Manhunter (DiviMax Restored Director’s Cut)
Picture: B
Sound: B- Extras: B Film: A-
Before anyone knew much about serial killers or Hannibal
Lecter, writer Thomas Harris already had a hit book with Black Sunday,
which was a hit film by John Frankenheimer in 1976. Michael Mann, who was best known for TV’s Miami
Vice in the 1980s (and its awful remake in 2006 now) already, had the
underrated feature film Thief (1981) under his belt. Dino DeLaurentiis had briefly launched his
own mini-major movie studio in the mid-1980s, and though it did not work out,
it produced some interesting films that might not have been made otherwise.
One of those films, and one of the biggest projects that
got made was Mann’s Manhunter, the 1986 first adaptation of Thomas
Harris’ Red Dragon. This was the
first book and film to feature Hannibal Lecter (spelled Lecktor in the film)
and DeLaurentiis was so confident in the material that it became the only film
the studio ever issued in 70mm blow-up prints for larger movie houses. However, Mann and DeLaurentiis did not agree
on the way to cut the film, but Mann did not have the position, reputation or
power he has not, so DeLaurentiis released the film in a lesser version. The resulting theatrical release did not do
well, but the film became a cult item.
Mann wanted the book title, but DeLaurentiis had just
produced the exceptional Michael Cimino thriller Year of the Dragon with
M-G-M in the original studios’ final months before the turner acquisition that
would end their long history. (The
current M-G-M is really United Artists revamped). Name changes were not the least of the film’s
troubles. After many years of various
video releases, Anchor Bay finally issued the film on DVDs in two versions,
including a double set with a very bad transfer of what was the only existing
director’s cut of the film. This new DVD
is the first of what Anchor Bay hopes to be many high-definition Divimax
releases. The previous versions had been
THX certified, but this new version is a recut finally done by Mann himself. Unfortunately, some of the extra footage that
should have never been excised is not in the best of shape, coming from old 1”
professional analog tape. The good news
is that this is the best version of the film ever issued.
William Peterson, now of TV’s hit series CSI, plays
Will Graham. He is the man who actually
caught Hannibal Lecktor (Brian Cox in his feature film debut), who nearly
gutted him out. Living in peace with is
wife and son on beachfront property, Jack Crawford (Dennis Farina, in his
feature film debut) comes visiting when he is stuck trying to catch a serial
killer known as the “Tooth Fairy” (Tom Noonan).
The film opens with them talking on the beach. Graham does not want to deal with it, but
Crawford has brought pictures and explains that he would only be involved on an
advisory level. His wife (Kim Griest) is
not happy about this, but he agrees when he sees the gruesome photos.
In order to get his edge and mindset back, he will have to
visit Lecktor, but another immediate annoyance will be with a tabloid reporter
(Stephen Lang) who will do anything for a story and to make money exploiting
Graham’s return. Within days, Graham is
back in the thick of things, using his gift to construct how this killer thinks
and what his motivation is. Trying to
become like the killer has some dangerous pitfalls, the kind that put him in a
medical, then mental hospital after Lecktor almost killed him before.
The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is one of the
earliest ever shot in what we now know as Super 35, where a 1.33 X 1 block of
35mm is filmed, then a scope frame is ripped out of the middle. This is not as good as shooting with real
scope squeeze lenses, but offers some visual options those heavy, hard-to-get-light-through
lenses cannot deliver. The cost is
better definition. Cinematographer Dante
Spinotti did a spectacular job here, helping to legitimize this format. When this film was remade recently under its
original book title, Spinotti shot that version too, but with real squeeze
lenses. Compared to his shooting on Manhunter,
Red Dragon may have looked good, but was no match for his work on the
first film. As noted, Manhunter was
blown-up to 70mm and it has the beautiful and menacing visuals worthy of such
treatment, versus the sequel which is not as well designed, written, directed,
and results in constriction of Spinotti’s talents. The color looks good, but the extras footage
looks hazier, color & depth dip, and detail is lost. The footage is still watchable, but will
remain an all-time argument for film preservation, because cut footage should
always be preserved in its original film form.
The sound is Dolby Digital 2.0 Pro Logic surround, which
will surprise those who remember that Anchor Bay’s regular DVDs has Dolby 5.1,
but that muddy director’s cut on the bonus DVD in the limited set was 2.0
surround as well. This is the sound Mann
has chosen for this DVD and it works well, except for the noticeable dips and
constrictions in the added footage.
Suddenly, sound moves towards the front with much less surround
information. Dialogue, soundstage depth,
and other ambient sound become flatter.
The 70mm blow-ups featured 4.1 magnetic Dolby sound, but the 5.1 remix
of this did not work so well. This new
version is at least as good, though if the hit songs and music by Michel Rubini
had been retrieved from the studio masters, could Mann not have produced a DTS
remix, even with the sound trouble on the extra footage? Maybe, but this works well, though this Dolby
will never have the bass and warmth those magnetic presentations did.
Of course, Mann’s audio commentary is the biggest extra on
this version, which is very interesting and informative. The only thing is some may get confused as to
whether he is at times discussing footage that was lost forever, or that he
expected to be there that was never found.
I believe he meant the former, but a few people have commented it sounds
like otherwise. Either way, this is a
fine commentary, with breaks that make sense for a change when he is isolating
certain scenes to explain the film.
There are several sections of stills that include production stills,
alternate/deleted scenes stills, and a variety of artwork from posters, tie-in
novels, other advertising sources, and the many home video releases
worldwide. The original theatrical
trailer is included, as is a DVD-ROM version of the script, similar to the way
Anchor Bay included screenplays on their DVDs of Murder By Decree and The
Man Who Fell To Earth. These do not
repeat all the extras from the limited DVD set, but this better than many DVDs
out there just the same.
On the
commentary, Mann says he likes to call this the “director preferred”
version. That is valid, since he made
some revisions and tightening that make sense.
Purists would say that is too revisionist, yet Mann never did get his
cut at the time and the cut that was found for the limited double set is the
closest we’ll ever see the Mann cut of 1986.
The nice thing about the new cut is how it lessens, if not eliminates,
what we might deem the Miami Vice factor that may have prevented the
film from being taken more seriously at the time.
With that
TV show a big hit at the time, many may have found they were being (at least
partly) something they could get at home for free. Of course, we now know better. The cast is exceptionally good here, and
though a solid cast was assembled fro the remake and its script may have been
closer to the book, this film works better because Mann had a vision of what
this was really about. He wanted to take
steps into realism and detail like the book, and in that translation took
risks. They paid off, since this version
is much more about the characters than the remake, which is more interested in
being part of a boxed set of “Lecter’s Greatest Hits” with all of its
over-obvious references to the other Hopkins/Lecter films of which it is a
prequel. The number one problem the
remake has that being more like the book (a problem right there) is that it
loses the focus on the main characters in conflict.
Line
between good and evil is also an issue, which is badly redrawn in the
remake. As Royal S. Brown pointed out in
his essay “Quo Vadis, Dr. Lecter?” for the January/February 2000 Issue
#28 of The Perfect Vision Magazine, that line disintegrates in Manhunter. This comes from Graham identifying with the
killer too much, which already damaged him mentally once. Although I have issues with other parts of
the essay, it could not address the remake.
That remake has Edward Norton as a Will Graham never in danger of the
same thing happening. Unlike the remake,
the original also suggests how close Graham is to possibly becoming, without
the bad pop psychology we hear way too often, a killer. This is disturbing because the problems could
happen on several levels, either to lose one’s mind passive, actively snap, or
even get sick enough to be the same kind of killer. William Friedkin’s Cruising (1980) is
the only other film ever to go into that direction.
That is a
point that could be missed, now that there are four Lecter feature films, not
just this original one. However, Mann’s
final cut of the film for what footage managed to survive, is now as definitive
as it is going to get. Manhunter
can finally take its place along side The Silence of the Lambs in a cut
that finally sees Mann’s vision realized seventeen years later, and that is why
this is the version to own.
Since
this is an HD transfer, we expect Anchor Bay to issue it in one of the two HD
formats soon, but in the meantime, you can check out these related links:
Hannibal (2001 DTS Set)
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/193/Hannibal+(2001/DTS+set)
Red Dragon (HD-DVD)
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4277/Red+Dragon+(HD-DVD)
The Silence Of The Lambs (MGM vs. Out-Of-Print Criterion)
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/190/Silence+of+the+Lambs+(MGM+Widescreen+++Criterion)
- Nicholas Sheffo
