Red Dragon opens with a prologue that it doesn’t need, but which Manhunter could have certainly used. Red Dragon doesn’t need it because this wasn’t Anthony Hopkins’s Dr. Lecter’s first rodeo —well, it was, chronologically speaking, but thanks to The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal we knew full well 1) what the good doctor was capable of, and 2) that the character is not nearly as fascinating as a free man as he is as a prisoner. Thus, Red Dragon’s opening sequence is, at best, redundant; moreover, it doesn’t do Ed Norton’s Will Graham a lot of good either (but more on that later).
Manhunter, on the other hand, would have done well to start out with a similar piece of backstory because, as Lecter’s first-ever film portrayal, it doesn’t even begin to do him justice (I mean, Dr. Hannibal Lecktor? Really?). Hannibal Lecter is for all intents and purposes a secondary character; if he seems larger than life it’s only because he thrives on a minimized role. Think about it; it took Hopkins 16 minutes to win an Oscar for Lambs, but giving the character his own movies and TV show is the worst thing that could have happened to it regardless of who’s playing it.
In short, when it comes to villains less is always more; ‘Lecktor,’ however, could have surely used a tiny bit more. It’s not that he is a background character; he literally is background. Whoever thought it was a good idea to give Brian Cox an all-white wardrobe and put him in a white cell with white walls and white bars (a rare oversight for director Michael Mann, who tends to use color very effectively to enhance scenes), they’re really the one who should have been committed to a mental institution.
The above notwithstanding, the first meeting between William Petersen’s Will Graham and Lecktor since the former captured the latter is, in a vacuum, one of the best parts of the movie, especially Graham’s line about Lecktor being at a disadvantage (regarding getting caught) because of his being “insane.” This line works better than in Red Dragon, and the reason is once again that pesky prologue. We know that Ed Norton got luckier than even he would admit (and the character is unassuming to a fault in both versions of the story), and his quarry’s insanity had little or no bearing at that particular moment.
Conversely, it’s difficult to understand what motivates Petersen to run like hell from the building that houses Lecktor immediately after their interview, not just because Cox is so non-threatening, but also because it was Petersen’s idea to go see him in the first place. Contrast Norton’s reluctance as well as the more subtle manner he chooses to convey his apprehension, which in turn sets Hopkins up for that marvelous line that neatly ties up the entire sequence from when the Graham-Lecter meeting is suggested all the way down to its denouement: “You stink of fear under that cheap lotion. You stink of fear, Will, but you’re not a coward. You fear me, but still you came here.”
Manhunter’s lack of depth is nowhere more apparent, however, than in the main villain, who is pretty much all surface. With Tom Noonan’s Francis Dolarhyde, what we see is what we get. This is not a bad thing in and of itself, especially considering the actor’s unique mien; the problem is that he looks the way that the character should feel — and does feel as interpreted by Ralph Fiennes in Red Dragon. Speaking of which, I can see why Mann used a different title; what I don’t get is why he nevertheless made a passing reference to William Blake’s The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed In The Rays Of The Sun.
It’s established that Noonan’s “Tooth Fairy” kills because he wants more than anything else to be “accepted and loved,” whereas Fiennes’s “Mr. D.” believes he will literally transform into the Great Red Dragon; the latter is way scarier, if you ask me. Moreover, Reba McClane’s (Emily Watson) description of Dolarhyde (“… a remarkable body … very sensitive about your face but you shouldn’t be…”) makes it clear that he’d have no trouble being accepted and loved if he felt like he needed to — by others, that is; his one true hang-up is that he can’t accept and love himself.
Now that I’ve mentioned her, Manhunter also shortchanges the relationship between Dolarhyde and Reba. For instance, they have known each other for about five seconds when, out of the blue, he takes her to pet the sedated tiger (which is by the way another Blake reference, this time to “The Tyger”). In contrast, Watson tells Fiennes about her love of animals and her memory of a cougar back when she was still sighted, and it’s only after a few days have elapsed that he takes her to see (or, rather, feel) the tiger. The interval between one thing and the other is important because it means he remembered what she said and thought about it.
I won’t necessarily go as far as saying that Red Dragon ‘humanizes’ Dolarhyde, but Norton hits the nail square on the head when he consoles Reba: “You didn’t draw a freak. Okay? You drew a man with a freak on his back” (it’s worth noting that Will Graham initially bemoans the background that turned Dolarhyde into a monster, but then uses it to defeat him). There’s a legitimate sense of suspense, as to whether Dolarhyde’s remaining shred of humanity can ultimately overcome his bloodlust, that’s absent in Manhunter, which in turn gives us the freak without the slightest glimpse into the man under it.
All things considered, Red Dragon is the superior version of this story, and not simply because of the star power involved but mostly because, yes, there are a lot of big names here, but it isn’t by any means a case of stunt casting. Go no farther than Philip Seymour Hoffman’s sleazeball ‘reporter’ Freddie Lounds, whom the actor keeps just barely hanging on by a thread on this side of ‘good riddance to bad rubbish.’ And then there’s Harvey Keitel and a cameo by Bill Duke, both effortlessly carrying the weight of authority, and a small role by Frank Whaley as the lubricious Ralph Mandy, and Mary-Louise Parker as the long-suffering Mrs. Graham, and so on and so forth.
And now the damn veggies. I think a film lives and dies by its aftertaste, and Red Dragon sadly has one of the most retarded codas in the history of cinema. To make matters even worse, the movie already hits a perfectly bittersweet note, that it should have ended on, in Lecter’s letter to Graham. But no; the filmmakers just couldn’t leave well enough alone and had to be too clever by half. Essentially, they plant a Sequel Hook for a ten-year old film to which this one is actually the prequel. The fuck? Admittedly, I’m splitting hairs here; still, I would hit the ‘stop’ button the very instant that Graham finishes reading the good doctor’s epistle.
90% of Everything is Crap 