Manhunter: Limited Edition
March 2001 Reviewed by: Wes Marshall Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Before Hannibal and before The Silence of the Lambs, the sociopath psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter was wreaking havoc on FBI Agents in Manhunter. Based on the book Red Dragon by Thomas Harris, Manhunter begins as agent Will Graham (William Petersen) is recovering from severe psychological and physical injuries inflicted by Dr. Lecter (Brian Cox). Graham’s wife, Molly (Kim Greist), and son, Kevin (David Seaman), are glad to have him back with them and out of danger. Just as Graham is feeling better, FBI Agent Jack Crawford (Dennis Farina) sucks him back in by showing pictures of two families that have been executed by a serial killer they’re calling the Tooth Fairy. Graham has an uncanny ability to get into the minds of serial killers and figure out their next moves. The only problem is, it drives him to a painful quasi-psychosis -- a place he doesn’t want to go after just recovering. Unfortunately, the Tooth Fairy kills during the full moon and law enforcement officials only have three weeks to find him before he strikes again. Graham agrees to work on the case, and the movie changes pace to a breathless rush against the clock.

Director Michael Mann (The Insider, Heat, Last of the Mohicans, Thief) is not interested in grossing us out or bludgeoning us with grotesque, grisly visual imagery. His horror is implied. When Crawford shows Graham the pictures, we see happy families playing together. He wants Graham (and us) to identify with the victims, and it works. Then we get a slow verbal description of what the killer does. It is riveting, revolting, and much more frightening than just seeing the carnage. Once we are hooked, Mann begins to unfold the psychological impact of the investigation process on agent Graham, using an arsenal of subtle but effective film techniques. One of the best: Having lost some of his edge while recuperating, Graham sets off to see Dr. Lecter to rediscover the frame of mind of a killer. Graham is escorted into Lecter’s locked holding area, which is composed of two equal-sized rooms. The camera looks at Lecter through the ice-white bars. Then the camera flips around to Lecter’s side and looks at Graham through the bars. Both men are locked up, prisoners of their minds and souls, blurring the lines between the hunter and the hunted. The difference is, Lecter is smarter and more malevolent. He starts to get into Graham’s head ("Dream much . . . Will?"), finally driving Graham, panicked, from the cell.

Manhunter is not a whodunit. We discover the killer at the same time the FBI does. Tom Noonan plays the Tooth Fairy in the eeriest manner and invests in his character equal measures of pathos, fury, shyness, and monomaniacal obsession. In the featurette, Inside Manhunter, Noonan discussed how Mann kept him separate from the rest of the cast throughout filming, leaving him in a dark room and calling him Francis (the Tooth Fairy’s name is Francis Dollarhyde) as Noonan worked himself into a dramatic frenzy. In fact, most of the crew didn’t even meet Noonan until the climactic scene of the movie. When that scene occurs, accompanied by Iron Butterfly’s "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida," Noonan’s portrayal is as visceral and vicious as anything I’ve ever seen on film.

Manhunter: Limited Edition is a two DVD set. On disc 1, you get the theatrical version of the movie along with the above-mentioned featurette, an interview with cinematographer Dante Spinotti (Wonder Boys, L.A. Confidential), the original theatrical trailer and a group of unusually detailed talent bios. disc 2 is the director’s cut. I’ve known this movie for fifteen years, so I was excited to experience an expanded version. At least I was until I saw it. The picture quality sucks. Plain and simple. The three extra minutes tie up a couple of loose ends, but you’d have to be a real fan(atic) to want to watch such a blurry picture for 2+ hours. Luckily, the theatrical version on disc 1 features clear, mostly artifact-free pictures. Hues are rich, much more so than the Laser Disc version of the movie. The sound on disc 1 has been remastered to Dolby Surround 5.1 (the director’s cut is just stereo). Don’t expect big booms, but the foley effects and the music come across well. Mann uses his dark rock and roll soundtrack to great effect. I promise that you will never hear "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" the same way again.

How does Manhunter compare to The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal? Dr. Hannibal Lecter has gone through quite a metamorphosis in three movies. Brian Cox (as directed by Michael Mann) shows Lecter as a brilliant man, gifted in the destruction of others and totally creepy, but in an understated way. In only three scenes, behind bars, he manages to give the audience a profound case of the willies. Five years later, Sir Anthony Hopkins (as directed by Jonathan Demme in The Silence of the Lambs) has morphed into a superhuman killing machine capable of escaping an army of Marshals with a Cross pen and a three-inch penknife. At least he was still a creepy bad guy. Ten years later, Hannibal’s Lecter is a Grand Guignol contrivance. He is also, we are informed, always on the side of good and only kills bad people; a change, I assume, created by Hopkins’ newfound respectability (much like Arnold’s character in Terminator had to become a good guy in the second film).

Michael Mann has created some wonderful movies. This was one of his least popular (another was his stunning horror film The Keep). I hope that with the extraordinary success of Hannibal, the general public will be drawn to try out Manhunter. While it is much less a crowd pleaser than Hannibal, Mann’s is ultimately the better film. Manhunter is steeped in creepy atmosphere and constantly threatening imminent danger. Hannibal is content to simply gross you out. Luckily, soon we will have the opportunity to compare Hopkins in the Lecter role again. He’s signed to do a remake of Manhunter.

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