3
(harshly negative comments about God)
4
(violence, blood, disturbing concepts, sexuality, nudity including full-frontal)
5
(worth seeing once)
People who have seen the other Hannibal Lecter movies tend to want to know how "Red Dragon" stacks up. I’m sure "Hannibal" (the movie and the last of the series chronologically) had an audience, but it turned off a lot of "Silence of the Lambs" fans like myself making us reluctant to see "Red Dragon." Maybe that’s not universal, but it’s the way the majority of the people to whom I’ve personally spoken feel - common consensus around here: "Hannibal" stunk. In my humble opinion "Red Dragon" is better than "Hannibal" but not as good as "Silence of the Lambs."
That’s all well and good, but you, of course, want to know what brought me to that opinion. "Red Dragon" is more akin to the style of "Silence of the Lambs:" there is more gruesomeness in what you don’t see than what’s on the screen. It doesn’t rely on shock value as much as "Hannibal" and has a strong ending that, not surprisingly, leads into the next part of the story (Silence of the Lambs.)
A killer known as the Tooth Fairy (though I will call him “the Dragon” because of the reference from the title) is slaughtering entire families with extreme brutality. Will Graham is an FBI agent who gained notoriety for apprehending one of the most brilliant criminal minds of modern times, Hannibal “the Cannibal” Lecter. Agent Graham, so scarred from his dealings with Hannibal that he has left his job, is called in for a consultation so that the FBI can stop this elusive killer before another family dies.
The Dragon has paused in his killing spree thanks to meeting a lovely woman who is showing an interest in him. Love has touched the heart of this madman to the point that he takes steps to stop the forces he feels are compelling him to commit the atrocities that he does. But can they be stopped at all?
So why is it not as good as "Silence of the Lambs?" Short answer: John Demme is just a better director. That’s not really the only reason, though. "Red Dragon" is very broad. It covers the stories of 3 people in detail but is more of Agent Will Graham’s movie than Hannibal’s or the Dragon’s. I guess "Silence of the Lambs" does the same thing with Clarice, Hannibal, & Buffalo Bill, but it still feels more focused. It comes across as being specifically about the relationship between Clarice & Hannibal using Bill as a tool to bring the other two together and give them common ground to tread.
"Red Dragon," on the other hand, feels more like it's split with part 1 being Will and Hannibal and part 2 about the Dragon and his passion for a particular woman, then with Will showing back up to bring the story to a close. It doesn’t flow as well from beginning to end.
I came to the viewing having not read the book nor seen "Manhunter." I really thought "Red Dragon" was going to have a lot of focus on catching Hannibal or his development into the killer we know, so I guess there was some initial disappointment in not seeing that. Hannibal really isn't in the story all that much compared to how much screentime the Dragon gets. Knowing that the second time I watched it, I actually enjoyed it more.
There also isn't as much mystery as I expected. We learn about half-way through who the Dragon is which is necessary for the further development of the character since we follow him so much. In order to develop his twisted love story we have to know something about who he is more so than we needed to know about Buffalo Bill. We see enough to wonder if he's going to actually give up his serial killer ways before he is ever caught.
In some ways part of Will's story mimics Clarice's. For both of them Hannibal is the incarcerated adviser with the FBI agents hoping for his help. What is particularly interesting, though, is Hannibal’s reactions to the two people. Clarice is innocent and attractive, Will is experienced and has the honor of being Hannibal’s captor. Hannibal’s approach and attitude changes between them making him more transparent than he would likely want to admit were he real. He’s more manipulative of Clarice and more resentful of Will.
The relationship comparisons and the numerous references make "Red Dragon" a great companion to "Silence of the Lambs" in a way that "Manhunter" can't be. Even so, I have to say that "Manhunter," despite its lower budget and somewhat dated feel, rises above this one when it comes to some of the story elements particularly with Will's inner struggles and his tracing of the Dragon's mindset.
You have a better idea of how "Red Dragon" stacks up against other stories, but you’d like to know about it’s own merits, no doubt. The characters are really what make the story what it is. Hannibal with his twisted genius is probably the biggest interest for fans of the other movies. Will wants to be a family man but manages to be pulled into conflict with the most twisted minds in society. The Dragon manages to be horribly vicious and sympathetic at the same time. He’s a tortured soul as much as an evil predator.
The acting throughout the whole movie is good. Even the small roles get a lot of attention (like Ken Leung as the code breaker). Nearly all actors own their roles, even the ones that don’t have a lot to work with. I have liked Ed Norton over the years, but have come to feel like his performances are more about “hey look at me!” than truly losing himself in a character. That does a little bit to taint how I see his performance here. I thought Peterson's version of the character in "Manhunter" was a lot more of what Graham should be. Norton handles the material pretty well but just doesn't have the look of a psychologically scarred veteran FBI agent to him.
Ralph Fiennes is chilling as the killer. My only complaint is that he is so frightening that the more sympathetic portion of his story becomes harder to buy at first. That's not necessarily a bad thing, I suppose, if he were too easily sympathetic after just having been a vicious killer it might have been significantly more difficult to get into his story.
Anthony Hopkins' portryal of Hannibal has become iconic. It's largely on the strength of his performance that we got more movies about him. Emily Watson balances cute flirtation with strong independence leading into hysterical terror in a way that threatens to outshine the male leads.
The music here is not as distinctive as some of Danny Elfman’s other works, but he does a great job with enhancing moods. I don't hum his themes from this movie like I do some of his others, but at the same time I like hearing them.
Morality
There isn’t as much violence and gore as you might think especially if you’ve just seen "Hannibal." That doesn’t mean that there aren’t some disturbing images, but they are almost all done in quick flashes of the aftermath while the actual violence happens mostly off screen. While far from being a gore fest, we do see blood on the walls and hear a good bit about the crimes which involve the murder of children and the insertion of mirror shards into victims' eyes. One man is terrorized and brutalized as we watch, and we see a man being burned.
Some of the language can be strong but not constant.
The sexuality is brief and implied. The killer watches tapes of potential victims with a focus on a woman in a bathing suit and indications that this is arousing him sexually. This lesads to implied, off-screen oral sex (which is mentioned a little more directly in some of the DVD extras). We see enough interaction to know that he and a woman have had sex.
Ralph runs around naked on a couple of occasions with one of those involving full frontal nudity. There’s a very brief flash of one of the female victims topless during a murder scene. All these scenes are more creepy than anything sexual.
There are more of these types of moments in the deleted scenes.
Spirituality
While the forces driving the Dragon are not presented as demonic in the sense of spirits that can be cast into pigs, there is most certainly a dark force at work here that makes me think about things that influence our lives. I tend to interpret the events and actions as having a truly demonic influence though the story never suggests that the killer's problem is the product of anything other than a fractured psyche.
However you want to view the darkness that has invaded this man's soul it's clear that it began invading him during his childhood thanks to the abuse he suffered at the hands of his mother. It's one thing to discipline a child, it's quite another to terrorize one.
Hannibal makes some comments about God equating Him to a murderer. His cited example is the death of a number of Christian (presumably) worshipers upon the collapse of a church roof. Harris' books generally seem to contain a negative view of God though that does typially come from demented murderers.
Final Thoughts
"Silence of the Lambs" is one of my favorite suspense movies of all time. "Red Dragon" doesn't live up to that same standard but does provide an interesting companion to it. It's worth seeing if you enjoy serial killer suspense flicks but is probably not going to be one you want to keep around for multiple viewings unless you get into the Hannibal Lecter series as a whole.
Buying Guide
“Red Dragon” gets overlooked in a number of the Hannibal Lecter box sets. There are a few different solid buying options, though.
If you're after HD you can get this on Blu or HD DVD. If you're after regular DVD you can get the Collector's Edition in widescreen or pan-&-scan or the 2 disc Director's Edition which is what I'll be covering in detail.
The Blu offers 2.38 widescreen and 5.1 DTS HD surround sound. Reviews suggest that this looks very clean although perhaps not quite as impressive as some Blus. The audio is said to have some stand-out examples of surround sound when Hannibal attacks. It looks like all the extras from the 2-disc DVD are included.
The Collector's Edition DVD's offer 5.1 surround sound and whichever ratio you prefer. It appears to offer the same extras, more or less, as what you get on disc 1 of the 2-disc release I'll lay out in detail below.
Final Recommendation:
There is nothing on the 2-disc DVD that I would say is a must-see although the behind-the-scenes feature is much better than the one on disc 1. I recommend going for the higher quality of the Blu, but if you are in the market for DVD the 2-disc edition does give you more bang for your buck as long as you don't pay much more for it than the standard edition.
The Director's Edition is a 2 disc DVD set. It's basically the Widescreen Collector's Edition with an additional disc of extras. I can't determine if all the bonus extras are also available on Blu or not.
Video
2.35 widescreen:
The image can be a bit grainy but looks good for the most part with strong colors.
Audio
5.1 Dolby:
It's clean and strong with fairly good surround sound immersion.
Packaging
The case is standard plastic though wider than normal.
The interface is pretty creative featuring an art motif of looking at murder casefiles and other documents. The highlights are like notations on the page. There is a nice bit of intro animation like you’re walking onto Lecter’s cell block. The door opens, you enter and walk down the hallway to the chair where Will and Clarice sit. All the time Lecter is talking to you. It looks great but is too lengthy if you’re just trying to get in and get going. Once at the menu there is some animation and music.
An insert offers some brief production notes and a chapters list.
Extras