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Good film
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
What a cast, Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton and Ralph Fiennes, and what a story. This precedes Silence of the Lambs and leads up to how Hannibal became incarcerated. You will not be disappointed with any part of it.
The prequel to Silence Of The Lambs sees Hannibal Lecter behind bars, duelling with his nemesis, FBI investigator Will Graham. Intelligent thriller and first class pulp When it comes to adaptations of Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lecter trilogy, film critics have long maintained the superiority of Michael Mann's Manhunter over the multi Oscar-winning Silence Of The Lambs, with Ridley Scott's decadent, vile Hannibal not even in the running. With Red Dragon, Hollywood returned to Manhunter's source, the first of Harris' trilogy, for a faithful adaptation. The film begins with Lecter's capture by FBI investigator Will Graham (Norton). The mad doctor's role is subsequently the same as in Silence Of The Lambs: helping with the investigation of a serial killer while crawling malignantly around inside the head of the hero, here played with scrawny vulnerability by Ed Norton. Seriously wounded during this run-in with Lecter, Will Graham retires - only to be coaxed back by boss Jack Crawford (Keitel) to help catch a new killer, the 'Tooth Fairy'. Graham is an eidecter, meaning he has a vivid and detailed imagination that allows him to emotionally assume roles, much as a writer empathises and imagines his characters. After the resounding prologue with Lecter, these early scenes where Keitel praises Graham and 'his gift' are excruciating. Marooned on Planet Exposition, the audience fiddles while Keitel drones. Brett Ratner's direction is certainly laborious, and safe. Where Michael Mann played fast and loose with Harris' novel, excising the whole 'Red Dragon' theme, trimming the ending, imposing his own stark economy to the material, Ratner points a camera at the book. This conservative approach has one advantage: Harris' original novel is a flawlessly structured thriller founded on strong research and shot through with disciplined themes concerning sight, transformation and creativity. All these themes meet in the form of serial killer Francis Dolarhyde (Fiennes), who has murdered two families and is preparing to slaughter his third. Standing in his way is his growing feeling for blind co-worker Reba McClane (Watson). Abused in childhood and nominally disfigured with a hair-lip, Dolarhyde thinks he is ugly, and hopes to transform himself into the unearthly beauty of the 'Red Dragon', as depicted in a painting by William Blake. In his day job developing home videos, he wants to be invisible, skulking in a dark room. But when he is murdering, he wants everyone to gaze upon him. When torturing scuzzy reporter Freddy Lounds (Hoffman) he shows him the photographs of his victims and insists, "Do you see?", "Do you see?". It's just a shame that the director chooses to show us Dolarhyde's motivation through extended inner dialogues with his abusive dead grandmother. Ratner even throws in a glaring portrait of the Dolarhyde matriach, giving the back story a Psycho-meets-'Scooby Doo' vibe. In order to fix the film in the franchise, Ratner (previously known for the Rush Hour films) sets Red Dragon in the American gothic style of Demme's Silence Of the Lambs, with some of Ridley Scott's arty pretensions from Hannibal decorating the early sequences. Verdict Better than expected return to Lecter's past, based on such a strong story that even some directorial hack work cannot mess it up.Read full review
This is the prequel to 'Silence Of The Lambs'. The book was originally made into a film called 'ManHunt' that to be honest was not a very good adaptation. Then after the phenomenal success of 'Lambs' and Hopkins fantastic performance as Lector the book was redapted into a second film this time keeping the original title 'Red Dragon' (and this time having some substantial funding, Hollywood and some serious acting names behind it). The result is a fantastic gripping dark watch. It tells the tale of how Hannibal Lector (Anthony Hopkins) came to be in the cell that he so memorably occupies throughout 'Silence of the lambs'. It shows how he helps track down an earlier pyscopath (the chilling Tooth Fairy) by helping the FBI man (Ed Norton) who originally found him and put him away for his own crimes. This is nothing particularly original. It's the old unknown violent nutter criminal slowly getting hunted down kind of deal. But all the actors are top notch, the dialogue is clever and punchy and the Tooth Fairy's crimes play on your very darkest fears. Essentially this is a quality story with great actors that is a really gripping watch. Well worth a viewing. I couldn't reckonmend this film more and if your in watching a film with your other half it is guaranteed to thrill you both with its excitement!Read full review
This is the prequel to 'Silence Of The Lambs'. The book was originally made into a film called 'ManHunt' that to be honest was not a very good adaptation. Then after the phenomenal success of 'Lambs' and Hopkins fantastic performance as Lector the book was redapted into a second film this time keeping the original title 'Red Dragon' (and this time having some substantial funding, Hollywood and some serious acting names behind it). The result is a fantastic gripping dark watch. It tells the tale of how Hannibal Lector (Anthony Hopkins) came to be in the cell that he so memorably occupies throughout 'Silence'. It shows how he helps track down an earlier pyscopath (the chilling Tooth Fairy) by helping the FBI man (Ed Norton) who originally found him and put him away for his own crimes. This is nothing particularly original. It's the old unknown violent nutter criminal slowly getting hunted down kind of deal. But all the actors are top notch, the dialogue is clever and punchy and the Tooth Fairy's crimes play on your very darkest fears. Essentially this is a quality story with great actors that is a really gripping watch. Well worth a viewing.Read full review
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