Walter Grauman's work here isn't flashy, especially when compared to Milius and Penn, but his shooting is clever, resourceful, and dynamic. All qualities essential to pulling off a quality piece of work on a TV movie schedule.

Recover the mindset. Retired FBI specialist Will Graham is lured back into action to track a serial killer who is killing families, seemingly linked into the lunar cycle. In the process it opens up some old mental wounds that were born out during his last action out in the field... Before the gargantuan success of Silence of the Lambs, where the name Hannibal the Cannibal moved into pop culture, and before director Michael Mann became a named auteur often referenced with relish by hungry film students; there was Manhunter, Michael Mann's brilliant adaptation of Thomas Harris' equally brilliant psychological thriller, Red Dragon. It feels a bit redundant now, years later, writing about Mann's use of styles to bear out mood and psychological states, his framing devices, his commitment to his craft, but after revisiting the film on Blu-ray, I find myself once again simultaneously invigorated and unnerved by the magnificence of Manhunter. Visually, thematically and narratively it remains a clinical piece of cinema, a probing study of madness that dares to put a serial killer and the man hunting him in the same psychological body, asking us, as well as William Petersen's FBI agent Will Graham, to empathise with Tom Noonan's troubled Tooth Fairy killer. Here's a thing, too, Francis Dolarhyde (The Tooth Fairy) is a functioning member of society, he is quite frankly a man who could b…

With "Hannibal Lecktor" (Brian Cox) now safely behind bars, the traumatised profiler "Graham" (William Petersen) might be looking forward to a well earned-retirement. Thing is, the "Tooth Fairy" has other plans as he embarks on a killing spree that causes his erstwhile FBI boss "Crawford" (Dennis Farina) to seek his help. These murders are truly gruesome with entire families killed, inside their own homes, on nights with a full moon. With the next one of those due very soon, "Graham" has to enlist the help of his former tormentor - whose help is never as straightforward as he might like - to see if they can establish some patterns and preempt more slaughter. Meantime, we are introduced to "Dollarhyde" (Tom Noonan) who's about eight foot tall and maybe not the most stable of photographers we are ever going to meet. It's possible that he might succumb to the more calming influence of the lovingly blind "Reba" (Joan Allen) but with the pressures mounting you wouldn't want to bet on that. Is there a connection? As with Thomas Harris's "Red Dragon" book, the audience is aware of far more than the pursuers and that works well here as we see "Graham" try to work from a blank canvas, and with an insane convict, to track down a man who has left virtually nothing for them to go on. Petersen holds this together quite well and the cleverly cast Cox, well he always comes across as an actor…

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