Set in the 80s
Other than Hannibal Im guessing Red Dragon and Silence are all set in the 80s?
Red dragon starts in 1980 with Hannibal being caught by graham.
Just wondering if the books state this.
They're Filming Midgets!
Well the earliest the main story of Red Dragon can be set in the 80's is 1986,but from the looks of the family's video collection i'd say closer to 1989-1990. That and the ending leads up to Silence of the Lambs for some reason.
shareThat and the ending leads up to Silence of the Lambs for some reason.
Remind people it's a prequel I guess, but it is weird how there's no mention of the Buffalo Bill slayings anywhere in the film.
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The timeline shifts around a bit.
Red Dragon, which was published in 1981, was set in 1978, at the time of the Leeds-Jacobi murders. Crawford enlists Graham's help, and he's been retired since capturing Lecter three years earlier (1975).
Red Dragon starts in 1980, with Graham connecting the dots and Lecter going to jail. When Crawford meets with Will the first time, it only says "Several Years Later," but I'd put it toward the later 1980s, maybe 1987 or so, but no earlier than 1983.
Silence of the Lambs was published in 1988. The film version came out in 1991. In the film, Lecter says he's been in jail for eight years. If it's contemporary (and not set a few years before its release date), then that puts his arrest in 1983. However, his trial probably would have taken some time after his capture, so that somewhat explains the time gap.
In the books, there are several years, possibly even a decade (1978-1988) between Dolarhyde's killings and Buffalo Bill's. There isn't any correlation between the two in the books.
The ending, with Chilton telling Lecter that an attractive agent is there to interview him, was something they added, not something in the books. By that time, Will had healed from his fight with Dolarhyde.
Fudging a little, if Lecter was arrested in 1980 and the events of Red Dragon take place in 1987, the events of SOTL could happen in 1988. Before Clarice interviewed Lecter, he'd only read about Buffalo Bill in the newspapers.
Also, there's a practical reason. The rights to SOTL were pretty closely guarded, the same reason they didn't use it in Hannibal (the series). They might have wanted to use it, but couldn't.