The Dartmouth Film Society's Fall term series continued on Friday with a triple feature that included "Manhunter," a film which is now best known as a precursor and model for "Silence of the Lambs" (1991).
Though there are minor differences in characterization and tone, in their story lines the two films are essentially the same: a psychopathic and cannibalistic serial killer is pursued by a young F.B.I. agent. The "manhunter" visits the haunting, super-intelligent murderer, Dr. Hannibal Lector, to get back inside the mind of a serial killer.
The similarity of the plots is not surprising since both films are adaptations of novels by the same author, Thomas Harris.
"Manhunter" is adapted from "The Red Dragon: The Pursuit of Hannibal Lector" while "Silence of the Lambs" is based on the book by the same name.
While "Manhunter" does not deliver the same intensity of suspense as "Silence," it is still a good film in its own right.
It has a gripping plot and insightful psychological glimpses into the minds of three somewhat different (but chillingly similar) characters -- Lector (Brian Cox), the serial killer Francis Dollarhyde (Tom Noonan) and the F.B.I. agent Will Graham (William Petersen a.k.a. the manhunter).
But there are areas in which the film could have worked better. All of the major characters could have been better developed and played more powerfully.
Yet the film is a great success technically. The chilling mood is augmented by the music of Michel Rubini. Other areas of strength were the photography by Dante Spinotti, and the direction by Michael Mann, who recently directed "The Last of the Mohicans" and "Heat."
"Manhunter" examines a spooky side of the DFS Fall term series in that Dollarhyde, an insane film-lab worker who is nicknamed the "Tooth Fairy" because of his cannibalism, obsesses over watching home videos of beautiful women.
When he sees these women fall in love with other men, he plots to kill and eat them.
Like the serial killer Buffalo Bill in "Silence," the "Tooth Fairy" believes himself to be in the process of metamorphosis.
Graham, though he becomes obsessed with capturing the murderer, actually sympathizes with Dollarhyde because he --who was the one to capture Dr. Lector--understands the mind of the serial killer and recognizes that a horrible childhood made Dollarhyde turn into the monster he is.
