FBI Agent Will Graham, who retired after catching Hannibal Lecter, returns to duty to engage in a risky cat-and-mouse game with Lecter to capture a new killer.
William Petersen
Will Graham
Tom Noonan
Francis Dollarhyde
Joan Allen
Reba McClane
Brian Cox
Dr. Hannibal Lecktor
Dennis Farina
Jack Crawford
Stephen Lang
Freddy Lounds
Kim Greist
Molly Graham
David Seaman
Kevin Graham
Benjamin Hendrickson
Dr. Frederick Chilton
Chris Elliott
Zeller
Michael Talbott
Geehan
Dan Butler
Jimmy Price
Paul Perri
Dr. Sidney Bloom
Patricia Charbonneau
Mrs. Sherman
Alexandra Neil
Eileen
Frankie Faison
Lt. Fisk
Garcelle Beauvais
Young Housebuyer
Joanne Camp
Mother on Plane
David Allen Brooks
Mr. Leeds
Kin Shriner
Mr. Sherman
John Posey
Mr. Jacobi
Kristin Holby
Mrs. Jacobi
Bill Smitrovich
Lloyd Bowman
Peter Maloney
Dr. Dominick Princi
Michael D. Roberts
The Runner
Marshall Bell
Atlanta Policeman
Annie McEnroe
Stewardess
Michele Shay
Beverly Katz
Robin Moseley
Sarah
Bill Cwikowski
Ralph Dandridge
Norman Snow
Springfield
Jim Zubiena
Spurgen
Elisabeth Ryall
Mrs. Leeds
Gary Chavaras
Guard
Chris Cianciolo
Attendant
Ken Colquitt
Housebuyer
Ron Fitzgerald
Storage Guard #1
Dennis Quick
Storage Guard #2
David Meeks
Dr. Warfield
Sherman Michaels
Technician
Robin Trapp
Secretary #1
LA Winters
Secretary #2
Daniel T. Snow
State Trooper
Cynthia Chvatal
Airport Waitress
King White
SWAT Man
Mickey Lloyd
Atlanta Detective
Dawn Carmen
Child on Plane
David Fitzsimmons
Bill
Robert A. Burton
Doctor
Steve Hogan
Helicopter Pilot
Mickey Pugh
Lear Jet Technician
Greg Kelly
Jacobi Child #1
Brian Kelly
Jacobi Child #2
Ryan Langhorne
Jacobi Boy #3
Hannah Caggiano
Sherman Child #1
Lindsey Fonora
Sherman Child #2
Jason Frair
Leeds Child #1
Bryant Arrants
Leeds Child #2
Christopher Arrants
Leeds Child #3
Melvin Clark
SWAT Member
Renee Ayala
SWAT Member
Dana Dewey
SWAT Member
Stephen Hawkins
SWAT Member
Leonard Johnson
SWAT Member
Keith Pyles
SWAT Member
Michael Russell
SWAT Member
Michael Vitug
SWAT Member
Pat Williams
SWAT Member
Charles Yarbaugh
SWAT Member
Gusmano Cesaretti
National Tattler Photographer
Melody Gold
Airport Passenger
Director, Screenplay
Michael Mann
Novel
Thomas Harris
April 23, 2020
10
Recover the mindset.
Retired FBI specialist Will Graham is lured back into action to track a serial killer who is killing families, seemingly linked into the lunar cycle. In the process it opens up some old mental wounds that were born out during his last action out in the field...
Before the gargantuan success of Silence of the Lambs, where the name Hannibal the Cannibal moved into pop culture, and before director Michael Mann became a named auteur often referenced with relish by hungry film students; there was Manhunter, Michael Mann's brilliant adaptation of Thomas Harris' equally brilliant psychological thriller, Red Dragon. It feels a bit redundant now, years later, writing about Mann's use of styles to bear out mood and psychological states, his framing devices, his commitment to his craft, but after revisiting the film on Blu-ray, I find myself once again simultaneously invigorated and unnerved by the magnificence of Manhunter. Visually, thematically and narratively it remains a clinical piece of cinema, a probing study of madness that dares to put a serial killer and the man hunting him in the same psychological body, asking us, as well as William Petersen's FBI agent Will Graham, to empathise with Tom Noonan's troubled Tooth Fairy killer. Here's a thing, too, Francis Dolarhyde (The Tooth Fairy) is a functioning member of society, he is quite frankly a man who could be working in a shop near you! This is no reclusive psychopath such as, well, Buffalo Bill, Dolarhyde is presented to us in such a way as we are given insight into this damaged mind, he is fleshed out as a person, we get to know him and his motivational problems.
Dream much, Will?
Mann and his team are not about over the top or camp performances, gore is kept to a premium, the real horror is shown in aftermath sequences, conversations and harmless photographs, but still it's a nightmarish world. Suspense is wrung out slowly by way of the characterisations. Will has to become the killer, and it's dangerous, he knows so because he has done it before, when capturing Dr. Hannibal Lecktor. Needing to pick up the scent again, to recover the mindset, Will has to go see the good doctor who has a penchant for fine wines and human offal. These scenes showcase Mann at his deadliest, a bright white cell filmed off kilter, each frame switch showing either Lecktor or Graham behind bars, they are one. When Lecktor taunts Will about them being alike, Mann understands this and visually brings it out. Dolarhyde's living abode is murky in colour tones and furnished garishly, and with mirrors, paintings and a lunar landscape, yet when Dolarhyde is accompanied by Joan Allen's blind Reba, where he feels he is finally finding acceptance, this house is seen at ease because of the characterisations. Switch to the finale and it's a walled monstrosity matching that of a killer tipped back over the edge. Brilliant stuff.
If one does what God does enough times, one will become as God is.
Lecktor, soon to be back as the source material Lecter in the film versions that follow, is actually not in the film that much. Brian Cox (chilling, calculating, frightening and intelligent) as Lecktor gets under ten minutes of screen time, but that's enough, the character's presence is felt throughout the picture in a number of ways. The Lecktor angle is very relative to film's success, but very much it's one strand of a compelling whole, I realise now that Mann has deliberately kept us wanting more of him visually. Noonan is truly scary, he lived away from the rest of the cast during filming, with Mann's joyous encouragement, the end result is one of the best and most complex serial killer characterisations ever. Lang scores high as weasel paparazzi, Allen is heart achingly effective without patronising blind people and Farina is a huge presence as Jack Crawford, Will's friend and boss who coaxes Will back into the fray knowing full well that Will's mind might not make it back with him. But it's Petersen's movie all the way. His subsequent non film career has given ammunition to his knockers that he is no great actor. Rubbish, with this and To Live and Die in L.A. he gave two of the best crime film portrayals of the 80s. He immerses himself in Will Graham, so much so he wasn't able to shake the character off long after filming had wrapped. There's a scene in a supermarket where Will is explaining to his son about his dark place, where "the ugliest thoughts in the world" live, a stunning sequence of acting and a showcase for Petersen's undoubted talents.
Newcomers to the film and Mann's work in general, could do no worse than spend the ten minutes it takes to watch the Dante Spinotti feature on the disc. Apart from saving me the time to write about Mann's visual flourishes, it gives one an idea of just how key a director and cinematographer partnership is in a film such as this. The audio is crisp, which keeps alive the perfect in tone soundtrack and eerie scoring strains of Rubini and The Reds. Some say that the music of Manhunter is dated? I say that if it sits at one with the tonal shifts and thematics of a story then that surely can never be viewed as dated. And that's the case here in Manhunter. The director's cut is included as part of the package but the transfer is appalling, and for the sake of one cut scene that happens post the Dolarhyde/Graham face off, there's really not much to the DC version anyway. The theatrical cut is perfect, brilliantly realised on Blu-ray to birth a true visual neo-noir masterpiece. 10/10
Status:
Released
Original Language:
English
Budget:
$150,000,000.00
Revenue:
$8,620,929.00