Manhunter, directed by Michael Mann. (I had thought of this movie since the most recent installment in the Hannibal series, Hannibal Rising seems to be tanking at the box office.)
Manhunter is a 1986 film based on the novel Red Dragon by Thomas Harris. It was the first movie to feature the character Doctor Hannibal Lecter and is widely regarded as being a cult-classic.
Despite being over 20 years old, Manhunter has remained a favorite with its many fans from around the world, me included. I usually stick with it when I see it on cable.
Movie Trailer.
Post Live and Die in LA (movie -1985),pre-(TV series hit) CSI Gil Grissom, William Petersen shows an early example of his somewhat wooden acting. That’s just his style (I'm just noting it). He’s a local celebrity - and has been around seemingly forever.
William Petersen played FBI Agent Will Graham, Dennis Farina was Special Agent Jack Crawford. Joan Allen co-starred as Reba McClane with Tom Noonan as villain Francis Dollarhyde (spelled like that for this movie). What a creepy looking villain. Seriously.
In the role of Hannibal Lechter, the movie features Brian Cox. He played Ward Abbott in the Bourne Supremacy and was the lead bad-guy in X-Men 2. He is very recognizable from his character parts but one of those actors you usually wouldn’t know by name. Check out the link.
Here is a scene from the movie. (Another pivotal scene at the climax of the movie features Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida but you need to rent the movie to see that. The song is dated but it works in the movie.)
Strong as I am, The Prime Movers. (no, I don't know of them)
Just for reference:
The remake, Red Dragon, 2001, starred Edward Norton as Will Graham, Harvey Keitel as Special Agent Jack Crawford. Emily Watson was Reba McClane and Ralph Fiennes was Francis Dolarhyde. The spelling of Dolarhyde in this movie was different from Manhunter’s spelling. Why? I don’t know.
An aside:
Michael Mann was responsible for creating Miami Vice, Manhunter, Heat (with Pacino and DeNiro), the Insider (Pacino and Russell Crowe), Ali (Will Smith), and Collateral (Jaime Foxx).
Bonus:
Scene with William Petersen from 1985’s Live and Die in LA. I had wanted to embed the Wang Chung video – Live and Die in LA – but had no luck finding it. I found this instead. It’s long but William Freidkin is trying to outdo himself having already done the French Connection and the Exorcist.
“Hang on Johnny.”
Watch it if you like chase scenes, if not, skip it. (It's really good...)
7 comments:
Love chase scenes. How can you not? Also like this movie and have seen it many times on late night television. They don't seem to show it much anymore.
Hi Toccata. Chase scenes are the best. The Live and Die in LA one, the French Connection and Bullett are my favorites. Could do a blog on it probably. Ha.
You are right, you don't see this movie much on TV anymore.
That chase scene in "To Live and Die..." is among the most harrowing ever-- including, as you mentioned, Bullitt and the French Connection. I'd add The Seven-Ups to that (a movie that's recently come out on dvd).
I'm a huge Michael Mann fan! Manhunter is one of my favorite-evers. In the commentary, they mention that the reason they didn't use the book title is that they were afraid that people would think it was a martial-arts movie.
My favorite, overall, of his is Thief, in part because it was set here in Chicago. Loved Crime Story-- I have the first season on DVD. Wish Vega$ would come out on DVD-- another Michael Mann series. Curiously, I didn't care much for Miami Vice.
Hi Johnny. Makes sense on the title. Many a movie I passed on originally because of the title. I just can't think of one now.
I forgot about the Seven Ups. Roy Scheider was the first thing to pop into my head. And from there I thought of the movie (I actually saw) Sorcerer, directed by William Friedkin with Roy starring. Which takes up back to Friedkin and Live and Die in LA. Good call. I'll have to do a little movie trolling on ebay.
which takes me back up to Friedkin
(for those less puzzle inclined)
Friedkin is hit or miss with me-- often great, sometimes not. He's married now to Shari Lansing, who was, until fairly recently, the head of Paramount-- it gave him a lot of latitude.
I've got both Sorcerer and The Wages of Fear, the movie Sorcerer is based on, on my Netflix queue. The Wages of Fear was rereleased a couple of years ago with footage restored that had been edited out for the US release
Are you familiar with the Internet Movie Database? www.imdb.com, great website.
Shari. What a pretty, smart lady. She was around for quite awhile.
IMBD; I visit but not enough. The Wages of Fear is new to me. I'll look it up and probably buy it. Thanks.
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