Red Dragon It's not often that I'm wrong (grouse!), but on those rare occasions, I do own up to my own misjudgments (grouse, grouse!). Hence, my out-of-hand dismissal of a cinematic re-adaptation of Thomas Harris' Red Dragon (which appeared in my review of the Manhunter DVD some eighteen months ago) was way out in left field. For a quick primer, Red Dragon the book came out in 1982 and was adapted by Michael Mann into the acclaimed (if commercially unsuccessful) film Manhunter. The follow-up novels Silence Of The Lambs and Hannibal continued the lurid saga of cannibalistic Dr. Hannibal Lecter, played in both film adaptations by Academy Award winner Anthony Hopkins. With 2001's Hannibal film cadging a cool $165 million at the box office, producer Dino Di Laurentiis recognized his formidable cash cow and quickly made plans to re-make Red Dragon with Hopkins in place of Manhunter actor Brian Cox as Lecter. Hey, better crank up the fava beans and the nice Chianti before the principle star gets too old to convincingly play a younger version of the signature character. Hopkins is not the only re-casting in Brett Ratner's powerful new film. Lead protagonist Will Graham, memorably played in 1986 by Bill Peterson, is reinvented here by Edward Norton, while Harvey Keitel fills the shoes of FBI boss Jack Crawford--making him the third actor to play the character over the course of the films. Ralph Fiennes brings a tragic dimension to villain Francis Dollarhyde, a sharp contrast to Tom Noonan's stoic and lobotomized interpretation in Manhunter. Graham's wife Molly, previously played in frowsy, long-suffering fashion by Kim Greist, is now played in frowsy, long-suffering fashion by Mary-Louise Parker. Meanwhile Philip Seymour Hoffman has a great turn as tabloid reporter Freddy Lounds, keeping the sleaze-o character every bit as hissable as predecessor Stephen Lang. And finally, the blind Reba McClane was a sensual, if vulnerable, little sexpot when Joan Allen played her the first time; now this potential victim is essayed by the waifish Emily Watson, who is as cute as little toys. The casting contrasts are the only comparisons which warrant making, simply because these characters are human beings to whom we've already attached a face and mannerisms. And in yet another curious touch, side characters Frederick Chilton and Orderly Barney are reprised by Silence Of The Lambs actors Anthony Heald and Frankie Faison. But any further attempt to compare Ratner's film with Mann's is needless, as they are two very different approaches to the source novel. Through exposition in the novels, we are aware that prior to his arrest, Dr. Hannibal Lecter was a celebrated Baltimore psychiatrist with exotic tastes in art and cuisine, and that after killing a particularly annoying patient he served the man's innards as the main course at a swank dinner for local academia. Now we get to see this dinner sequence during the prologue, and it literally brims with dark satire. We also bear witness to Graham's original and nearly-fatal confrontation with Lecter, which is a gritting tableau. Then the opening credits begin, bathed in a furious, string-driven Danny Elfman score. Years later, Graham's body has healed, but he has accepted early retirement from the Bureau until Crawford enlists his help to track down the serial killer known in the press as "The Tooth Fairy" who murders entire families. And part of the job will inevitably involve gaining insight from the incarcerated Lecter. The set designers do a fantastic job of recreating the cell block from Silence Of The Lambs here, and fans who hold that film dearly will doubtless feel a twinge of nostalgia as the camera tracks Graham's approach--the same path Clarice Starling will later take--to the doctor's cell. As the story progresses, we realizes just what a bastard the beguiling Lecter can be, using the personal ads of the tabloid rag The National Tattler to engage in a clandestine dialogue with The Tooth Fairy and to plot an unthinkable crime against Graham. Meanwhile, the killer (Dollarhyde) has his murderous and mythology-driven agenda interrupted when he falls in love with blind co-worker Reba. And the novel's original ending, shamelessly ripped off in Dario Argento's Opera, is thankfully retained this time, whereas Manhunter had a somewhat different conclusion. There is a deliciously campy years-later coda intended to bridge this tale with Silence Of The Lambs, the details of which New York Observer drama queen Rex Reed was all too happy to spoil in his write-up. Other reviewers will likely follow suit, so I won't. In the meantime, the commendable Red Dragon completes the cohesive, Hopkins-driven Hannibal Lecter trilogy, while the stand-alone and dated companion piece Manhunter--still a superior film to any of the other three--remains unscathed and unsullied. And there I was bitching about this last year. Shame on me. >>Archive Index<<