Dr. Hannibal Lecter is one of cinema’s most appealing villains. Most remember his first on-screen appearance as being in 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs with Anthony Hopkins in the role. However, that’s not correct. The first person to play Hannibal Lecter was Brian Cox. The movie in which he first appeared is Manhunter, the original film version of the book, Red Dragon, although his name is spelled Lecktor for some reason.
Forensic investigator Will Graham (William Petersen) has retired from the FBI after being psychologically traumatized by his last case: Dr. Hannibal Lecktor. Graham’s work involved getting inside the minds of the killers he tracked and thinking as they might do as they stalk their victims. As he explains the process to his son, this means he has to have “the most horrible thoughts in the world.” Wanting to be with his family, Graham has retreated to a beach home in Florida. When Jack Crawford (Dennis Farina) arrives to ask him back for one more case, he hesitates. When Jack reveals the killer is going after families, Graham can’t say no.
The killer — nicknamed “The Tooth Fairy” — breaks into houses of seemingly unconnected people. The killings aren’t even in the same state and there doesn’t appear to be any similarity between the cases at all. Graham decides to visit his old adversary, Lecktor, in prison to try to recover the mindset he needs to work on a case of this nature. Lecktor, who is something of a celebrity in the serial killer world, manages to strike up a correspondence with The Tooth Fairy. Will and the FBI try to use Lecktor to lure the killer out, but the plan doesn’t quite go as planned.
If you’ve seen any of the other film adaptations of Thomas Harris’ novels that feature Anthony Hopkins as Lecter, this film will probably seem a little odd and dated. However, if you watch it with the knowledge that it was the first of the Harris novels to reach the screen and the first attempt to bring Lecter to life, everything falls into place. Lecter is not the focus of Manhunter. Nor should he be. This is the story of Will Graham and his struggle to deal with the type of process he uses to catch killers. He essentially thinks like a killer and this goes against what he holds dear in life: his family.
William Petersen, who had only one major role before this, holds the film together with his intense portrayal of Will Graham. He’s clearly tortured by his job and his responsibility to find the killer. It’s fitting that Petersen would go on to find greater fame as Gil Grissom on TV’s C.S.I. doing similar work. Brian Cox, as Lecktor, is subtle and yet still very menacing. I prefer his Lecktor to Hopkins’ more over-the-top portrayal in The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal. Tom Noonan, who plays Francis Dollarhyde, is outstanding. He is the true villain of Manhunter and while his character isn’t as fully developed as Will Graham, his is almost as sympathetic a portrayal. His scenes with Reba (Joan Allen) do a lot to showcase his internal conflict.
Michael Mann’s direction is moody and stylish. Although some may think it looks like an overlong episode of Miami Vice — which Mann produced and wrote — it’s still a very effective and engrossing thriller. It definitely looks and sounds like a film made in the 1980s, but it retains its edge. Recommended.
4.5 out of 5.0 stars
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