Line #1 YMMV/Manhunter


1	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Pretty much the entire soundtrack, especially if you grew up in TheEighties or are into music from that decade. Specific examples:
2	** Music/{{Iron Butterfly\|Band}}'s "Music/InAGaddaDaVida". When you absolutely, positively need to blow the sick fuck out of his socks, accept no substitutes.
3	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmj1Qvude24 "Graham's Theme"]] by Michel Rubini serves as both a perfect accompaniment to Will's EurekaMoment and an excellent tribute to the complexity of the human mind.
4	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXZEhD8ZzGM "Strong As I Am"]] by The Prime Movers was personally selected for the film by Michael Mann himself, because it was just ''that'' awesome.
5	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dKUfX9xcw0 "Heartbeat"]] by Red 7, the song that plays over the end credits, is a powerful {{new wave\|Music}} number whose usage in the film signifies that Will's psychological troubles are finally over and that he can now retire in peace.
6	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU6bs3O8mB0 "Coelacanth"]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_f7t7FlEI4 "Evaporation"]], and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0azNbGp2Yn8 "The Big Hush"]] by Shriekback are all fine pieces of mood music, and make the film's tensest moments all the more nerve-wracking.
7	* BrokenBase:
8	** Creator/BrianCox's portrayal of Lecktor is weird to see for someone who has seen Creator/AnthonyHopkins' Lecter first, but while Hopkins has an Oscar to back his version, more and more people are starting to let Cox's Lecktor in from the cold as ''Manhunter'' achieves cult status.
9	** ''Manhunter'' (1986) vs ''Red Dragon'' (2002); which is better? While critical consensus leans sharply in favor of ''Manhunter'' (featuring a 92% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes compared to ''Red Dragon''[='s=] 68%), the audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes and viewer ratings on IMDB for both films are essentially equal, so it's definitely a case where it's a matter of opinion varying from person to person. ''Manhunter'' is perhaps a more straightforward moral story with none of the ambiguity that other entries in the series have.
10	* CompleteMonster: [[PsychoPsychologist Dr. Hannibal Lecktor]] lacks most of his incarnations' standards or genuine politeness. A SerialKiller who brutally slew nine college girls and left two survivors permanently hospitalized, Lecktor attacked and nearly murdered FBI profiler Will Graham for exposing his crimes. Confined to his cell but no less horrid in how he [[MindRape psychologically torments]] Will and fondly recalls how the first cop who entered Lecktor's basement was scarred for life by the horrors inside, Lecktor reacts to Will questioning him for information on the new killer "the Tooth Fairy" by finding Will's home address and leaking it to the Tooth Fairy, urging the murderer to kill Will's wife and child. His crimes committed out of nothing but sadism and, later, spite towards Will, Lecktor held a belief that [[AGodAmI his murders made himself like God]], and celebrated every death he caused.
11	* CoveredUp:
12	** This film, and specifically Brian Cox's take on the Hannibal "Lecktor" character, has been covered up by the later Thomas Harris adaptations and Anthony Hopkins' portrayal of Hannibal "Lecter".
13	** The [[Film/RedDragon film adaptation]] of ''Literature/RedDragon'' is also this more specifically because of the [[PublisherChosenTitle renaming of the novel to]] ''[[PublisherChosenTitle Manhunter]]''.
14	* CultClassic: While both FanonDiscontinuity and DiscontinuityNod probably means that ''Film/RedDragon'' gets the stronger focus—especially with Creator/AnthonyHopkins back as Lecter in that one, this movie despite its poor financial performance at the time—whether or not critical praise was otherwise better—got more focus and attention by fans eventually when the incredible success of ''Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'' helped boost it by association—and that attention still remains devoted by the fanbase at least.
15	* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments:
16	** Falling asleep on an airplane with a folder full of gruesome crime scene photos on your tray? Bad idea.
17	** After Will shuts him down, the way Lectkor ''pauses,'' looking at him, before asking him if he "dreams" much takes the very first time Hannibal Lecter ever did something like that and makes it the funniest moment in the movie.
18	** As creepy as his phone call to Will later on is, it's also kind of amusing to see just [[{{Jerkass}} how little a shit Hannibal gives about the horrible things he's saying.]] His body language and tone of voice are so inappropriately casual that it's both disturbing and funny at the same time.
19	* HilariousInHindsight:
20	** [[Series/{{CSI}} Gil Grissom]] confronting Hannibal Lector. The episode "Abra Cadaver" would have Petersen and Tom Noonan (Dolarhyde) facing off again.
21	** Creator/BrianCox would later have another major role as a villain in a [[VideoGame/{{Manhunt}} similarly named video game]].
22	* JustHereForGodzilla: Quite a number of viewers from the 90's onward went into the film specifically because of the presence of Hannibal "Lecktor" and the fact that this is an adaptation of the book that ''Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'' is a loose sequel to. In fact, the success of the 1991 film adaptation of ''Lambs'' led the ''Manhunter'' rightsholders to exploit this trope as a means of re-marketing this film to a newer audience, years after its initial critical and commercial failure in 1986; given that ''Manhunter'' has quite thoroughly been VindicatedByHistory, one can confidently say that the ploy worked.
23	* NightmareRetardant: The revelation of what Hannibal's secret code to Dolarhyde is in the letter he sends happens shortly after the letter is published in the original book and 2002 film, and it's a very frightening moment. In ''Manhunter'', it happens ''directly after the scariest scene in the movie'', and in a ridiculously casual way (it's practically "Oh by the way, Will, Lecktor [[spoiler: gave away your home address.]]") It's likely that the re-positioning of the scene was to evoke a FromBadToWorse sensation. For some viewers (especially on rewatch), part of the problem is the knowledge that [[spoiler:in this version Dolarhyde never gets the chance to use the information, making the subplot rather a waste of time and a NegatedMomentOfAwesome for Lecktor]]. However, it does result in a supremely tense BaitAndSwitch scene in which it seems like Dolarhyde is stalking Peterson's wife and son outside their beach house. (It's the cops.)
24	* OneSceneWonder: Lecktor appears in only three scenes totaling to around 8 minutes of screentime (in a two-hour movie), but he casts a pall over the entire film. Compared to Anthony Hopkins' more iconic serpentine portrayal of Lecter, Cox's Lecktor is a much more smug, slimy character, with cold, black eyes, an almost toothless mouth, and a constant awareness and enjoyment of the fact that, even behind bars, he's always the one in control. As ''Screenhub'' [[https://screenhub.blog/2018/09/26/the-forgotten-hannibal-lecter-film-revisiting-manhunter-screenhub-entertainment/ put it]], "if Hopkins was a snake, Cox was a jackal."
25	* RetroactiveRecognition:
26	** It's hard to watch Creator/DennisFarina as Jack Crawford here and ''not'' immediately think of ''Series/UnsolvedMysteries''.
27	** Creator/FrankieFaison plays Lieutenant Fisk, and it wouldn't be the last time he'd star in an adaptation of [[Film/SilenceOfTheLambs a story featuring Hannibal Lecter]]. [[note]]He played Barney, the nurse guarding Hannibal's cell.[[/note]]
28	** Creator/JoanAllen plays Reba, Dollarhyde's blind coworker-to-girlfriend to almost-victim.
29	* SongAssociation: Similarly to what ''Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'' did for "Goodbye Horses" and Q Lazzarus, "Strong as I Am" and the Prime Movers as a whole are associated almost exclusively with this film, thanks to it being both used in the movie and featured prominently in its theatrical trailer.
30	* SpiritualAdaptation: Like ''Film/ToLiveAndDieInLA'', this feels like a ''Series/MiamiVice'' film, from the visual style to the music to the tone. It helps that Creator/MichaelMann directed.
31	* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: "Graham's Theme" sounds a lot like the instrumental of Music/PinkFloyd's [[Music/TheWall "Comfortably Numb"]].
32	* VindicatedByHistory: Didn't do very well at the box office and dealt with mixed reviews from critics upon initial release, now it's considered a classic in it's own right, left quite an impact on films and TV shows of the same or similar genres, and is generally regarded the best film adaptation of the Hannibal Lecter novels aside from ''Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs''.

Context YMMV / Manhunter