Review of Manhunter (1986) by Joseph S — 04 Sep 2008

I resisted seeing this for a long time, mostly because of how bad the title, was and is, but that's the biggest strike against this movie, that and the music, but still...

Better then "Red Dragon" hands down, better than "Silence Of The Lambs"...different. "Silence Of The Lambs" is a kind of a horror film with psychological motifs, this is a psychological film with elements of a thriller, the difference being this film is less exciting and a bit more thoughtful, but not too much. The music is terrible, but oddly effective, as opposed to everything and everyone being terrifying and inhuman as in Red Dragon and The Silence, and Hannibal, and Hannibal Rising, all of the characters are frail, the killer here looking more ridiculous and sad and then intimidating, same goes for the "hard boiled detective".

It's a more stylized "Red Dragon" but the stylization helps really underline those elements of the story, which for me anyway, really make it interesting; the home movies aspect, the symbol of the eyes, the melting personalities, merging desires, the role of the observer and analyst, etc. Hannibal Lecter is not the star of the show here, and the film benefits.