Great Scene: “Manhunter”

I think we’d all admit the first time Clarice Starling meets Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, that was a great scene:

But what about when we all were introduced to Dr. Lecter? That would be in the 1986 movie Manhunter. Written and directed by Michael Mann with a screenplay adapted from the novel “The Red Dragon” by Thomas Harris, here is a plot summary from IMDB:

Will Graham [William Petersen] is a former FBI agent who recently retired to Florida with his wife Molly and their young son. Graham was a ‘profiler’; one who profiles criminal’s behavior and tries to put his mind into the minds of criminals to examine their thoughts while visiting crime scenes. Will is called out of his self-imposed retirement at the request of his former boss Jack Crawford [Dennis Farina] to help the FBI catch an elusive serial killer, known to the press as the ‘Tooth Fairy’, who randomly kills whole families in their houses during nights of the full moon and leaves bite marks on his victims. To try to search for clues to get into the mind of the killer, Will has occasional meetings with Dr. Hannibal Lecktor [Brian Cox], a charismatic but very dangerous imprisoned serial killer that Will captured years earlier which nearly drove him insane from the horrific encounter that nearly cost Will’s life. With some help and hindrance, Will races against the clock before the next full moon when the ‘Tooth Fairy’ will strike again. Elsewhere, a local photographer named Francis Dollarhyde [Tom Noonan], the killer that Will is looking for, struggles to stay undetected while seeing a hope of redemption when be begins a relationship with a blind woman who is not aware of his double life.

Here is the first meeting between Will and Lecktor:

INT. MAXIMUM SECURITY SECTION — DOOR — DAY

We hear three locks opening. The door opens. Graham enters. 
 An attendant behind Graham closes the door and we hear the 
 bolts lock again. As Graham is walking towards us, we WIDEN 
 and TRACK IN. It makes the b.g. disorienting as we get closer 
 to Graham’s face. The CAMERA DROPS as Graham sits in a single 
 chair. We haven’t yet seen what Graham looks at. Now:

GRAHAM’S POV: BARRED CELL

A 6x10 cage. In the center of the bars separating Graham 
 from the occupant is a three-foot-square perspex sheet. The 
 occupant can’t get at someone sitting in front of him. In 
 the perspex square is a letter — passing drawer. In the 
 cell — laying on his bunk — is DR. HANNIBAL LECKTOR. He 
 appears to be asleep. His back is to Graham. He has not 
 stirred. Then:

LECKTOR
 That’s the same atrocious aftershave 
 you wore in court three years ago.

GRAHAM
 I keep getting it for Christmas.

CLOSE: LECKTOR’S HEAD

turns to us. His small eyes drill into Graham’s brain. 
 Lecktor’s attitude is professionally psychiatric, as if Graham 
 is the patient.

LECKTOR
 Did you get my card?

GRAHAM
 I got it. Thank you.

Graham’s struggle will be to keep locked-down inside himself 
 all his emotional reactions.

LECKTOR
 And how is Officer Stuart? The one 
 who was the first to see my basement.

GRAHAM
 Stuart is fine.

LECKTOR
 Emotional problems, I hear. He was a 
 very promising young officer. Do you 
 ever have any problems, Will?

GRAHAM
 No.

LECKTOR
 Of course, you don’t.
 (pause)
 I’m glad you came. My callers are 
 all professional. Clinical 
 psychiatrists from cornfield colleges 
 somewhere. Second-raters, the lot.

GRAHAM
 Dr. Bloom showed me your article on 
 surgical addiction in the journal of 
 Clinical Psychiatry.

LECKTOR
 And?

GRAHAM
 Very interesting, even to a layman.

Lecktor rolls around and examines the term “layman” in his 
 head. Then:

LECKTOR
 A layman…, layman. Interesting 
 term. So many experts on government 
 grants. And you say you’re a ‘layman?’ 
 But it was you who caught me, wasn’t 
 it, Will? Do you know how you did 
 it’

GRAHAM
 You’ve read the transcript. It’s all 
 there.

LECKTOR
 No it’s not. Do you know how you did 
 it Will?

GRAHAM
 It’s in the transcript. What does it 
 matter now?

LECKTOR
 (smiles)
 It doesn’t matter to me, Will.

GRAHAM
 I want you to help me, Dr. Lecktor.

LECKTOR
 Yes, I thought so.

GRAHAM
 It’s about Atlanta and Birmingham.

LECKTOR
 Yes.

GRAHAM
 You read about it, I’m sure.

LECKTOR
 In the papers. I don’t tear out the 
 articles.
 (laughs)
 I wouldn’t want them to think I was 
 dwelling on anything morbid. You 
 want to know how he’s choosing them, 
 don’t you?

GRAHAM
 I thought you would have some ideas.

LECKTOR
 Why should I tell you?

GRAHAM
 There are things you don’t have. 
 Research materials… I could speak 
 to the Chief of Staff…?

LECKTOR
 Chilton? Gruesome, isn’t he? He 
 fumbles at your head like a freshman 
 pulling at a panty girdle.
 (laugh)
 He actually tries to give me a 
 Thematic and Apperception test. 
 Hah. Sat there waiting for MF-13 to 
 come up. It’s a card with a woman in 
 bed and a man in the foreground. I 
 was supposed to avoid a sexual 
 interpretation. I laughed in his 
 face.
 (beat)
 Never mind, it’s boring.

GRAHAM
 You’ll get to see the file on this 
 case. And there’s another reason.

LECKTOR
 Pray tell.

GRAHAM
 I thought you might be curious to 
 find our if you’re smarter than the 
 person I’m looking for.

LECKTOR
 Then by implication, you think that 
 you are smarter than me, since you 
 caught me.

GRAHAM
 No. I knew that I’m not smarter than 
 you are.

LECKTOR
 Then how did you catch me, Will?

GRAHAM
 You had disadvantages.

LECKTOR
 What disadvantage?

GRAHAM
 You’re insane.

LECKTOR
 You’re very tan, Will.

Graham does not answer. If anything happens, there is a 
 tightening of the musculature repressing his reactions to 
 Lecktor.

LECKTOR
 Your hands are rough. They don’t 
 look like a cop’s hands anymore. 
 That shaving lotion is something a 
 child would select. It has a ship on 
 the bottle, doesn’t it?

Another silence. Lecktor’s eyes look as if they’re drilling 
 into Graham’s head, trying to find out things. Trying to 
 find a way to hurt Graham. He’s very threatening. Then 
 relaxes:

LECKTOR
 Don’t think you can persuade me with 
 appeals to my intellectual vanity.

GRAHAM
 I don’t think I’ll persuade you. 
 You’ll do it or you won’t. Dr. Bloom 
 is working an it anyway, and he’s 
 the best…

LECKTOR
 (interrupts)
 Do you have the file with you

GRAHAM
 Yes.

LECKTOR
 Pictures?

GRAHAM
 Yes.

LECKTOR
 Let me have them, and I might consider 
 it.

GRAHAM
 No.

LECKTOR
 Do you dream much, Will?

GRAHAM
 Good-bye, Dr. Lecktor.

LECKTOR
 You haven’t threatened to take away 
 my books yet.

Graham gets up and starts to walk away.

LECKTOR
 Let me have the file. Then I’ll tell 
 you what I think.

Graham stops at the door before he knocks for the attendant. 
 Then he folds the abridged file tightly into the sliding 
 tray. Lecktor pulls it through.

GRAHAM

sits in the chair. He wants a cigarette. He doesn’t take 
 one. He waits. And he watches. What he sees:

GRAHAM’S POV: EXTREME CLOSE PAN THROUGH CELL OF DR. LECKTOR

Toothbrush, mirror, sink, Sryrofoam cups, soft paper journals, 
 T-shirts, neatly stacked hospital pads, sneakers with no 
 shoelaces, the wall, seatless toilet bowl, etc, etc. All the 
 objects are brilliantly lit with sharp bluish light. Their 
 edges are sharper and more defined than normal. The shadows 
 of the bars make hard-edged stripes. It is a high resolution, 
 highly brilliant set of images. It feels like a hyper-
 perception of reality, a super-realism perceived by the mind 
 of Graham. It is interrupted when:

LECKTOR (O.S.)
 There is a very shy boy, Will.

GRAHAM

snaps back to the present, looks at Lecktor.

LECKTOR
 What were the yards like?

GRAHAM
 Big backyards, fences, some hedges, 
 why?

LECKTOR
 Because, my dear Will, if this Pilgrim 
 imagines he has a relationship with 
 the full moon, he might go outside 
 and look at it. Have you seen blood 
 in moonlight, Will? It appears quite 
 black. If one were nude, it would be 
 better to have outdoor privacy for 
 this sort of thing.

GRAHAM
 That’s interesting.

LECKTOR
 It’s not ‘interesting’. You thought 
 of it before.

GRAHAM
 Yes. I’d considered it.

LECKTOR
 You came here to look at me, Will. 
 To get the old scent again, didn’t 
 you?

GRAHAM
 I want your opinion.

LECKTOR
 I don’t have one right now.

GRAHAM
 When you do have one I’d like to 
 hear it.

LECKTOR
 May I keep the file?

GRAHAM
 I haven’t decided yet.

LECKTOR
 I’ll study it, Will. When you get 
 more files, I’d like to see them, 
 too. You can call me. When I have to 
 call my lawyer, they bring me a 
 telephone. Would you like to give me 
 your home number?

Threat.

GRAHAM
 No.

LECKTOR
 Do you know how you caught me, Will?

GRAHAM
 Goodbye, Dr. Lecktor. You can leave 
 messages for me at the number on the 
 file.

Graham bangs on the door. Locks are starting to be unlocked. 
 Graham can’t wait to get out of here. He wants the locks to 
 get unlocked faster!

LECKTOR
 Do you know how you caught me?

The door is now open. Graham fights down the impulse to run 
 through. As Graham — controlled — steps out, what he hears 
 is:

LECKTOR (O.S.)
 The reason you caught me, Will, is: 
 We’re just alike. You want the scent? 
 Smell yourself.

The DOOR SLAMS shut on Lecktor.

CUT TO:

It’s the same psychological games from Lecktor that we see in Lambs, despite the different spelling of his name.

I thought Manhunter was a really good movie. I also thought that Francis Dollarhyde was even more frightening than Buffalo Bill (but I’m basing that on my experience of reading the books as “The Red Dragon” totally freaked me out).

But the big question is which Lecktor / Lecter do you like better: Cox’s version or Hopkins?

[Originally posted June 11, 2010]

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