Manhunter
Director: Michael Mann
Year Released: 1986
Rating: 2.0
The first part in the Hannibal Lecter trilogy - based on Thomas Harris' novel Red Dragon - starts off well-enough, making me think it's going somewhere, then, in the second hour, falls apart because of all the artificial conversations (to supply the "emotion") and the unwise shift to the goofy killer's point of view and a relationship he has with a blind woman (Joan Allen). It's no surprise that the most interesting scene in the picture is between hero William Petersen and Brian Cox (as Hannibal Lecter); Cox doesn't play Lecter like Anthony Hopkins, but his portrayal is intriguing nonetheless. All the talk of the main character's "similarity" with the killers - he catches psychopaths because he is part psychopath - is better developed in Mann's brilliant Heat, where De Niro and Al Pacino - criminal and a cop - are so alike that they actually need each other, Jerry Maguire-style, to feel 'complete.'
