WARNING: This Review Contains Spoilers
Since starting this blog, there has been one question that has been bugging me and this review forms part of that issue. If there are two films made that are based on a book, is one of them a remake of the other? Red Dragon and Manhunter are based on the novel Red Dragon by Thomas Harris, a book that has been on my reading list longer than I can remember. So, really this review will look more at the comparisons between the two interpretations of the story and characters.
Making a Discovery
I found something I didn’t know while watching these two films to do this review. In naming his first novel of the Hannibal Lecter cannon, Red Dragon references a painting by William Blake entitled ‘The Great Red Dragon and The Woman Clothed in White’. Even more interestingly, this is only referenced in the Red Dragon film.
Will Graham
Played by William Petersen and Edward Norton respectively, Will is a man so haunted by his past and by his encounters with Hannibal Lecter that he leaves the FBI only to be dragged back in when a new serial killer arises. In both iterations, Will is married to Molly and has a son, whereas the films do not agree on the name and neither match the book. Storywise, there isn’t really much that separates these two Will Grahams, but Petersen does seem to play him slightly darker and moodier than Norton who, even though Graham has this uncanny ability to see through a serial killer’s eyes, just seems to play him as an average FBI profiler. He also shows more emotion towards the situation presented to him, as if he has not become desensitised to the work he’s doing.
Hannibal Lecter
Psychiatrist by day, serial killer by night. In Manhunter, Brian Cox seems to draw more on the psychiatric side of Lecter’s character in his interaction with William Graham. On the other hand, Anthony Hopkins begins by showing us Lecter as a socialite before unleashing a version of him that is downright creepy. His body moves as one and his voice is chilling in comparison to that of Brian Cox.
In both films, as mentioned above, Graham visits Lecter in his cell, but there is a surprising difference. In Manhunter, it is Will’s own decision for him to visit Lecter, but in Red Dragon it is Jack Crawford, his boss at the FBI, who decides this for him. He also visits Lecter more often than in Manhunter, consulting him on the symbol carved into the tree.
Name of the Dragon
In Manhunter, it is a steady process but Will Graham gradually figures out that everything about the murders points to the fact that Dolarhyde has seen the houses and the pets before, that he has watched the home videos that he himself has been using as evidence. I actually enjoy the fact that they have to go through at least two driver’s licences before they reach Dolarhyde’s meaning that it isn’t a convoluted resolution.
This is however my issue with Red Dragon. Instead of the video tapes being given to him, he finds them in the Leeds’ house – which is hinted to by Lecter. So in a weird way, how much of this case is solved by Graham and how much by Lecter? Also, when they look closer into the antagonist once they discover the tapes have come from the same company – the boss automatically gives them Dolarhyde’s name.
Death of the Dragon
This is a key place where the two films differ, but not having read Red Dragon to the end I could not tell you who has it right. In Manhunter, Will Graham is the hero of the film, rescuing Reba from Dolahyde and shooting him dead. The resolution to Red Dragon however is that Dolarhyde shoots himself because he can no longer control the Dragon inside, or so we are led to believe. Instead he comes after Will and his family, almost killing Will in the process. The day is saved by Molly in the end when she shoots Dolarhyde in the head.
Honorary Mention
I’m sure many of you know that the story of the Tooth Fairy was also included in the third series of the TV series Hannibal. I was originally confused as to why this story was left to the very end, however the whole thing begins with Will Graham still working for the FBI, instead of being a retired agent, so the series actually begins before Red Dragon and Manhunter, telling his full story with Lecter and Garrett Jacob Hobbs (a murderer referenced by Graham in both films). Something I also found reasonably interesting about the series in the change in gender of both Freddie Lounds and Dr Bloom, but I have no explanation for this.
The Death of Freddy Lounds
This is something that does not feature in the television series. In both Manhunter & Red Dragon, Lounds is kidnapped by Francis Dolarhyde, better known as the Red Dragon (or Tooth Fairy to the police) and subsequently set on fire whilst still alive.
Opening Scenes
In Manhunter, we are introduced to William Graham first, in his sedate lifestyle following his retirement from the FBI, whereas in Red Dragon we are introduced to Hannibal Lecter first. It begins in the 1980s, with Will Graham confiding in Lecter about a murderer is hunting and is stabbed before realising that it is Lecter he has been after all along. Truthfully, the story in Red Dragon begins before that in Manhunter as it begins with the actual capturing of Hannibal Lecter.
In Conclusion
To answer my original question, at least in this case I feel that Red Dragon is a remake of Manhunter. Yes, there are additional scenes but the script is so similar it’s hard not to see it in this way. In that regard, I do prefer Manhunter but I can understand how Red Dragon launched a franchise of Hannibal Lecter films and it is obvious at the end of film they always intended to continue as Clarrise is referenced in the final scene. If I am painfully honest, Hopkins is the best thing about Red Dragon.
