I had never heard about Manhunter until after The Silence of the Lambs became popular and trying to debate which is better is like Alien vs. Aliens. Both movies work on their own even though they have a different director and different cast but are related.
Michael Mann, directed the movie and wrote the screenplay based on Thomas Harris’ novel Red Dragon. He’s had a history of making gritty crime movies and TV shows. Miami Vice, which he had spearheaded, was riding high by the summer of 1986. While Thief is a great gritty crime movie, Mann follow-up The Keep isn’t the best. So it’s no surprise Mann had to turn to Dino De Laurentiis and his short-lives independent studio De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG) to make the movie.
None of the big major studios would’ve touched this movie. Locations move from Atlanta to Washington D.C. to Chicago to St. Louis. I also think the movie suffered from the criticism of the slasher movie craze. Yes, it’s the story of a killer, Francis Dollarhyde (Tom Noonan), murdering families but the violence is very minimum. Protagonist Will Graham (William Petersen) walking into a bedroom where blood is everywhere is more gruesome.
Sometimes it’s not about what we see but what we imagine had happened. When sleazy tabloid writer Freddy Lounds (Stephen Lang) is set on fire and pushed down the entrance to a parking garage, it’s mostly implied the horror. The parking attendant hears something, turns around, doesn’t see anything and goes back to reading his newspaper. But we know something is coming.
Silence was filmed during the harsh brutal winter of 1990 in Pittsburgh and surrounding areas. It reflects the darkness and despair of the crimes. Even the few minutes of time we see of Behavioral Science at the FBI are in a windowless underground similar to the dungeon-style dwelling of Dr. Hannibal Lector and other criminally insane patients.
Manhunter is set in late summer/early fall where it’s still warm in places like Atlanta or St. Louis where Dollarhyde lives. Mann and Dante Spinotti, director of photography, make good use of the Florida seaside where the Grahams live. There’s a sexy blue hue to the night scenes that are beautiful but also ominous. Many interior scenes are in rooms that are milky white or creamy white which makes it look more disturbing.
Brian Cox plays Dr. Hannibal Lecktor. There’s no mention of cannibalism and he’s said to have been assaulting women mostly. His jail cell is plain white cinderblocks and even the bars are white. It looks claustrophobic where as in Silence it look unpleasant but livable. Interiors and exteriors of the High Museum of Art in Atlanta were used.
Cox is only in three scenes and there’s no mention of why the spelling of his last name is changed. It’s hard to top Sir Anthony Hopkins but Cox takes out the pleasantness of Hopkins. There’s a passive-aggressive style. Lecktor knows he’s smart and he still manages to intimidate Graham even though there’s thick iron bars separating them. I’ve heard some people Cox looks more like a cannibal with his slick back hair on a receding hairline and Scottish accent.
The difference between Lecktor and Dollarhyde is they’re both sadistic killers but Lecktor is more cautious. Dollarhyde is weak as he is able to leave partial prints. Lecktor might be arrogant but he would’ve never left the bread crumbs for law enforcement to find him easily. When Dollarhyde falls for a blind co-worker Reba McClane (Joan Allen), it’s obvious he lets his emotions get the best of him which will lead to his downfall. Reba jusy isn’t a plot device. She represents what little goodness Dollarhyde still has while Lecktor has none of that.
Noonan passed away earlier this year. And roles like this cemented his typecasting as heavies and villains, even though Sean Penn used that to an advantage in 2001’s The Pledge. The late Dennis Farina (a retired police officer in real life) adds more realism to FBI supervisor Jack Crawford that Scott Glenn and Harvey Keitel couldn’t in their portrayals.
But this is Mann’s story if anything else. Despite the generic and lackluster title which is listed from a newspaper headliner describing Graham as a FBI Manhunter, it’s one of Mann’s best movies. The title had to be changed so it wouldn’t confuse audiences thinking it was about the Soviet Union or China.
It didn’t matter. The movie only grossed about $8.6 million about half of its reported budget. Critics picked it apart saying it was style over substance. But that what works. The pastel colors and 1980s musical soundtrack at the vibe. There’s a dreamlike ethereal vibe to the movie. The first scene is a POV of one of the woman victims waking up confused. Graham often dreams while asleep or daydreams. Also there’s the iconic scene where Dollarhyde takes Reba to an animal vet who lets her pet a sedated tiger set for surgery. The tiger is real but the whole scene seems surreal.
We’re getting into the mind of a FBI profiler. We’re seeing what his life and job is like. While cop hunting criminal movies of the 1980s were all the rage with Dirty Harry and Mel Gibson, we never did see what it was like when they went home at night. Graham’s abilities have put a strain on his marriage to Molly (Kim Griest) and his son, Kevin (David Seaman).
Half way through the movie, Molly and Kevin go into protective custody. Even though Molly tells Graham it’s fine, we know it’s not. While Dollarhyde has been killing families, he might actually also destroy the Grahams.
Because of the lackluster response, DEG would go bankrupt and collapse almost as quickly as it was started. By 1989, it was defunct leaving some movies in limbo in years before being released and others acquired by other studios. The 1990 live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie would be filmed in the studio in Wilmington, N.C., where DEG was headquartered.
De Laurentiis allowed the use of Lector for The Silence of the Lambs feeling the movie wouldn’t be successful either. He would return to spearhead Hannibal, a 2002 adaptation of Red Dragon and the horrible prequel Hannibal Rising.
Manhunter didn’t find its audience until after the success of Silence as well as Petersen’s role as Gil Grissom on CSI. And that climax set to Iron Butterfly’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” is worth the price of admission.
As a native Georgian, it’s one of the best movies filmed in the Atlanta area.
Zane Says 