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Manhunter [VHS] [1989] starring: William Petersen, Kim Greist, Joan Allen, Brian Cox, Dennis Farina

Publisher: 4 Front Video
Release date: 6th August, 2001
Media: VHS Tape

Format

• Dolby
• PAL
• Surround Sound

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Editorial Review

Released to box-office indifference in 1986, Manhunter introduced Hannibal Lecter and established the rules of the modern race-to-find-the-serial-killer thriller five years before The Silence of the Lambs packed cinemas everywhere. This was Michael Mann's third feature, reuniting William L Petersen and Dennis Farina from his debut Thief (1981) as FBI agents hunting the killer dubbed "The Tooth Fairy". Petersen's Will Graham is the man who put "Lecktor" (as it is spelt here) behind bars, and, as in Silence of the Lambs, he is forced to consult the Doctor, played here with understated malevolence by Brian Cox.

Manhunter is an exceptionally well-photographed film: Mann's regular cinematographer Dante Spinotti creates sparse, elegantly framed, often monochromatically lit compositions essential to the shifting psychological moods. The performances are very good, and the typically 1980s, Vangelis-esque electronic score effectively sustains tension. Once the killer is introduced the scenes with Joan Allen have a genuinely unsettling, almost surreal quality, although there is at least one serious plot flaw--how does "The Red Dragon" get his letter to Lecter? Manhunter never packs the sheer excitement of Silence of the Lambs, nevertheless, it is a powerful and compelling thriller that remains far superior to the Anthony Hopkins-starring Hannibal (2001) and Red Dragon (2002).

On the DVD: Manhunter on disc has a revealing 10-minute conversation with Dante Spinotti in which he explains how he created the film's distinctive look. Also included is a more general 17-minute making-of documentary. The anamorphically enhanced 2.35:1 image is generally very good, being just a little soft in one or two early scenes. The sound is listed as Dolby Digital 5.1, but appears to replicate the main stereo signal in the rear channels. Audio is nonetheless powerful and clear, though lacks the sheer edge and atmospherics of some more recent thrillers. --Gary S Dalkin

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Average rating - (more reviews)

Rating: - Manhunter

We already had a copy of this on VHS and had viewed it several times, but having seen the vastly inferior Anthony Hopkins version of this story, we decided to have it on a proper DVD for future viewing.

Rating: - If you have seen the remake avoid this film!

When i found out that Red Dragon was a remake and that an original existed, i went out to but it immediately. Sadly i was majorly disappointed! For anyone who has seen Red Dragon, i would advise avoiding this film as it left a sour taste in my mouth after watching. The film is extremely dated, but the worst part i found was the dialog. Although this film was the original, it felt like it was a poor remake itself and just one of those films created as a money spinner. Word for word it was almost identical to Red Dragon but massively lacked anything in the way of a story line, by the end i didn't even care what happened.

All in all a waste of money

Rating: - not bad!,,

Not as good as the up to date version Brain cox not the hanibal we have come to know and love. But if your a michael mann fan its a must have for your collection...

Rating: - manhunter a true classic

A fabulous film in a 2 disc special edition. features the rare directors cut (quite low quality) and a high quslity disc of the standard version. Excellent.

Rating: - Lecter before Hopkins

The first episode of Doctor Lecter, before "The Silence of the Lamb" and "Hannibal". The Doctor is already in prison and he is already playing from there with some serial killers and the FBI. But the book is slightly still in construction, and the film is too. We do have the serial killer, and the new technique of profiling. But it is still not entirely squared out. The FBI man is still relying on his instinct, his sixth sense, his intuition, his inner eye to understand the feelings and the thoughts of the killer and capture him by being able to foresee what he is going to do. But that paranormal element is not convincing, though it is commonly used in some detective TV series. Thomas Harris is going to get to real profiling only in the next volume. Even the great visionary power of Doctor Lecter will become the unavoidable logic of the mind, of the psyche, of the deranged mental power of the insane doctor only then. He is a genius in his psychiatric field and his derangement gives him the capability to know no limits. But that is still to come. Here though Thomas Harris settles some accounts with journalists and has one burnt alive. He also settles some revenge with story telling and twists the story line in some unforeseen ways now and then. These moments are magic in a way since they are unexplained and they restart the dynamic of the tale that could have become humdrum. The story seems to settle some accounts with a couple of commonplace if not trite ideas. The whole logic of the killer is to think that his being seen over and over again by a women during the last five minutes of their lives as if their eyes were silver mirrors would lead him to be loved and to come to terms with his desire to kill. His last victim actually loves him in a way and/but she is blind. She loves him because she is blind and he kills her out of no reason and she will not be able to "see" him when she dies. Of course that victim will survive because our FBI man-hunter will come into the picture unannounced. Thomas Harris also deals with the idea that all serial killers were boys who were mistreated when children, probably by their parents, even more probably somewhere by their mothers. That kind of a cliché is so simple that it does not sound true nor serious, some kind of a joke, maybe a big wink with a grin at the nasty and dirty mind of the reader. But this cliché will be present in absolutely all the Doctor Lecter books, in a way or another. In this case it is really superficial. It is interesting to see, after reading it, this first episode in the story of Doctor Lecter, first episode as it came out of the mind of its author because we can see and feel the genetic dimension of the saga, because it was to become a saga and today it even has become a cultish trip into criminal insanity.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines, CEGID

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