[Author’s Name]
[Institution’s Name]
Essay on Red Dragon: The Book and The Movie
The end of the book was is so powerful and dark that upon finishing the book, the reader will sit in stunned silence. The viewer will never encounter a character as evil and wiley as Hannibal Lector in Michael Mann's adaptation of the novel. There are several moments that offset the generally good film. There were parts in the plot like the ending to the confrontation between Lecter and Graham in the opening sequence and whole ending to the film that caused confusion and really let down fans of the series. The ending to this film could have been taken to a whole new level but the filmmakers stuck with one that was sort of expected.
The story comes from one of the greatest books ever written, also called Red Dragon. Also, it is following in the footsteps of three of the best movies, Michael Mann’s 80s masterpiece Manhunter, Jonathan Demme’s horrifying The Silence of the Lambs, and Ridley Scott’s criminally underrated Hannibal. But, here is the worst thing about this movie. The taglines and ads for this movie make it seem like a story not put on film, the untold Hannibal Lecter story. The Red Dragon novel was adapted in 1986 as Manhunter, and that was a great film. So, it did not have Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter, but so what? Brian Cox gave a great, memorable performance that could rival the Hannibal Lecter seen in ‘Lambs’ and ‘Hannibal.’ But it was a great movie and did a fabulous job of adapting the novel. (Mann, 2002)
So, with the three novels turned into three great movies, the trilogy is complete, right? Well, of course Universal couldn’t let it go like that. There is major box office potential in Hannibal Lecter, so they went off and destoyed a great trilogy with this shoddy, pointless ‘re-imagining’ of Manhunter. Re-imagining? Right......
