My Review of Manhunter (1986)

 

Written And Directed by Michael Mann

Will: "It's just you and me now, sport. And I'm going to find you, God damn it."

To the general audience, there are two actors who they deeply associate as the character of Hannibal Lecter and it's not Brian Cox. However in this movie, he's Hannibal Lecktor and he's a supporting player in this now cult classic and first onscreen depiction of the iconic killer and cannibal.

Yeah, this was an adaptation of Thomas Harris's Red Dragon novel. Here, it's FBI Agent Will Graham (William Petersen) that's the main protagonist and it's a race against time in order for Will to stop Francis Dollarhyde aka the Tooth Fairy (Tom Noonan) from escalating his depraved crimes.

Part of Will's journey into saving the day meant confronting Hannibal Lecktor. There's a violent history between the two of them and some of the best moments are the scenes between these two. Hannibal seemed to have a bit of grudging respect for Will but was mostly helpful in helping Will get closer into trapping Dollarhyde.

As a villain, Francis was chilling enough. He was a fan of Hannibal and the FBI tried to use that in order to smoke him out. Instead they put Freddy Lounds (Stephen Lang) in the worst kind of danger. Lounds did put himself in the firing line with the way he implied that Francis was gay and Freddy's comeuppance did make for one of the most brutal scenes in the whole film. I even felt bad for the guy.

As for Dollarhyde, he had a girlfriend named Reba (Joan Allen) and she was partially there to try and humanise Francis a little. Francis even went berserk when Reba was abducted but he was also willing to kill her when we got into the final confrontation between him and Will.

Outside of Will, Hannibal and Francis, the other most noteworthy characters included FBI Agent Jack Crawford (Dennis Farina) and he's a good support character. There's some screen time given to Will's wife, Molly (Kim Griest) and his son and they're there to show Will's private life.

- This won't be the only film adaptation of this particular book as we'd get a 2002 version as well. 

- Brian Cox has mentioned basing his performance on Scottish serial killer Peter Manuel.

- Standout music: Shriekback's The Big Hush and The Prime Movers Strong As I Am.

- Chronology: Birmingham, Alabama as well as St. Louis, Atlanta and Florida.

I can see why Manhunter (1986) has developed its cult classic status. Its a pretty strong adaptation of the source material and there's good performances from William Petersen, Tom Noonan and Brian Cox respectively. 

Rating: 7 out of 10