★★★★★ Watched 13 Oct, 2002

This is not a fresh review, but rather one of the rare film reviews I wrote in English over 20 years ago when I was writing regularly for the Slovene media. I wrote it because before watching Red Dragon (my review in Slovene here), I decided to watch the first adaptation and then felt inspired to share my experience and try to see how well I could do it in English. For this blog, I only corrected some grammatical mistakes (you can still read the original in the IMDb link below).

The release of Red Dragon with Anthony Hopkins finally made me sit down and watch this original adaptation of Harrison’s novel Red Dragon – prequel to The Silence of the Lambs. I watched Red Dragon straight after, which made the comparison even more interesting.

Although Hopkins is undisputed as Hannibal Lecter and ‘Lambs’ still keeps the title of the best Hannibal movie, Manhunter comes very close and manages to stay on top of Ridley’s Hannibal and latest Red Dragon. Latter, being the worst in the series, but still watchable, thanks to the always amazing performance by Hopkins.

Mann shows great talent and a sense for directing (we see a lot of his trademark close-up shots we got used to in his later movies – Heat, Insider, and Ali), along with a good feeling for adapting the script (for example, his later script adaptation of Last of the Mohicans). William L. Petersen is excellent in the role of FBI agent, which in some ways reminds me of his role as the head of the C.S.I. TV series. I haven’t read the book, so I’m judging from what I’ve read that Red Dragon follows the book more closely than Manhunter, and in general, Red Dragon makes things clearer for the audience. On the other hand, Manhunter keeps the tension and has better character development. Especially the main role of Agent Graham and the relationship with his wife, which in Red Dragon is significantly less developed.

In Manhunter, Hannibal has an important, but not as emphasized, role as in Red Dragon for obvious reasons. The focus is on Agent Graham and his struggle with himself and the killer, whose motivations are never as clear as in Red Dragon. Red Dragon itself is mentioned only once in the movie. I guess Mann thought digging deeper into Red Dragon mythology would take the focus from Agent Graham.

The title itself – Manhunter – indicates the focus of the story, much like the Red Dragon title indicates greater importance of the killer’s motives in the remake and obviously in the book itself.

Manhunter is an excellent detective story with great psychological tension, a tight plot, and a memorable performance, especially from the main character.

Source: Letterboxd
Info: IMDb