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Manhunter (film)

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Manhunter
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMichael Mann
Screenplay byMichael Mann
Produced byDino De Laurentiis
Richard A. Roth
StarringWilliam Petersen
Dennis Farina
Tom Noonan
CinematographyDante Spinotti
Edited byDov Hoenig
Music byMichel Rubini
The Reds
Distributed byDe Laurentiis Entertainment Group
Release date
  • August 15, 1986 (1986-08-15) (United States)
Running time
120 minutes
CountryTemplate:Film US
LanguageEnglish
Budget$15 million[1]
Box office$8,620,929[1]

Manhunter is a 1986 American thriller film based on Thomas Harris's novel Red Dragon. Written and directed by Michael Mann it features Brian Cox as Hannibal Lecktor and stars William Petersen, Joan Allen, Kim Greist, Dennis Farina, and Tom Noonan.

When asked to investigate a killer known as "The Tooth Fairy", FBI profiler Will Graham comes out of retirement to lend his talents to the case — in doing so he must confront the spectre of his past and meet with a jailed killer who nearly counted Graham amongst his victims.

Manhunter fared poorly at the box office at the time of its release, making $8.6 million on a $15 million budget. However, it has since been reappraised in more recent reviews and now enjoys a more favourable reception.

The film was not the first adaptation of one of Harris' novels for the screen — Black Sunday was a 1970s story of a terrorist attack on the Super Bowl — but this was the first film to feature the serial killer "Hannibal the Cannibal" who would later appear in The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, Red Dragon and Hannibal Rising.

Plot

Will Graham (Peterson) is a former FBI criminal profiler who retired due to a breakdown caused by his last case, concerning cannibalistic serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecktor (Cox). He is approached by his former colleague Jack Crawford (Farina) who is seeking help with a new serial killer case. Graham reluctantly agrees and visits the most recent crime scene attempting to enter the mindset of the killer, now dubbed the "Tooth Fairy" by the police for the bite-marks left on his victims.

After helping to find the killer's fingerprints Graham meets Crawford at an Atlanta police department, where they are accosted by tabloid journalist Freddie Lounds (Lang) and with whom Graham has a bitter history. From here Graham pays a visit to Lecktor, a former psychiatrist, and asks for his insight into the killer's motivations. After trading wits Lecktor agrees to look at the case file. Lecktor is later able to manipulate his prison telephone to place an outside call, deceitfully obtaining Graham's home address.

Graham travels to the first crime scene, again placing himself in the Tooth Fairy's shoes, realizing the depth of the killer's voyeurism. Shortly thereafter he is contacted by Crawford, who tells him of Lounds' tabloid story on the case. Crawford also patches Graham through to Frederick Chilton (Benjamin Hendrickson), Lecktor's warden, who has found a note in Lecktor's personal effects. Reading it they realize it is from the Tooth Fairy, expressing admiration for Lecktor – and an interest in Graham.

Crawford brings Graham back to the FBI Academy at Quantico, where a missing section of the note is analyzed to determine what Lecktor has removed. The excised section is an instruction to communicate through the personals section of the National Tattler, Lounds' newspaper. The FBI set up a fake personal ad to replace Lecktor's response. Before replacing the ad they discover that the exchanges are coded – meaning the new message would be an obvious fake. Graham insists they run the ad anyway, planning to bait the Tooth Fairy himself if the ruse fails. To this end, Graham organizes an interview with Lounds where he gives a false profile of the Tooth Fairy in order to incite him-by declaring him to be a homosexual sadist. They also include a photograph of Graham staged with a deliberately identifiable location and Graham is given a bullet-proof vest to protect himself.

Lounds is approaching his car when he is kidnapped by the Tooth Fairy (Noonan). Waking in the killer's home he is shown a slideshow of William Blake's "The Great Red Dragon" paintings, along with Lecktor's past victims and slides of a family the killer identifies as his next targets. Lounds is forced to tape-record a statement before being set alight in his chair and killed. Graham is then told by Crawford that they have cracked Lecktor's coded message to the Tooth Fairy – it is Graham's home address with an instruction to "kill them all". Graham rushes home to find his family terrified and tries to explain the details of his past breakdown to his son.

At his job developing home movies, Francis Dollarhyde – the Tooth Fairy – awkwardly approaches his blind co-worker Reba McClane (Joan Allen). The pair return to Dollarhyde's home where he watches film footage of his planned next victim with the oblivious Reba. She kisses him and they make love. Dollarhyde is confused by this newfound relationship, though it helps him suppress his bloodlust. Just as Graham comes to realize how much the Tooth Fairy's desire for acceptance factors into the murders, Dollarhyde watches as Reba is escorted home by another co-worker. Mistakenly believing them to be kissing on the doorstep an enraged Dollarhyde murders the man and abducts Reba, claiming that "Francis is gone. Forever."

Reviewing his progress an increasingly frazzled Graham realizes that the Tooth Fairy has been casing the victims' homes through home videos, enabling him to prepare for the break-ins in extreme detail. At Dollarhyde's home Reba is left terrified as he contemplates what to do with her. On a private flight Graham and Crawford sort through a list of video and photography lab employees, checking for a match to their profile and soon turning up Dollarhyde. With his name and address on hand, Graham and Crawford hurry to his home.

Dollarhyde struggles to kill Reba with a piece of broken mirror glass as police teams assemble around the house. Seeing that Dollarhyde has someone in the house with him Graham lunges through the house's large window. He is quickly subdued by the imposing Dollarhyde who retrieves a shotgun and kills several of police officers around the house with it. He returns to shoot Graham but misses, and is killed in return. Graham and Reba are tended to by paramedics before Graham returns home, once again retired.

Production

Pre-production

The film was originally going to use the novel's title Red Dragon. Producer Dino De Laurentiis decided to change the film title when Year of the Dragon bombed in 1985.[2] William Petersen has commented that the title was changed to also avoid being confused for a karate movie.[3]

William Petersen worked with the Chicago Police Department Violent Crimes Unit and the FBI Violent Crimes Unit in preparation for his role, talking to the officers and reading some of their crime files.[4][2]

John Lithgow, Mandy Patinkin, and Brian Dennehy were all considered for the role of Hannibal Lecter (spelled "Lecktor" in the film) before Cox was cast. Cox based his portrayal on Scottish serial killer Peter Manuel who he stated "didn't have a sense of right and wrong."[3] Cox has also suggested that he was given the role due to his nationality, claiming that characters who are "a little bit nasty" are best played by Europeans.[2] For the role of Will Graham, DEG had expressed interest in Richard Gere, Mel Gibson and Paul Newman, but Michael Mann, having seen footage of William Petersen's role in To Live and Die in L.A., championed Petersen for the part.[2] Tom Noonan credits his casting in the role of Francis Dollarhyde to improvisation during his audition, recalling that he was reading lines alongside a young woman. Whilst reading the scene featuring the torture of Freddie Lounds, Noonan noticed the woman rehearsing with him beginning to seem frightened, and deliberately tried to scare her more, believing this is what secured the role for him.[2]

Filming

Peterson claimed in an interview that the scene in which his character Will Graham falls asleep, studying crime scene photographs during a flight, forced the crew to adapt a guerrilla filmmaking approach. Michael Mann had been unable to gain permission to use a plane for the shoot and booked tickets for the crew on a flight from Chicago to Florida. Once on board the crew used their equipment, checked in as hand luggage, to shoot the scene quickly while keeping the plane's passengers and crew mollified with Manhunter crew jackets.[2]

Cinematographer Dante Spinotti made strong use of colour tints in the film, using a cool "romantic blue" tone to denote the scenes featuring WIll Graham and his wife, and a more subversive green hue, with elements of purple or magenta, as a cue for the unsettling scenes in the film, mostly involving Dollarhyde.[5] William Petersen has stated that Mann wanted to create a visual aura to bring the audience into the film, so that the story would work on an interior and emotional level.[4] Mann also made use of multiple frame rates whilst filming the climactic shootout, with multiple cameras recording the scene at 24, 36, 72 and 90 frames per second, giving the final scene what Spinotti has called an "“off tempo", "staccato" feel.[5]

"I was really wound up. I was doing 50 push-ups between each take, and we were doing take after take."

–Noonan on filming his role as the Tooth Fairy.[2]

During principal photography Tom Noonan asked that no one in the cast be allowed to see him. The first time Noonan met William Petersen was when they filmed the climactic fight scene.[3][6] Noonan admits that, because of his request, the atmosphere on set became so tense that people actually became afraid of him.[3] Noonan also claims this led to him taking separate flights and staying in separate hotels from the rest of the cast.[2] The pool of blood forming around Noonan's character in the film's climax was intended to allude to the "Red Dragon" tattoos worn by the character in the novel.[2] This shot left Noonan lying in the corn syrup stage blood for so long that he became stuck to the floor.[3]

Post-production

Dante Spinotti has commented on how Mann’s use of mise en scène when framing shots evokes "the emotional situation in the film at that particular time", particularly calling to attention the scene in which Graham visits Lecktor in his cell, noting the constant position of the cell bars within the frame even as the shots cut back and forth between the two characters.[5]

Despite having initially filmed the scenes involving Francis Dollarhyde with an elaborate tattoo across actor Tom Noonan's chest, Mann and Spinotti felt that the finished result seemed out of place and that it "trivialise[d] the struggle" the character faced.[5][2] Mann cut the scenes in which the character appeared bare-chested, and quickly re-shot additional footage to replace what had been removed. Spinotti noted that in doing so, scenes which he felt had been captured with a "beautiful" aesthetic were lost, as the production did not have the time to recreate the original lighting conditions for the removed content.[5]

Petersen had difficulty ridding himself of the Will Graham character after principal photography wrapped. While rehearsing for a play in Chicago his new role was "always coming out". To try and rid himself of the character Petersen went to a barbershop where he had them shave his beard, cut his hair and dye it blond so that when he looked into a mirror he saw a different person.[3]

Soundtrack

Untitled

The soundtrack album was released in limited quantities in 1986, on MCA Records (#6182). It was not, however, released on compact disc at the time.[7] On March 19, 2007, a 2-CD set entitled Music from the Films of Michael Mann was released that features four tracks from Manhunter: The Prime Movers' "Strong As I Am", Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", Shriekback's "This Big Hush", and Red 7's "Heartbeat".[8] In March 2010, Intrada Records announced that they were releasing the Manhunter soundtrack on CD for the first time. An extra track, "Jogger's Stakeout" by The Reds, has been added to the listing.[9]

Track listing
  1. The Prime Movers – "Strong as I Am"
  2. Shriekback – "Coelocanth"
  3. Shriekback – "This Big Hush"
  4. Michel Rubini – "Graham's Theme"
  5. Shriekback – "Evaporation"
  6. Red 7 – "Heartbeat"
  7. The Reds – "Lector's Cell"
  8. The Reds – "Leed's House"
  9. Iron Butterfly – "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida"

Music in the film's screen credits which are not listed above included:

Reception

Despite generally positive critical reviews[10][11] the film performed poorly at the box office: $8,620,929 from a $15 million budget.[1] Manhunter has a metascore of 78 on Metacritic, based on ten reviews,[12] and a 94% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, from 33 reviews.[13] The film did however earn director Michael Mann the Critics Choice award at the 1987 Cognac Festival du Film Policier[14] and was nominated for the 1987 Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture.[15]

A common criticism in the initial reviews was that the film overemphasized the music and stylistic visuals.[4] Particularly critical of this approach was the New York Times, who called attention to the film's "taste for overkill", branding Mann's stylised approach as little more than "gimmicks".[16] Time was more favourable in its review, praising the "intelligent camerabatics" and "bold, controlled color scheme".[17] Modern appreciation of the film has seen its standing among critics improve. Salon.com has called Mann's original the best of the Lecter series.[18] British television channel and production company Film4 has called it "the most refined screen adaptation of Harris' books", despite finding the film's contemporary soundtrack "dated".[19] Sky Movies also echoed this sentiment, summing up their review with the quote "although it still remains a classic, the film has dated slightly."[20] Retrospective reviews of the film tend to be less critical of its stylised visuals, with BBC's Ali Barclay calling the film "a truly suspenseful, stylish thriller", awarding it four out of five stars;[21] and Total Film's Nathan Ditum describing it as "complex, disturbing and super-stylish", adding that the 2002 remake "can't compete" with it.[22] Empire editor Mark Dinning gave the film five stars out of five, praising the "subtlety" of the acting and the "neon angst" of the visuals.[23] Television channel Bravo named Dollarhyde's interrogation of Freddie Lounds as one of its 30 Even Scarier Movie Moments in 2007. [24][25]

Academic studies of the book tend to draw attention to the relationship between the characters of Graham and Dollarhyde. In his book Hearths of Darkness: The Family in the American Horror Film, Tony Williams praises the depth of the film's characterisations, calling Dollarhyde a "victim of society" with his portrayal "undermining convenient barriers between monster and human".[26] Philip L. Simpson echoes this sentiment in his book Psycho Paths: Tracking the Serial Killer through Contemporary American Film, calling Manhunter a "profoundly ambiguous and destabilizing film" which creates "uncomfortable affinities between protagonist and antagonist".[27] Mark T. Conard's The Philosophy of Film Noir follows this same idea, claiming that the film presents the notion that "what it takes to catch a serial killer is tantamount to being one".[28]

Release

Manhunter was released in the United States on August 15, 1986. It opened in 779 theatres and grossed $2,204,400 in its opening weekend. The film eventually grossed a total of $8,620,929, making it the 76th highest-grossing film that year.[1] Due to internal problems at DEG the film's UK premiere was postponed for almost two years.[2] It was screened in November 1987 as part of the London Film Festival[29] and saw wide release on February 24, 1989.[30]

In France the film was screened at the 1987 Cognac Festival du Film Policier on April 9, where it was awarded the Critics Prize.[14] It was also shown at the 2009 Camerimage Film Festival in Łódź, Poland.[31]

Home media

Manhunter has been available on DVD in various versions. Anchor Bay released a Limited Edition 2-DVD set in 2000. A standard edition, an individual release for the first disc of the 2-disc set, was also released at the same time. In 2003 Anchor Bay 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.[32]

In 2004 MGM (current holders of The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal) released a pan and scanned version of the movie that was the one seen in theaters.[33] The theatrical cut was finally released on DVD for the first time in 2007 by MGM in widescreen as part of The Hannibal Lecter Collection, along with The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal. It was also released by itself on September 11, 2007.[33][34]

Manhunter, The Silence of the Lambs, and Hannibal were released by MGM on Blu-ray disc format as a three-pack set called "The Hannibal Lecter Collection" in September 2009.[32][35]

Legacy

The Silence of the Lambs, a film adaptation of Harris' next Lecter novel, was released in 1991. However, this film does not have any of the Manhunter cast reprising their roles, although characters such as Lecter and Chilton do return with new actors. The film earned several awards and accolades, and enjoys a 96% rating at Rotten Tomatoes, from 53 reviews.[36] The Silence of the Lambs was followed in turn by three sequels; Hannibal, Red Dragon and Hannibal Rising.

Of these later films, the 2002 Red Dragon, adapted from the same novel as Manhunter, was released to a generally positive critical reception and successful box office receipts. Red Dragon currently has a 68% rating from 183 reviews at Rotten Tomatoes.[37] Manhunter's cinematographer Dante Spinotti also served as the director of photography on this version.[38]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Manhunter at Box Office Mojo
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Mottram, James (2011). Aubrey, Day (ed.). "Manhunter". Total Film (177). London: Future Publishing: 112–116. {{cite journal}}: More than one of |author= and |last= specified (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  3. ^ a b c d e f Inside Manhunter: Interviews with Stars William Petersen, Brian Cox, Joan Allen and Tom Noonan. Behind-the-Scenes Featurette located on the Manhunter Anchor Bay 2000 DVD Bonus Features.
  4. ^ a b c Simmons, Sue (interviewer); Petersen, William (actor). (August 15, 1986). Live at Five: Interview with William Petersen. [Television Production]. NBC.
  5. ^ a b c d e David Gregory (director) (2000). The Manhunter Look (DVD). Anchor Bay Entertainment.
  6. ^ Mann, Michael (writer/director). (2007). Manhunter Restored Director's Cut Audio Commentary. [DVD]
  7. ^ "Manhunter - Soundtrack details". Soundtrack Collector. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
  8. ^ "Music from Michael Mann Films on Amazon". Amazon. Retrieved February 27, 2011.
  9. ^ "Manhunter". Intrada Records. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
  10. ^ Dennis Schwartz (November 4, 2001). "Manhunter". Ozus' World Movie Reviews. Retrieved February 27, 2011.
  11. ^ Jeremiah Kipp (January 22, 2001). "Manhunter – FilmCritic.com Movie Review". FilmCritic.com. Retrieved February 27, 2011.
  12. ^ "Manhunter". Metacritic.com. Retrieved February 27, 2011.
  13. ^ "Manhunter Movie Reviews – Rotten Tomatoes". RottenTomatoes.com. Retrieved February 27, 2011.
  14. ^ a b "Manhunter - Awards". IMDB.com. Retrieved February 28, 2011.
  15. ^ "Edgar Award Winners and Nominees". Mystery Writers of America. Retrieved March 15, 2011.
  16. ^ Walter Goodman (August 15, 1986). "Manhunter – Screen Review". New York Times. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
  17. ^ Richard Corliss (25 August 1986). "Cinema: No Slumming in the Summertime". Time. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
  18. ^ Allen Barra (October 4, 2002). "Hollywood blows it – again". New York Times. Retrieved February 27, 2011.
  19. ^ "Manhunter (1986) – Film Review from Film4". Film4. Channel Four Television. Retrieved February 21, 2011.
  20. ^ Richard Phippen. "Manhunter Movie Review". Sky Movies. British Sky Broadcasting. Retrieved February 21, 2011.
  21. ^ Ali Barclay. "BBC Films - review - Manhunter". BBC. Retrieved March 20, 2011.
  22. ^ Ditum, Nathan (2011). Aubrey, Day (ed.). "Manhunter". Total Film (179). London: Future Publishing: 152–153. {{cite journal}}: More than one of |author= and |last= specified (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  23. ^ Dinning, Mark. "Empire's EMPIRE ESSAY: Manhunter Movie Review". Empire. Retrieved 3 April 2011. {{cite web}}: More than one of |author= and |last= specified (help)
  24. ^ "Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments and 30 Even Scarier Movie Moments". Listology. 25 October 2008. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
  25. ^ "30 Even Scarier Movie Moments". imdb. Retrieved 29 March 2011.
  26. ^ Williams, Tony (1996). Hearths of Darkness: The Family in the American Horror Film. Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses. pp. 255–259. ISBN 0838635644.
  27. ^ Simpson, Philip L. (2000). Psycho Paths: Tracking the Serial Killer through Contemporary American Film. Illinois: SIU Press. pp. 97–112. ISBN 0809323281.
  28. ^ Conard, Mark T. (2006). The Philosophy of Film Noir. Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky. p. 30. ISBN 0813123771.
  29. ^ "BFI: Film & TV Database - 31st". British Film Institute. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
  30. ^ "Manhunter (1986) - Release dates". IMDB. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
  31. ^ "Plus Camerimage Program" (PDF). Camerimage. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
  32. ^ a b "DVD Releases for Manhunter". Allmovie. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
  33. ^ a b "MGM's Official Site for Manhunter". MGM. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
  34. ^ "Manhunter". Amazon. Retrieved February 27, 2011.
  35. ^ "DVD Verdict Review - The Hannibal Lecter Collection (Blu Ray)". DVD Verdict. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
  36. ^ "The Silence of the Lambs Movie Reviews - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
  37. ^ "Red Dragon Movie Reviews – Rotten Tomatoes". RottenTomatoes.com. Retrieved February 27, 2011.
  38. ^ "Red Dragon (2002) - Full cast and crew". IMDB. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
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