Manhunter is a 1986 American crime thriller film written and directed by Michael Mann. Based on the 1981 novel Red Dragon by Thomas Harris, the film stars William Petersen as FBI profiler Will Graham, Tom Noonan as serial killer Francis Dollarhyde, Dennis Farina as Graham's FBI superior Jack Crawford, and Brian Cox as incarcerated killer Hannibal Lecktor. The film focuses on Graham coming out of retirement to lend his talents to an investigation on Dollarhyde, a killer known as the Tooth Fairy. In doing so, he must confront the demons of his past and meet with Lecktor, who nearly killed Graham years before.
The film focuses on the forensic work carried out by the FBI to track down killers and shows the long-term effects that cases like this have on profilers such as Graham, highlighting the similarities between him and his quarry. It features heavily stylized use of color to convey this sense of duality, and the nature of the characters' similarity has been explored in academic analysis of the film. It was the first film adaptation of Red Dragon, as well as the first film adaptation of any of Harris's Hannibal Lecter novels in general.
Manhunter was released in the United States on August 15, 1986, by De Laurentiis Entertainment Group. It was considered a box-office bomb at the time of its release, making only $8.6 million in the United States, and received mixed reviews from critics. It has been reassessed and now enjoys a more favorable reception, as both the acting and the stylized visuals have been appreciated better in later years. Its resurgent popularity has seen it labelled as a cult film.
Plot Will Graham, a former FBI criminal profiler, retired following a mental breakdown after being attacked by serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecktor, whom he captured. His former FBI superior Jack Crawford visits him at his Florida home to seek help with a new serial killer case. Promising his wife that he will only find evidence and not risk physical harm, Graham agrees to visit the most recent crime scene in Atlanta, where he tries to enter the mindset of the killer, dubbed the Tooth Fairy by the police for the bite marks left on his victims.
Having successfully suggested where to find the killer's fingerprints, Graham meets with Crawford. They are accosted by tabloid journalist Freddy Lounds. Graham visits Lecktor, a former psychiatrist, in his secure cell and asks for his insight into the killer's motivations. Lecktor agrees to look at the case file. Later, Lecktor obtains Graham's home address by deceit while ostensibly making a phone call to his attorney.
Graham travels to the first crime scene in Birmingham, Alabama. He is contacted by Crawford, who patches Graham through to Frederick Chilton, Lecktor's warden, who has found a note in Lecktor's personal effects. They realize it is from the Tooth Fairy, expressing admiration for Lecktor and an interest in Graham. Crawford brings Graham to Washington, where a missing section of the note is analyzed to determine what Lecktor removed. They discover an instruction to communicate through the personals section of the National Tattler, Lounds's newspaper.
The FBI intends to plant a fake advertisement to replace Lecktor's, but without the proper book code the Tooth Fairy will know it is fake. They let the advertisement run as it is and Graham organizes an interview with Lounds, giving a false and derogatory profile of the Tooth Fairy to incite him. A sting operation fails to catch the killer. Lounds is kidnapped by the Tooth Fairy and forced to tape-record a statement. He is set on fire in a wheelchair and rolled into the parking garage of the National Tattler as a warning.
The FBI decodes Lecktor's coded message to the Tooth Fairy: it is Graham's home address with an instruction to kill Graham and his family. Graham rushes home to find his family safe but terrified. After the FBI moves Graham's family to a safe house, he explains to his stepson Kevin why he retired previously.
At his job in a St. Louis film lab, Francis Dollarhyde—the Tooth Fairy—approaches a blind co-worker, Reba McClane, and offers her a ride home. They go to Dollarhyde's home, where Reba is oblivious to the fact that Dollarhyde is watching home-movie footage of his planned next victims. The following night, Graham realizes the Tooth Fairy's murders are driven by a desire for acceptance. Meanwhile, Dollarhyde watches Reba being escorted home by another co-worker. Misinterpreting their interaction, he murders the man and abducts Reba.
Searching for a connection between the murdered families, Graham realizes that the killer must have seen their home movies; he brought bolt cutters to a home that had a padlock in a home video which had since been removed. Graham and Crawford identify the lab in St. Louis where the films were processed. After determining which employees matched the killer's description, he and Crawford travel with a police escort to Dollarhyde's home. Inside, Dollarhyde prepares to kill Reba with a piece of glass. Seeing that Dollarhyde has someone with him, Graham lunges through a window. He is subdued by Dollarhyde, who retrieves a shotgun and shoots two police officers and injures Crawford. Wounded in the firefight, Dollarhyde returns to the kitchen, where he is killed by Graham. Reba, Graham, and Crawford are tended to by paramedics, and Graham returns home to his family after checking on the Sherman family.
Cast
William Petersen as FBI Agent Will Graham. Richard Gere, Mel Gibson and Paul Newman were considered for the role, but Mann cast Petersen after seeing footage from To Live and Die in L.A. Petersen spent time with officers of the Chicago Police Department researching for his role. Additionally, Petersen had a small role as a bouncer in Mann's 1981 film Thief. Tom Noonan as Francis Dollarhyde, whose name is spelled differently from the novel's "Dolarhyde." Noonan credits his ability to improvise during rehearsals for his casting. He took up bodybuilding to prepare physically for the part. He began preparation for his role by studying other serial killers, but quickly rejected this approach. While shooting the film, Noonan remained in character at all times, keeping away from cast members playing his pursuers. Dennis Farina as FBI Agent Jack Crawford. Farina had already worked with Mann before, making his acting debut in the 1981 film Thief before starring in Crime Story and in several episodes of Miami Vice. Farina had already read the novel Red Dragon, and was called to audition at the same time as Brian Cox. Brian Cox as Dr. Hannibal Lecktor. Actors John Lithgow, Mandy Patinkin, and Brian Dennehy, and director William Friedkin were also considered for the part of Lecktor, whose name was changed from the novel's "Lecter." Cox based his performance on Scottish serial killer Peter Manuel. Cox was asked to audition with his back turned to the casting agents, as they felt they needed to focus on the power of his voice when considering him for the part. Kim Greist as Molly Graham. Greist has previously worked with Mann on an episode of Miami Vice. Joan Allen as Reba McClane. In preparation for her role, Allen spent time with the New York Institute for the Blind, learning to walk through New York blindfolded. She had previously worked with co-star William Petersen on stage, in the 1980 Steppenwolf Theatre Company production of Balm in Gilead.Macoun, Scott. ed. "History: "Balm in Gilead" (Sep. 18, 1980 – Oct. 26, 1980) ". Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Retrieved 19 June 2011. Stephen Lang as Freddy Lounds. Lang had previously starred in Band of the Hand, on which Mann was executive producer. He went on to appear in the Mann-produced Crime Story with Farina and in Mann's 2009 film Public Enemies.
Production Pre-production The film was originally going to be called Red Dragon, like the novel. Michael Mann, who called the new title "inferior," said that producer Dino De Laurentiis made the change after Michael Cimino's film Year of the Dragon, produced by De Laurentiis, bombed at the box office in 1985. William Petersen has commented that another reason for the change was to avoid any suggestion that it might be a martial arts film. Brian Cox, who played jailed killer Hannibal Lecktor, has also expressed disdain for the film's title, calling it "bland" and "cheesy." The word manhunter appeared in Stephen King's influential review of the Red Dragon novel published by The Washington Post in late 1981.
David Lynch was an early consideration for the director's role, having still been under contract to De Laurentiis after making Dune. However, Lynch rejected the role after finding the story to be "violent and completely degenerate."
William Petersen worked with the Chicago Police Department Violent Crimes Unit and the FBI Violent Crimes Unit in preparation for the role of Will Graham, talking to the officers and reading some of their crime files.Simmons, Sue (interviewer); Petersen, William (actor). (15 August 1986). Live at Five: Interview with William Petersen. [Television Production]. NBC. He spoke to the investigators on the Richard Ramirez case about how they coped with the effects these disturbing cases had on them and how they learned to "compartmentalize" their working and personal lives. "Of course you don't really turn it off," he recalled. "At the end of the day, even if you're just a regular policeman, it takes a toll."
During the three years he spent working on the script, Michael Mann also spent time with the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit, where he claimed to have met people very like the character of Will Graham. This level of research led Brent E. Turvey to describe the film as "one of the most competent blends of cutting-edge forensic science and criminal profiling at the time." Mann also spent several years corresponding with imprisoned murderer Dennis Wayne Wallace. Wallace had been motivated by his obsession for a woman he barely knew, and believed that Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" was "their song." This connection inspired Mann to include the song in the film.
Tom Noonan, who played killer Francis Dollarhyde, initially researched other serial killers to study for the role, but was repulsed by it. He then decided to play the character with the sense that he felt he was doing right by his victims, not harming them. "I wanted to feel this guy was doing the best he could," Noonan explained, "that he was doing this out of love." Noonan credits his casting to improvisation during his audition, recalling that he was reading lines alongside a young woman. During a reading of the scene featuring the torture of Freddy Lounds, Noonan noticed that the woman began to seem frightened, and deliberately tried to scare her more. He believed that this is what secured the role for him.
Joan Allen, who played Dollarhyde's blind love interest Reba McClane, recalls meeting with representatives of the New York Institute for the Blind in preparation for her role. She spent time walking around New York wearing a mask over her eyes to get accustomed to walking as though she were blind.
John Lithgow, Mandy Patinkin, William Friedkin, and Brian Dennehy were all considered for the role of Hannibal Lecktor, but Brian Cox was cast after being recommended to Mann by Dennehy. Cox based his portrayal on Scottish serial killer Peter Manuel, who he said "didn't have a sense of right and wrong." Cox has also suggested that his selection was due to his nationality, claiming that characters who are "a little bit nasty" are best played by Europeans. Mann kept the role of Lecktor very short, believing that it was "such a charismatic character that [he] wanted the audience almost not to get enough of him." For the role of Will Graham, De Laurentiis had expressed interest in Richard Gere, Mel Gibson and Paul Newman, but Mann, having seen footage of William Petersen's role in To Live and Die in L.A., championed Petersen for the part.