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Old vs. New


The Owl
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Original or Remake  

6 members have voted

  1. 1. Original or Remake

    • Manhunter (1986)
      5
    • Red Dragon (2002)
      1


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When it comes to the Hannibal Lecter film series, most people are familiar with "Silence of the Lambs", "Hannibal", and the prequel "Red Dragon"

 

but when I ask not too many people are familiar that before Silence of the Lambs, the first film in the Thomas Harris series of novels "Red Dragon" was made into a film called "Manhunter", with William Peterson (who would go on to fame later as Gill Grissom of CSI, largely base upon his performance in this film), and did not feature Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter

 

after the success of SOTL, and Hannibal I understand why the film was remade, they wanted to have each of the novels with Anthony Hopkins in the movie...but this is wherein my issues with the remake come in...

 

I have not read the Novels of any of the seires of books, I know I should, but I cannot comment onto how close each of these movies are to the source material... But it seems to me that in remaking the film with Anthony Hopkins they were trying to shift the focus of the movie onto Lecter's character as opposed to Will Graham..

 

Hannibal Lecter was a minor character in Manhunter, but seemed to overshadow the real main character of Will Graham in Red Dragon... By having so much focus on Hannibal in "Red Dragon" it widely diverted the attention away from Ed Norton....

 

I will say this, Will Graham was played wonderfully in both films, as I mentioned above William Peterson's performance in Manhunter gained him the role of Gil Grissom in CSI years later....but Ed Norton gave as much as a great performance... so a tie there..

 

I did enjoy the villian in Red Dragon a bit more than in Manhunter, Ralph Finnes did a great job there...

 

But the biggest issue with the remake is that WHY WHY WHY did they not de-age Anthony Hopkins for this film? He is clearly 13 years older in this film that he is in Silence of the Lambs, but as you know Red Dragon takes place before Silence of the Lambs, They could have easily de-aged Hopkins in this film, and it feels lazy that they did not...

 

Manhunter is the most consistant, and concise of the films, and one that I watch more than Red Dragon...

 

 

and by the way

 

DO YOU SEE!

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Read the book, it's far better than both...

 

I prefer the Norton/Hopkins one though, they filmed the proper ending...

 

Manhunter though shows you where Peterson and CSI began and how much they owe guys like Thomas Harris...

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I think "Red Dragon" was a more polished version of "Manhunter." That's the reason they make these remakes. You may know the story but it's all about presenting it in a more modern way and, of course, make money. Also, the sound on "Manhunter" was a little mangled to me. Maybe it's because I watched it on a VHS tape. Sometimes, it was hard for me to follow the story. Anyway, both great movies. trink39.gif
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QUOTE (blackhawkrush @ Oct 30 2010, 07:55 PM)
I think "Red Dragon" was a more polished version of "Manhunter." That's the reason they make these remakes. You may know the story but it's all about presenting it in a more modern way and, of course, make money. Also, the sound on "Manhunter" was a little mangled to me. Maybe it's because I watched it on a VHS tape. Sometimes, it was hard for me to follow the story. Anyway, both great movies. trink39.gif

"Red Dragon" has the proper ending too don't forget...in Manhunter Dolahyde just dies in the fire...

 

 

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I like them both very much, but I think I'll go with "Red Dragon." The one area where "Manhunter" beats "Dragon" is in the role of Will Graham. Norton's a great actor, but I still think of him as a kid, whereas Petersen is more "adult" and has more heroic machismo. Otherwise, in the rest of the casting, "Red Dragon" gets the edge.

 

As Treeduck said (twice!), "Red Dragon" is also truer to the novel, particularly in the ending. (But as Owl correctly guessed - although he hasn't read the book - "Red Dragon" gave Lecter more onscreen time than his allotment in the novel. The idea there was clearly "Hey, it's Anthony Hopkins! And people LOVE this character! Let's put more of him in the movie.")

 

But my biggest gripe with "Manhunter" may be the direction. Michael Mann gave the film the same stylized 1980's look he brought to "Miami Vice." It was "cool" then but looks dated now, and I think this story is better told without the "hip" factor.

 

I could talk about the movies and series forever, but one more thing: I always thought Harris should've written a "prequel," telling the story of how Graham caught Lecter. It would've been great. The "Red Dragon" novel begins with Lecter already behind bars and Graham in retirement. How exactly did the story get to that point? In the "Red Dragon" film, before and during the opening credits, we get a taste of Graham's pursuit of Lecter. Kudos to the "Red Dragon" team for throwing that in.

 

 

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