Manhunter (1986)

Manhunter feels like an aquarium trapped in time from 1986. It’s slick and cool and undeniably aesthetic, really capturing the essence of an era - but I don’t think I want it in my house.

The first 30 minutes were wonderful and I was genuinely shocked by the violence. But this movie is really slow. It’s clearly going for a process-driven approach, but I just enjoy movies like Zodiac or No Country for Old Men more. I feel like they could have tightened up the editing quite a bit.

Brian Cox was wonderful as Hannibal Lecter. His performance has more of a tinge of menace - I could actually feel the violent man within him. Hopkins plays Lecter so much kinder before he’s ripping faces off, which is strange by comparison. I really enjoyed Cox’s take a lot.

I can feel the influence this movie had on future series like CSI in terms of crime scene investigation, the process of piecing together evidence, and understanding the psychological underpinnings of serial killers. I don’t know how accurate any of that actually is - I know Michael Mann is famously an astute director and writer - but it still feels a little off to me.

Tom Noonan’s performance was wonderful. I do feel weird about this era’s treatment of villainizing queer characters, which hasn’t aged particularly well, but Noonan really was freaky and menacing. By the way, I assumed he was like 67 years old and just learned he was 34 during filming, which is insane.

William Petersen as Will Graham was okay. I didn’t love him. However, I did love his performance in that scene where he’s talking to his son in the cereal aisle about how Hannibal Lecter affected him while also leaving out some of the worst parts. That moment felt really powerful - subtle and not too showy.

Michael Mann’s direction was a bit distracting for me, which feels like it might be controversial to say after reading the Letterboxd reviews for this film. But that’s where I landed.

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