 Tagline: To catch The Tooth Fairy, he must first let Hannibal Lecter inside his head. Related Movies: • Manhunter (1986) [Blu-ray] • Silence of the Lambs (1991) [Blu-ray] • Hannibal (2001) • Red Dragon (2002) [Blu-ray] • Hannibal Rising (2007) Anthony Hopkins reprises his Oscar-winning role as the infamous Dr. Hannibal Lector in the thrilling prequel critics are hailing as "a suspenseful masterpiece!" (FOX-TV) After capturing Dr. Lector, FBI agent Will Graham (Edward Norton) retires-only to be called back to active duty to hunt down the elusive killer, The Tooth Fairy (Ralph Fiennes). Red Dragon is the electrifying, critically acclaimed movie that "returns the series to The Silence of the Lambs form" (Jack Matthews, New York Daily News). Storyline: FBI Agent Will Graham has been called out of early retirement to catch a serial killer, known by authorities as "The Tooth Fairy". He asks for the help of his arch-nemesis, Dr. Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter, so that he can be able to catch "The Tooth Fairy" and bring him to justice. The only problem is that "The Tooth Fairy" is getting inside information about Graham and his family from none other than Dr. Lecter. Written by MovieWes Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman on October 22, 2010 -- Why do people go to scary movies? Is there some psychological doctoral thesis on this subject which sheds light on the really rather peculiar human need to be frightened out one's wits? Is there an endorphin rush after the shock that makes it all worthwhile? What about the slow, steady spread of terror when you watch a film pitting a raving madman against an investigator who's also a family man, which you know in your heart of hearts is going to end with a showdown between good (sweet little nuclear family in a sylvan domestic setting) and evil (rabid killer, usually with some sort of threateningly sharp object in hand)? From Night of the Hunter to Cape Fear, these well worn clichés seem never to lose their adrenaline-pumping value, nor their audience appeal. Do our onscreen victims serve as scapegoats for our most buried fears that our own families may well become subject to the vagaries of unpredictable elements out in the real world? I certainly have no easy answers for any of these quandaries, and yet as I watched Red Dragon, the second film adaptation of Thomas Harris' novel (Michael Mann's excellent Manhunter was the first) which introduced iconic serial killer Hannibal Lecter to the world, I couldn't help asking them. When one is confronted by such deliberate and deliberative evil as is embodied in the character of Hannibal Lecter, one is forced, perhaps unwillingly, to confront a whole host of issues about how reality, and indeed good and evil, are perceived. That certainly is brought home in the character of FBI agent Will Graham (Edward Norton), who in the riveting prelude to this film figures out that Lecter, who in his guise as a world famous psychiatrist has been aiding in the search for a serial killer, is himself the madman for whom he's been searching. That leads to a viscerally exciting showdown scene where both men are horribly wounded, leading both to Lecter's imprisonment and Graham's retirement from the force. But Red Dragon is actually a ménage a trois of sorts, as Graham ends up needing Lecter's assistance in tracking down another vicious serial killer, one who preys on young families, known as the Tooth Fairy Killer. Those of you who like to play what call the "Academy Awards Game" may know that the only three times one film has managed to sweep the four major categories—Best Film, Actor, Actress and Director—were It Happened One Night in 1934, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1975 and The Silence of the Lambs over 50 years later. The Silence of the Lambs caught the public's fancy, and fear factor, rather amazingly in the early weeks of 1991, and it's testament to the film's impact that it was remembered more than a year later when Oscar time came around, certainly not always the case even with films of this stature. Real Hannibal Lecter fans knew that Michael Mann had tackled the elegant and disturbing character five years previously, when the director was still red hot (or at least pastel pink hot) from Miami Vice, in his 1986 film Manhunter. In that version, a pre-CSI William Petersen was Graham and Brian Cox played Lecter. However Manhunter, being pre-Silence of the Lambs, never really concentrated on the horrors of Hannibal's reign, and instead treated the character as a supporting element in Graham's attempts to capture the Tooth Fairy. Manhunter, despite being impeccably stylish in that almost patented Mann way, was a box office disappointment, and very few remembered it by the time Silence of the Lambs came along. When Silence became such a phenomenon, however, there was a great deal of renewed interest in Manhunter, and a bevy of fans (and critics) called it superior to even Demme's Oscar-fest. The two films are really polar opposites, despite being linked by the Lecter character. Mann's is flashy and hyperbolic, as was his wont back then, despite Petersen's tamped down portrayal of Graham. Demme's is subdued, a slow and increasingly sinister trip through a nightmare world that is almost Fellini-esque in its surrealism. Both films are immensely "entertaining" (if films this disturbing can even be termed that), but in completely different ways. Director Brett Ratner forges a sort of middle ground between Mann and Demme with his version of Red Dragon. Ratner of course benefits immensely from an audience already primed for the "delicious" (pun intended) terrors of Hannibal Lecter, and he and scenarist Ted Tally (who also adapted The Silence of the Lambs) use that familiarity to bring Lecter much more to the center of this story than he was in Manhunter. Anthony Hopkins, reprising the role which won him the Oscar, is somewhat hobbled by the passing years as he attempts to play the character who in this film is supposed to be several years younger than he was in The Silence of the Lambs. Despite that visual disparity, not exactly ameliorated by makeup or the addition of a silly ponytail for the character, Hopkins is really rather subdued as Lecter this time around, with little overt scenery (and/or victim) chewing involved. That puts the shock value squarely in the hands of Ralph Fiennes' turn as Francis Dolarhyde, the Tooth Fairy. But here Ratner and Tally actually surprise us somewhat, painting yet another emotionally barren character who just happens to go around murdering families as his "hobby". This very understated approach is a large part of what makes Red Dragon so effective and extremely creepy; it's as if Ratner and Tally are telling the audience that even that mild mannered clerk at the mall could turn out to be your worst nightmare. Ratner has proven himself quite an able stager of action sequences, as he's shown repeatedly in everything from his Rush Hour films to his X Men outing, but what may surprise some who are familiar with his oeuvre is the uniform excellence of the performances here. Though Hopkins doesn't get to display the hyperbolic manic depression he did in Silence of the Lambs, his understated, almost somnambulistic coolness is extremely unsettling. Fiennes is creepiness personified as put upon abuse victim become serial killer Dolarhyde. Norton is cool and collected, as intellectually astute as he almost always is in every role he plays, but he brings a really viscerally aware emotional import to the scenes where he has to view the death sites of various families, and, later, when he has to defend his own. The supporting cast is filled with a number of excellent turns, including Harvey Keitel as Norton's boss, Philip Seymour Hoffman as a smarmy tabloid reporter and Emily Watson as a blind woman with whom Dolarhyde falls in love. There's certainly no way Red Dragon could have captured the same lightning that Silence of the Lambs did, if only because Silence came first and the audience was prepared for the mayhem. There are certainly those who insist Manhunter is the more exciting of the two adaptations, but each film has its own merits to recommend it. In fact, there are really very few opportunities filmgoers get to compare two adaptations of the same source material which were filmed within just a few years of each other. It might give you nightmares, but a perfect Hallowe'en double feature might be Manhunter and Red Dragon. Red Dragon occupies a solid place in the Hannibal Lecter filmography. While it's true that Manhunter is probably more stylish, Red Dragon is exceedingly effective on its own terms and offers a chance for some A-listers to turn in some unusual performances. Ratner shows an uncommon aptitude for actors in this outing, and while some may decry the build up to the inevitable showdown between the evil serial killer and the good and decent family man, Red Dragon offers a good deal of disturbing scares getting there. Recommended. Trilogy 1: Manhunter Sequel: Silence of The Lambs Second sequel: Hannibal Trilogy 2: Silence of The Lambs Sequel: Hannibal Prequel: Red Dragon Second Prequel (to both): Hannibal Rising IMDb Rating (08/01/12): 7.2/10 from 110,916 users IMDb Rating (11/04/11): 7.2/10 from 84,838 users
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