Rating of
1/4
A Cultural Horror
SIngli6 - wrote on 06/04/11
Despite being an archetypal 'style-over-substance' film, Manhunter is a complete perversion of Thomas Harris' Gothic allure. All the barbaric opera beats, exaggerated in subsequent Lecter texts but present from the franchise's beginning, are bowdlerized. I don't think Lecktor (literally why is he called that?) is even a cannibal in this movie. And WHERE are my tattoos? Francis Dollarhyde (two ls, an adaptation microaggression) is bad enough done by with Tom Noonan playing him smaller than life in a bit of demonstratably erroneous casting, at least give the man his wretched tattoos. Why even bother having the beat with Graham's address getting leaked? It goes nowhere in this iteration, one of the film's numerous pacing sins.
Individual scenes shine, as do a few of the needle drops, as much as I don't have a taste for synth pop generally. William Petersen is a great Will Graham, while Brain Cox is fine as Hannibal the not-quite-Cannibal. Michael Mann is a good filmmaker, no contesting. Much better than Brett Ratner, perhaps the most mediocre director to ever achieve some measure of prominence within the industry, who helmed the remake. When then do I love the remake so much more than this? Because unlike this movie, that one captured the straight-laced procedural concealing macabre showmanship tone that is so unique about the world of Lecter.
