“… Mrs. Jacoby, do you see?”
Everyone knows that old walnut of wisdom: Never judge a book by its cover. You’ve probably been told that time and time again by your parents. Maybe you heard it in a song. Who knows, maybe it was the overall theme of a movie you’ve watched recently where opposites meet, dislike one another at first, but as they slowly get to know each other they realize they have more in common than they think. By the end of the movie, they become the best of friends. That’s pretty much what happened between myself and Manhunter.
Now, I’ve always been a big fan of Silence of the Lambs. It had this style about it that always intrigued me and it’s always been the kind of film where the pacing confuses me and I often feel I’m seeing certain scenes for the first time. But more importantly, the performances make the film the classic it is today; especially Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter. Though he has roughly 25 minutes of screen time in a nearly 2 hour film, he commands your attention whenever he is on the screen. The film is about Clarice Starling but the thing people remember most is Lecter. Hopkins even went on to win the Oscar for Supporting Role that year his performance was so good! After Lambs came Hannibal, a solid follow-up, but despite its cast, just didn’t have the staying power that Lambs did.
A few years after Hannibal, Red Dragon was released. In this prequel to Silence of the Lambs, Edward Norton played Will Graham, a detective who gets pulled out of retirement to catch a killer dubbed “The Tooth Fairy” (creepily portrayed by Ralph Fiennes). Along the way, Graham works with FBI man Jack Crawford (Harvey Keitel) has encounters with scumbag reporter Freddy Lounds (Phillip Seymour-Hoffman) but ultimately reunites with Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Hopkins), whom he previously caught, to help catch the killer. Other notable names in the cast include Anthony Heald, Mary-Louise Parker, Ken Leung, Frankie Faison (the only actor to appear in all four films that feature Hannibal Lecter), and Emily Watson. But even with these actors and actresses, Red Dragon, although a solid film, just didn’t have the staying power of Silence of the Lambs. It wasn’t until the release of Red Dragon that I discovered this film already existed and that Red Dragon, along with being a prequel was also a remake.
Michael Mann’s third theatrical release, Manhunter, released in 1986, was met with mixed reviews. Critics felt it was more style over substance and that William Petersen (best known for playing Gil Grissom on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation) was a poor choice as the lead. It followed Will Graham (Petersen) a detective who gets pulled out of retirement to catch a killer dubbed “The Tooth Fairy” (portrayed even more creepily by Tom Noonan, whom you may recognize as Kelso from the film Heat). Along the way, Graham works with FBI man Jack Crawford (Dennis Farina), has encounters with scumbag reporter Freddy Lounds (Stephen Lang, whom you may recognize as Colonel Miles Quartich in Avatar) but ultimately reunites with Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Brian Cox) ,whom he previously caught, to help catch the killer. See? Same movie. What’s even wilder to imagine is Brian Cox playing Hannibal! To me, Brian Cox will always be Captain O’Hagan from Super Troopers threatening to pistol whip the next guy who says, “Shenanigans”. After discovering the existence of the film, I immediately had a negative reaction. Who’s heard of this film before? It’s probably garbage because nobody talks about it. How dare they package it with the other Hannibal Lecter films and make a subpar BluRay boxset! What an awful way to approach film. Truly, Truly awful.
So one day, I decided to watch Manhunter. I received the disc via Netflix on January 10th 2013, and a day or so later I watched the film, expecting to hate it. As the film ended, I began to place both of my feet in my mouth and chew. Manhunter is awesome, flaws and all. I’ve found myself watching Manhunter more and more frequently than I do Silence of the Lambs. If it hasn’t already, I wouldn’t be surprised if my viewings of Manhunter surpass those of Lambs.
From beginning to the end, the film mesmerizes you with the duality within its visuals. Instead of the dark almost cave-like cells found in Lambs, we’re introduced to an almost fantasy-like prison holding Lecter. Walls, ceilings, floors, EVERYTHING are white, yet the darker, more evil characters reside there. Will Graham, along with “The Tooth Fairy” find themselves in rooms either dimly lit or bathed in a darker color altogether. There are some shots that come across as paintings come to life thanks to a remarkable color palette that would make Bob Ross jealous.
After that grabs your attention, what holds it are the performances. William Petersen is a fantastic Will Graham, distant, yet just human enough to really showcase his emotional struggle. He walks the line of sociopath and psychopath with subtle flourishes here and there that make you question who he is and why you root for him. Petersen’s best moments aside from his monologues (which yeah, are sometimes underwhelming) are his interactions with Hannibal Lecter. But this Lecter is different from the one we know. While Anthony Hopkins plays the subdued yet calculating Hannibal Lecter, Brian Cox plays a pompous, almost elitist Hannibal Lecter lacking any trace of human emotion. He’s nearly monotone through every scene to an almost eerie effect. It’s as if he’s as disconnected as Petersen’s character. Now, which interpretation of Hannibal is correct? I don’t know. They’re both effective in the context of which they’re used. I’ll always love Hopkins’ Lecter, but I do have a growing fondness for Cox’s Lecter. The third performance, which, depending on viewings, is hit and miss for me; Tom Noonan as Francis Dollarhyde. His character, a socially awkward probably developmentally challenged guy, is known to the FBI as “The Tooth Fairy” a man who kills his victims then proceeds to have his way with them. Noonan is just fucking creepy. There is no other way to put it. Every scene Noonan is in he’s awkward and weird and you find yourself asking the other characters, rhetorically of course, why the hell do you even talk to this guy? As eerie and disturbing as this guy is, sometimes he comes across as trying too hard and delivering flat dialogue. It’s weird, but it’s a fine line Noonan walks and he chose the creepiest and most awkward way to walk that line.
Another aspect of the film that caught me off guard was the soundtrack to the film. The music focuses on the characters rather than the events of the film and it adds to the disconnect of the characters. Most of the time the music is on the nose (“Strong As I Am” by the Prime Movers plays as Dollarhyde lifts a man off the ground), and other times the music is pure 80’s-tacular with synth heavy songs whose lyrics are pretty nonsensical. The only song that bucks the trend is “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” by Iron Butterfly. The song is played through the films climax and helps build the tension until it explodes. One song that stands out to me in particular was “Graham’s Theme” by Michel Rubini. I didn’t catch it until the second viewing, but it’s obvious that the song was heavily influenced by Pink Floyd’s masterpiece “Comfortably Numb”. Not that I’m complaining, cause I LOVE Pink Floyd, but it makes you wonder why they just didn’t get the rights to the song. The Departed did (even though it was the live version sung by Van Morrison from the 1990 performance at the Berlin Wall… I guess it still counts) and so did the Sopranos (they used the same version as The Departed). I enjoyed the soundtrack so much, I was finally able to locate a great copy of it on vinyl for a great price (took me two years, but I did it!).
To make a long story short (too late), I love this movie and it just goes to show you that you can’t judge a book (in this case, movie) by its cover.
