Red Dragon
Short description
Red Dragon follows Will Graham, a former FBI agent who left the Bureau after his encounter with Hannibal Lecter nearly cost him his life. When a new serial killer begins murdering entire families on the nights of the full moon, Graham is drawn back into investigative work. Unable to understand the killer's thinking on his own, he reluctantly seeks the help of the imprisoned Lecter, the man he once caught, while the press nickname the unknown murderer the Tooth Fairy. The film is based on Thomas Harris's novel and takes place before the events of The Silence of the Lambs.
Brett Ratner directed the film, the fifth of thirteen he has directed in chronological order, following Rush Hour 2 and preceding After the Sunset. Ted Tally wrote the screenplay, and Dino and Martha De Laurentiis produced. Edward Norton plays Graham, with Anthony Hopkins as Lecter, Ralph Fiennes as Francis Dolarhyde, Emily Watson as Reba McClane, Harvey Keitel as Jack Crawford and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Freddy Lounds.
Released in October 2002, the film had a budget of 78 million USD and took 209 million USD worldwide, a solid return. It holds a 7.2/10 rating on IMDb from 311,000 votes and a 7/10 on TMDB from 4,869 votes. A critics' rating of 6.7/10 from 190 reviews places it close to the audience scores, suggesting broadly comparable reactions from reviewers and viewers.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film's cinematographer, Dante Spinotti, also worked on "Manhunter," which was the first film adaptation of Thomas Harris's novel "Red Dragon."
- Another film by Brett Ratner, "Rush Hour 2," features a casino called "Red Dragon."
- Sean Penn and Nicolas Cage were considered for the role of Dolarhyde, but ultimately it went to Ray Liotta.
- Frankie Faison is the only actor to appear in all four film adaptations of Thomas Harris's novels. He played Lieutenant Fisk only in "Manhunter", and Barney Matthews in the other three films.
- The image of Dolarhyde was based on a serial killer from Wichita, Kansas, who called himself BTK. This abbreviation stands for Bind, Torture, Kill.
- Anthony Hopkins played in this film 10 years after his first portrayal of Hannibal Lecter. However, according to the plot and chronology, "Red Dragon" precedes "The Silence of the Lambs." Therefore, to make Hopkins's character appear younger, digital techniques were used to remove age wrinkles from the actor in close-ups.
- Ethan Hawke was the first choice for the role of Will Graham.
- At one point, the project was offered to Michael Bay.
- Jeremy Piven auditioned for the role of Dolorhyde.
- Brett Ratner's first choice for the role of Raby was Tea Leoni.
- According to Edward Norton, he invested his entire fee from 'Red Dragon' into the production of '25th Hour' (2002).
- According to Hopkins, he invented the famous insidious voice of Hannibal Lecter by combining the mechanical intonations of the HAL computer from '2001: A Space Odyssey' with the voice of Katharine Hepburn.
- The Chinese character translated as "Red Dragon" in the film actually means "center".
- The opening scene, where a wide shot of the concert hall transitions to a close-up of Hannibal, is a reference to Roman Polanski's "Death and Maiden," where the exact same shot is used in the final scene.
- The Baltimore Philharmonic is not mentioned in the novel "Red Dragon"; it appears only in "The Silence of the Lambs".
- Harris's novel begins after Lecter's arrest. Unlike the film, which suggests that Lecter was a constant consultant to the FBI agent, in the book Graham previously only interrogated Lecter as a witness and saw him only twice. The killer was arrested because Graham managed to call for reinforcements on the phone, rather than wounding Lecter. He decides to meet with Lecter again on his own.
- The scene of Graham reuniting with his family is also absent from the book. The novel "The Silence of the Lambs" mentions the further fate of the disfigured Graham: his wife leaves him, and he becomes an alcoholic.
- In the film, the company where Dollarhyde worked is called "Chromalux," while in the book it's "Gateway."
- It took eight hours to apply the tattoo to Ray Fiennes' back.
- The film is based on Thomas Harris's novel "Red Dragon" (1981).
- Harvey Keitel played the role originally portrayed by Dennis Farina in Michael Mann's 1986 film "Manhunter." Interestingly, in "Get Shorty" (1995), Keitel plays himself, an actor creating the image of Ray Barboni, a role played by Dennis Farina.
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