BEFORE THE SILENCE, THERE WAS THE DRAGON.

Shortly after exposing psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) as a serial killer, FBI agent Will Graham (Edward Norton) must confront him again in order to catch another horrible murderer.

You may ask yourself what point there is in remaking Manhunter (1986), but this well-told, exciting prequel to The Silence of the Lambs (1991) takes advantage of our ambivalent feelings for Lecter and therefore involves the viewer in a different way than Manhunter did.

Hopkins makes his suave cannibal more interesting here than in Hannibal (2001). The opening scenes keep one on the edge of one’s seat, as Hannibal finds a better purpose for a bad musician…

2002-U.S. 124 min. Color. Widescreen. Directed by Brett Ratner. Screenplay: Ted Tally. Novel: Thomas Harris. Cast: Anthony Hopkins (Hannibal Lecter), Edward Norton (Will Graham), Ralph Fiennes (Francis Dolarhyde), Harvey Keitel, Emily Watson, Mary-Louise Parker, Philip Seymour Hoffman… Lalo Schifrin. Voice of Ellen Burstyn. 

Trivia: Anthony Heald and Frankie Faison appear in the original roles they had in Silence of the Lambs. Followed by Hannibal Rising (2007).

Quote: “Tell me, Will. Did you enjoy it? Your first murder? Of course you did. And why shouldn’t it feel good? It does to God. Why only last week in Texas, he dropped a church roof on the heads of 34 of his worshippers, just as they were groveling for him.” (Hopkins to Norton)