Revision (9 February 2000), http://sfy.ru/sfy.html?script

=hannibal2001 (accessed 15 December 2008).

Bibliography

Douglas Bankston, “A Pound of Flesh,” American Cinematographer

82, no.2 (February 2001): 36–49; Jill Bernstein,“Eat Drink Man

Woman,” Premiere 14, no.6 (February 2001): 59–61, 106–7; Andrew

Collins, “He’s Back,” Observer Screen, 16 May 1999, 2–3; Barbara

Creed, “Freud’s Worst Nightmare: Dining with Dr. Hannibal

Lecter,” in Horror Film and Psychoanalysis: Freud’s Worst Nightmare

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 199–202; Nikki

Finke, “A Tough Act to Swallow,” The Guardian 8 June 1999, Sec-

tion 2: 10–11; Leigh Joyce Harding, “A Dangerous Woman and a

Man’s Brain: Mina Harker, Clarice Starling and the Empowerment

of the Gothic Heroine in Novel and Film,” West Virginia University

Philological Papers 49 (2002–2003): 30–37; John Hiscock, “For

Grisly, Call Ridley,” Daily Telegraph, 18 April 2000, 26; John His-

cock, “Grisly Second Bite at the Lecter Story,” Daily Telegraph,

2 February 2001, 25; Russell Lissau, “Hannibal,”

Cinefantastique 32,

.2 (August 2000): 6–7; Jenny McCartney and Olga Craig, “Mad,

Bad ...But Very Very Loveable,”Sunday Telegraph Focus, 18 Feb-

ruary 2001, 21; Mark Monahan, “Lecter Gets His Teeth into Flo-

rence,” Daily Telegraph Arts, 20 May 2000, A6; Mick McKeown and

Mark Stowell-Smith,“The Comforts of Evil: Dangerous Personal-

ities in High-Security Hospitals and the Horror Film,” in Forensic

Psychiatry: Influences of Evil, ed. Tom Mason (Totowa, NJ: Humana

Press, 2006), 109–35; Mark Morris, “Pleased to Eat You,” Observer

Review, 4 February 2001, 9; Gary Oldman, “Annus Hannibalis,”

Time Out, 14–21 February 2001, 24, 26; Alun Palmer, “£15m. for

Hopkins as He Agrees to the Sequel of the Lambs,” Daily Mail,30

September 1999, 27; Paul M. Sammon, “Feeding Hannibal,” Fan-

goria 200 (March 2001): 34–39; David Sexton, “Why We Will

Always Be Frightened—” Evening Standard, 16 February 2001, 13;

Adam Smith, “Signed, Sealed, De-livered,” Empire 141 (March

2001): 70–76; Charles Whitehouse, “Hannibal Magnetism,” Sight

and Sound 11, no.1 (January 2001): 4–5.

HANNIBAL

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HANSON, CURTIS (1945– )

Began his career as director and scriptwriter on films such

as The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992) and The River

Wild (1994). Engaged by Ridley Scott as director for IN HER

SHOES, Hanson admitted in a preproduction interview that

he “decided to make this movie for the same reason that I

made my last four movies which is that I responded emo-

tionally—to the characters and to the themes. The fact that

these three characters were all women was exciting and dif-

ferent for me. As a movie-goer, it was also exciting because

I’ve loved many female-driven films in the past. I loved the

opportunity to work with three actors who would be neces-

sary to get good performances from ...It’s like working on

a political campaign where you’re working so hard with peo-

ple all toward a common goal. Outsiders, no matter how

close they are to you, really can’t be a part of it. That’s what

it was like with this movie, which was so much of a personal

movie for everyone involved with it.”

Hanson’s emphasis on character is complemented by a

strong visual imagination. As well as using the paintings of

John Register to suggest loneliness, he uses the black-and-

white photographs of Weegee (the pseudonym of Arthur

Fellig [1899–1968]) of smiling children taken at movie the-

aters during the 1940s to emphasize the importance of the

past for both main characters, Maggie (CAMERON DIAZ)

and Rose (TONI COLLETTE). At one point Rose loses her

temper and slams Maggie into the wall; the camera focuses

on Maggie’s tear-stained face, flanked by the photographs.

Neither sister had ever managed to overcome the trauma of

losing their mother Caroline, who committed suicide when

Maggie was just six years old.

Hanson encourages his cast to play against type.

SHIRLEY MACLAINE is normally associated with flamboy-

ant roles; in this film she plays someone who registers emo-

tional hurt through a single gesture—for example, a look

away from the camera. This achievement was noted in

another article published in The Guardian prior to the film’s

opening: “Hanson has an ability to get actors to play against

audience expectations. [He believes that] people can and do

change, often for the better. Things change. If I didn’t believe

in that I wouldn’t see the point. In any of it.”

References

Brad Balfour, “Curtis Hanson: The Director Steps into a

Woman’s World,” PopEntertainment.com (15 October 2005), www

.popentertainment.com/curtishanson.htm (accessed 8 August

2008); Ben Marshall,“If the Shoe Fits, Film It,” Guardian Guide,19

November 2005, 8–10.

HARMER, JULIET (1943– )

Juliet Harmer made her name playing Georgina Jones in

ADAM ADAMANT LIVES! She was not the original choice

for the role: Ann Holloway played it in the never-broadcast

pilot episode, but was considered “not quite sixties enough”

by producer VERITY LAMBERT. Lambert wanted someone

more boyish, so that she could satisfy the requirements of

BBC Head of Drama Sydney Newman, who had originally

conceived the role for a male actor.

Harmer’s performance as Georgina can best be

described as feisty. Although willing to follow Adam on his

various adventures, she seldom listens to anything he says to

her. Whenever he orders her to stay at home and keep out of

danger, we can be sure that she will do precisely the oppo-

site. Georgina was a typical 1960s girl—a fun-loving, happy-

go-lucky personality seeking new experiences. In “THE

LEAGUE OF UNCHARITABLE LADIES,” directed by Scott,

her curiosity puts her in peril as she is hypnotized by the evil

butler Randolph (JOHN CARSON) and instructed to kill

Adam with a poisoned flag (the kind one receives after hav-

ing given money to charity). Needless to say, Adam escapes

in the end.

Despite her self-willed nature, Georgina can never leave

Adam’s side. One of her favorite catchphrases, appearing at

the end of several episodes, is “Wait for me!” as she runs out

of the frame in hot pursuit of her companion.

Reference

Verity Lambert, interviewed in This Man Is the One (documentary

marking the 40th anniversary of Adam Adamant Lives! (London:

BBC Worldwide, 2006).

HARPER, GERALD (1929– )

Suave leading actor, the star of two long-running television

series—ADAM ADAMANT LIVES! (1966-1967) and Hadleigh

(1968, 1969–1976).

Born in London and trained at the Royal Academy of

Dramatic Art, Harper made his film debut in 1956 and

appeared as a supporting actor in many British films over

the next decade. At the time he was offered the leading role

in Adam Adamant Lives! he was due to appear on Broadway,

but the producers released him from his contract.

Harper plays Adam Adamant as a perfect English gen-

tleman. Always polite—even to his enemies—he invariably

finishes his exchanges with the phrase “Your servant, sir.” He

treats women with respect, even those who cause harm to

him. Like Roger Moore (a near-contemporary who also

made his name during the 1960s in a television adventure

series—The Saint), Harper is the master of the throwaway

look, the ironically raised eyebrow denoting surprise or dis-

pleasure, especially when confronted with an aspect of con-

temporary life that he dislikes.

Harper’s Adam is not afraid of a fight: many episodes

of Adam Adamant Lives! contain levels of violence that

might seem unacceptable by today’s standards. In Scott’s

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HANSON, CURTIS (1945– )

“THE LEAGUE OF UNCHARITABLE LADIES,” Adam has

a violent sword fight with Randolph (JOHN CARSON) that

only comes to an end when Randolph is poisoned by Hope

(Sheila Grant). The episode ends with Adam smiling broadly

and congratulating Georgina (JULIET HARMER) on her

“devious femininity” in being able to penetrate the ladies’

club and discover exactly what is happening inside. Adam

might never understand the concept of a liberated woman,

but he has to accept the fact that they have the power to act

on their own initiative. Hence the rare show of emotion

towards Georgina.

HARRIS, RICHARD (1931–2002)

Born in Limerick, Ireland, Harris made his film debut in a

comedy Alive and Kicking (1958). He shot to stardom as a

result of playing the leading role in an adaptation of David

Storey’s This Sporting Life (1963).

Harris was originally signed to play Commodus in

THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1964) but left the

cast after a dispute with the director Anthony Mann. The

part was eventually played by Christopher Plummer. Like

OLIVER REED, Harris’s reputation was as much depen-

dent on his off-screen antics as much as his film perfor-

mances. Both men had a reputation for being hard-drinking

womanizers. By the late 1990s, Harris’s movie career had

declined; apart from a leading role in The Field (1989),

he had scarcely featured in many films. Scott cast him in

GLADIATOR as Marcus, a character whom Harris described

in the book of the film as “a man in crisis, wrestling with

demons. He was a scholar and a philosopher, but he spent

sixteen of his twenty years as emperor fighting battles and

spilling blood to expand the empire. Now nearing the end,

he comes to realize that his life has been a fraud, and that

he has actually ruined his children—especially Com-

modus.” Although once a great leader, he now understands

that he paid insufficient attention to domestic concerns.

When Maximus (RUSSELL CROWE) describes his family

life in the film, focusing in particular on his vineyards with

“grapes on the south slopes, olives to the north [and] . . .

ponies play[ing] near the house,” Marcus responds some-

what enviously “I envy you, Maximus. It is a good home.”

However, Marcus cannot allow Maximus to fulfill his

dream of returning home; on the contrary, he offers the

general the position of protector of Rome. This decision

underlines Marcus’s inability to understand people; if he

really did, he would have realized that Maximus would

never accept the position. Marcus is eventually smothered

to death by Commodus, who cannot accept the fact that

his faults as a son were entirely attributable to his father’s

failings.

Harris gives a restrained performance, which seems

quite at odds with his off-screen reputation.

References

“Gladiator by David Franzoni, revised by John Logan,” Transcribed

from the film, http://sfy.ru/sfy/html?script=gladiator_ts (accessed

29 November 2008); Richard Harris, quoted in Diana Landau, ed.,

Gladiator: The Making of the Ridley Scott Epic (Basingstoke and

London: Boxtree, 2000), 59.

HARRIS, THOMAS (1940– )

A native of Mississippi, Thomas Harris began his writing

career covering crime in the United States and Mexico, and

was a reporter and editor for the Associated Press in New

York City. His first novel Black Sunday appeared in 1976, fol-

lowed by Red Dragon (1981), THE SILENCE OF THE

LAMBS (1988), and HANNIBAL (1999). The last of these

was filmed by Scott two years later.

After the success of The Silence of the Lambs, both as a

book and film, Harris admitted that he “dreaded doing Han-

nibal, dreaded the personal wear and tear, dreaded the

choices I would have to watch, feared for Starling. In the end

I let them go, as you must let characters go, let Dr. Lecter and

Clarice Starling decide events according to their natures.

There is a certain amount of courtesy involved.”

Hannibal centers on the efforts of a former Lecter vic-

tim, the paralyzed and faceless multi-millionaire meat-pack-

ing magnate Mason Verger, to enlist the aid of corrupt

Italian cops, snuff-film makers, pig trainers, and sleazy Jus-

tice Department official Paul Krendler in capturing Lecter

and then feeding him alive to a herd of swine. When the

novel was first published, it attracted considerable criticism—

especially the climax, which places Starling and Lecter in a

mutually cannibalistic and romantic union. Philip L. Simp-

son reports that many readers from the general public

expressed almost apoplectic levels of outrage. The novelist

Will Self has argued that whereas in Red Dragon and Silence

of the Lambs “Harris never compromised his creation’s fic-

tional integrity by attempting to explain his behaviour or his

motivations,” in Hannibal this compromise begins when, for

the first time,“Harris takes his reader into the hidden depths

of Lecter’s mind by the somewhat contrived means of the

‘memory palace.’” Another critic, Linda Mizejewski, argued

that Harris’s ending transforms Clarice “into elegance, myth

and romance ...Left behind are those women colleagues at

the FBI for whom Clarice was ‘kind of special.’ Left behind

also are disappointed readers like me, to whom Clarice was

also ‘kind of special,’ the courageous rescuer of another

woman and once embodied by JODIE FOSTER.”

Almost as soon as planning for the film version of Han-

nibal had begun, it was felt that Harris’s conclusion, which

featured Hannibal and Clarice in an apparently consensual

sexual relationship, would simply have to be dropped.

Screenwriter STEVEN ZAILLIAN kept the two of them

apart, dropped the references to Lecter’s memory palace, and

HARRIS, THOMAS (1940– )

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157

omitted any mention of the trauma occasioned by the death

of Lecter’s sister. According to David Schmid, this new ver-

sion ensured that Hannibal remained a mystery, a man with-

out a past, a monster rather than a victim, who murders

partly for retributive justice and partly to indulge his flair

for the dramatic.

References

Thomas Harris, “Foreword to a Fatal Interview,” in The Hannibal

Lecter Omnibus (London: William Heinemann, 2000), ix–x; Linda

Mizejewski, Hardboiled and High Heeled: The Woman Detective in

Popular Culture (London and New York: Routledge, 2004), 191–92.

David Schmid, “The Kindest Cut of All: Adapting Thomas Harris’

Hannibal,” Literature/Film Quarterly 35, no.1 (2007): 394; Will Self,

quoted in Schmid,“The Kindest Cut of All: Adapting Thomas Har-

ris’ Hannibal,” 393; Philip L. Simpson, “Gothic Romance and Killer

Couples in Black Sunday and Hannibal,” in Dissecting Hannibal Lecter:

Essays on the Novels of Thomas Harris, ed. Benjamin Szumskyj (Jef-

ferson, NC and London: McFarland & Company Inc., 2008), 50.

Bibliography

Neil McDonald, “Dr. Lecter, I Presume,” Quadrant 45, no.4 (April

2001): 59–62; Jack Morgan, The Biology of Horror: Gothic Litera-

ture and Film (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois Uni-

versity Press, 2002).

HARTNETT, JOSH (1978– )

Hartnett came to prominence in the teen horror crossover

film The Faculty, directed by Robert Rodriguez (1999). Also

cast in a lead role in Pearl Harbor (2001) produced by JERRY

BRUCKHEIMER. On the strength of this performance,

Bruckheimer cast him in BLACK HAWK DOWN. The Pearl

Harbor director of the latter film, Michael Bay, had shown

Hartnett parts of the Black Hawk Down script; Jerry Bruck-

heimer was the producer of both films.

Hartnett’s character was based on real-life army staff

sergeant Matt Eversmann. At the time of the raid (1993)

Eversmann was twenty-six years old, with five years experi-

ence of the US MILITARY. He was in charge of a group of

twelve men known as a “chalk.” Hartnett met Eversmann at

the US Army War College, where Eversmann worked as a

teacher. At one point during the making of the film, Hart-

nett said to one of his biographers that “we couldn’t have

any food . . . the people of Morocco [where Black Hawk

Down was made] are so poor that having the food would

have caused great fights from people trying to steal it . . . It

made me feel terrible. But think about how bad some peo-

ple have it in this world. You feel like this stupid fat cat . . .

We had the same haircuts as the US military, but I didn’t get

much outward hatred from the locals. You still felt a bit like

the ignorant white man coming in and wrecking everything

for everyone else.” The experience of the film was apparently

an eye-opener: “Ridley is such a masterful world-maker,

catching these details—like the man near the beginning of

the film, praying with the AK (Kalashnikov rifle) at his side.

This suddenly brings you into the world that we’re in.”

Hartnett’s character is perhaps the one most changed

by the experience of the war. At the beginning he comes

across as someone who genuinely believes that American

intervention in Somalia is justified on the grounds that

(according to KEN NOLAN’s script) “we can either help, or

we can sit back and watch the country destroy itself on CNN

. . . I think I was trained to make a difference.” By the end of

the film, however, Eversmann understands that the main

purpose of fighting a battle is to learn how to survive and to

look out for one’s fellow soldiers. The true heroes are not

those who “make a difference” but those like Smith (Char-

lie Hofheimer) who perish in the task of fighting for their

country. The script underlines this point in a stage direction:

“Eversmann, needing to make a final connection, touches

Smith’s chest ...a hero’s heart . . . another somebody who

didn’t ask to be a hero.” The experience of war has changed

Eversmann completely: “there are other wounds [in his

expression], the kind you can’t see at first glance . . . a soldier

who’s been in combat ...a look in a young man’s eyes ...a

look that makes you stop and take a deeper look.”

In an earlier version of the film, Eversmann introduced

the action with a voice-over, describing the Somalian civil

war in detail. However, Scott dispensed with this, preferring

instead to make the spectators focus on the images of

destruction—a lonely truck driving through ravaged coun-

tryside, bodies strewn everywhere, another body wrapped

in a sheet being carried away, another man covering a dead

person’s face.

References

Josh Hartnett, quoted in Lorelei Laun, Josh Hartnett: American Hero

(New York: Simon and Schuster, 2002), 44, 76; Ken Nolan, Black

Hawk Down: The Shooting Script (New York: Newmarket Press,

2002), 18, 127.

HARWOOD, RONALD (1935– )

Harwood began life as an actor in the touring theater work-

ing for the British actor Sir Donald Wolfit before turning to

playwriting. In the 1980s his play The Dresser was a critical

and popular success in the West End of London, on Broad-

way, and in the cinema, with ALBERT FINNEY in the title

role. Harwood adapted TERENCE RATTIGAN’s play THE

BROWNING VERSION for the 1994 film. While updating

the action to the modern era, Harwood nonetheless tried to

stay close to Rattigan’s original intentions in terms of char-

acterization. He added new scenes—for example, a storyline

where Taplow (BEN SILVERSTONE) is taunted about his

parents’ divorce.

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HARTNETT, JOSH (1978– )

Harwood believed this was important, as he liked to

“write about people who feel rather than about people who

think. The characters I create [or adapt] seem to be able to

laugh and cry with great facility. That is not only because I

myself laugh and cry with great facility but also because I

perceive the world as being unbearably funny and unbear-

ably sad.”

Reference

Ronald Harwood, “Introduction,” Plays 2 (London: Faber and

Faber Ltd., 1995), viii.

HAUER, RUTGER (1944– )

Rutger Hauer studied theater in Amsterdam and worked in

Basle, Switzerland. His first major film role was in Paul Ver-

hoeven’s Turkish Delight (1973); subsequently, he had roles

in the same director’s Spetters (1980) and Soldaat van

Oranje/Soldier of Fortune (1977), in which he played a World

War II resistance fighter. It was the latter film that convinced

to sign him as Batty for BLADE RUNNER.

In a 2007 interview with Dan Jolin, Hauer insisted that

Batty was “a hero in disguise,” whose humanity contrasts

with Deckard’s (HARRISON FORD’s) often brutal behav-

ior. Both men seek to kill their enemies, although only one

of Batty’s kills occurs on screen—a subtle skewing of our

sympathy on Scott’s part. Both, too, have a romance with a

mannequin-like woman; but compare Batty’s playful lan-

guage with Pris (DARYL HANNAH) with Deckard’s clum-

sily forced love scene with Rachael (SEAN YOUNG). Batty

has a sense of humor and a “poetic sense.”

Batty is characterized as a quasi-divine figure; after

killing Tyrell (JOE TURKEL), we see him descending in an

elevator, looking up at the stars, the heavens ebbing away

from him. On another occasion in Chew’s (JAMES

HONG’s) eye works, Batty recites lines from WILLIAM

BLAKE’s “America: A Prophecy”: “Fiery the angels fell . . . ”

Clearly Batty represents a fallen angel seeking redemption—

something he achieves right at the end, when he and

Deckard meet on the roof. Batty assumes the moral high

ground, taunting Deckard for firing on an unarmed assailant

and shouting “I thought you were supposed to be good.

Aren’t you the good man?” By the time Batty rescues

Deckard from the roof, the high ground has been secured:

Because life is important above all else, no matter what,

Batty saves the life of someone who killed Pris, the woman

he loved. Batty tells Deckard in his dying moments: “I’ve

seen things you wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the

shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark

near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in

time, like tears in rain. Time ...to die.”

Hauer recalled in the Jolin interview that these lines

seemed significant to him as they revealed Batty’s concern

to “make his mark on existence . . . And that he can say in a

small way to this so-called real world hero [Deckard] ‘Boy,

you’ve just been trying to escape and escape—you’ve never

stepped up to the plate. How unwarrior like.’ And the robot

in the final scene, by dying, sort of shows Deckard what a

real man is made of.”

The final scene ends with a telling moment as Batty lets

the dove go; and as he does so, grabs Deckard’s wrist and

murmurs, “Ah, kinship!” In a split second the two of them

are united; they might both be REPLICANTS or human

beings. If the latter is true, then Batty is certainly more

human than Deckard (as the Tyrell Corporation motto

informs us).

Batty has received a largely sympathetic reception from

the film’s critics. Leonard G. Heldreth wrote in 1991 that

“Roy Batty, the replicant . . . at the end believed like a man.”

PAUL M. SAMMON quotes PHILIP K. DICK, who felt the

final confrontation was “a wonderful moving sequence,”

helping to transform his novel “into a beautiful symmetri-

cal reinforcement of my original.” In his autobiography All

Those Moments (2007), Hauer wrote that Batty was the

greatest role of his career: “I knew after seeing it that I had

done a good job. As time goes on and people keep respond-

ing to it in such a positive way, it reinforces my instinct that

this is a great movie—one that is beautiful, dark, wicked,

poetic, exotic and beautiful.”

References

Rutger Hauer and Patrick Quinlan, All Those Moments: Stories of

Heroes, Villains, Replicants and Blade Runners (New York: Harper

Entertainment, 2007), 134–35; Leonard G. Heldreth,“The Cutting

Edges of Blade Runner,” in Retrofitting Blade Runner, ed. Judith B.

Kerman, 2nd ed. (Bowling Green: Bowling Green State University

Press, 1997), 40–52; Dan Jolin,“The Prodigal Son,” Empire, August

2007, 114–15; Paul M. Sammon, “The Making of Blade Runner,”

Cinefantastique 12, nos.5–6 (July 1982): 26.

Bibliography

Christine Holmlund, “Rutger Hauer: The Netherlands’ Paul New-

man,” in Action and Adventure Cinema, ed. Yvonne Tasker (London

and New York: Routledge, 2004), 287–88.

HEALY, MATT (?– )

Also writes under the name Matthew L. Healy. Born in Tren-

ton, New Jersey, Healy majored in journalism at the Univer-

sity of Colorado at Boulder. He then went on to work as a

graphic designer for various newspapers.

The screenplay for CLAY PIGEONS (originally titled “In

Too Deep”) won him a prize in the Writer’s Network screen-

play contest. He was signed by a major agency, ICM (Inter-

national Creative Management) and sold his script to Scott

Free.

HEALY, MATT (?– )

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