Red Dragon (2002) Review

The movie begins with Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins
again) entertaining some dinner guests, then speaking with detective Will
Graham (played by Edward Norton this time) about trying to catch a serial killer,
whom Will believes is eating his victims. Turns out, the killer is Hannibal all
along. They get into a vicious skirmish, ending with Hannibal fatally stabbing
Will, and Will stabbing Hannibal, as well as shooting him! Multiple times! But
they both live. It’s way too extreme to be believable, and one of the few
things I fundamentally dislike. This prologue itself hints at a very
interesting story, which almost leaves you feeling like it could’ve made an
interesting story within itself (leave that to the TV series to tackle, more on
that soon!), but then we get into the story—the same story told in Manhunter, so I don’t really need to
recap it all, just read that review if you haven’t.
I think Red Dragon
is the second-best Hannibal Lecter film, second only to Silence of the Lambs, though it isn’t really Lecter’s film, despite
what the marketing material and home video covers lead you to think. He is once
again relegated to being a secondary character, though still has a strong presence
throughout. Ted Tally, who adapted Silence
of the Lambs, wrote the screenplay for this one, as well, so it’s no
surprise that it’s a well-paced, chilling thriller, though still not nearly as
well-refined as Lambs, even though
the story is arguably more interesting.
Taking the source material into consideration, it’s a largely
faithful adaptation, recreating nearly every major scene and including many
details described in the book, but even taking the book out of the equation,
it’s still a solid thriller. It doesn’t rely on gore and shock like Hannibal did, it’s more about the
mystery, though still delivers some select gory moments. In many ways, Red Dragon is a better adaptation of the
source material than Manhunter, but
not in every way. Not much time is invested in getting to understand Graham’s
connection to his family and why he’s resistant to return to the FBI; he just sort
of jumps back into things after nearly dying at the hands of Lecter, and
doesn’t hesitate to use his knowledge in order to catch Dollarhyde, making the
opening prologue a bit superfluous.
The main thing I think Red
Dragon got wrong was the casting of Will Graham. Edward Norton just doesn’t
pop in this role. He’s interacting with Anthony Hopkins, who is great as Lecter
once again, but always feels like he’s operating on one level. He never
explodes or exhibits that edge like William Petersen (Manhunter) or Hugh Dancy (Hannibal
series), he’s just…OK. All the other actors, though, inhabit their roles perfectly,
from Phillip Seymour Hoffman as reporter Freddie Lounds to Harvey Keitel as
Jack Crawford. Ralph Fiennes’ performance as Francis Dollarhyde is great, too,
and much closer to the character as depicted in the book, but the story also
delves more deeply into him. Even Dr. Chilton and Barney the orderly make
appearances, played by the same actors who played them in Silence of the Lambs—yet another way this feels more prequel-like.

You could call Red
Dragon one of the best horror remakes, or one of the best horror prequels.
Call it whatever you want, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s an underrated
horror-thriller with great acting, a great story, and compelling (though
haunting) characters. It’s not nearly as exceptional as Silence of the Lambs, but of the five Hannibal Lecter films, Red Dragon is considerably better than
the other, lesser three.
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