History Film / Manhunter

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Unlike other adaptations of the book series, ''Manhunter'' spells Hannibal's last name as "Lektor" instead of "Lecter." Similarly, Francis Dolarhyde's name is spelled with two L's in the film instead of just one.

* AlasPoorVillain: Even without the FreudianExcuse that makes him such an unbelievable tragic figure like he is in [[Film/RedDragon the other movie]], [[spoiler:Dolarhyde still is such a human figure who did legit care about Reba to the point that even here, his death still has that sense of melancholy]]—even with it being more of a relief here too.

* AlasPoorVillain: Even without the FreudianExcuse that makes him such an unbelievable tragic figure like he is in [[Film/RedDragon]], [[spoiler:Dolarhyde still is such a human figure who did legit care about Reba to the point that even here, his death still has that sense of melancholy]]—even with it being more of a relief here too.

The first FilmOfTheBook of the Thomas Harris novel ''Literature/RedDragon'', this 1986 film, written and directed by Creator/MichaelMann for the [[Creator/DinoDeLaurentiis De Laurentiis Entertainment Group]], features Hannibal Lecktor (note the spelling) [[ThePeteBest as played by]] Creator/BrianCox. Like in ''Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'', he is used to help an FBI investigator. His name is Will Graham (Creator/WilliamPetersen) and he is trying to find a serial killer known as Francis Dollarhyde (note this spelling too), nicknamed "The Tooth Fairy". As he tries to find the serial killer, Graham's personal demons start to haunt him, affecting his work and his relationships.

* DisabledLoveInterest: Reba, Dollarhyde's blind coworker, goes home with him and engages in very vigorous woman-on-top sex with him.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:While many died; Reba was almost killed by the man she fell in love with and Graham was really put through it by both Lecktor and Dolarhyde, Graham is able to go home to his family and leave all the bad things behind him once Dolarhyde is dead and it also means Graham never has to ever go back to see Lecktor in the prison ever again too.]]

Unlike later adaptations of the Hannibal Lecter novels, ''Manhunter'' relies heavily on saturated colors and overpowering music. Mann carried over much of the film's style from his earlier work with ''Series/MiamiVice'' and ''Film/ToLiveAndDieInLA''.

** Additional dialog during Grahams meeting with Lecter concerning how Graham caught Lecter.

The first FilmOfTheBook of the Thomas Harris novel ''Literature/RedDragon'', this 1986 film, written and directed by Creator/MichaelMann for the [[Creator/DinoDeLaurentiis De Laurentiis Entertainment Group]], features Hannibal Lektor (note the spelling) [[ThePeteBest as played by]] Creator/BrianCox. Like in ''Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'', he is used to help an FBI investigator. His name is Will Graham (Creator/WilliamPetersen) and he is trying to find a serial killer known as Francis Dollarhyde (note this spelling too), nicknamed "The Tooth Fairy". As he tries to find the serial killer, Graham's personal demons start to haunt him, affecting his work and his relationships.

* BlindAndTheBeast: Dollarhyde starts dating a blind woman halfway through the movie. This is partly because of his implicit insecurities about his cleft palate (much more explicit in the novel and 2002 movie); he thinks he is ugly, and doesn't believe he'd stand a chance with someone who could actually see him. This, in fact, is one of the reasons he kills- [[ILoveTheDead dead women don't think he is ugly.]]
** Significantly, Dollarhyde stops Reba when she tries to touch his face.

* AdaptationalHeroism: Chilton is almost a completely different character than he is in the book and later Lecter mythos adaptations, being a quietly competent professional versus a self-aggrandizing {{Jerkass}}.
** The Director's cut adds a brief scene showing more of Chilton's {{Jerkass}} side, but he is still ''far'' more competent than he is in the book and later films (Chilton tries to pick Graham's brain for some insights into Lecktor's psyche; when Graham coldly shuts him down, Chilton ''immediately'' realizes he went too far and backs off).

* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: The Chinese character 中 (zhong) is said to mean "Red Dragon" in the film. It actually means "middle."
** The confusion comes from the game mahjong, which features a group of three tiles called the "dragon tiles" in English. There are three of them: a red one, a green one, and a white one. The red dragon tile features the Chinese character for "middle." Evidently somebody misunderstood, thinking that the red "dragon tile" was actually the "red dragon" tile, and that 中 means "red dragon." In actuality, "red dragon" in Chinese would be 紅龍 or 紅色龍.

** Lecktor was only specified to have been attacking college girls and there is no mention of the fact he is a cannibal (save munching on a nurse's face). In some ways he's more of a minor character here to give some history to Will Graham- which is how he was intended to be, but is given much less focus than in the novel.

* AdaptationalBadass: Dollarhyde is a pretty fit man but he is still pretty normal in the book, going down to a couple of bullets and running away when his next-to-last kill is stopped by the police arriving. In this film, he takes on said cops single-handedly with a shotgun and ''kills them all'', and [[MultipleGunshotDeath it takes Graham emptying his revolver into him to finally kill him]], [[MadeOfIron and even then he shrugs off the first few shots]].

** The Director's cut adds a brief scene showing more of Chilton's {{Jerkass}} side, but he is still ''far'' more competent than he is in the book and later films.

* AdultFear: Will's pre-teen son ''hates'' him and feels the need to protect his mother from him, and part of the film is trying to regain that seriously broken trust.

* RaceAgainstTheClock: Since the Tooth Fairy operates on a lunar cycle, the FBI has until the next full moon to catch him before he kills again. [[spoiler: They start out with two weeks, but end up taking it right down to the last minute before the killer claims another victim.]]