Customer Ratings & Reviews

Will Graham helps the FBI to try and catch a serial killer. In order to do so he has to learn how to think like one. In order to think like one he has to revisit and interview one that he has already caught (Hannibal Lecture). Meanwhile the serial killer is killing and even finds a girlfriend. Hannibal finds out where Graham's family lives. Of course in the end Will Graham gets his man the serial killer but its interesting to watch how it all unfolds.

This was the very first Hannibal Lecter movie, and by far the best. Granted it was made in the '80s so you may not be used to the style and lack of modern day special effects. Overall the actors were all great and did well portraying their charcters. The storyline seemed more realistic than other Hannibal Lecter films because it wasn’t polluted with Blockbuster drama. All the actors did an amazing job. William Petersen was great in his role as an FBI agent who had been physically and psychologically shaken from his past experience with Hannibal Lecter. Petersen didn't overact, like so many actors do today. And he fit the role of Will Graham a heck of a lot better than Edward Norton. Petersen’s character seemed to be truly tormented getting inside the killer’s head while Norton’s seemed to be in boring zombie-mode. Brian Cox was perfect for Hannibal Lecter's character. Again, he didn't overdo the character like Anthony Hopkins often did. He seemed more like a real serial killer who can disguise himself as regular person, instead of being a fictitious boogeyman. Tom Noonan was also great at his role as the Tooth Fairy. Creepy enough, but not too much to seem unrealistic. Some people may consider this movie slow-paced, but I totally disagree. Movies today tend to overdo special effects, have explosions every 30 seconds, and explain every detail to you instead of making you figure things out yourself. If you are younger and/or not a fan of older films, you probably won’t appreciate Manhunter too much. But if you’re open to movies that aren’t all “Hollywood” you will probably like this one. By the way, the ending was awesome! I haven’t been able to listen to “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” without being creeped out since seeing this movie.

If you've never seen this film, it's actually the first film of the Hannibal series based on the Thomas Harris novel Red Dragon. It was later remade into the movie Red Dragon, which of course was much better. Red Dragon had much better acting, and was more intense and fast paced. Brian Cox is a good actor, but his Hannibal Lector was no where near as good as Anthony Hopkins. William Peterson is just a terrible actor! His replacement, Edward Norton, is one of the best actors today and in a whole other league in comparison. And Tom Noonan, who plays the Tooth Fairy, is not nearly as convincing as Ralph Fiennes was. When comparing Red Dragon to Manhunter, I highly recommend Red Dragon. After watching it, Manhunter is rather dull and boring. I still recommend it though, just because it was good in its day, and it was the first of Thomas Harris novels to become a movie. (Personally, I didn't care for it. After all, there is a reason why they remade it.)

All I can say is, "WOW!" Over 20 years later and the effect of Hannibal asking Will, "Dream much [Will]?" or "Smell yourself."

awesome movie but its also very slow paced and boring i dislike both brian cox and tom noonan