Wrong. Thomas Harris (who is Stone?) refers to Hannibal as “Hannibal the Cannibal” in Red Dragon.
I also much prefer “Manhunter” to “Red Dragon”. Noonan is much scarier than Fiennes and Peterson is Will Graham. Edward Norton was just going through the motions.
And yeah, the wheelchair scene is unarguably better in “Manhunter.”
I’ve seen both films. I saw Manhunter many years before I saw Red Dragon. I remember Manhunter. I have mostly forgotten all of Red Dragon. I think that says a lot of each film’s merits in my mind.
Seriously, even though I’ve read the names of the stars in Red Dragon, I still cannot visualize Ed Norton and Ralph Fiennes. But I remember the CSI guy and the totally no name actor who played Dolarhyde. They are etched in my memory. Red Dragon was absolutely forgettable.
I wasn’t too crazy about either film. I saw Manhunter first when it was advertised on DVD as being the first Hannibal Lecter film. Brian Cox’ portrayal isn’t that great in my opinion. I didn’t get why Graham got so unnerved talking to him. The whole thing felt like a tv-movie. It wasn’t bad but it just left me underwhelmed.
I saw Red Dragon after and was a kind of excited to see it. However, at the time Norton seemed too young and too boyish to play the role of retired FBI agent Will Graham. I always thought that Graham caught Lecter based on getting into his head and thinking like him. But as presented in this film, he just finds an anatomy book with recipe notes scribbled in the margins.
Dolaryhde is too good looking and too in shape for me to consider him this mentally unbalanced serial killer. That’s a stereotype of course and Noonan in some ways *too * much resembles a scary villain. But I couldn’t shake the fact that I was just watching Ralph Fiennes playing Dolarhyde. The guy who played the tabloid reporter was good though, better than the original.
I’m one of the few people who saw *Manhunter *in the theater! And I loved it. I’d never read the books nor knew anything about them. When Silence of the Lambs came out years later I was confused as to why it too had a convict/consultant character with the same name. And while I do think Silence is a better film (I’ve never seen Red Dragon) they’re just very different movies. One is a crime horror while the other is a police thriller. And if you want to see good Michael Mann stuff don’t watch Miami Vice, watch Crime Story instead!
When I first read about *Red Dragon *being remade, I really thought that 90% of the reason they did it was just so Hopkins could be Lecter in all three films!
I would love to see the Manhunter cast in the Red Dragon script. Have them do the film with a script closer to the book and with better crime scene stuff (in Manhunter, when Will reviews one of the crime scenes, the bloody sheets are still on the bed. Really???) I love the book and I think Will Peterson really captures Graham. As for Lecter, Brian Cox played it perfectly. Anthony Hopkins came across as way too creepy and scary. I just can’t picture Hopkins’ Lecter functioning as a serial killer as he just puts out too many vibes. Brian Cox, on the other hand, played it subtly. I can picture him killing for years before he’s caught, if ever.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen Manhunter, but isn’t “Lecktor” presented as a college psychology professor who preyed on coeds?
Make that 100%, and I have no problem with that.
That is the problem I had with the show Hannibal and Mikkleson, not only does he LOOK like a creepy cannibal serial killer, but he is literally dropping sly hints in every episode that hey guys I eat people.
Yes, I too really liked Brian Cox’s portrayal. But remember, while Hopkins was the co-lead (alongside Jodie Foster) Cox only had two scenes! They were long, important scenes, but still it was just Peterson’s tense one interview, and then Lector’s ingenious method of finding his address. In those cases, less was definitely more. You didn’t get to spend too much time with him, but what little you did you were certainly convinced that he was both extremely intelligent and a serial killer. Hopkins had to carry half the film. Plus, he was already caught so he had no need to hide his evilness. In the flashback scenes with Gary Oldman in *Hannibal *(and while he remains free) he comes across as behaving convincingly normal enough.
Mostly because not only did Lecktor cut Graham up badly, but because Graham got so into Lecktor’s mindset that it messed him up, and he was risking going back. I not sure it was clear in the movie, but Graham’s recovery wasn’t just for the physical wounds.
For a good, similar but differnt take on Manhunter, see the Miami Vice episode Shadow in the Dark, which is basically a retelling of Manhunter with Crockett in the Graham role. He goes quite far around the bend to get into the head of the killer. I thought it was a pretty good episode.
Haven’t seen Red Dragon, but I loved the book and mostly liked Manhunter as an adaptation. As it happens, I was just in Atlanta; the High Museum of Art there is the insane asylum in Manhunter.
I would have described Peterson’s perfrmance as carpet-chewing. I preferred the calmer rational Norton version.
Manhunter had a couple of songs by Shriekback, the most unjustly overlooked band of the 80s.
Hopkins was only in about 15 minutes of Silence of the Lambs.
But what Brian Cox does with that screen time! I know it verges on blasphemy to say this, but his Lecter is much scarier, much chillier, than Hopkins’.
@Just Asking Questions
I will look into that. I’ve been on a retro binge with 80s movies and tv shows so that sounds really interesting.
@BrainGlutton
I want to agree with you but I can’t. I’m starting to like the movie more and more because of it’s 80s goodness and the fact that it’s a more subtle approach to Lecter/the Thomas Harris story.
But I felt like the exchange between Lecter and Graham was rushed. I also thought it came across almost comical when Graham was pounding on the door to be let out from Lecter’s cell. Nothing Lecter said seemed that mentally damaging, and we didn’t really get any previous scenes or dialogue that gave the viewer any real reason to believe the reaction he displayed.
The best moment from Brian Cox’s Lecter was the look on his face, I think it’s right before or after he uses the phone to get Graham’s information.
I think Manhunter would have been a better remembered film had they used the book ending.
Just bumping to post a podcast link. The most recent Trash, Art and the Movies episode did a direct comparison between “Red Dragon” and “Manhunter”.
Here’s the opening paragraph from their facebook entry:
[QUOTE=Trash, Art and the Movies]
This week, Erin and I review two different film versions of the Thomas Harris novel that introduced the world to the character of Hannibal Lector: Michael Mann’s super stylish 1986 thriller MANHUNTER, and Brett Ratner’s 2002 all-star cash-grab remake RED DRAGON.
[/quote]
Take a wild guess which one they liked better? Personally, I agree with them. “Manhunter” is a far better movie and criminally underrated.
