Manhunter: Review By hedonismbot

Here is my story: I hated it at first being incomparable to The Silence of the Lambs. Then loved Ratner's Red Dragon just because of the cast (most of whom are still good actors). After reading the book I disavowed any approval of Ratner's pathetic attempt and realized how Michael Mann made his own movie out of the source material. Mann is more interested in the law enforcement side of things than the psychological background of Dollarhyde, which is a very long story, too much to get in a reasonable running time. Rather than shortchange the villain, he casts an actor who can imply so much more than what he shows. Noonan here is great at portraying a character with a past without going over the details. Also when a movie explores a murderer's abused past it implies that they are not accountable for their killing, instead this movie does just enough to show you that this is not your average psycho killer. The only psychology Mann is interested in showing us is that of Graham who can get into the mindset of a psychopath at a deep level, thinking like a killer but knowing right from wrong. I still wish it went into Dollarhyde's obsession with Blake's paintings of the Red Dragon but it is still the great book distilled down to the cop and killer story, set among Mann's taste for modern architecture.