FeedManhunter
November 29 2009, 8:30pm
I'd never seen this before; it's interesting to watch it in comparison with all the X-Files we've been watching lately. It's a somewhat different vision of the FBI, at least graphically -- there's a shot where Petersen & Farina are sitting around in an office with huge high ceilings & floor-to-ceiling file drawers, nearly everything in the shot is pristine white, especially the wall of drawers. Crazy stuff.
It hadn't registered that the lead actor was William Petersen, aka Grissom on CSI, until about 10 minutes into the movie. It kind of threw me, as did his kind of weird wardrobe (well, it was the 80s, and it was Michael Mann).
Mann had a very distinctive style at the time -- it's easy to see the direct connection between this & Miami Vice. In some ways it plays like an extended episode. Miami Vice ran from '84 - '90 and Manhunter ('86) was the only theatrical movie he directed during that time.
But so there's a lot happening with colored light, and it has moody interludes. The most remarkable part is the climactic gun battle where they very artificially jump-cut between cameras running at different speeds, and actually cut back-and-forth in time a little bit in so doing. It's really distinctive.
This is the movie that made Tom Noonan's rep as the consummate creepazoid, and he deserves it. I don't know what, if anything, it did for Joan Allen's career (it didn't seem to really take off until later) but she's remarkable in it.
It hadn't registered that the lead actor was William Petersen, aka Grissom on CSI, until about 10 minutes into the movie. It kind of threw me, as did his kind of weird wardrobe (well, it was the 80s, and it was Michael Mann).
Mann had a very distinctive style at the time -- it's easy to see the direct connection between this & Miami Vice. In some ways it plays like an extended episode. Miami Vice ran from '84 - '90 and Manhunter ('86) was the only theatrical movie he directed during that time.
But so there's a lot happening with colored light, and it has moody interludes. The most remarkable part is the climactic gun battle where they very artificially jump-cut between cameras running at different speeds, and actually cut back-and-forth in time a little bit in so doing. It's really distinctive.
This is the movie that made Tom Noonan's rep as the consummate creepazoid, and he deserves it. I don't know what, if anything, it did for Joan Allen's career (it didn't seem to really take off until later) but she's remarkable in it.
