Manhunter

1986's "Manhunter", by Michael Mann.
Starring William Peterson, Dennis Farina, Bryan Cox, Stephen Lang, and Tom Noonan.

Adapted from the Thomas Harris novel, "Red Dragon", Mann begins the Hannibal Lector saga with his usual trademark style of focussed professional men of objectives, skillfully chasing their target through muted and minimalist pastel colours (when they're not brooding in beach houses). 

Peterson plays a retired FBI profiler who's skill set is based around having enough empathy to successfully think 1 step ahead of serial killers, and that was both how he caught Lector and how he ultimately burned out. Dennis Farina's cop asks Peterson to come back from retirement to help catch the "Tooth Fairy" killer, who murders families during full moons. We experience a race against time to learn about the killer, bait him, and attempt to save innocent lives before the tooth fairy can strike again.

For the first time, we see that Lector is valuable (and entertainingly creepy as hell) as an insight to how criminal pathology manifests itself. Bryan Cox was the first actor to portray Lector. While he is up to the task, he is no evolved lizard like Anthony Hopkins' Oscar winning 1991 performance in "The Silence of the Lambs", preferring a kind of bored sociopathic vacancy. 

But despite Mann's abundance of detached style amongst OCD focus, and the serial killer subject, "Manhunter"'s trope of a hunter who must repress his humanity to catch a serial killer may be the most disturbing aspect of the film. By the end, Paterson has sacrificed all to make his mark, no less than the tooth fairy himself.

3.5/5

Trailer: Click Here.