Manhunter (film)

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Manhunter
Image:Manhunter michael mann film poster.jpg
Directed by	Michael Mann
Produced by	Dino De Laurentiis Richard A. Roth
Written by	Thomas Harris (novel Red Dragon) Michael Mann (screenplay)
Starring	William L. Petersen Kim Greist Joan Allen Brian Cox Dennis Farina Tom Noonan
Music by	Michel Rubini The Reds
Cinematography	Dante Spinotti
Distributed by	De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG)
Release date(s)	August 15, 1986 (U.S. release)
Running time	119 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Manhunter is a 1986 thriller film based on Thomas Harris's novel Red Dragon. Directed by Michael Mann, it features Brian Cox as the popular character Hannibal Lecter (spelled "Lecktor" in the film, the only time in the series), and stars William Petersen, Joan Allen, Kim Greist, Dennis Farina and Tom Noonan. The cinematographer/director of photography was Dante Spinotti.

1 Synopsis
2 Production
3 Box office performance
4 Cast
5 DVD availability
6 Trivia
7 External links

[edit] Synopsis

Petersen plays Will Graham, a former FBI agent who captured the infamous Lecter and was almost killed in the process; he is so traumatized by the event that he retires from the FBI. His former partner, Jack Crawford, calls him out of retirement to help find a killer called "The Tooth Fairy" who is murdering entire families. Graham is a profiler who has an uncanny ability to get into the mind of a killer and think as he does. Graham visits Lecter in prison in order to help get back in the state of mind necessary to empathize with a psychopath.</p>

There is a subplot about the Tooth Fairy himself, a tortured soul named Francis Dollarhyde (Dolarhyde in the novel), played by Noonan in a critically acclaimed performance, falling in love with a blind coworker named Reba McClane, interfering with his killing spree.

[edit] Production

<p>The movie has a distinctive 1980s, "Miami Vice" feel to it: There is heavy emphasis on washed out pastels, the homes feature white minimalist decor, and the soundtrack features synthesizers as well as acoustic tracks. The director, Michael Mann, also produced the Miami Vice series. The song "Heartbeat," performed by Red 7, which plays over the closing credits, also features in an episode of Miami Vice which also featured star Kim Greist. The film is also famous for it's use of Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, as well as contributions from Shriekback and The Prime Movers "Strong As I Am."

[edit] Box office performance

<p>Despite generally positive critical reviews the film was a box office failure. After The Silence of the Lambs (which was never approached by Orion as a sequel to Manhunter due to said box office failure) was released in 1991, it experienced something of a revival on video and later as a DVD release. In 2002, another adaptation of the book, titled Red Dragon, was released. It was more faithful to the novel but included more screen-time for Lecter's character, who only appears in a few scenes in the book. The reinterpretation was largely given a positive critical response. [1] Salon.com has said that Mann's original is the best of the Lecter series. [2]

[edit] Cast

William Petersen ... Will Graham
Kim Greist ... Molly Graham
Dennis Farina ... Jack Crawford
Brian Cox ... Hannibal Lecktor [sic]
Stephen Lang ... Freddy Lounds
Joan Allen ... Reba McClane
Tom Noonan ... Francis Dollarhyde [sic]
Frankie Faison ... Lt. Fisk
Bill Smitrovich ... Lloyd Bowman
Michael D. Roberts ... The Runner

[edit] DVD availability

Manhunter has been available in various versions on DVD. Anchor Bay released a Limited Edition 2-DVD set in 2000 that featured an erroneously labelled "Theatrical Cut" (it actually omits some footage from the theatrical version and features some material from the "Director's Cut") and Mann's "Director's Cut" along with some nice retrospective featurettes. A standard edition was also released at the same time that only featured the "Theatrical Cut." In 2003, Anchor Bay went back to the well and released the "Restored Director's Cut" which is very close to the "Director's Cut" on the 2000 disc but omits one scene. It does, however, feature a commentary track by Mann. Finally, in 2004, MGM released a pan and scanned version of the movie that was the one seen in theaters.

[edit] Trivia

Image:Lecktor02.jpg

Frankie Faison is the only person to appear in the first four Hannibal Lecter films, having played Lt. Fisk in Manhunter and Barney, the orderly, in The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, and Red Dragon.
When the film was first broadcast on TV, the title was changed to Red Dragon: The Pursuit of Hannibal Lecter. This was done to capitalize on the success of The Silence of the Lambs; however, the title change was misleading, since when Manhunter begins, Lecktor has already been captured and incarcerated. The title change also misspells "Lecktor," which itself is also misspelled.
The film was originally going to use the novel's title, Red Dragon. When Year of the Dragon (1985) bombed at the box office, writer/director Michael Mann decided to change the title. Also, Mann was concerned that moviegoers would mistake this for another kung fu action movie, as many of those have the word Dragon prominently in their title (an example being the Bruce Lee film Enter The Dragon (1973)).
According to an interview with Brian Cox, John Lithgow, Mandy Patinkin, and Brian Dennehy were all considered for the role of Hannibal Lecktor before Cox himself was cast.
Many scenes were filmed in Atlanta. The asylum was actually that city's High Museum of Art.
Because William Petersen's role was so emotionally exhausting, he did everything he could to rid himself of Will Graham after principal photography wrapped. Petersen shaved off his beard, cut his hair and dyed it blonde.
Will Graham's home in Captiva, Florida is actually the home of artist Robert Rauschenberg.
In an interview, Cox said that he based his portrayal of Hannibal Lecter on Scottish serial killer Peter Manuel.
William Petersen and Dennis Farina had leading roles on the flagship television series (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Law & Order, respectively) of competing U.S. television networks (CBS and NBC, respectively).
In a third season episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Tom Noonan played an illusionist pursued by forensic scientist Gil Grissom, who is played by William Petersen.
David Lynch was the first director attached to Manhunter, but he eventually left the project and was replaced by Mann. During this time, screenwriter Walon Green wrote a draft of the script, and though he is uncredited on the final film itself, many online resources list him as a co-writer.
In the Red Dragon novel, Francis Dolarhyde's last name is spelled with only one "l," but for some reason, Michael Mann added an extra one in the screenplay.
William Blake actually painted a series of four watercolors depicting the Great Red Dragon (his name for Satan), two of which depict the red dragon with a woman. One of these two is "The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in the Sun", which shows the Great Red Dragon's back as he towers over a woman, and this is the picture which so dominates Dolarhyde's mental state that he had it tattooed on his back in the novel. The other painting, which shows the great red dragon floating over a woman, is "The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun", a similarly named but definitely different painting — yet this other painting is the one that is shown a few times in Manhunter.
In the novel, Will Graham's son is called Young Willy, but he is renamed Kevin for the movie, with no explanation that Graham is not his biological father.
After the film's completion, Dennis Farina, Bill Smitrovich and Stephen Lang joined the cast of the Michael Mann produced TV series Crime Story. That series also featured Ted Levine, who played serial killer Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs.
Voted 41 in a 2006 Channel 4 program called, "50 Films To See Before You Die".
During principal photography, Tom Noonan asked that no one in the cast, either people who are after him or whom he is after, be allowed to see him. The first time Noonan met William Petersen is when Graham crashes through the window of Dollarhyde's home. Noonan admits that, because of his request, the atmosphere on set became so tense, people actually became afraid of him.