“You Owe Me Awe”: Does ‘Manhunter: The Final Cut’ Cannibalize the Original?

Michael Mann’s 40th anniversary remastered remix of his timeless serial killer thriller doesn’t ruin the original, but it’s not exactly an improvement

Silence of the Lambs is still praised as one of the greatest thrillers of all-time, and if you disagree, then its five Academy Awards would like to have a word with you. Despite that, there’s a strong case to be made that Michael Mann‘s Manhunter is the superior picture and the definitive Thomas Harris adaptation. Manhunter isn’t just one of Mann’s greatest films – which is saying something. It’s the first modern forensic crime thriller and formative neo-noir cinema that set the mold for how to tell these sorts of unsettling stories without needing to resort to manipulative jump-scares.

Manhunter is a dark, introspective character study that stays true to the disturbing and all-encompassing act of FBI profiling. It went on to inspire other celebrated cinematic serial killer studies, like David Fincher’s Se7en and Zodiac. Oh yeah, and it puts Hannibal Lecter (or Leckter, in this version) for the first time, five years before Jonathan Demme’s Silence of the Lambs. On top of everything else, Manhunter features pitch-perfect work by William Peterson (Will Graham), Brian Cox (Dr. Hannibal Lecktor), and Tom Noonan, the latter of whom gives a career-best performance as the film’s tragic villain, Francis “Tooth Fairy” Dollarhyde. Even Manhunter’s soundtrack is groundbreaking. It embraces an iconic synth-pop soundtrack that features the chilling use of Iron Butterfly’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida,” The Prime Movers’ “Strong As I Am,” and several Shriekback songs.

Mann is a perfectionist and a director who has painstakingly focused on getting to the core of each of his projects when he feels like they’re out of sync with his true vision. Thief, The Last of the Mohicans, Ali, Miami Vice, and 2015’s Blackhat have all received re-edited definitive director’s cuts. Mind you, re-editing and remaking his own work has been a part of Mann’s DNA right from the infancy of his career, with one of his best films — Heat — being a bigger budget expanded remake of his 1989 TV movie/pilot,. Mann previously messed around with his foundational serial killer thrillerwhen he released on DVD in 2003. Now, 23 years later for the film’s 40th anniversary, he’s returned to fully complete his vision with.