July 31, 2017
It has been said by many writers, “If my browser history is
ever seen by the police, they will have me in custody within one hour… how many
normal human beings have so many serial killer profiles bookmarked?” I for one,
would fit the category, hands down. Being a psychology/theatre double major in
college, and having degrees in both, trust me, I have studied crazy folks for
years. On one rather troubling paper for Abnormal Psych, I had the opportunity
to listen to tapes made of Ted Bundy’s interrogations by Florida police. I
still get chills thinking about his utter lack of emotion as he described, in
great detail, how he systematically raped and murdered young women…
Okay, I had to walk away from the keyboard due to a chilling
flashback…
But, all that aside, I will read any book or watch any movie
about serial killers, if they are done right, because criminal profiling is
fascinating to me. At one point, I wanted to go into the field myself, but, to
be honest, I decided I did not want to “get inside” the minds of people like
Bundy, because I was leery of not being able to get back out again.
Which brings us to tonight’s movie, Michael Mann’s
Manhunter.
In the movie, based on the Thomas Harris book, “Red Dragon,”
former FBI profiler Will Graham is living a quiet life in Florida with his wife
and son. Then, one day, he gets a visit from his old boss, Jack Crawford
(Dennis Farina, from last night’s movie). Crawford needs Graham to come back to
the job because he has a series of grisly murders to solve, and the FBI cannot
find any logical link to any suspect, or even how the murders might be linked,
other than by their precise execution.
Graham retired from the job after solving a certain case,
one involving a certain genius psychiatrist who was murdering and eating his
victims. You may recognize the name – Dr. Hannibal Lektor (yes, I know the
spelling is different, we will talk about that momentarily…). Graham solved the
case, but not before Lektor sliced him from hip to shoulder trying to escape. A
very sleazy reporter named Freddy Lounds (the always watchable Stephen Lang)
snuck into Graham’s hospital room , pulled the sheets back, and took
photographs for his even sleazier tabloid, "The National Tattler."
Graham accepts the job, tracking down the killer the press
have dubbed “The Tooth Fairy,” Studying all the details of the two families who
have been slaughtered by The Tooth Fairy, getting into the mindset of the
killer, even paying a visit to his old nemesis, Lektor, drives Graham to a
mania, one he recognizes all too well.
But, with The Tooth Fairy’s pattern of killing under the full moon, he is on
the clock to stop The Tooth Fairy before he can strike again.
I will stop there, aside from a few scenes we will discuss
later…
I know, this all sounds very familiar, and it should,
because Edward Norton and Anthony Hopkins remade the film to feed all the
Hopkins “Hannibal Lecter” fans. Rather, they “rebooted” the film based on the
book. It’s hard to call it a remake because this version only has one scene
with “Lektor” and it only lasts about five minutes. But, trivia note, when it
came time to make Silence of the Lambs, director Jonathan Demme went to Brian
Cox to hire him to play Lecter once more time, and Cox was booked solid. But
he did recommend a friend of his for the
role, Sir Anthony Hopkins. And a legend was born…
Our film, though, was made in 1986, deep in the heart of
Miami Vice and the MTV world, back when MTV actually showed music videos and
not incredibly stupid “reality programming.” Indeed, Michael Mann, the
director, was the creator and producer of Miami Vice. This movie has all sorts
of proof of this, if you needed proof. The colors are very vivid and
neon-looking. The soundtrack is very 80’s, when techno was just coming into
vogue. You would think this would be a bad thing, but, truthfully, it makes the
whole movie seem more… real… somehow. It cuts into your vision and leaves
images that stick in your mind long after. The music is understated, yet it
seems to set your nerves on edge during the suspenseful scenes.
William Petersen, who was just coming into his own as an
actor, long before CSI: Crime Scene Investigation made him a household name,
plays Will Graham, and he plays the HELL out of the character. You see the
almost direct line he drew, going from this character to Gil Grissom on CSI. He’s
calm, he is logical, yet he always seems like he will erupt at any moment. He’s
almost Spock-like in his profiling ability, walking around a crime scene at
night, with only a flashlight, because that’s how the murderer did it, talking
into a tape recorder, sometimes in the second person, as if narrating the
murders as they occur. It’s really a chilling thing to witness. Mann directs
these scenes very carefully, the camera following Graham at a distance, slowly
creeping up to him as he gets deeper into the mindset of The Tooth Fairy, like
the camera is readying to pounce like a hidden killer. 
Another actor to watch in this is Joan Allen. Now, yes, she
is an Oscar-nominated actress with all sorts of acting credentials, but in
Manhunter, she was also working in her first major role on film. She plays Reba
McClane, a young blind woman who finds herself in a relationship with The Tooth
Fairy, not realizing who or what he really is until it is too late. Not to
spoil any of the details of the mystery, The Tooth Fairy is a photographer of
sorts, in that he enjoys taking photos of his victims in very gruesome poses.
To cover his need for low-light photography film (yes, this is back when
cameras used film…), he is a regular visitor to the local zoo, where he takes
photos of nocturnal animals. Through these connections, he takes Reba to the
zoo to witness a Bengal tiger that it under sedation for dental surgery. Reba
has never been so close to any sort of wild animal, so she willingly goes. When
the veterinarian suggests she touch the beautiful, large creature, she does so.
Watching this scene, at only about three minutes in length, it starts
innocently. But, through Mann’s direction, it becomes a scene of magnificent
sexual tension. Reba’s hands move slowly over the creature as she traces every
inch of it, making a mental image of a thing she cannot see. She listens to the
heartbeat, she feels the sharp teeth, feels the breath on her fingertips, all
the while, The Tooth Fairy stands, watching, longing to be that creature being
touched, caressed, fondled. It is an amazing scene, one that plays into the
plot later when Reba realizes she has also touched another creature, this one,
a deranged homicidal maniac.
When you watch Manhunter, you see a lot of things that were
carried over into Silence of the Lambs. Nobody has any real clue why Mann
jacked up the spelling of Hannibal Lecter’s name, other than the aesthetic look
of the K stuck in the middle of it. Yes, I am one of those people who find
names to have a certain look to them… sue me. I love the fact that Frankie
Faison is in the movie, because, from Silence on, he was the orderly Barney,
the only orderly Lecter seemed to respect (or, at least, didn’t try to take a
bite out of) at the mental hospital he was sentenced to. Faison played Barney
in every Lecter movie after that. Brian Cox’s Lecter has the same twisted sense
of humor, but it is much more freely delivered here, where Hopkins’ Lecter is
more malevolent.
If you are a fan of CSI, or Lecter movies, or both,
Manhunter is a great watch. If you aren’t, you will be after you see the birth
of Gus Grissom and Hannibal Lecter all at once. It seems odd to say, but you
might even find yourself looking for the soundtrack for your collection,
because it is a tight collection of music, some instrumental, some with lyrics,
but all with a sense of calm dread about them.
Go find Manhunter and settle in for a hell of a movie. You
might want to keep a light or two on, though. And, let’s just say, you may
never feel good about having your pictures developed again…
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