Manhunter
Dir: Michael Mann
1986
****
 Manhunter is the first adaptation of one of Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lecter novels and it also represents the best of Michael Mann as a visual director (it's his best looking film to date in my opinion), the best of the 80's thriller (blue tints and synth soundtrack) and one of the last great crime-thrillers before modern technology made writers lazy because soon even 12 year old kids could hack into government computers and shoot nuclear missiles out of the sky using just their mobile phones. It is intense, captivating and puts the thrill into thriller. Tom Noonan's Francis Dollarhyde is just as scary as Buffalo Bill (and is far better than Ralph Fiennes) and with only one outing as Hannibal Lecter compared to Anthony Hopkins' three, Brian Cox's version is just as menacing. Makes you wonder what he would have done with it had he appeared in the following films. Remade using the books original name; The Red Dragon, Manhunter is far superior, much more striking and more than the some of its parts.