Manhunter (1986) Review

Manhunter (1986) Review

Manhunter is an adaptation of Red Dragon by Thomas Harris, which features the first appearance of the legendary character Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Most people know him primarily from Silence of the Lambs, but this was before Anthony Hopkins gave his incredible performance in the role. In fact, none of the roles were played by any of the same actors in any of the following movies, making Manhunter fairly unique, and not really feel like part of the series. 

The story follows retired FBI profiler Will Graham being pulled back into his old line of work: getting inside the heads of psychopaths in order to track them down and catch them. The last time he did this was with Hannibal Lecter (spelt “Lecktor” in the credits, but I’m ignoring that, it’s the same character), which almost cost Will his life. He follows the trail of “The Tooth Fairy”, who has a very specific and disturbing method of dispatching victims and mutilating them. Not much of this is shown, however, but is more suggested with gloomy visuals and extensive dialogue. Graham consults Lecter in his cell, though these scenes are minimal, just like in the novel. The main focus is on Graham’s process, and his prey, whose real name is Francis Dollarhyde, trying to complete his transformation into the book’s title, the “Red Dragon”. 

Personally, I don’t care for Manhunter. I appreciate the acting, some of the cinematography, and the fairly faithful adaptation of the source material, but I still have a number of issues with it. Michael Mann directed, as well as wrote the script, and he would later become famous for crime thrillers like Heat and Miami Vice, but Manhunter originally came out to little acclaim. It looks and feels low budget, and is definitely of the 80’s. 

The best part is William Petersen as Will Graham. He does a great job of making the character sympathetic but unhinged. One minute he’s intensely focused, then in the blink of an eye he explodes with rage, then goes back to focused. The whole cast, really, does a suitable job, but it’s the script that fails to fully flesh out the villain Graham is after. 

The story focuses mainly on Graham and leaves a lot of Dollarhyde’s story out, making him less scary, in a way. He seems more like just some random bad guy instead of the truly complex and tragic villain depicted in the novel. In particular, the whole “Red Dragon” aspect to his character is downplayed significantly, and the ending of the film, when Graham finally meets him face-to-face, is another part I have a huge problem with. The ending has some bizarre editing choices and lacks an intense finality. To be fair, there was no way they could have done the ending like the book without having a huge budget and making the movie even longer. As it is, it clocks in at an appropriate two hours, yet still feels sluggish in pacing.  

One of the biggest problems I have is the music. The movie feels of the 80’s mainly because of this. The music is all large synthesizer sounds that don’t do anything to ratchet up the fright or tension or intensity. I find it mostly distracting. There are also long stretches without any music, and a strange use of “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” toward the end. Some of the shots are quite good, but many of them are uninteresting, and the settings seem oddly empty. There are numerous shots of blank walls and characters without much expression moving very little. 

But what about Hannibal Lecter? Well, as with the book, he’s barely in it, but when he is, he’s a potent presence. Brian Cox plays Lecter, and does a good job, despite not having much to work with. Still, it is without a doubt the least memorable appearance of the character in a film. 

So is Manhunter a bad movie? No, not really. In fact, it’s been critically re-appraised since it first came out, which is pretty significant considering the later acclaim for the character of Lecter. But, despite the unarguably sure-handedness in direction and writing, the comparisons to other adaptations of Thomas Harris’ work are inevitable. It’s almost unfair—if you forget about anyone else’s performance as Lecter and forget about the original novel and just look at Manhunter as a straight thriller, it’s decent for its time. I can’t help feeling it’s still not an excellent film. Watchable? Yes, I’d even accept saying it’s good, but I still wouldn’t recommend it over other adaptations of Harris’ novels.