Manhunter
Short description
Michael Mann's Manhunter follows Will Graham, a former FBI profiler who has withdrawn from the work after the mental strain of capturing the cannibal killer Hannibal Lecktor. A colleague draws him back for a case involving a murderer who strikes families in their homes around the time of the full moon. To understand how the killer thinks, Graham seeks out Lecktor, now confined to a prison psychiatric hospital, and the encounter exposes him to a manipulative intelligence that endangers his fragile state of mind.
The film adapts Thomas Harris's novel Red Dragon and casts William Petersen as Graham, with Brian Cox as Lecktor and Tom Noonan as Francis Dollarhyde. Dennis Farina plays Jack Crawford, while Kim Greist and Joan Allen appear as Molly Graham and Reba McClane. Mann wrote the screenplay and produced through Richard A. Roth. It was his third feature as director, following Thief and The Keep, and precedes The Last of the Mohicans, Heat and later films such as Collateral and Ferrari.
Released in August 1986, the film runs two hours and was made for about 15 million dollars, against a worldwide box office of roughly 9 million. Its standing has shifted over time: on TMDB it holds 7 out of 10 from around 1,600 votes, while a critics' rating of 8.1 from 49 reviews places it more strongly with reviewers than with the wider audience.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film was originally supposed to be called "Red Dragon," just like the book. However, after "Year of the Dragon" (1985) flopped at the box office, Dino De Laurentiis decided to change the title to "Manhunter."
- Frankie Faison (Lieutenant Fisk) is the only actor who appeared in all of the Hannibal films. In "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991), "Hannibal" (2001), and "Red Dragon" (2002), he played the role of Barney.
- During the filming of this movie, Anthony Hopkins was playing King Lear at the National Theatre. During the filming of "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991), Brian Cox was playing King Lear at the National Theatre.
- According to Tom Noonan (Dollarhyde), he deliberately avoided contact with other actors in order to emphasize the loneliness and tension between his character and the rest of the film's characters.
- It took the makeup artists a tremendous amount of time to apply a temporary tattoo depicting William Blake's "The Great Red Dragon" to Tom Noonan's (Dollarhyde) back. However, Michael Mann decided that Dollarhyde could do without his tattoo in the film.
- "Manhunter" is the only Hannibal Lecter film in which his surname is spelled Lecktor, rather than Lecter.
- Brian Dennehy, John Lithgow, and Mandy Patinkin were considered for the role of Hannibal Lecter.
- According to Brian Cox, when portraying Hannibal Lecter, he tried to imitate Scottish serial killer Peter Manuel.
- Initially, David Lynch was supposed to direct the film. Whelon Green wrote a draft of the screenplay. However, Lynch later left the project, and Green's script was rejected.
- In «Manhunter», the company where Dolarhyde worked is called «Gateway», just as in Thomas Harris's novel.
- In the novel, Dolarhyde's print was found on Mrs. Leeds's eye, while in the film adaptation, the print was discovered on the Leeds' child. Additionally, the perpetrator left a piece of skin on Mrs. Leeds's big toe, which is not mentioned in the book.
- In the film's ending, Dolarhyde dies in his home, whereas in the novel, he staged his death and then decided to kill Graham and his family.
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