The Profiler, that *Other* Hannibal, and the Lunar Cycle Dragon

 A serial killer profiler, Will Graham(William Petersen), has "retired" after nearly dying at the hands of Hannibal Lektor (Brian Cox). He had a breakdown and needed to break from that profiler job, retreating to Someplace, Florida, with his wife (Kim Greist) and son (David Seaman), taking up a home on the beach.

Mann's 80s colors are rich in texture, the aesthetics of the night are incomparably his own. Even when the film takes us into Missouri to the killer of the film (Tom Noonan), there seems to be that distinctive Miami Vice flavor that bleeds from the Tooth Fairy's home (Noonan uses fake teeth to bite victims left at his bloody crime scenes, committed by following a lunar cycle) with the green windows. He even works at a lab, with blind Joan Allen meeting him, agreeing to take a ride home at his request, eventually going on a date or two with Noonan's Dollarhyde, even sleeping with him. Dollarhyde has moon posters on his walls. Dollarhyde watches video recordings (the lab he works introduced these families to him, so he had direct contact with their home and identities, allowing him to eventually study them outside their estates).

Dennis Farina is Jack Crawford with the FBI, appealing to Will Graham for help to find the Tooth Fairy as Dollarhyde murders two entire families, preparing for the next massacre at the next full moon, only giving law enforcement a brief space of time to catch or kill him.

Lots of folks, especially pro-Manhunter/anti-Red Dragon fans, love to bring out the Brian Cox is better than Anthony Hopkins card whenever the time presents itself. I think Cox is really good as that instigating, manipulative genius psychopath who actually uses a phone, provided to prisoners in isolation cells, and brilliantly gets a call out to a doctor's office that helped Will Graham in his breakdown, successfully securing his address just in case Dollarhyde might want to visit Will's family. That exchange between Will and Lektor at Lektor's cell, where the two discuss the Dollarhyde case is so fucking great. Lektor realizes Will needs to get that "scent" back as a profiler, exploiting Will's trauma (caused by Lektor, including Will murdering a killer and having to deal with the emotional and psychological effects of that) obviously for his own pleasure. When Graham rushes out of that cell and needs to get out of the building as fast a possible by running down the floor-to-floor walkway instead of any elevator, it explains just how in-his-head Lektor is. Lektor's attack on him -- knowing that Graham rides right to that edge of darkness as a profiler, with all that psychological goodies in his devious grab-bag -- is well established when Will bends over a rail outside the prison with the grass blurred in his eyes, only for his sight to clear once his near panic attack eases. It proves a point: Graham's got his work cut out for him. It will not be easy. Because the moment Graham visited Lektor, he opens up plenty of ensuing pain. That tabloid reporter, played by Stephen Lang with a lot of curly hair and repulsively sleazy pursuit of any story that can gain him a headline and notoriety, capturing Graham in a moment of weakness puts a target on the profiler.

Dollarhyde doesn't just stay in Missouri. In his van, he will go wherever he needs to in order to satiate his psychopathic urges and get even with those who print an article in the Tattler about his sexuality (Graham, to goad Dollarhyde after him, plants a false story with Graham's Freddy Lounds involving homosexuality and mommy molesting him!) and profile on what makes him tick. Graham will even take a picture with Lounds to put a stamp on the article to piss Dollarhyde off. And Dollarhyde will be fueled by that to kidnap Lounds, get him to record comments written by him, munch into Lounds' face with a fake teeth bite, and set Lounds on fire, presenting the reporter's burning corpse to the local authorities. It takes probably an hour to even get to Dollarhyde, who hides his face under a stocking prior to biting Lounds. Lang is perfectly disgusting as the loud and obnoxious tabloid reporter. He's bombastic and grandiose, actually getting into Graham's hospital room after Lektor's attack for pictures to post in his tabloid, approaching Graham when he was leaving a police headquarters, searching for that big story.

Mann makes damn sure we see plenty of human Graham with his wife and kid. Graham worries that his kid will look at him in a certain way the longer he profiles and tries to figure out Dollarhyde, so there is a scene/conversation at the supermarket, getting groceries, so the two can discuss Lektor, his job, and the need to know that daddy's okay. Graham and his wife look out windows into the beautiful ocean and cityscape at night. These scenes are full of mood and develop the two lives of Graham, when he's on the case looking at pictures, videos, crime scenes, and forensics, and in a sheet with Greist's Molly or affectionately embracing her as they know too well that each and every moment together could be their last. Mann punches that home each and every time Petersen and Greist share scenes. They don't fight or bicker about "the job". They don't have to because eyes and sadness dictate that to us. They are capable actors who communicate in ways beyond voices raised and frustrated anger in a war of words. This job Graham is involved in sweeps him away to Atlanta and Birmingham. Graham will call up Molly just to hear her voice and swap I Love You's. Molly and son removed from home to a safehouse while Will joins Jack Crawford on the pursuit of Dollarhyde, hindered by Lektor. Lektor even calls up Graham to bring up how killers can feel like God, considering how God kills every day, even taking out a church of his own followers.

I watch Manhunter (1986) once every six or so years, and I'm not sure why I distance out such viewings. I can only guess I don't want the film to ever lose that effect on me it has. Yes, the aesthetic and focus on forensics captivate me. The cast -- which includes lots of familiar faces in FBI and law enforcement roles -- just leaps off a page and Mann gets the most out of them. Just the way the film is edited, such as when Graham tosses Lounds onto a car hood, and the camerawork -- Mann knows when to hold onto a face or shot and when to use exciting movements and editing to get the most out of what could have been dull forensics sequences, activating the energy of a moment (or moments) as fingerprints, hairs, a tissue paper ballpoint pin declaration to Lektor found in a book, etc. gradually build up against Dollarhyde.

And Joan Allen's blind lover of Dollarhyde getting some time in Mann's film, sort of giving us an alternate story opposite Graham's investigation and life, I had actually forgotten about. I don't think I've watched this since I rented the film from Blockbuster back in mid 2000s. I'm surprised I don't watch this every year. I don't even own a physical copy of it! Oh, after I watched it again on Shudder Saturday afternoon, I'm making sure to do just that. 5/5