Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

The Hateful Citizen The first film about the famous Hannibal Lecter dates from 1986 and this is the problem of this movie I think, it has aged badly. Besides this problem, it is still a Hannibal Lecter that is not played by Anthony Hopkins, certainly, but Brian Cox is not bad, as is William Peterson who is well present in his role as main actor. One complaint I could make at this movie is also that it is a bit too long. Otherwise, it is not bad and a 3/5 is therefore logical for the first Hannibal Lecter's movie.

grahamcarter-1 The novel 'Red Dragon' (1981) refers to 'The Great Red Dragon' paintings by William Blake, which depict scenes from the Book of Revelation. These allegorically describe an ongoing struggle between good and evil. The novel spawned the Michael Mann film 'Manhunter' (1986).Simpson in his book 'Psycho Paths: Tracking the Serial Killer through Contemporary American Film,' refers to 'Manhunter' as a 'profoundly ambiguous and destabilizing film' with 'uncomfortable affinities between protagonist and antagonist.' Conard in 'The Philosophy of Film Noir' is more to the point; "what it takes to catch a serial killer is tantamount to being one."Mann and cinematographer Dante Spinotti (who funnily enough also shot the 2002 remake 'Red Dragon'), make strong use of colour tints using cool blues in the scenes featuring Will Graham and his wife Molly, green for searching and discovery, and purple or magenta in the unsettling scenes involving Dollarhyde (the 'Tooth Fairy') and Doctor Hannibal Lecter. The foregrounding of glass, steel and concrete walls illustrates Mann's concern with estrangement and 'mirror images.' Graham is capable of apprehending Dollarhyde because he can get into his mindset and share similar psychological instincts, resulting in him struggling to regain his values. Dr Lector whom Graham visits in prison in order to gather a profile of Dollarhyde, recognises this.Both visually, and in regards to the feeling of alienation Mann is reminiscent of Michelangelo Antonioni. Mann borrows from Antonioni the concern for capturing the space that people inhabit. An early perfectly composed symmetrical shot illustrates the relationship between Graham and Agent Crawford, with the clear positioning of the characters on opposite ends of the frame as Crawford attempts to coerce Graham back to the FBI. The final shot of this sequence is of Crawford and Molly, and the physical distance between them is far greater than in the shot that opens the sequence.Towards the end of the chase, Graham (talking about Dollarhyde) could be discussing the key themes of Dario Argento's work, a director also influenced by Antonioni's visual asthetic "… because everything with you is seeing isn't it. Your primary sensory intake, the thing that makes your dream live is seeing. Reflections. Mirrors. Images…"The song by Iron Butterfly 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida' (a mondegreen for 'In The Garden Of Evil'), is memorably used in the climax, and reminds one of the thumping 'Goblin' scores employed by Argento, particularly in 'Deep Red' and 'Tenebre'.Argento has said he didn't like the film, disliking how the novel's ending was changed for the film. Argento's 'Opera' would incorporate the end of the novel 'Red Dragon.'

Aya M first I would like to point out that horror movies are not my cup of tea, I rarely watch them and even less likely to like them. then I would like to point out that I was born in 1989 so I missed all the great 1980s movies but what made me really oblivious of this movie is that it is not as talked about as the rest of the Hannibal movies which is sad.the film is great in every way and William Petersen did such a great job portraying the brilliant, on-the-edge-of-madness FBI profiler Will Graham and Brian Cox's Hannibal was great especially while interacting with Graham, everything in this movie is great and I am astonished at how little recognition it gets among audience. in the end, the movie belongs to a genre that I don't usually enjoy but I enjoyed it (mainly because I watched it in the morning and in human company).

Michael_Elliott Manhunter (1986) *** (out of 4) FBI profiler Will Graham (William Petersen) is asked out of retirement by his old boss (Dennis Farina) to try and track down a serial killer known as The Tooth Fairy. Even though his wife (Kim Greist) objects, Graham takes on the job, which also requires him to seek help from Dr. Hannibal Lecktor (Brian Cox), a criminal he formally brought down.MANHUNTER has the bad luck of happening before THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, which would turn out to become one of the best loved films ever made. That film would become a box office hit, win several Oscars and make Anthony Hopkins' performance of Hannibal Lecktor something of movie legend. People either forgot or didn't know that there was an earlier version so they went back to watch MANHUNTER and unfairly criticized it for not being like the Hopkins' one.I stayed away from MANHUNTER for a very long time because I wanted to give it a fair shake and I must admit that I was a little shocked at how easily I could get the "other" films out of my mind and just sit back and enjoy this one. Director Michael Mann has created a highly intelligent thriller that is rather laid back in its approach and I thought he did a very good job bringing the material to the screen. There's certainly some great cinematography as well as some great performances.Petersen is extremely entertaining and believable in the role of the profiler. The character suffers from some mental issues that Petersen perfectly captures and you have no problem believing that he's this intellectual profiler. Farina is always good in whatever he does and we also get strong support from Greist, Joan Allen and yes Brian Cox as Lecktor. It's really unfair that people bash Cox for not being like Hopkins and again it's important to note that this film was first.There are some flaws with MANHUNTER that really come out in the second portion of the film. For starters, the loud rock music really kills any sort of atmosphere and I thought it really took you out of the film. I'd also argue that the movie isn't nearly as effective when we're spending so much time with the killer. I thought the second hour of the film was much weaker than the first but MANHUNTER still has enough in it to make it an entertaining thriller.