re: Manhunter - the original Hannibal Lecter film.

Yea it’s not bad at all. But his character was like a comic book villain and not someone you’d read about in an FBI profiler tell all book.

John E. Douglas

If anyone is interested in reading up on this guy, John E. Douglas authored many books about profiling and serial killers that were what originally interested me in the subject. My dad was in law enforcement and did some profiling, so I had a few books from Douglas out of the old man’s collection. IIRC, Douglas was the inspiration for either Graham or Jack Crawford, but I would have to go back and look.

He would have lucid dreams of being at kill scenes. YIKES.

Manhunter is clearly better than Red Dragon as most have said. To Live and Die in L.A. another Petersen classic from the 80s.

Yea liked that one too but man some of it is wild

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Madking
To Live and Die in L.A. another Petersen classic from the 80s

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If you would have told a film fan in 1986 that William Peterson would be the biggest star in Hollywood by 1990, everyone would have believed you. Manhunter and To Live and Die, back to back... Wow. But really, that was basically it.

Kind of amazing Peterson didn't become a mega star. He was like a combination of Tom Cruise and Matthew McCoughnehey, but with the darkness and intensity of a young Al Pacino.

I guess he just got some really bad advice, and by 1990 was doing fricking Young Guns II, and not Rain Man or Goodfellas. Kind amazing, because he would have worked both of those parts. Goes to show how a great agent/mentor really can be help make a star.

Also, can we just mention Michael Mann's 80a run:

Thief
Miami Vice
Manhunter

There are two scenes in the movie that were absolutely perfect.
1. Lounds come rolling down the parking garage in a wheel chair on fire. So good that it was reproduced without much change on the remake.
2. The final scene when Graham goes crashing through the window to kill Dolarhyde, with Inna Ghada Davida playing.

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Just goes to show you how much Red Dragon was a studio eunuch compared to this movie. Bland beyond belief trying to revive nostalgia from a movie a decade prior. A perfect Brett Ratner product that's completely hollow and derivative.

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i like Red Dragon. i think Norton was sort of forced into the role at the time because he was so red hot, but he still did an ok job. Fiennes was solid. Philip Seymor Hoffman played the scummy tabloid guy perfectly.

but yeah it was definitely overproduced - it's almost too "clean"

I read in an interview that Cox said he did the part with a slight Scottish accent based on a serial killer from Scotland named Peter Manuel. He also auditioned with his back turned to the casting agents to focus on the power of his voice.

I figure they went with Hopkins in Silence due to the creep aspect of his accent. Cold blooded.

I left the theater and went to Sound Warehouse to buy the score. One of my favorites.