Michael Mann's Manhunter

William Petersen. He's been the secret ingredient that gives films a little kick for years now. Unnoticed and unloved until CSI.

And did anyone ever notice that every movie Kim Greist was in during the 1980's is now considered a goddamn classic?

Brazil. Throw Momma From The Train. CHUD.

Truth.

Red Dragon is so unnecessary and I guarantee you that Edward Norton won't possess a tenth of Petersen's intensity as Will Graham.

And Sir Anthony wouldn't have it any other way...

Michael Mann took a great detective story - another of Thomas Harris' odes to the brilliant criminal - and made it fit his own particular vision (The bad guy doesn't have to win in Mann's films). It has one of Mann's earlier soundtracks - more Tangerine Dream style than his more recent Lisa Gerrard stylings, which in spite of a few great tracks has not aged particularly well and may smack of Miami Vice (not that there's anything necessarily wrong with that wink ). I believe that were Mann to remake this film today, it would be much stronger - say, for example, as Heat is stronger than L.A. Takedown. It suffers from the small screen (I really wish I'd seen this film on the big screen). However, it is a superior film with much to admire, and I do not see the point of remaking it - especially from Ratner.

One important point for me is that the film reaches for something deeper than the usual contrived story where the uber-psycho runs circles around befuddled police. The dangers are explicitly stated -'when you enter the mind of a killer, you might never return'. This is what Petersen brings in his performance. As Django says, Petersen corners the market in intensity. In several scenes, the trials of his work, and the dangers to his own sanity are made clear. The conversations with Lecter, the re-creation of the Tooth Fairy's walk through his victims' house, and most especially the discussion with his adopted son about the time he spent in a psycho ward, in front of a shelf of children's cereal.

What about Lecter? Well, Cox and Hopkins are on par as actors, but Hopkins' Lecter has become such a ham he's lost credibility. Cox's Lecter's pretense of helping Graham seems so benign and is capped by a delicious request for Graham's home phone number. He has a true psychopath's gift for finding weaknesses, and twisting the knife, seen when Graham tries to drown out the sound of Lecter's voice by pounding the door of his cell.

I love the film, but it has aged horribly. The score and the cinematography all reek of the 80's.

Yeah, they definately do. It was a pretty good movie. Not great, but pretty good.

Like I said, it's dying for a remake - but I'd like to see what Mann would do with it, not Ratner.

I always thought Manhunter was way cool, but it does have some serious flaws - for instance, the serial killer, the cops, and the victims all appear to share similar tastes in architecture and interior design.

It stinks of 80sness, but the performances are top notch and Cox and Petersen in particular are fantastic. Even the little guy playing Freddy Lounds was really good (can't remember his name). And the guy who played Dolarhyde then went on to play that very evil child murderer in the X-Files episode "Paper Hearts", which is very possibly the best hour of television ever made by anyone ever, in my opinion.