Here's our roundup of the best new series of the year so far, and where to watch them.
Related lists from IMDb editors
Related lists from IMDb users
Title: Manhunter (1986)
Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| William Petersen | ... | Will Graham | |
| Kim Greist | ... | Molly Graham | |
| Joan Allen | ... | Reba McClane | |
| Brian Cox | ... | Dr. Hannibal Lecktor | |
| Dennis Farina | ... | Jack Crawford | |
| Tom Noonan | ... | Francis Dollarhyde | |
| Stephen Lang | ... | Freddy Lounds | |
 |
David Seaman | ... | Kevin Graham |
| Benjamin Hendrickson | ... | Dr. Frederick Chilton | |
| Michael Talbott | ... | Geehan | |
| Dan Butler | ... | Jimmy Price (as Dan E. Butler) | |
|
|
Michele Shay | ... | Beverly Katz |
|
|
Robin Moseley | ... | Sarah |
|
|
Paul Perri | ... | Dr. Sidney Bloom |
| Patricia Charbonneau | ... | Mrs. Sherman | |
Will Graham (William Petersen) is a former F.B.I. Agent who recently retired to Florida with his wife Molly (Kim Greist) and their young son, Kevin (David Seaman). Graham was a "profiler", one who profiles criminal's behavior and tries to put his mind into the minds of criminals to examine their thoughts while visiting crime scenes. Will is called out of his self-imposed retirement at the request of his former boss Jack Crawford (Dennis Farina) to help the F.B.I. catch an elusive serial killer, known to the press as the "Tooth Fairy" (Tom Noonan), who randomly kills whole families in their houses during nights of the full moon and leaves bite marks on his victims. To try to search for clues to get into the mind of the killer, Will has occasional meetings with Dr. Hannibal Lecktor (Brian Cox), a charismatic, but very dangerous imprisoned serial killer that Will captured years earlier which nearly drove him insane from the horrific encounter that nearly cost Will's life. With some help ... Written by matt-282
I have a problem with a lot of people's review of "Manhunter". Every single bad review that criticizes Cox or Noonan invariably mentions the movie "Red Dragon" in the same breath. How about being a little objective?
On its own as the original Hannibal Lecter movie, Manhunter is a good movie. Cox plays Lecter convincingly, and you can read from other reviewers who praised his work shows that with a little objectivity we can see an alternative representation of Lecter. It is true, as one other reviewer says, Hopkins acts Lecter, Cox *IS* Lecter. Cox never seems to be acting, he really plays the part with mystery and ambiguity not like the distinctly maniacal Lecter that Hopkins portrays.
Cox plays a true psychopath - one devoid of feelings, and yet a consummate actor. Some of the world's best actors are in fact psychopaths. A psychopath is not necessarily a killer - a psychopath is simply someone who does not feel for other human beings, which is often why the psychopath killers of this world were in fact convincing actors - for example Geoffrey Dahmer and Charles Manson.
So when we analyze the profiles of true psychopathic serial killers, we can quite clearly see that Cox plays the better Lecter than Hopkins. We can see Cox is devoid of compassion, and yet acts like a normal person. Hopkins on the other hand, never passes the creepy stage - he is too creepy and doesn't have the "acting" ability of a true psychopath to mask that image from the public eye. Cox shows that he could blend into normality without being caught.
And therein lies the problem with the negative reviews. We read countless negative reviews of this movie bemoaning the fact that Cox is not as creepy as Hopkins - but my dears, that is exactly why Cox plays the better Lecter!