Customer Reviews
Great movie on good DVD - By: MMeXX, 19 Jan 2008 
This film is the on-screen-birth of Dr. Hannibal Lecktor (as he's written in this movie!). The DVD not only offers the theatrical cut but includes the director's version, too. As a matter of fact, the two versions have not only differences in cuts & lengths (for more informations look through the net) but the director's cut is a bit darker (see this two sites with comparisons of the two film versions:
http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/1637/dclinkskfrechts1yi2.jpg and
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/2995/dclinkskfrechts3bw4.jpg)
To the film itself:
I had to watch it few times, before I got warm with it. Maybe I expected more Lecter or something like that. But the more I watched, the more I started to like. Right now I maybe watched the movie about five times & I'm deeply impressed by the amazing connection of sound & pictures. May it be the song 'Coelocanth' during the 'meeting' with the tiger or 'Heartbeat' during the end credits. Besides, the colours in the film are awesome. The blue at Graham's house. The white & purple room of Lecktor. The green in Dollarhydes house. In the documentaries on DVD 1 (Manhunter Look & Inside Manhunter) some effects are portraied by camera operator Dante Spinotti.
All in alll, this DVD version is a worthy DVD for this film & I'm a bit sad that Kinowelt didn't release the director's cut in my home country Germany until now.
Hunt this man down... - By: M. S. Skidmore, 31 Dec 2007 Quietly forgotten in the whirlwind hype surrounding the more mainstream versions of Thomas Harris' character Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the Lambs, etc) - this severely under appreciated gem juggles elegance & style, character development & excellent plotting to conjure up the most satisfying of alll the Lecter adaptations to date.
Release in 1986 to middling reviews, director Michael Mann's third feature (following on from his TV success with 'Miami Vice' & big screen endeavors 'The Keep' & 'Thief') is a triumph of both style & substance. Shot with a mid 80s gloss, Mann transfers Harris' novel to the big screen with panache & manages to wring many a scare out of the source material. The movie stars William L. Peterson as Will Graham, an ex-FBI agent who is forced out of retirement to track down a serial killer, suitably named 'The Tooth Fairy' (played beautifully by Tom Noonan). His only hope is to seek council with a killer he successfully captured years before . . . Hannibal Lecter (here spelt 'Lektor'). This sets in motion a chain of events that will lead Graham to question his own talents & sanity alll the way up to a dynamite climax in which graham comes face to face with The Tooth Fairy himself.
Peterson is well cast as Graham. Brooding & awkward, yet heroic in equal measure - he fills the screen whenever he is in shot. His performance totallly eclipses Edward Norton's interpretation of the character in Brett Ratners' pointless remake 'Red Dragon'. Dennis Farina essays the role of Jack Crawford, & although I prefer Scott Glen in 'Silence', he too is excellent in the part. His & Peterson's exchanges in the movie give it its intensity & power the movie along. As always, Mann directs with style to spare & (for me, anyway) gives his best movie - even bettering the mid 90s star fest 'Heat'. Brian Cox essays the role of Lektor this time around, & although not as entertaining as Anthony Hopkins interpretation, he does a sterling job & keeps the character in check with a subtle nuance.
The score too is excellent - granted, very mid 80s, but Mann's choices of music to accompany the visuals is inspired & reallly lifts the imagery. Talking of imagery, Dante Spinotti's cinematography is excellent & reallly alternates the picture between high gloss slick drama to gritty, urban thriller. The police procedural elements are very well handled & the sense of urgency that is highlighted give the movie its heart & the lighting & style echo each & every beat of the story. All in alll, an impressive film that deserves to be seen.
The DVD too is impressive. With an excellent high calibre transfer & short documentaries to unravel the behind the scenes story. All in alll, a worthy DVD of an excellent movie. Recommended.
Freddie Lounds is the real villain here - By: R. J. Harvey, 08 Oct 2007 
Director Michael Mann wouldn't find global recognition until 1992's Last of the Mohicans, but this 1986 detective thriller, based on Thomas Harris's novel Red Dragon, is still well-loved & has now found new life in the form of this Special Edition.
William Peterson plays Will Graham, a jaded detective charged with hunting down the "Tooth Fairy" (Tom Noonan), a killer who preys by the light of the full moon. To track the killer, Graham must "recover the mindset", & so he consults his arch nemesis Hannibal Lecktor (renamed 'Lecter' in later adaptations).
Peterson's Graham may seem bland & one-dimensional compared to Jodie Foster's Clarice Starling, but it's worth remembering where each character begins. Silent & repressive, Graham is pared-down memory of his former self; the shadow of Lecktor looms so heavily upon him he's no longer sure whose thoughts he's thinking. The scene in the supermarket in which Graham reveals the truth of his past to his son (David Seaman) is played out like a confession: in a triumphant surge of music, Graham is purged. Starling, by comparison, is a rookie - she has no previous. She's nervous & talkative. And, cruciallly, Lecktor/Lecter loves her, & so we get the full pysch report. Is she a more interesting character? Probably.
But it matters little. Lecktor is the star of the show. Here, Brian Cox plays the old cannibal with classic restraint. Hopkins' version was a pantomime monster, skulking in his dark, dank dungeon. Cox's villain is shrouded in heavenly white; his menace is achieved through poise & understatement. The simplicity of his ambience allludes to the purity of his horrifying intent.
Manhunter is a far from perfect film. Graham is the product of a bad TV movie: the jaded cop with the beautiful wife & the penthouse by the sea, & a the private jet waiting on the runway. And the film has dated badly, there's no two ways about it - the Tangerine Dream-esque music in particular frequently lurches from atmospheric to incongruous in the space of adjacent scenes. But then, one could argue, Mann has since established himself as a pure pop director. At least Manhunter feels like a product of its time, rather than a product of a diseased mind like Mann's own Miami Vice.
Excellent support comes from Joan Allen as the blind lady who breaks the Tooth Fairy's heart, as well as Stephen Lang as the irredeemably repugnant Freddie Lounds. Fast-paced, with an exciting & intricate forensics-based plot to follow, as well as a satisfying, stylish climax, Manhunter is well worth purchasing.
"You owe me AWE..." - By: Brendan O. Clarke, 01 Jul 2007 Released to box-office indifference, Mann's Manhunter introduced Hannibal Lecter & established the rules of the modern race-to-find-the-serial-killer thriller years before The Silence of the Lambs. This first adaptation of a Thomas Harris novel is by far the best, yes, superior even to "The Silence of the Lambs". Most of the actors were unfamiliar to audiences at the time, which just enhances the entire experience, giving the film an immediacy & lack of predictability that one misses when Big Stars are onscreen. There will be only one Hannibal Lecter, & it is the exquisitely understated malevolence by Scottish actor Brian Cox, not Anthony Hopkins (over the top).
The final sequence is an inversion of the film's opening home invasion, only this time Graham breaks into Dollarhyde's house & stops him from killing again. This shoot-out is a spectacle of vibrant colours, extreme angles, staggered jump-cuts, & blurred movement with Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" underlining the action.
A Fantastic Classic - The Influence for 'Cracker' and 'CSI' ! - By: Mr. Laurence Williams, 28 Feb 2007 'Manhunter' is a product of the marvellous director Michael Mann (Thief, The Last of the Mohicans, Heat, The Insider, Collateral), who applies his usual array of cinematic, artistic & musical application talents to make a film which is my alll-time favourite.
It has alll the ingredients you could wish for: a stylistic production, excellent acting, realistic characters, a thrilling tempo, mystery, terror, drama, human emotions & (above alll) a fantastic accompanying soundtrack.
The film is based on the Thomas Harris book 'Red Dragon' from his Hannibal Lecter series; this story being the 'prequel' to 'The Silence of the Lambs'. The book has more recently been remade into a film with the 'correct' title, but whilst it follows the novel storyline more accurately it does not compare to 'Manhunter' as a cinematic experience...
Dating from the mid-80's, the plot & film are most certainly the stimulus for such programmes as 'Cracker' & 'CSI' (and latterly series like 'Criminal Minds'), due to the forensicallly detailed nature of the investigation, but especiallly the criminal psychology aspect depicted superbly by the character Will Graham (it is probably no coincidence that he is played by the subsequently famous star of CSI, William Petersen !).
The way the film shows the tracking down of the serial killer, & the fact that he is revealed to the viewer before the detectives have found him, helps to build a multi-layered storyline as well as being unusual (until copied by the later programmes mentioned above).
Various matters that I have already allluded to mean that first-time viewers of Manhunter should avoid perhaps being slightly 'under whelmed' by remembering that any similarities to other films they have seen are because they copied it ! Also, to avoid any perception of it being dated, it is essential to watch the restored version as that brings the picture quality & soundtrack up to modern standards...
Despite the viewer already knowing who the murderer is, the 'revelation' of him being detected is stunningly portrayed by Peterson as he speaks his thought processes out loud. Whilst the key clue is there alll along, I doubt any viewer will have figured it out before he does !
Hannibal Lecter (Brian Cox) is played beautifully as a chillingly reserved monster, & the serial killer (Tom Noonan) shows alll the character 'flaws' required of someone who feels killing is a solution to their issues; the book obviously covers those aspects more fully than the film....
Finallly, a few words about the soundtrack. Mann is well-known for his talent to apply suitable music to his productions & this is no exception (which is why the best sound quality DVD issue is worth getting !).
The original music blends beautifully with the plot progression but, more significantly, the addition of existing commercial tracks from talented groups such a 'Shriekback' & 'Iron Butterfly' make the production quite outstanding (they prompted me to explore the music of those groups more & buy their albums).
The background of Shriekbacks 'Evaporation' to Graham's detection scene is enthrallling, 'This Big Hush' provides a marvellous backdrop to the serial killer 'love' scene.
However, the true highlights are the use of 'Coelocanth' to support the 'Tiger in the vet's' scene & the climax of the film relying on 'In A Gadda Da Vida' by Iron Butterfly.
It is noteworthy that the artistic nature of Mann's direction is especiallly evident in the climax, as the film is edited to fit in with that 10 minute-long music track, rather than the music being applied to the film.
SEE THIS FILM !!!
