Stars: William L. Petersen, Joan Allen, Stephen Lang, Brian Cox, Tom Noonan, Dennis Farina, Kim Greist, Chris Elliott, Brian Kelly

Director: Michael Mann

Summary: A cat-and-mouse action movie which explores the fragile psychological boundaries that separate the hunter from the hunted. Based on the book 'Red Dragon' by Thomas Harris.

Retired FBI agent Will Graham (William L. Petersen) returns to action to hunt down a serial killer by using his ability to get inside the psychopath's mind. However, it was this ability that drove him into retirement in the first place. The process of tracking and capturing the infamous Hannibal Lecter (Brian Cox) took a tremendous psychic toll on Graham, causing him to spent time in a mental hospital. With another madman on the loose, Graham has no choice but to return to duty, though he knows that it might cost him his family and his sanity.
To get the old mindset back, Graham visits Hannibal Lecter in his high-security jail cell. However, the manipulative Lecter plays both sides and warns the new killer that Graham is on his trail, telling him to destroy Graham's family to protect himself. In order to save his own family, Graham must risk everything to once again enter into the mind of the criminally insane.
With MANHUNTER, Mann raises the bar for serial killer films, imbuing his killer with an almost sympathetic quality while keeping him extremely menacing and clearly dangerous. Based on the Thomas Harris novel RED DRAGON, which serves as the prequel to THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, MANHUNTER is a masterpiece of gripping storytelling and psychological horror.

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Released to box-office indifference in 1986, Manhunterintroduced Hannibal Lecter and established the rules of the modern race-to-find-the-serial-killer thriller five years before The Silence of the Lambspacked cinemas everywhere. This was Michael Mann's third feature, reuniting William L Petersen and Dennis Farina from his debut Thief(1981) as FBI agents hunting the killer dubbed "The Tooth Fairy". Petersen's Will Graham is the man who put "Lecktor" (as it is spelt here) behind bars, and, as in Silence of the Lambs, he is forced to consult the Doctor, played here with understated malevolence by Brian Cox.

Manhunteris an exceptionally well-photographed film: Mann's regular cinematographer Dante Spinotti creates sparse, elegantly framed, often monochromatically lit compositions essential to the shifting psychological moods. The performances are very good, and the typically 1980s, Vangelis-esque electronic score effectively sustains tension. Once the killer is introduced the scenes with Joan Allen have a genuinely unsettling, almost surreal quality, although there is at least one serious plot flaw--how does "The Red Dragon" get his letter to Lecter? Manhunternever packs the sheer excitement of Silence of the Lambs, nevertheless, it is a powerful and compelling thriller which remains far superior to the Anthony Hopkins-starring Hannibal(2001) and Red Dragon(2002). --Gary S Dalkin

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Stills Gallery, Audio Commentary - 1. Michael Mann - Director
Year:	1986
Release Date:	May 19, 2003
Runtime:	115 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	M P 247 D
Keywords:	Special, Action, General, Edition, Manhunter, Adventure
Genre:	Action/Adventure