Manhunter (1986)

What a waste of my time!!!

Truly Dreadful Film

Purely Joyful Movie!

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Michael Mann's 1986 film "Manhunter" is a great example of the cool iciness his directing emits in "Miami Vice" and the high tech smarts of "Heat". In the film, Will Graham, a retired F.B.I. agent, is asked to return to the force to help solve a series of mysterious murders by a killer going by the name of "The Tooth Fairy". Years ago, Graham was pushed to the edge by the cannibalistic, serial killer Hannibal Lecktor, which is what caused him to snap and be forced to retire. Eventually Graham works up the courage to say yes to his new assignment, only to find out that Lecktor is the only one who truly knows "The Tooth Fairy". The chemistry between William Peterson's Graham and Brian Cox's Lecktor is electric. In fact, Lecktor only has 15 total minutes of screen time throughout the whole film-but Cox's performance leaves a strong mark on the whole film. Arguably one of the most underrated screen performances out there comes from Tom Noonan as "The Tooth Fairy". His character is incredibly twisted and psychotic, but when you see him slowly falling in love with Reba, you begin to slowly feel the guilt and pain he begins feeling during these scenes. It's as if he realizes that if he had just not gone off the deep end and held on for a while longer, he would have found true happiness with Reba, but because he went down that hole he realizes there relationship is doomed. It's a truly powerful piece of acting.From a film making standpoint, "Manhunter" is very sleek and cool visually. This is mostly because of Dov Hoenig's music video like editing and Dante Spinotti's eery camera work. Both of these combined make for a very visually pleasing film. It's easily one of the best looking films of the 80's. If there were any complaints with "Manhunter", it's that some lines feel a little too cheesy or cheap for the films own good and that the title sounds clichéd and doesn't really fit the tone of the film. But, those are two very minor gripes with a near flawless film. Highly recommended if you're looking for a definitive example of Michael Mann's direction in action or a very smart police thriller.

The novel 'Red Dragon' (1981) refers to 'The Great Red Dragon' paintings by William Blake, which depict scenes from the Book of Revelation. These allegorically describe an ongoing struggle between good and evil. The novel spawned the Michael Mann film 'Manhunter' (1986).Simpson in his book 'Psycho Paths: Tracking the Serial Killer through Contemporary American Film,' refers to 'Manhunter' as a 'profoundly ambiguous and destabilizing film' with 'uncomfortable affinities between protagonist and antagonist.' Conard in 'The Philosophy of Film Noir' is more to the point; "what it takes to catch a serial killer is tantamount to being one."Mann and cinematographer Dante Spinotti (who funnily enough also shot the 2002 remake 'Red Dragon'), make strong use of colour tints using cool blues in the scenes featuring Will Graham and his wife Molly, green for searching and discovery, and purple or magenta in the unsettling scenes involving Dollarhyde (the 'Tooth Fairy') and Doctor Hannibal Lecter. The foregrounding of glass, steel and concrete walls illustrates Mann's concern with estrangement and 'mirror images.' Graham is capable of apprehending Dollarhyde because he can get into his mindset and share similar psychological instincts, resulting in him struggling to regain his values. Dr Lector whom Graham visits in prison in order to gather a profile of Dollarhyde, recognises this.Both visually, and in regards to the feeling of alienation Mann is reminiscent of Michelangelo Antonioni. Mann borrows from Antonioni the concern for capturing the space that people inhabit. An early perfectly composed symmetrical shot illustrates the relationship between Graham and Agent Crawford, with the clear positioning of the characters on opposite ends of the frame as Crawford attempts to coerce Graham back to the FBI. The final shot of this sequence is of Crawford and Molly, and the physical distance between them is far greater than in the shot that opens the sequence.Towards the end of the chase, Graham (talking about Dollarhyde) could be discussing the key themes of Dario Argento's work, a director also influenced by Antonioni's visual asthetic "… because everything with you is seeing isn't it. Your primary sensory intake, the thing that makes your dream live is seeing. Reflections. Mirrors. Images…"The song by Iron Butterfly 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida' (a mondegreen for 'In The Garden Of Evil'), is memorably used in the climax, and reminds one of the thumping 'Goblin' scores employed by Argento, particularly in 'Deep Red' and 'Tenebre'.Argento has said he didn't like the film, disliking how the novel's ending was changed for the film. Argento's 'Opera' would incorporate the end of the novel 'Red Dragon.'

Although THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS is the film that everyone remembers for Anthony Hopkins' portrayal of the cannibal Dr. Hannibal Lector, I find that in most cases the general public don't realise that Hopkins was not the first actor to play Lector. No, that dubious honour goes to Brian Cox, whose brief but powerful turn as Lector in MANHUNTER is just one of the film's many highlights. I didn't really know what to expect when I watched this film; I'd heard that it was good, but little did I realise just HOW good it was. MANHUNTER is one of the very best films about a serial killer I've seen; this is an intelligent, exciting and thought-provoking story which I actually preferred to THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS in some respects.This is a disturbing film too, although without the grossness of the film that followed it. Here, the violence is left to the imagination, which makes it all the more effective. Usually the police investigations in these films are dry and boring, but here, as the characters doing the investigating are very human, it becomes interesting and watchable. The cast is first rate; especially good is Peterson as the slightly disturbed FBI man haunted by his previous encounters with Cox. He is equalled by the underrated Tom Noonan, who is simply brilliant as the killer, Francis Dollarhyde. Noonan would forever be typecast as a baddie after this performance, but his work here is excellent as he creates a childish, sympathetic man who cannot control the urges or what he does.The strong supporting cast includes Joan Allen (very good) as a blind victim; Dennis Farina as a fellow cop (wait, doesn't he always play that role?), and Stephen Lang as a nerdy reporter who meets a fate worse than death. Michael Mann's assured direction keeps the film believable and interesting at all times; MANHUNTER is exciting when it needs to be and very disturbing at other times (especially that scene with Dollarhyde with the stocking over his head... an image guaranteed to give you nightmares). Odd scenes like the burning wheelchair victim are unexpected and help to keep you on your toes. A rare film that doesn't underestimate the intelligence of the audience, MANHUNTER is a perfectly-made film that should be rewatched in the days of populist stuff like SEVEN and THE BONE COLLECTOR just to remember how good it is.

Manhunter is a lot of underrated brilliant thriller from Michael Mann who directed also Heat and Collateral. This is very underrated original film from Dr. Hannibal Lecktor. I prefer Red Dragon (2002) over this film. Red Dragon was the first film I saw and watching this film I realized something: the film suffers from it's problems: Brian Cox's character had less screen time on it in this film. I only saw three scenes of his character and by the end of the film he disappeared without any explanation. But that doesn't mean I don't like it, I like this film, I like it a lot and it is my third favorite film from Hannibal Lector films franchise. I don't care about Hannibal Rising. To me it is a useless prequel and I want watch TV series and I really don't care about it. William Petersen as Will Graham is awesome. This is the best performance of him, I have ever saw. William was the main cast in CSI (2000) as Gil Grissom but after he left and Ted Danson took over the show, I quit watching it. Gil Grissom will always be my favorite character.Tom Noonan scared me to death, his character was a real psychopath scary villain as Francis Dolarhyde "The Tooth Fairy". I seriously thought Ralph Fiennes had better acting performance, cause I got to know his character a bit more. In this movie I honestly had no clue why Tom Noonan was terrorizing family's. He was less in the film and he had less screen time, but even with less screening time, he was really scary. I prefer Antony Hopkins over Ronny Cox and I prefer Ralph Fiennes over Tom Noonan, that is just my opinion.Things I do like about this film: Director Michael Mann used a lot of music and theme music from Miami Vice. I read a review on IDMb from a user claiming, this was a Miami Vice style. Michael Mann was producer of Miami Vice so of course he used music from Miami Vice.The songs in this movie are all beautiful. After watching this movie, the song was playing when Tom Noonan woke up, beside Reba McClane (Joan Allen) my dad rushed to me and asked about the music who was the artist of this beautiful song. I answered I really don't know, because I don't know what song was played.I love William Petersen to death as Will Graham in here, his acting skill is glorious in this movie.You have nice shootouts on the end of the film: Serial killer Francis Dollarhyde (Tom Noonan) uses a pistol gripped Remington 870 at the end of the film. He kills 2 cops, wounds Jack Crawford (Dennis Farina) and attempts to kill Graham (William Petersen) before he pumps 6 rounds into him with his Bulldog (though before Dollarhyde was also wounded by another cop's bullet).Will kills Francis on the end of the film, he saves Reba (Joan Allen) from The Tooth Fairy and tells her that he's name is Will Graham.During shootouts you hear the song playing IN-A-GADDA-DA-VIDA played by Iron Butterfly, I love that song.I love the shootouts on the end of the film and Will saves a hostage Reba after he saw trough window how Francis is attempting to kill Reba, he runs towards him and jumps trough the window on Francis, but Francis is to strong he cuts him and he throws him in the fridge wounding him. This scene is awesome and I love it. How Will figure it out, the motive from Francis was brilliant, I think Jack Crawford shouldn't hold him back. Brian Cox as Dr. Hannibal Lecktor was brilliant and masterful scary, he did a good job, I only wish he would had more screen time with Will Graham.I love the scene after Will visits Hannibal, he runs out of the building for been so scared of Hannibal. I also like Brian Cox in cell talking on the phone with Will that was beautiful scene.I also like the song on the end of the credits HEARTBEAT Performed by Red 7. The title of the movie "Manhunter" was credit because the film producers feared that people will think that it is a kung fu movie.I am giving Manhunter 8 out of 10 to me it is a tie with Red Dragon. I like this film a lot, a lot and it is my third favorite film in the Hannibal series. Silence will always be number one movie, it was the first movie I saw it.Manhunter is a 1986 American crime horror thriller film based on Thomas Harris' novel Red Dragon. Written and directed by Michael Mann, it stars William Petersen as FBI profiler Will Graham. Also featured are Tom Noonan as serial killer Francis Dollarhyde, Dennis Farina as Graham's FBI superior Jack Crawford, and Brian Cox as incarcerated killer Hannibal Lecktor. The film focuses on Graham coming out of retirement to lend his talents to an investigation on Dollarhyde, a killer known as "The Tooth Fairy." In doing so, he must confront the demons of his past and meet with Lecktor, who nearly counted Graham among st his victims.8/10 Grade: B Studio: De Laurentiis Entertainment Group Red Dragon Productions Starring: William Petersen, Kim Greist, Joan Allen, Brian Cox, Dennis Farina, Stephen Lang, Tom Noonan, Director: Michael Mann Producers: Kenneth Utt, Edward Saxon, Ron Bozman Screenplay: Michael Mann Based on Red Dragon by Thomas Harris Rated: R Running Time: 2 Hr. 00 Mins. Budget: $15.000.000 Box Office: $8.620.929