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Dom Robinson reviews
- Cert:
- Cat.no: 8200005
- Running time: 121 minutes
- Year: 2002
- Pressing: 2003
- Region(s): 2, 4 (UK PAL)
- Chapters: 20 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1
- Languages: English, Hungarian
- Subtitles: English, Hungarian
- Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Anamorphic Panavision)
- 16:9-enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: 2 * DVD 9
- Price: £22.99
- Extras:Audio commentary, Music score commentary,Character make-up, Anthony Hopkins – Lecter and me, Making Of,Deleted Scenes including alternative and extended scenes, Visual effects,Screen and film tests, The Burning Wheelchair, FBI Profile: Inside the Mindof a Serial Killer, Brett Ratner’s untitled student film, The Leeds HouseCrime Scene, A Director’s Journey: Brett Ratner’s Video Diary,Storyboard to final feature comparison
Director:
- Brett Ratner
(The Family Man, Money Talks, Red Dragon, Rush Hour 1 & 2, TV: Partners)
Producers:
- Dino and Martha De Laurentis
Screenplay:
- Ted Tally
(based on the novel by Thomas Harris)
Original Music :
- Danny Elfman
Cast :
- Dr Hannibal Lecter: Anthony Hopkins
Will Graham: Edward Norton
Francis Dolarhyde: Ralph Fiennes
Jack Crawford: Harvey Keitel
Reba McClane: Emily Watson
Molly Graham: Mary-Louise Parker
Freddy Lounds: Philip Seymour Hoffman
Dr Chilton: Anthony Heald
Lloyd Bowman: Ken Leung
Conductor: Lalo Schifrin
Grandma Dolarhyde (voice): Ellen Burstyn (uncredited)
Ralph Mandy: Frank Whaley (uncredited)
Red Dragonis a remake of(Manhunter,but one that is apparently closer to the book, but as I never read books that’snot something I can clarify. Either way, it’s something the money men wantedmade so they could include Anthony Hopkins across the complete spectrumof Hannibal Lecter films.
In this version, we are given an early insight into Hannibal’s cannibalisticways and we witness an early altercation between FBI agent Will Graham(Edward Norton) and Lecter. Then we speed forward several years untilGraham’s called out of retirement to look into the case of The Tooth Fairy,aka Francis Dolarhyde (Ralph Fiennes) and his precise murdering of twoseemingly unconnected families, the Jacobis and the Leeds.
Will requires the help of Hannibal to catch the Tooth Fairy, something that’sgoing to require himself to put his truth in the man that… well, you’ll seethat for yourself. What he doesn’t need is the interference from invasivereporter Freddy Lounds (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and he needs to ensurehis family are kept safe. Dolarhyde also strikes up a friendship with blindlab technician, but where things go from there is anyone’s guess.Harvey Keitel takes over Dennis Farina’s role as Graham’s superior,Jack Crawford, but comes across just going through the motions as if he wasdoing the same again inThelma & Louise.
Overall, it’s as plodding and comparitively tedious as the original Manhunterwas. Why did they bother to remake it, other than the money side of things?It doesn’t improve upon the original and as there’s several more prison scenesbetween Hopkins and his FBI questioner, it’s just an exercise in combiningelements of Silence of the Lambs with a dull remake.
What next for Lecter? As mentioned inDan’s Movie Digiest (May 16th 2003).producer Dino De Laurentis has revealed plans for another prequel,provisionally entitled, Hannibal Lecter: The Early Years.
The ‘face-off’.
The film is presented in the original 2.35:1 widescreen ratio and isanamorphic. Apart from very occasional print defects – which are nothing toworry about – the image is spot-on, just as you’d expect from a recent movie.
Universal are doing well with providing DTS soundtracks on high-profilereleases, which sometimes adds to the creepy atmosphere but it’s good to seethem pushing the boat out for that.
What Universal aren’t doing well at, in this case, is providing the completepackage for review to their PR company, which in turn does not enable thereviewer to make a fair assessment of the supplemental material. The discsupplied includes an audio commentary with director Brett Ratner andscreenwriter Ted Tally and a music score commentary from composerDanny Elfman, but we don’t get the second disc which contains thefollowing:
- FBI Profile: Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer Hosted by John Douglas (8:15)
- The Burning Wheelchair (3:59)
- A Directors Journey: Brett Ratner’s Video Diary (50:00)
- Makeup (00:40)
- Screen and Film tests (11:47)
- Storyboards to Final Feature comparison (8:36)
- Brett Ratner’s Untitled Student Film (Silent Film)
- The Leeds House Crime Scene (3:38)
- Red Dragon Teaser Trailer (2:01)
- Additional Scenes (Includes Deleted Scenes, Alternate Versions of Scene & Extended Scenes – offered with or without commentary) (13:00)
- Visual Effects (4:24)
- Theatrical Trailer (2:37)
- Teaser Trailer for The Hulk (00:45)
- Anthony Hopkin’s Lecter & Me (4:12)
- Making of Red Dragon (14:30)
The main menu has an brief animation and sound to set the scene.Subtitles are in English and Hungarian and there are 20 chapters to the film.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
N/AOVERALLN/A
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.