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Todd Erwin

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todd-erwin has published a new article.

Manhunter Collector's Edition Blu-ray Review

Manhunter5-150x150.jpg


Michael Mann's cult thriller Manhunter not only introduced audiences to Hannibal Lecktor (as spelled in this film), but also to the use of FBI...
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TravisR

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Thanks for the review, Todd! I haven't had a chance to watch it yet but it sounds good (even with the director's cut being at the mercy of SD) and I'm impressed that Scream Factory was able to get some pretty big names for interviews.
 

Lord Dalek

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I gotta wonder. Ever since the deleted scenes from Blue Velvet (another film whose assets got trashed by DEG allegedly) turned up, is it possible that a better source for Mann's DC might still be out there?

Guess we'll never know.
 

Winston T. Boogie

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I had just moved to Los Angeles when this film was released and ended up being gifted a giant wall sized poster for the film that is made of some sort of plastic material that looks a lot like celluloid. I believe it was meant to be mounted in a huge light box in a big theater...so that it had light shining through it from behind. I did have it mounted on a wall, it took up the entire wall, in the house I was renting in LA but now it is rolled up and stored in a big cardboard tube in my attic. My friends and I went to see this film several times in the theater, we all loved it, and I watched the film many times over the years. I have never really kept track of all the changes in the different versions but I know the "Director's Cut" has that additional ending tacked on to it which personally I felt was better left out of the film.

However, there is one sequence that I know appears in some versions and not in others and that is a brief dialogue exchange between Will Graham and Jack Crawford where Crawford says in reference to the killer "You really feel for this guy?" and Graham says something along the lines of "As a child my heart bleeds for him. Somebody took that kid and turned him into a monster. As an adult I want to blow him out of his fucking socks."

I liked this sequence because I felt it both illuminated Graham's relationship with Crawford and also his relationship and connection to the serial killer and deepens our understanding of the killer as well. It's been a while now since I have seen the film and I don't recall if this is in the theatrical cut or if this was an addition to one of the later cuts of the film. I feel like I saw this sequence in the theater so I think it was in the theatrical cut. Anybody watch this new blu-ray and know if this appears in either or both of the cuts of the film? This is the one sequence of the additions or subtractions over the years that I always felt belonged in the film.

I have the new blu-ray but have house guests coming for the long weekend and so won't be doing much movie watching while they are here. So, I won't be able to check this out until sometime next week.
 

Mark Cappelletty

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I can verify it's in the theatrical cut but NOT the director's cut.

I had just moved to Los Angeles when this film was released and ended up being gifted a giant wall sized poster for the film that is made of some sort of plastic material that looks a lot like celluloid. I believe it was meant to be mounted in a huge light box in a big theater...so that it had light shining through it from behind. I did have it mounted on a wall, it took up the entire wall, in the house I was renting in LA but now it is rolled up and stored in a big cardboard tube in my attic. My friends and I went to see this film several times in the theater, we all loved it, and I watched the film many times over the years. I have never really kept track of all the changes in the different versions but I know the "Director's Cut" has that additional ending tacked on to it which personally I felt was better left out of the film.

However, there is one sequence that I know appears in some versions and not in others and that is a brief dialogue exchange between Will Graham and Jack Crawford where Crawford says in reference to the killer "You really feel for this guy?" and Graham says something along the lines of "As a child my heart bleeds for him. Somebody took that kid and turned him into a monster. As an adult I want to blow him out of his fucking socks."

I liked this sequence because I felt it both illuminated Graham's relationship with Crawford and also his relationship and connection to the serial killer and deepens our understanding of the killer as well. It's been a while now since I have seen the film and I don't recall if this is in the theatrical cut or if this was an addition to one of the later cuts of the film. I feel like I saw this sequence in the theater so I think it was in the theatrical cut. Anybody watch this new blu-ray and know if this appears in either or both of the cuts of the film? This is the one sequence of the additions or subtractions over the years that I always felt belonged in the film.

I have the new blu-ray but have house guests coming for the long weekend and so won't be doing much movie watching while they are here. So, I won't be able to check this out until sometime next week.
 

Worth

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Thanks for the review, Todd! I haven't had a chance to watch it yet but it sounds good (even with the director's cut being at the mercy of SD) and I'm impressed that Scream Factory was able to get some pretty big names for interviews.

I thought the disc had the director's cut in both HD and SD.
 

John Maher_289910

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When I saw SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (a film I hate), I kept turning to my wife and saying, "didn't we see this?" She finally told me it's reminding me of MANHUNTER (a film I really like).
 

Stephen_J_H

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This is still my favourite adaptation of Thomas Harris' Red Dragon, and my favourite portrayal of Hannibal Lecter. I didn't care for the Edward Norton version, and while Hopkins is solid as Lecter, the level of menace is just that much higher with Brian Cox as the "good" doctor. Mads Mikkelsen was great for the series, but Hannibal (the series) sometimes suffers from drawing things out to the breaking point. When it was working from original material featuring Harris' characters, it was great, but when it began adapting both Red Dragon and elements of Hannibal, I just wanted them to move along with it and not linger over every detail. House of Cards is also guilty of this; the UK series is far superior in every way.
 

Vincent_P

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"There is also some banding issues in the opening sequence that is supposed to be Super 8mm footage shot by the Tooth Fairy as he walks up the stairs to kill the latest family and then transferred to videotape, and is likely intentional."

This footage appears pristine in the weird hybrid cut that Anchor Bay released as the "theatrical cut" (incidentally, this is the cut of the film that streams in "HD" on Amazon and other places), but has always looked very rough in other versions. I'm assuming Mann did indeed intentionally downgrade the footage to make it look more like a home movie for the final film, possibly by transferring it to SD-video then back to film, hence the banding.

It's also very odd that the dialogue referenced by Reggie W. has been removed from the Director's Cut, because Mann discusses this dialogue in his commentary and how important it is! He also specifically discussed this dialogue during the Q&A he did at BAM in Brooklyn some months back. If this dialogue is so dear to him that he talks about it whenever he discusses MANHUNGER, why on Earth did he remove it from his director's cut?

Vincent
 

Robert Crawford

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I just noticed I have four different DVD releases of this film. Is there any reason why I should keep any of them in my film library with this new BD release?

For some reason I can't recollect I purchase two different DVD releases from 01-30-01. One is the Limited Edition with the Theatrical and Director's cut. The second DVD release from 01-30-01, with just the Theatrical cut.

Next, I bought another DVD release from 07-15-03, which featured a Restored Director's Cut.

The fourth DVD release I bought was released on 01-30-07, with the Theatrical Cut. Why I bought this release is bugging the hell out of me. Perhaps there were reports about improved PQ.
 

TravisR

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I just noticed I have four different DVD releases of this film. Is there any reason why I should keep any of them in my film library with this new BD release?

For some reason I can't recollect I purchase two different DVD releases from 01-30-01. One is the Limited Edition with the Theatrical and Director's cut. The second DVD release from 01-30-01, with just the Theatrical cut.

Next, I bought another DVD release from 07-15-03, which featured a Restored Director's Cut.

The fourth DVD release I bought was released on 01-30-07, with the Theatrical Cut. Why I bought this release is bugging the hell out of me. Perhaps there were reports about improved PQ.
Since Michael Mann likes to tinker with his movies on video, this is kind of complicated. I have the Limited Edition with the theatrical cut and the director's cut (from 01/30/01) and I have the Restored Director's Cut disc (from 07/15/03). And knowing Anchor Bay, I feel very safe in assuming that the Theatrical Cut disc (also from 01/30/01) is the same disc as the one in the LE set but since I don't have it, I can't state that as a fact. I don't have the 2007 release so I can't comment on that.

Comparing the two DVD releases that I have to this Blu-ray, the Limited Edition DVD (with the director's cut and theatrical cut- from 01/30/01) says it's the theatrical cut but it is not exactly the theatrical version as it has some revisions to the movie. Check out the alternate versions on the IMDB for more details on that. The Limited Edition's theatrical cut (from 01/30/01) runs 2:01:38 but the theatrical cut on this Blu-ray runs 2:00:04. My understanding is that this Blu-ray presents the actual theatrical cut of the movie while the LE is just an alternate version of the theatrical cut.

The Restored Director's Cut (from 07/15/03) is the same as the director's cut that is presented on this Blu-ray. However, they don't port over all the photo galleries and the DVD-ROM content (with the screenplay) from that disc if that's important to you.

In short, this new Blu-ray does not contain the 'alternate' theatrical cut of the movie that was on the LE (01/30/01) and some minor special feature content from the Restored Director's Cut disc (07/15/03) didn't make the Blu-ray either.
 

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