Shallow rollers and deep rollers - Hannibal

[mountainboo]

In Hannibal the scene where Starling is in the basement of the Fed's listening to past conversations she had with Hannibal, he talks about shallow rollers and deep rollers. Firstly can anyone remember the entire piece of dialogue Hannibal's character used and secondly what does he actually mean. I have a vague guess but find it hard to put into words! Thanks in advance.

[Quizmonster]

'Rollers' are birds who do just that...ie roll in the sky. Shallow rollers are safe enough, because they correct their attitude before they hit the ground and fly on. Deep rollers aren't so lucky as - just like an overenthusiastic aerobatics pilot - they don't manage to come out of the roll in time. As best I recall, Hannibal was just hoping that Clarice's parents weren't both deep rollers, as that would mean almost certain self-destruction for her, having only that sort of gene in her make-up.

[mountainboo]

great answer quizmonster thanks

[Quizmonster]

Re the first part of your question, Mountainboo...

Barney: She's nice; she's always been nice to me. Polite, don't you think?

Hannibal: Do you know what a roller pigeon is, Barney? Roller pigeons climb high and fast and roll over and fall just as fast towards the earth. There are shallow rollers and there are deep rollers. You can't breed two deep rollers or their young, their offspring, will roll all the way down, hit and die. Agent Starling is a deep roller. Let's hope one of her parents was not.

I taped the film recently, so - at a time when I had little else to do yesterday evening - I skimmed through it to the relevant scene and copied the dialogue for you. My first answer seems to have got it right. Cheers

[mountainboo]

I really appreciate you doing that for me quizmonster thanks very much. I know Hannibal is just a character invented by Thomas Harris but the things he says ie: about the shallow rollers and deep rollers are amazing and very complex. Anyway, thanks again quizmonster