I’m not sure that many people realize that the big-screen debut of the notorious Hannibal Lecter character was not in The Silence of the Lambs. Hannibal appeared five years earlier in Manhunter -- a not-so-well-known film. Directed by Michael Mann of Miami Vice fame, Manhunter was based on the Tom Harris novel Red Dragon, the first novel in a series of three about Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter. The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal were the second and third parts, and both, obviously, were made into films. So, the book trilogy was complete; but the film trilogy, although complete in some ways, was incomplete in others.

Manhunter is a really good film -- a little better, in fact, than Red Dragon, which is essentially a remake of it -- but as part of the trilogy, Manhunter stuck out like a sore thumb. Visually, its style doesn’t match the other two films. And then there’s the name, it’s not even the same as the book. But perhaps worst of all, Anthony Hopkins didn’t play Lecter in that first film, Brian Cox did. Never mind the fact that Jodie Foster played Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs and then Julianne Moore played her in Hannibal. We’re talking about Hannibal Lecter here -- the main attraction of this series -- and certainly no self-respecting film trilogy can have such a notorious character played by multiple actors. Something had to give.

So, redoing the film was the only logical choice -- putting Hopkins in the lead, of course, and then pretending that Manhunter never even existed. So, Red Dragon the film was born (just one year after Hannibal, while Hannibal came ten years after Lambs), with a look that now matches the other two films (with cinematography, ironically, by Dante Spinotti -- the same cinematographer behind Manhunter). And there are clever little parts put at the beginning and the end of this version that serve to start off the series (by showing how Lecter was caught and put behind bars) and then lead off to The Silence of the Lambs, the second and best part of the series.

Now we have a full-fledged trilogy that can be neatly packaged in a DVD box set that will rake in tons more money for this oh-so-popular series. But that doesn’t mean Red Dragon is just filler. Although it doesn’t quite measure up to Manhunter, it’s still a pretty good film in its own right and it boasts high-profile star power including Ralph Fiennes, Harvey Keitel, Emily Watson, and Edward Norton.

As I mentioned, Clarice Starling isn’t in this story -- she’s a long way off yet. Instead, it’s FBI Agent Will Graham (Norton), a talented but troubled investigator who has an uncanny ability to track down serial killers -- quite likely, he realizes, because his own mind is just like that of a killer, and that troubles him. Graham’s the guy who caught Lecter, but he retired right after that. Still, his skills are rare and when another killer surfaces who is slaughtering entire families, he’s drawn back into the chase and this time enlists Lecter’s help to find the murderer.

I’ve long liked the premise behind this story a little more than the other two. First, I like the way that the FBI uses such a villain as Lecter to help them -- there’s a certain irony in catching a vicious criminal and then turning around and requesting his help. Second, even though Hannibal’s helping them, he’s also working behind their backs with the killer in a unique and fascinating way. It shows that even when Hannibal is isolated within a high-security prison cell, his power can extend far beyond those walls. That is genuinely creepy.

When all is said and done, though, neither Red Dragon nor Manhunter (nor Hannibal for that matter) conjure up the same kind of horror that The Silence of the Lambs did (Jonathan Demme directed Lambs, but did not return to direct these next two). Still, that may be too tall an order given just how good a film Lambs is. In the end, Red Dragon is a good addition to the series, worthy of a ***1/2 rating, and, perhaps mostly importantly, it wraps up this topnotch trilogy quite neatly.

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