The lambs have not yet stopped screaming for Donald Trump. Nor has the screaming in our heads as we try to understand what’s behind the Republican nominee’s fixation with Hannibal Lecter – who he keeps namechecking during his speeches. Anthony Hopkins has stated he's "shocked and appalled."
ADVERTISEMENTTo no one’s surprise, Donald Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination for the third time on Thursday night.
He appeared on stage after Kid Rock delivered a version of his song American Bad Ass and a shirt-ripping endorsement from wrestling has-been Hulk Hogan.
And if that doesn’t sound surreal enough, the former president rambled on for more than 90 minutes about the recent attempt on his life (suggesting he had been saved by divine intervention - "I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of almighty God") and often veered off-script with wild inaccuracies.
He pledged to build the rest of the southern border wall, "most of which I have already built" (false). He said that "groceries are up 50%, gasoline is up 60 to 70%, mortgage rates have quadrupled" (false).
And despite stating that “the discord and division in our society must be healed” and that he was “running to be president for all of America, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America,” he called Biden one of the US' worst presidents.
He also labelled Nancy Pelosi as “crazy” and fell back on his usual anti-immigrant rhetoric, accusing other countries of treating the US like a “dumping ground” for criminals and “insane asylum” patients.
There was one reference which popped up during this long-winded and particularly unhinged bit of rambling about immigration that stood out to us here at Euronews Culture: the mention of one of cinema’s greatest villains, Hannibal Lecter.
The fictional character, famous from Thomas Harris’ novels and several films and TV shows, was referenced by Trump during his speech – and not for the first time.
“You know, the press is always on me because I say this,” Trump began.
But he still couldn’t resist.
“Has anyone seen Silence of the Lambs? The late, great Hannibal Lecter. He’d love to have you for dinner. That’s insane asylums, they’re emptying out their insane asylums.”
Attempting to get on Trump’s fava bean wavelength (heaven help us) and decipher what on God’s green earth he’s on about, the former president was threatening undocumented migrants with mass deportations and compared them with The Silence of the Lambs’ cannibalistic villain.
Trying to make sense of what Trump says and following his train of thought is akin to trying to explain the concept of gravity to a particularly absent-minded goose. It’s not easy and, ultimately, useless.
However, the Hannibal Lecter case remains an interesting one. It’s not a cultural reference you’d expect to hear from a presidential candidate, and the character seems to play on Trump’s mind quite a bit.
Indeed, this isn’t the first time Trump has namechecked Hannibal in his speeches, usually when he demonises migrants.
ADVERTISEMENTWhile speaking at his campaign rallies in May, Trump compared migrants to the serial killer, who he again referred to as “The late, great Hannibal Lecter” and said, “He’s a wonderful man.”
Trump knows that Lecter is fictional, right?
We’re pretty sure he’s never read the books and are willing to bet that he probably fell asleep during The Silence of the Lambs, as he’s not known for his robust attention span.
But it is worth reminding that Hannibal is a) not a real person; b) hardly “wonderful” because as much as we love to see him on screen, the cannibal has little empathy for his fellow man and unlike Darth Vader, for example, doesn’t have that much of a redemption arc; c) famously not dead, as the character survives at the end of the 1991 Oscar-winning film, and maintains his oxygen habit in the books and all other TV and film adaptations - thereby not being “late”.
ADVERTISEMENTAlso, Anthony Hopkins, the actor who played Lecter across three films (because we’re convinced that Trump isn’t the sort of person who’d know that the first iteration of the character came courtesy of Brian Cox in Michael Mann’s 1986 thriller Manhunter, before being played by the peerless Mads Mikkelsen in the NBC show Hannibal), is still very much alive at the age of 86 and continuing to add credits to his impressive filmography.
Speaking of which, Hopkins was asked in a recent interview with Deadline about the fact that Trump was speaking about the character of Hannibal as if he were a real person.
“As if he is real?” Hopkins asked during a conversation. “I didn’t know that,” he continued, reportedly while laughing.
“Hannibal, that’s a long time ago that movie. God, that was over 30 years ago. I’m shocked and appalled what you’ve told me about Trump.”
ADVERTISEMENTJoin the club, Tony.
So, why the apparent fixation on the cannibalistic antihero?
Daddy issues?
Possibly, but we won’t attempt a Freudian psychoanalysis for Trump, as that would be like staring into the jaws of the maddening abyss, where we’d probably bump into Stormy Daniels’ hellish avatar proclaiming: “I AM THE GATEKEEPER!”
ADVERTISEMENTTransference, in the sense Trump recognises a kindred spirit?
Hard to say, but Trump, who fools himself into believing that he is "a very stable genius”, possesses none of Hannibal’s devilish charms, impeccable tastes, intellect, cooking abilities (that we know of) or well-spoken abilities to communicate. Plus, Hannibal has a curious sense of morality and ethics. He has a code that he adheres to, and rudeness is the greatest sin of all. To quote The Silence of the Lambs, he tells Clarice Starling: “Discourtesy is unspeakably ugly to me.” Considering morality, ethics and tact aren’t terms we’d associate with Trump, we’re ruling out the kindred spirit hypothesis.
A way of demonising migrants through a confused movie reference that shows Trump genuinely doesn’t know what he’s referencing?
That seems about right.
ADVERTISEMENTIn other speeches, Trump has used the Hannibal touchstone in order to vilify migrants, who were “from mental institutions, insane asylums…you know, insane asylums, that’s ‘Silence of the Lambs’ stuff.”
He uses Hannibal Lecter to explain how America is out of control, injecting fear into the minds of the public through a well-known scary movie villain. It’s a particularly infantile but sadly effective scaremongering tactic that equates real-life issues with fictional evil, implying that other Lecters could be coming to the US and living among the unsuspecting population.
But because the reference is wrong in every way – for many of the reasons we’ve stated - it’s more confusing than anything else. We’re just glad that Emmanuel Macron isn’t referencing Leatherface, and we’re hoping that Kier Starmer doesn’t start peppering his speeches with nods to Freddy Krueger.
Trump’s tirades have never made much sense, but when it comes down to it, his cinematic fascination reveals two things.
ADVERTISEMENTFirstly, he’s lost the plot, messing up his fearmongering tactics with cultural references that reveal his genuine lack of culture. This means that anyone bashing Joe Biden for his age and capacity to run again needs to look at the lunatic opposition and weep.
Secondly, while The Silence of the Lambs may be an enduring and terrifying gem of a film, it pales in comparison to this year's presidential race.
