May 27, 2016

The legacy of Hannibal Lecter has come quite a long way from his original cinematic debut in Michael Mann’s way-ahead-of-its-time 1986 classic film. But thankfully, the rest of the world has caught up and fully embraced the characters and world created by esteemed author Thomas Harris.

When NBC’s HANNIBAL wrapped its third season last year, it marked the 3rd time that Harris’ novel RED DRAGON had been adapted cinematically. But no matter what anyone else does with the material, it’ll always be compared to its original interpretation in MANHUNTER.

Multiple versions and releases of the film have been made available over the years. Obviously, it came out on VHS; later, Anchor Bay Entertainment did a wonderful 2 disc limited edition collector’s set that not only included the theatrical cut, but for the first time, Mann’s extended “director’s cut;” and the movie has gotten a bare bones Blu-Ray release, both on its own and also as part of a “Hannibal 3-pack” featuring SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and Ridley Scott’s HANNIBAL.

But nothing compares to getting the Scream Factory “collector’s edition” treatment. And while most of you may already own a version of MANHUNTER, here are 5 reasons this Blu-Ray upgrade is worth your time!

Multiple Versions Of The Film!

As I mentioned previously, Anchor Bay had done a limited edition double DVD set that featured both the theatrical version of the movie, along with a slightly longer director’s cut. One trend I’m really starting to appreciate on these recent Scream Factory releases is that they’re just including every possible version of the movie they can! We’ve got an HD version of the theatrical version on disc one. The director’s cut is presented on disc two in two different versions: the standard def version as presented on that older Anchor Bay DVD release, as well as a high def version with the additional scenes in standard def. Point being, whatever version you want, you’ve got them all here to choose from in the best possible presentation they can be, based upon your home theater set up.

As I mentioned previously, Anchor Bay had done a limited edition double DVD set that featured both the theatrical version of the movie, along with a slightly longer director’s cut. One trend I’m really starting to appreciate on these recent Scream Factory releases is that they’re just including every possible version of the movie they can! We’ve got an HD version of the theatrical version on disc one. The director’s cut is presented on disc two in two different versions: the standard def version as presented on that older Anchor Bay DVD release, as well as a high def version with the additional scenes in standard def. Point being, whatever version you want, you’ve got them all here to choose from in the best possible presentation they can be, based upon your home theater set up.

Brand New Retrospective Interviews

The original releases have some pretty cool bonus features, but here we’ve got brand new interviews with a lot of the principal cast, including the original Will Graham himself William Petersen, Frances Dollarhyde (aka Tom Noonan) and Joan Allen. It’s not listed on the packaging but they did in fact include a new interview with Brian Cox talking about his time as Hannibal Lecter, as well as director of photography Dante Spinotti. For soundtrack enthusiasts, there’s also a great featurette titled “The Music Of MANHUNTER” with composer Michel Rubini, former XTC musician Barry Andrews, Rick Shaffer of THE REDS and many more. All the new featurettes and interview segments clock in at a couple of hours so you’re definitely getting your money’s worth of material here!

The original releases have some pretty cool bonus features, but here we’ve got brand new interviews with a lot of the principal cast, including the original Will Graham himself William Petersen, Frances Dollarhyde (aka Tom Noonan) and Joan Allen. It’s not listed on the packaging but they did in fact include a new interview with Brian Cox talking about his time as Hannibal Lecter, as well as director of photography Dante Spinotti. For soundtrack enthusiasts, there’s also a great featurette titled “The Music Of MANHUNTER” with composer Michel Rubini, former XTC musician Barry Andrews, Rick Shaffer of THE REDS and many more. All the new featurettes and interview segments clock in at a couple of hours so you’re definitely getting your money’s worth of material here!

All Previous Features Carted Over!

Again, I applaud Scream Factory’s attempt to make these modern collector’s editions the most complete home video versions of these movies possible. They managed to do it with both ARMY OF DARKNESS and THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE PART 2, where they produced new features, but conveniently also carted over all the features from previous releases, so MANHUNTER is no exception. All the special features, including the commentaries, mini-documentaries, still galleries and more populate both discs. It’s literally filled to the brim with everything you could ask for when it comes to Michael Mann’s 1986 masterpiece.
Again, I applaud Scream Factory’s attempt to make these modern collector’s editions the most complete home video versions of these movies possible. They managed to do it with both ARMY OF DARKNESS and THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE PART 2, where they produced new features, but conveniently also carted over all the features from previous releases, so MANHUNTER is no exception. All the special features, including the commentaries, mini-documentaries, still galleries and more populate both discs. It’s literally filled to the brim with everything you could ask for when it comes to Michael Mann’s 1986 masterpiece.

Brian Cox As Hannibal!

MANHUNTER has always felt like a movie that was way ahead of its time. It wasn’t as successful as producer Dino De Laurentiis would have liked it to have been, otherwise he wouldn’t have passed on the rights for the sequel THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. But after that film won some Oscars, he got the rights back for all subsequent films, including HANNIBAL, RED DRAGON (the remake of MANHUNTER with Anthony Hopkins in the Hannibal Lecter role) and HANNIBAL RISING, a failed attempt to launch a new trilogy of Hannibal films. But the one thing these other movies don’t have is the actor that originated the first on-screen version of the famed psychotic cannibal. You probably recognize Brian Cox from dozens of other features at this point, but his straight forward and calm demeanor as Hannibal Lecter is one of the most intriguing and interesting human movie “monsters” we’ve ever seen. We now have 3 incredible versions of Hannibal Lecter, but it’s just interesting to see how much fun Cox was having with him before anyone knew who he really was!

MANHUNTER has always felt like a movie that was way ahead of its time. It wasn’t as successful as producer Dino De Laurentiis would have liked it to have been, otherwise he wouldn’t have passed on the rights for the sequel THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. But after that film won some Oscars, he got the rights back for all subsequent films, including HANNIBAL, RED DRAGON (the remake of MANHUNTER with Anthony Hopkins in the Hannibal Lecter role) and HANNIBAL RISING, a failed attempt to launch a new trilogy of Hannibal films. But the one thing these other movies don’t have is the actor that originated the first on-screen version of the famed psychotic cannibal. You probably recognize Brian Cox from dozens of other features at this point, but his straight forward and calm demeanor as Hannibal Lecter is one of the most intriguing and interesting human movie “monsters” we’ve ever seen. We now have 3 incredible versions of Hannibal Lecter, but it’s just interesting to see how much fun Cox was having with him before anyone knew who he really was!

In A Gadda Da Vida Scene In High Def!

I mean, really. Do you need any more reason other than seeing that epic finale, cut to Iron Butterfly’s In A Gadda Da Vida, in pristine high definition?! Crank your home theater system and prepare for the coolest cinematic showdown of the 80s thriller genre!

I mean, really. Do you need any more reason other than seeing that epic finale, cut to Iron Butterfly’s In A Gadda Da Vida, in pristine high definition?! Crank your home theater system and prepare for the coolest cinematic showdown of the 80s thriller genre!