Directed by: Michael Mann
Screenplay by: Michael Mann (based on the novel “Red Dragon”, by Thomas Harris)
Cast: William L. Petersen, Brian Cox, Tom Noonan, Dennis Farina, Joan Allen, Kim Greist, Stephen Lang, Benjamin Hendrickson
Runtime: 124 min. (director’s cut)
Rating: R
Trailer

Manhunter primarily concerns itself with similarities and parallels. The first in the Hannibal Lector trilogy (even though he is a peripheral character in this chapter), Michael Mann’s film is shot in straight, uniform lines that constantly frame the characters and their actions against one another. A frequent Michael Mann collaborator, Dante Spinotti’s cinematography creates lines that are not only important to the look of Manhunter, but serve to illustrate the similarities of its characters. The plot is straightforward enough and mirrors the story told in Thomas Harris’s second Hannibal novel, “The Silence of the Lambs”.

A serial killer is on the loose, having killed two families before and with no intention of stopping. Francis Dolarhyde (a fantastic and imposing Tom Noonan), known simply as “The Tooth Fairy”, breaks into the homes of his victims and slaughters everyone inside, including putting pieces of shattered glass into their dead eyes so they can witness his great transformation. Will Graham, a retired FBI profiler living on majestic Florida beachfront property (used to maximum effect by Mann), is called on by FBI director Jack Crawford (Dennis Farina) to help bring down the deranged serial killer. With the help and council of the iconic Hannibal Lector (spelled Lecktor in the film and played by a subdued Brian Cox), Graham is forced to carefully piece together the psychological profile of Dolarhyde by making a transformation himself and becoming the character he’s chasing.

Opening with an eerie point-of-view sequence following the killer and his flashlight through the house of his next victims, the camera glides through the kitchen, up the stairs past a child’s toy, and into the bedroom, where a woman ominously tosses in her sleep just before opening her eyes to her worst nightmare. Here, Mann cuts to black, thankfully sparing us the horror of what is to come, but he replays the sequence a second time later in the film with Graham conducting a search of the crime scene. While continually dictating his thoughts into a portable tape recorder, Graham plays out the break-in and the murder in the way he believes the killer would have. He carefully takes the same steps up the stairs, down the hall smeared with blood, to the master bedroom where streaks of bright red clash with the bare white walls.

Later, during Graham’s interview with Lector, both are framed and positioned in such a way that when cutting back and forth between the two, they appear in the same position in the frame. It is a jarring technique and not at all subtle, but when is Michael Mann ever subtle about style? This deliberate technique carefully does away with all the obvious exposition between the characters and goes for something much more psychological (something the remake, Red Dragon, avoided).

Also important to note is Mann’s decision to change the title from “Red Dragon” (which is the name of the Harris book) to Manhunter. Again, this illustrates a Mann staple running through all of his films: Characters defined by what they do. Will Graham is literally hunting after Dolarhyde, and it is all consuming. Sleep deprived and usually alone, Graham obsessively details over every clue and fact of the case, essentially becoming the Tooth Fairy he’s chasing. Graham keeps mentioning that the killer dreams, and uses the killings to help spur on a twisted fantasy. Graham is also a dreamer; he works on solving the crimes but dreams of his home, his wife, and his child, dreams that are just as vivid and intoxicating to Graham as they are to Dolarhyde. Mann cuts back to these fantasies in long, slow motion flashbacks that are breathtaking in their beauty.

During the second half of the film, we learn more about Dolarhyde. He has a cleft lip that he is subconscious about, constantly hiding it with his hands and fingers when talking to women. In the darkroom of a photography lab, he meets Reba (Joan Allen), a blind woman he instantly likes because she cannot see his deformity. The relationship between Dolarhyde and Reba is strangely moving, even when we know how deranged Dolarhyde is. Noonan and Allen play it straight, creating genuine chemistry together even when their affectations accent their awkwardness. Mann however, doesn’t shy away from delineating the similarities between the two.

Early on, Dolarhyde takes Reba to pet a sedated tiger. Dolarhyde wants to know Reba’s reaction to being close to a dormant beast because he sees himself slowly transforming into William Blake’s Red Dragon. That is his becoming. The scene works incredibly well not only by casting light on the similarities, but it eschews exposition and convention to establish a detailed and important bond between two characters in a relatively short amount screen time. Later, Dolarhyde watches a tape of the next family he plans to kill and becomes aroused. While Dolarhyde watches, he fantasises about Reba next to him on the couch, and from listening to the purr of the film projector, the tape in turn spurs Reba’s excitement. The bond is complete.

Revisiting Manhunter, I can safely say it’s not the embarrassing, kitschy eighties romp time usually bestows on even the most beloved films of that era. Instead, Manhunter holds up surprisingly well. Using several stylistic techniques that he no doubt borrowed from his “Miami Vice” television show, Mann creates a cool and hypnotic thriller that easily stands alone as one of the best and unique films of the eighties. While certain devices Mann employs are distancing and detached (the constant ambient droning of synthesizers and the beautifully choreographed framing devices), Mann details the inner workings of all the major characters and their relationships between them without resorting to the clichés of the standard police procedural. That he is able to orchestrate an affecting thriller while maintaining a thematic spine proves his status as a genuine filmmaker and not as a peddler of style. Manhunter deserves a spot as the second best film in the Hannibal Lector canon, behind only The Silence of the Lambs.

Richard X
© Cinephile Magazine, 2006

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