Customer Reviews

Manhunter

5 star:		(155)
4 star:		(85)
3 star:		(40)
2 star:		(36)
1 star:		(47)

 

 

MANHUNTER was a flop when it was released in the mid-1980s, but has enjoyed a much-deserved renaissance in the past few years with the box office success of HANNIBAL and SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. And now, finally, it has been released on DVD for a second chance with audiences.

The debate rages on as to whether MANHUNTER is the best of the trilogy, and you can read numerous postings below about this. Personally, I think MANHUNTER is superior because it deals with the detailed investigation of horrific crimes versus the crimes themselves, its villain is much more terrifying because he's portrayed with more humanity, and the tone overall is creepy and serious versus horrific and campy.

If you're seeing MANHUNTER for the first time and are a fan of the other two films, be forewarned that:

1. This is a crime drama, not a horror movie. And while it is well shot, it is a low budget film with production values just slightly above a TV-movie. But you will be so engrossed in the story that this won't matter.

2. It is definitely a film of its time period, with 80s fashions and a MIAMI VICE-type booming soundtrack that tends to interfere with otherwise quiet and introspective moments. But the music, as with most of the other films directed by Michael Mann, is excellent, well chosen and progressive (for the mid-1980s). Even though the film seems dated to some, if we are to judge movies forever by the time periods they were created in, then we might as well stop going to the cinema.

3. If Hannibal Lector and Anthony Hopkins are one and the same to you, then seeing Brian Cox in the role might be jarring. He plays Lector (spelled "Lecktor" here) with much more subtlety than Hopkins, and may disappoint those who are fans of Hopkins's over-the-top (though enjoyable) portrayal.

You can read plot details in the many postings below - the real question is how good is the DVD? Since I was forewarned about the bad video transfer on the 2-disc Director's Cut, I bought the 1-disc Theatrical Cut, which has all the extras of the former. I am very pleased with the transfer I've seen. There is some graininess at times, but the picture is generally sharp with vivid colors. Probably the best version I've seen since I saw it in a theater in the 80s - maybe better. The audio can be muddy in spots, but the soundtrack booms out of the speakers, particularly the excellent Shriekback songs.

There are a couple of scenes on this DVD that I don't remember seeing before - someone can correct me if I'm wrong. One involves Will Graham touring the empty home of one of the murder victims with a real estate agent, the other is a love scene with his wife in a hotel room. The former seemed unnecessary, but the latter only heightened the emotional stakes in Will's pursuit of the killer.

There are a couple of short, but very informative, documentaries at the end of this film - one featuring the actors, the other featuring the cinematographer. It was very interesting seeing Tom Noonan (the villain) interviewed, as I've never seen him in any other context but this film. There are some great nuggets of information for fans of the movie, as well as a collection of movie posters from around the world.

The glaring omission is any input from Michael Mann himself. I, for one, am not as enchanted with running audio commentaries on DVDs, as I feel they tend to take away some of the "magic" of the film itself. But it's too bad he didn't contribute to the docs at the end. There is a sense from the actors' interviews that the crew had had it with Michael Mann toward the end, and began walking off the set, leaving a skeleton crew for the final action sequence. Perhaps this has something to do with it.

To sum up, the 1-disc MANHUNTER DVD is probably the best version we'll ever get of this classic film. Picture and audio are excellent, and the film itself - at least to this viewer - has aged well. The solving of the crime is so complicated that repeat viewings are beneficial and enjoyable. And the extras are very informative without being long and overwhelming. Highly recommended!

I got the new limited edition 2 disc set of Manhunter and I have to say I have never been more disapointed with a DVD in my life. First of all the first disc that is supposed to be the theatrical cut of the film is not. Several important scenes and patches of dialouge have been removed, and unimportant scenes from the directors cut are added in out of context. And to make matters worse the cuts are made very crudely, sometimes cutting people off in midsentence.

Then there is the director's cut on disc 2. Saddly this version was never remastered from the source print so the picture quality of the whole film is that of a deleted scene i.e. worse than VHS. Not to mention that several scenes appear to be taken from brodcast tv as several lines of profanity are crudely dubbed over.

Take my advice if you are a fan of this movie stay away from this poorly produced DVD, as refusing to buy it might be the only way get Anchor Bay to correct this horrible problem.

The movie itself is decent entertainment. The second disc (the actual director's cut) is fuzzy. Imagine if you will transferring an SLP VHS to DVD.

OK, now you have the idea of the quality of the 'special' second disc.

Don't bother with it. Just purchase the regular release DVD. In which case, it would get ***.

For big fans of Manhunter, I would advise you to steer clear of this DVD if you plan to own - rent instead. In fact, I'm going to see if they will take this DVD back since it is a case of blatant mis-adverstising. What has been billed as the "Theatrical" version is in fact a poorly spliced rendition that awkwardly edits two scenes that had been in the theatrical release, including one of the most pivotal scenes, and yet has within it some of most banal footage restored from the cutting room floor. These cuts are both poorly done and have no sense to them, given how they do not represent the theatrical release and destroy the momentum of what had been a finely edited movie. I don't know if it was ignorance or arrogance, but this is the worst hack job I've ever seen trying to pass itself off as product. Whoever was in charge of this at Anchor Bay was an idiot and if I were Michael Mann, I'd be calling my lawyers.

The "Director's Cut" is even worse in that it includes the "Un-theatrical" release AND the so-called "Director's Cut" - a compilation of some interesting and not so interesting out-takes. As a companion to a true theatrical release, this would have been a fascinating addition; BUT here again, Anchor Bay finds a way to ruin what should be a good product. The entire disc has not been put through video post-production, is smudged and blurry, as if transferred from a VHS tape - and a worn one at that. - Just incredible that anyone could have the audacity to offer this kind of cheapness for hard earned money.

I saw this movie when it first came out in the theatre and considered it one of the best of that year; and I rushed to buy the LaserDisc version when it came out.

When the Director's Cut DVD was released by Anchor Bay this year, I'd been on the waiting list - ready to welcome the widescreen THX enhanced version. Being intimately aware of the movie, imagine my disappointment. Don't waste your time. Wait for a better version to come out.

As for those folks who want to compare Silence of the Lambs to Manhunter, usually they favor one over the other and their minds are pretty much made up at this point. I'm squarely in the Manhunter camp. For myself, I enjoyed Silence, but I could never take it seriously since I found the portayal of Lector both cartoonishly superhuman and therefore unrealistic and unsuspensful. However, Manhunter's Lector is a chilling but more realistic portrayal that awes me every time I see it in how one evil genius manages to manipulate events outside of his cell through the simple device of a telephone. This Lector is safely behind sterilized bars - and yet still manages to be a forceful presence to be reckoned with.

I hope every fan and future fan of Manhunter gets to see it the way it first came out, a fine piece of craft that was lean and edgey, and yet which flowed stylishly. Siskel and Ebert rated it one of the best movies ever, years after it came out. But for now, I'll be holding onto my LaserDisc.

Manhunter the restored director's cut is the most comprehensive version of the film and the transfer was supervised by Michael Mann, but the source print doesn't look like it's in as good of shape as the one used in the Anchor Bay 2001 theatrical version DVD release. I am referring to all of the scenes. The color is more washed out and there is more film grain present than the 2001 release. The picture has a darker look to it, the lush colors of the 2001 release are lacking. The opening scene is framed differently and is grainier than the other version. The scenes edited back into the movie are of horrible quality, and add little to the film, but nevertheless work very well. The opening credits appear as Will Graham is asked to help track the Tooth Fairy on the beach instead of shortly before. There is an extra scene with Will and Molly having a telephone conversation, along with an extension of a scene with Dennis Farina. The most noticeable difference is the end where an additional scene is provided where Graham visits the Jacobis, which on the theatrical release were only referred to. The shootout between the Tooth Fairy and Graham is edited a little different too. I prefer the 2001 DVD for this scene, but that's just me. This version of the film is in Dolby Digital 2.0 instead of Dolby 5.1 used in the 2001 release. The sound isnt going to test your home theater, but does exhibit decent separation. This movie is a Super 35 movie which shows more grain than anamorphic 2.35 or Academy Flat 1.85. This also means that both DVD versions show more width than what you might have seen on TV, or the VHS release, but are matted and show less height. This is just the Super 35 process which allows more flexiblity in framing. This is the version Michael Mann intended for you to see, still if you like the film, the 2001 DVD release isnt a let down because of the slightly better transfer. The director's cut print doesn't seem to be in as good of shape. Highly recommended. I like this better than Red Dragon, because this is more realistic, and the characters are more developed and believable.

I know Silence of the Lambs is more popular in the series than this one, but I think this is a better movie. It stars William Petersen as Will Graham, a semi-retired FBI profiler, who is called into service to catch a highly methodical serial killer. Will has the unique ability to get into the killers' mind, see what he sees, understand the motives behind the crimes. Only problem is when he gets so close, lets all those bad thoughts in, it's difficult to deal with them, as they sort of poison his mind. This, along with the physical injuries he sustained on a previous case, forced him to go into semi-retirement/seclusion with his family.

At the time this movie came out, I got the feeling that profiling of serial killers was a fairly new science, and not yet deemed as useful of a tool as it could be. This is represented in the meeting Will attends with a group of FBI agents who are working on the new case, with the killer named 'The Tooth Fairy'. It's not that they derided him when he presented the information in the course of his profiling, but you felt like they looked at him like he was making psychic predictions and his input wasn't all that credible. That was my opinion, and I may be wrong. Anyway, it was amazing to go with Will to the murder scenes and see things they way he saw them, that is to say they way the killer may have seen them. He uncovers clues missed during previous investigations, clues that help to further along the case against the ever elusive Tooth Fairy.

Some really great scenes involve Will visiting Dr. Hannibal Lecktor, played by Brian Cox. While I thought Anthony Hopkins did a great job in the part in the following movies, I will always visualize Brian Cox as Lecktor. He brought such a subtle and sublime presence to the part, and underlying evil that is so evident that his prison walls, while managing to keep his physical being, seems unable to contain his spirit of evil. Will visits Dr. Lecktor, the most recent serial killer he caught and the one that made him leave the work behind, to try and develop the scent, so to speak, get the feeling back, to track this new killer. Another thing I really enjoyed was the methodical investigation performed by the FBI. They weren't made to look like a bunch of fools, in that clues just fell out of the sky and the case solved itself. The scene where the letter from the killer to Lecktor is scrutinized but different groups within the FBI was really fascinating. It was amazing to see how much they could do with so little information.

Dennis Farina has a great role as FBI section chief Jack Crawford, the person who brings Will back into the world that he tried to put out of his life. He knows Will is the best, even if he doesn't understand his methods. He shows a genuine friendship for Will, concern for when he thinks Will is getting in too deep, but has to travel a fine line between friendship and duty, which sometimes gets blurred and causes conflicts. One of my favorite lines in the movie is when Will and Jack are arguing about it being too late to catch the killer, as the killer operates within a certain time frame, and Will is unwilling to give up, telling Jack "I'll tell you when it's over!" with such conviction. And Tom Noonan does a great job portraying the killer, who always manages to seem a little off kilter with the world around him, out of sync, but sort of hidden from view, like something always in your peripheral vision but never in plain sight. The scene where the FBI eventually catches up to the killer is one of the most memorable movie moments for me. The music combined with the visuals is incredible. The movie really kept my attention throughout, but the end kept me riveted.

This version looks really good, and I did notice that a few scenes were added, hence the director's cut, and I think they added to the movie. The high definition transfer looks really good. There is also a new commentary by the director, Michael Mann, trailers, promotional stills, advertising materials, and alternate and deleted scenes. On thing I did notice was in some of the pictures, the serial killer has a rather large tattoo on his back, with what looks like wings, but wasn't present in the movie. It looked pretty amazing, and I haven't listen to the director's commentary to see if he explains not using that visual effect, but I would be interested to know why it wasn't used. This movie will stay with you awhile, and holds up extremely well to repeated viewings. Another really good movie with William Petersen was the one he made before Manhunter, called To Live and Die in LA, which also stars Willem Dafoe. It's not as good as this one, but just as taut and highly intensive viewing, but not on DVD at the time this review was written.

Cookieman108

MANHUNTER was the first movie to feature the now ubiquitous "profiler,"
an agent who uses psychology and empathy with his target to pursue him.
This film, based on the equally original novel RED DRAGON by Thomas
Harris, is stylish and effective. Its luster may have been diminished
by the many subsequent efforts in the same area (I won't say imitators),
but it is still worthwhile for its "Miami Vice" style direction and
music(Michael Mann directs), its taut police procedural scenes, a chilling
"key revelation" scene, and star-making performances by Tom Noonan, Joan
Allen, William Petersen, and especially Brian Cox as the original
Hannibal Lector.

Note: There are two earlier widescreen DVD releases of this film, each
with extra features. One is a "director's cut" special edition, which
has received mixed reviews. I didn't think it was an improvement over
the original. Both editions appear to be out of print, but there are
many "New & Used" sellers on Amazon. I would recommend the "flashlight
cover" version over this one, which appears to have no extra features
at all.

This masterpiece needed a workover so badly. All the other previous dvd editions had a picture quality worse than vhs. I was glad as the Divimax Edition came out. The picture quality is superb (with the exception of the added restored material - although that can't get any better). Also the cardboard chapter list inside the box has the original poster printed on the other side. What is there left to say on the film? A masterpiece on a war of the minds. One, the Manhunter, brilliantly portrayed by William Petersen, chasing the other, The Tooth Fairy - also extremely well played by Tom Noonan. And then there's still the Dark Mind in the background: Hannibal Lector. I don't think you would want to get any closer to a psychopath than this.

I first rented this movie in the late '80s, and I really only did so to see Chris Elliot's cameo -- give me a break, I was really bored that weekend! Years later, when I saw Silence of the Lambs in the theater, I recognized the name of the doctor and realized that these two works were somehow related, and eventually ended up reading all four of Thomas Harris' novels and seeing all five film adaptations, of which Manhunter is my personal favorite.

Upon reflection, I initially found the film's ending a bit stereotypically Hollywood, and not quite up to the same high level of quality found in the rest of the film. As I later read the novel, I at first found myself liking the book's ending better, but understood how it might have been much harder to film -- that is, until I got past the red herring to the novel's REAL ending, which made Manhunter's ending seem positively inspired by comparison. (Okay, so maybe I'm being a bit too hard on Harris, and giving Michael Mann a bit too much of a pass on this point....)

If you don't like Michael Mann's directorial style, or if you're one of those pseudo-intellectuals who can't look at a film made in another decade without calling it "dated" -- or if you think Anthony Hopkins is the only actor who should ever be legally allowed to play the character of Hannibal Lector --then you might not like this film. Though it often strays from the novel a little bit, and leaves almost all of the exposition regarding the Tooth Fairy's origins out, it all still works. Noonan gives an excellent and economic performance, as does Joan Allen (and their love scene is one of the more tasteful and romantic in recent memory).

Brian Cox also has a different take on the Lector character than Hopkins, but it is ultimately A) closer to the novel's depiction and B) more realistic and believable. Sorry, Tony, but you have to admit, as great as your performance was in Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal comes off much better when the actor playing him resists the urge to chew scenery -- no pun intended....

But it is William Petersen's portrayal of Investigator Graham that really carries the film, and rightly so. As I said before, the novel gives us much, much more background on the Tooth Fairy than the movie does, but the main focus of the story is on Graham and his own internal struggles. I was especially impressed with one scene in particular that Petersen and Mann really pulled off well, as far as taking a great moment from the novel and translating it into a great movie moment. It's the scene in the middle of the film when Graham is seated at a diner, staring out into the rainy night, playing the answering machine message of one of the victims in his head: "Hi, this is Valerie Leads; I'm sorry I can't come to the phone right now..." because she's been murdered, of course. Absentmindedly, Graham says aloud, "I'm sorry too." The waitress passing by asks if he was asking for more coffee, and he tells her no. Turning back to the window, having now made up his mind to throw himself completely into the investigation and see it through to the end, Graham says out loud, as if the Tooth Fairy could hear him, "It's just you and me now, sport." This was a great emotional moment in the novel, and Mann and Petersen (and the music score) also manage to make it a great emotional moment in the movie as well, losing nothing in the translation.

I give the same number of stars to Jonathan Demme's Silence of the Lambs, but let's face it -- Mann's asylum for the criminally insane is much more realistic and believable than Demme's, for instance. Two different directorial styles, two different approaches to Lector, etc., but each quite good in its own right. The "re-imagining" of 2002 on the other hand is another story, and a sad one at that....

If you're in the mood for the original modern police procedural on investigating serial killers, or for a good psycholgical character study about the effects of such work on the investigators themselves, then give this film a try!

PS: Why is it that when most people review books and films on Amazon, A) they seem not to notice that most of what they say has already been said in the hundreds of other reviews previously posted, and B) they seem to feel obligated to recount the entire plot, point by point, spoiler by spoiler, in excruciating detail, instead of just giving the rest of us a simple idea of why we might like or dislike the book or film in question?!

this movie is amazing. i thought everyone knew that. but not some clown from newcastle, washington who wrote that red dragon is superior "in every conceivable respect". anyone who still hasn't seen manhunter, please don't let this guy influence you. this movie's many loyal fans are not simply junkies for kitschy atmosphere or iron butterfly. the atmosphere could be described as over-the-top, but what the director does with his unique combination of hyperreal images, over-ripe music, and often narcotic pacing is to put you into the unstable mind of will graham, the fbi agent so gifted with empathy for the pathological mind that his character is more like some sort of primordial seer, shaman, or exorcist than a law enforcement officer. again, you could argue that this is silly, but you'd be better off opening your mind and absorbing a beautiful piece of pop-psychological, emotional movie-making than to satisfy yourself with its tepid remake. The director of red dragon simply has no vision, and none of the performances hold up to those in the earlier film, although emily watson does her best, and can't be blamed for having to suffer the empty mechanics of ralph fiennes, when joan allen had tom noonan's uncomfortably potent performance to play off of. 'empty mechanics' will do for edward norton as well, and i know everyone loves anthony hopkins as lecter--i won't argue with that--brian cox is not as much fun in the role, but he is more frightening because he's more believable; his arrogance for one thing feels like the real arrogance of a very smart, well-educated, thoroughly vicious english man rather than the over-worked screenwriter's device that hopkins already allowed it to seem in the silence of the lambs with his broad accent and theatrics. but whether you agree with that or not, and whether it's a matter of hopkins vs. cox or of the different filmmakers' conceptions of the character in the two films, by the time of red dragon hopkins was admittedly tired of the role, and the character of lecter is more like your favorite, naughty uncle or a wild animal long since de-fanged and dependent on you and your family as a meal-ticket--in hopkins' case, a very winning, more than $10 million ticket. really the only thing red dragon has over manhunter is that everything about it is circumscribed by audience expectations--so if all you want is to pay to have your expectations put up on a screen for you, then rent red dragon, and don't bother with manhunter. if you've already seen red dragon, it's okay, rent it again. you already saw before you saw it anyway...(oh, and that clown from washington bringing soylent green and logan's run into the argument is totally off base. manhunter has nothing in common with either of those movies.) [for those that care, the anchor bay, single disc divimax edition has best picture quality + is the only one with mann's commentary]