Red Dragon
Tags: psychological, gothic, murder, neo noir, violence, flashback, good versus evil, insanity, tragedy, suspenseful

Plot synopsis:
In his Baltimore townhouse, famous local psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) hosts a dinner party. The main subject of conversation over dinner is the disappearance of a local musician, who was criticized for playing several wrong notes at a concert that Lecter attended. He then serves the guests a delicious meal. When asked what the meat was that he served he says. "If I tell you, I'm afraid you won't even try it."After dinner, Lecter is visited by Will Graham (Edward Norton), a young gifted FBI agent, with whom he has been working on a psychological profile of a local serial killer. Edible body parts of the victims, such as the kidneys and liver, were removed from the bodies after being killed, and Graham is convinced that the killer is actually a cannibal.During the consultation and brainstorming session, Graham discovers evidence implicating Dr. Lecter in the murders. Shortly after that, Lecter returns and attacks Graham, wounding and nearly killing him, before Graham is able to subdue him.Lecter is subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment at an institution for the criminally insane, while Graham retires from the FBI, having been severely traumatized by the experience.Years later, another serial killer appears on the scene. Nicknamed the Tooth Fairy, he stalks and murders seemingly random families during sequential full moons.Hoping to speed things up, and capture the killer before his next attack, Special Agent Jack Crawford seeks out Graham and pleads for his assistance. Graham, believing the death of another family to be an unbearable burden on his conscience, reluctantly agrees. After checking over the crime scenes, with only minimal insight, he comes to the realization that most of his previous successes were achieved due to the insightful collaborations of Dr. Lecter, and concludes that he must once again visit Lecter and seek his help in capturing the Tooth Fairy.The Tooth Fairy is actually a disturbed man named Francis Dolarhyde (Ralph Fiennes), who suffers from schizophrenia and worshiped Lecter, after learning of his crimes. Calling himself "The Great Red Dragon" (because of his obsession with the William Blake painting, "The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun"), Dolarhyde is unable to control his violent and sexual urges, which turn him into a dangerous serial killer. These conditions were born from the systematic child abuse he suffered at the hands of his grandmother.Graham continues to run into complications, the first being Freddy Lounds (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a reporter for the tabloid, Tattler, whom Graham despises from the days following the conviction of Dr. Lecter, and who now follows Graham relentlessly for leads on the Tooth Fairy story.Further complicating the investigation is the secret correspondence between Lecter and Dolarhyde. Lecter provides Dolarhyde with Graham's home address, which endangers Graham's wife, Molly (Mary-Louise Parker), and son Josh (Tyler Patrick Jones). Molly and Josh are evacuated to a remote farm, which belongs to Crawford's brother.Graham discovers the secret communication, and tries to intercept it without Lecter's knowledge, but the doctor is quick to realize that the Feds are onto him and his protegé, and humiliates the authorities by upping the stakes: in return for his help in capturing the Tooth Fairy, he requests a first-class meal in his cell and having his book privileges returned.Hoping to lure Dolarhyde into a trap, Graham gives Lounds an interview in which he gives disparaging details about what the FBI believes the killer to be: impotent and pathetic, whereas in fact they consider him cunning and highly dangerous. This provokes Dolarhyde, but instead of going immediately after Graham, he kidnaps and tortures Lounds, forcing him to recant his allegations on a taped recording. Dolarhyde then attacks and bites off the tip of Lounds' tongue before putting him in a wheelchair, setting him on fire and pushing the chair down the street where it comes to rest outside the Tattler's offices.At about the same time, Dolarhyde falls in love with a blind co-worker at the video processing business they work at. Her name is Reba McClane (Emily Watson). Dolarhyde is very shy and tentative around Reba, but she senses his attraction to her and she is likewise attracted to him. Dolarhyde takes Reba to his large old home in the woods and they spend the night together. In the morning, Dolarhyde wakes to find Reba gone from the bed and he rushes around, frantic to find her. She was outside in the garden, but he was concerned she may have been snooping in the room where he kept his diary and a poster of the Red Dragon.Dolarhyde's new-found love conflicts with his homicidal urges, which manifest themselves in his mind as "The Great Red Dragon". He senses that the Red Dragon wants the woman, and Dolarhyde vigorously resists the demand. He becomes so upset, that he grabs a sawed-off shotgun and places it in his mouth, preferring to kill himself rather than turning over Reba to the Red Dragon (by murdering and "changing" her).After taking Reba to her home, Dolarhyde attempts to stop the Dragon's "possession" of him. He believes that he must dominate the dragon by consuming the original watercolor painting, so he goes to the Brooklyn Museum, asks to see the painting, then knocks out the female employee who took him to a back room to see the painting. He immediately shreds the painting and starts shoving it into his mouth, eating it. Another female employee comes into the room and Dolarhyde attacks her. He doesn't kill either woman, but he escapes.Graham eventually realizes that the killer knew the layout of his victims' houses from their home videos, which the killer could only have seen if he worked for the home video editing company that transfers home movies to video cassette. Crawford and Graham go to the business and interview the manager. After describing the person they are looking for (the museum employees had provided a description), the manager recognizes the person as Dolarhyde. The manager tells Graham and Crawford that Dolarhyde's job gave him access to all home movies that passed through the company.Dolarhyde just happened to be coming into the office at about that time, sees Graham, turns around and hurries out. He knows they are getting close to finding him. He decides to go see Reba one last time, but he finds her saying goodnight to another co-worker of theirs, Ralph Mandy (Frank Whaley). Ralph had been encouraging Reba to stay away from Dolarhyde and start going out with him. Dolarhyde watches as Ralph leans forward to kiss Reba goodnight.Enraged, Dolarhyde wastes no time in shooting and killing Ralph, as he is walking down the walk from Reba's house. Dolarhyde then goes to the door and accosts Reba, placing a cloth with chloroform over her mouth, rendering her unconscious. He takes her to his house and brings her back to consciousness. He's upset at her for betraying him and tells her that he's going to shoot her, and then himself so that the Red Dragon can't have her. She begs him to let her go, or to run and take her with him.Dolarhyde spreads gasoline around and sets it ablaze. He takes the shotgun and points it at Reba. But, when he realizes he can't do it, he repositions the gun and pulls the trigger. Blood spatters all over Reba's face and she screams. She crawls forward and puts her hand on the open wound of the body, then begins trying to find a way out of the house.Crawford, Graham and many other police officers come roaring up to the house and meet Reba walking towards them. She tells them what happened, and as Graham attempts to go into the house, it explodes in a huge fireball.Graham is given Dolarhyde's diary/scrapbook, which was in a steel safe and thus spared from the flames. The book details the killer's tragic childhood and obsessions with murder. Despite himself, Graham feels pity for Dolarhyde, who he realizes was made a monster, not born one.Word comes back from the forensic pathologist that the body from the Dolarhyde house was not that of Francis Dolarhyde. It was actually Ralph Mandy, who had been on a week's vacation, therefore no one had missed him. That meant that Dolarhyde was still alive.Crawford wasted no time in calling Graham, at his home with his wife and son, relaxing. Graham had just entered his house, looking for Josh to get him to come outside and sit with his parents. Graham notices almost immediately that the mirror in the entry area had been broken. He hears Crawford leaving a message on the phone, informing him that Dolarhyde is not dead. Graham wastes no time in going to the kitchen and arming himself with two sharp knives. He puts one under his belt in back and holds the other at the ready. He goes upstairs as quietly as possible, seeing more broken mirrors.As Graham slowly pushes open the door to Josh's bedroom, he sees his son standing there, with Dolaryhyde holding one arm around Josh and his other hand holding a piece of broken mirror pressed against Josh's skin, near his right eye.Amazingly calm and clear thinking, Graham decides to chastise Josh, telling him how disappointed he was with him, how rude Josh was being, and how he should apologize. That obviously was not what Dolarhyde expected to hear, and he becomes confused. Graham continues talking, transitioning his criticisms into those that Dolarhyde had endured from his grandmother, during his childhood.Dolarhyde is infuriated and flings Josh to the side and attacks Graham. They struggle and during the fight, Dolarhyde slashes Graham across his abdomen. Graham then pulls the knife from his belt and jams it into Dolarhyde's left thigh. Graham runs and ushers his son into the master bedroom, locking the door. Graham tells Josh to hide under the bed and then goes to his closet and retrieves a handgun, readying it to fire when Dolarhyde finishes crashing through the door. However, Dolarhyde stops trying to break in.Graham edges forward and looks under the door. He hears his wife calling out and watches as she appears at the top of the stairs. As she makes her way down the hallway, he sees Dolarhyde step out behind her. He shouts at Molly to get down, which she does, and Graham begins firing his pistol through the door. Dolarhyde also has a pistol and returns fire. They hit each other several times and both go down.Molly pushes through the broken wood of the door and unlocks it, rushing to Graham's side, as he lay gasping for breath with blood bubbling from his mouth. Graham says to Molly, "shoot him." Molly turns to see Dolarhyde struggling to sit up. She hurriedly grabs Graham's pistol off the floor, steps forward into the hall, and, just as Dolarhyde is bringing his gun back up, she puts a shot right through his forehead, then another in his cheek. She rushes back into the bedroom to comfort Josh.After recovering, Graham receives a letter from Dr. Lecter, which bids him well and hopes that he isn't too "disfigured" by his encounters with Dolarhyde and himself. Graham reads the letter while he's out on his sailboat. He crumples the letter up and throws it away.Dr. Frederick Chilton informs Lecter that there is a young woman from the FBI waiting to speak with him. Lecter thinks for a minute, looks up, and asks what her name is.

Review: This movie is closer to Silence of the Lambs than Hannibal in quality and style, and therefore is more entertaining.This movie is basically a reworking of the film Manhunter, except with Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal, so it connects better with the others.
This movie sticks closer to the book than Manhunter did, which will please fans, except that it ads way more Hannibal Lecter interview scenes than were in the book, most likely to bank on Anthony Hopkins' name.
I'm glad this movie managed to be far more successful than Manhunter, because I don't think I could deal with two bad Red Dragon adaptations.The acting is superb.
Whenever I think Ralph Fiennes now, I think Red Dragon.Overall, this is an awesome psychological thriller, and any fan of Silence of the Lambs should definitely see this movie.7/10.
Accordingly, we ended up with Hopkins (reprising his academy award winning role to absolute perfection), Norton (who is the rightful winner of the academy award for American History X in my view, even though the academy went to someone else that year), Harvey Keitel, Ralph Finnes and the brilliant, but under-rated, Phillip Seymore Hoffman.
This is a very good "remake" of Manhunter" which was the first Hannibal Lecter movie but didn't get the press the others did because it didn't have Anthony Hopkins as the famous criminal.
After "Silence of the Lambs" became so popular, and the sequel, "Hannibal," it was decided to re-do that first film and this time obtain Hopkins' services.It worked because not only do you have the incomparable Hopkins at Dr. Lecter but you have one this generations best actors, Edward Norton, as the leading character "Will Graham." Norton, as always, gives a solid performance.
The long-awaited prequel to 'The Silence of the Lambs' and 'Hannibal' was to be directed by Brett Ratner, most famous for the two 'Rush Hour' movies (1998, 2001).However, the final result is pleasantly surprising.
'Red Dragon' opens with a wonderfully suspenseful prologue detailing the infamous Dr. Hannibal Lecter's (Anthony Hopkins) capture, and the unbearable tension rarely lets up for the remainder of the film.Lecter's capturer, Will Graham (Edward Norton), is coaxed out of retirement by Jack Crawford (Harvey Keitel) to help track down a ruthless serial killer nicknamed the Tooth Fairy (Ralph Fiennes), who is murdering seemingly-random families in their sleep.
Fiennes and Norton added much to the story, and were both absolutely excellent.Hopkins gave the performance you'd have expected from him in his role, and this was also notable for a fine performance as Fiennes' blind girlfriend of the bird that appeared in the ever-so-nauseating and vomit enducing Angela's Ashes [which gave a whole new meaning to stereotypical grim films].Don't be put off by Hannibal, definitely see this one..
Though the 4 movies are destined to be lumped together, 'Manhunter,' 'The Silence Of The Lambs,' 'Hannibal,' and now 'The Red Dragon,' which is completely understandable, 'Dragon' stands on it's own.
Obviously this film is always going to come under criticism for not being as great as Silence of the Lambs and it does have nothing on the book, but overall Red Dragon is a decent enough thriller in it's own right and I cant say I dislike it..
Based on Thomas Harris' novel of the same name and featuring psychiatrist and serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter, 'Red Dragon', like, The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, is also An Outstanding Thriller!
The ending of the book is closer to the original novel as well.The scenes with Grahmm are quite good, and Edward Norton does a much better job rounding out the character than William Petersen of CSI fame did.
It stars Edward Norton, Anthony Hopkins, Ralph Fiennes, Emily Watson, Harvey Keitel, Mary-Louise Parker & Phillip Seymour Hoffman.
When asking a female colleague if she'd give up "feeling like God", she lets off a disgusted look at the thought of being invited to think like the killer or share his viewpoint; thus further emphasising Graham's ability to shut everything off and get inside the minds of these people whilst highlighting a degree of superiority he has over his coworkers.In rendering Graham of this ilk, the necessity for the sorts of development on show in The Silence of the Lambs regarding Jodie Foster's character is unnecessary.
The character in question is a part-time film stock lab worker and additional family-targeting serial killer known as Francis Dolarhyde (Fiennes), and just as The Silence of the Lambs was a title that linked itself to the lead and her plight with Hannibal gearing more towards Lecter, Red Dragon is a title more orientated towards the enemy of this particular piece.Dolarhyde inhabits a house and has rather a few characteristics that are quite clearly indebted to 1960's Psycho; in that his tall, old, decrepit and isolated multiple storey house is reminiscent of Norman Bates' house-on-the-hill; the one which neighboured his motel.
This, as Dollarhyde's own obsession with a William Blake painting known as 'The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun' consumes him before, to some extent and somewhat unfortunately, he returns the favour to said piece.Suspense and tension are kept at a reasonably high level throughout, in that Dollarhyde's targets are families of which are grossly similar to the sort Graham himself has, something that combines with the fact they're so far away from one another and are vulnerable, which acts as a persistent and uncomfortable back-burning item.
The film is well conceived and well played out in every way imaginable it works on some many levels that when your watching it you don't feel like your seeing a movie but living it.
All in all "Red Dragon" is an amazing piece of film making that is sure to please fans of the series and new comers alike.Anthony Hopkins is more terrifying and sinister than ever as the diabolical Hannibal Lecter but he is left mostly as a bit player.
But all in all the cast is truly brilliant and something to admire in this heart stopping psychological thriller.Brett Ratner's "Red Dragon" is enthralling in the fact that it draws you into a world you think you know and then completely spin it around on you and gives you something you've never seen before.
Brett Ratner's "Red Dragon" is an unambitious adaptation that stays true to book on a literal level, while forgetting to include all the character turmoil that makes these kinds of movies compelling.
Its loathsome the way Anthony Hopkins has turned Hannibal Lecter into a camp caricature (and casts a pall on the great Silence, more so than his performance in Hannibal because this movie is practically the same as the original).
In order to justice to do the novel, a Red Dragon movie would have to be at least three and a half hours to cover both Graham's, and Dolarhyde's (well played by Fiennes here, though again, Tom Noonan in the original is a helluva lot more menacing) unique psychological idiosyncrasies...
The original story of "Red Dragon" was terrific: Michael Mann's Manhunter is a violent and scary low paced movie, with well-constructed characters.
and then Lectar completely conquered my minds...but RED DRAGON, i feel is no less than the 1991 masterpiece....'am a huge fan of EDWARD NORTON and i thought he was sensational in the movie., the plot was gr8 and overall the movie showed true essence of CLASS...we compare all aspects and we'll not find any gap of greatness b/w the two...FBI agents(GRAHAM or STARLING), lectar, the plot, the killers, everything in fact and i still don't understand why "RED DRAGON" lacks on ratings when compared to "SILENCE"...But still both the movies did have a hang over kind off effect on me as i simply didn't stop thinking of the mesmerizing Hannibal Lectar..
I particularly like the performance of Ralph Fiennes; he is very convincing as a socially inept person.Though "Red Dragon" is not as suspenseful and thrilling as "The Silence of the Lambs", it is certainly much better than the meaningless meanderings of "Hannibal"..
Then I decided to see the other Hannibal Lecter movies, but none of them were as good as Red Dragon.
"Red Dragon" in my opinion is the best of the three Hannibal films (four if you want to include Manhunter).
The problem is that Anthony Hopkins is more well known as Hannibal Lecter, and as such he needs to appear in the 'official' Manhunter remake, rendering the original obsolete in the series.So how is the film anyway?
The script has just enough holes and is inconsistent enough to be compared to cheese, and the beginning that everyone raves "...has a set-up during the opening credits that will stun you with its ferocious power..." (John TD Keyes) is so predictable that it will fail to impress anyone other than the average couch potato.Having said that, there are some interesting points to the movie; Ralph Finnes' acting effectively leans towards the creepy, Anthony Hopkins still manages to play very well the psychopathic genius character he first developed ten years ago, and the movie, although uninspired, moved at a fair pace.
This made me want to watch this film and the story reminded me of "the silence of the lambs"'.At first sight, "Red Dragon" seems to be a promising movie: 1 mysterious serial killer nicknamed "the tooth fairy" (Ralph Fiennes) slaughters families every full moon.
What makes "Manhunter" the better version of this movie is that the story is not short and cut off like "Red Dragon" is.
One of the screens most delectable villains is back and better than ever, to help bring yet another cinematic miscreant of social de-evolution to justice, in `Red Dragon,' a taut suspense/thriller directed by Brett Ratner, featuring an all star cast that includes Anthony Hopkins once again reprising his role of Dr.
And in visiting with Dr. Lecter again, it's easy to understand why Hopkins was awarded the Oscar for his initial portrayal of Hannibal in `The Silence of the Lambs.'  He conveys a natural eeriness in his countenance, and in the coldness of his eyes there is more menace than any deranged mask-wearing villain with a chainsaw could ever hope for.Edward Norton, meanwhile, provides the perfect counterpoint to the abhorrent Lecter/Dolarhyde personas, with a subtle and understated performance that is so inherently honest and convincing that the credibility of the entire film is established by his character alone.
I can understand how many of the reviews by others might think it not a bad film comparing it to Silence of the Lambs and being the so-called Prequil to that movie.Watch Manhunter and realize what a piece of tripe Red Dragon really is.
"Red Dragon", a prequel sequel (or something like that) to "Silence of the Lambs", keeps Hannibal (Hopkins) in his cell while it pushes an FBI Agent (Norton) and a new whacko cannibalistic nemesis D.
Whilst not quite on a par with Lambs', this new version of the Red Dragon / Tooth Fairy story comes complete with plenty of excellent shocks, both of the predictable and of the less-predictable, edge-of-seat-white-knuckle variety.FBI agent Will Graham (Edward Norton) seeks the help of Dr. Hannibal The Cannibal' Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) to help solve a series of gruesome serial killings.
To be honest Manhunter could of been brilliant however a weak script makes it a basic movie , although it is enjoyable a worth a check it just feels like a let down due to all the potential it carries although in some ways it is better than Manhunter but then it others it is not.RED DRAGON - 8.0 OUT OF 10BEFORE THE SILENCE, MEET HANNIBAL LECTOR FOR THE FIRST TIME....
Harvey Keitel, Emily Watson, Mary-Louise Parker, and Phillip Seymore Hoffman also add some nice performances.I think Hollywood didn't give enough acclaim to this movie because Brett Ratner is such a young and unproven director (and it closely follows the book), but he nailed this one.If you haven't seen this and you enjoyed any of the others, do yourself a favor and watch it.
But as good a film as Manhunter is, Red Dragon is simply better.
For those who heap scorn on Norton's performance, if I may borrow a line from the film - "You looked but didn't see." There isn't one performance in Red Dragon that wasn't absolutely top notch, particularly Fiennes, Keitel and Emily Watson.
Love all the Lecter movies.....But did anyone notice the problem with Benjamin Raspel between the Red Dragon and Silence of the lambs?
But more important than the actors is the movie itself - and this does not disappoint.In my mind, 'Silence of the Lambs' is still best of the three, but 'Red Dragon' is a close second, and 'Hannibal,' while being horrible when compared to the book, stands well on its own in movie form.
Red Dragon is about an FBI agent named Will Graham (Edward Norton) who is investigating a murder pulled off by a notorious killer known as The Tooth Fairy (Ralph Fiennes), and seeks advice from his old friend and imprisoned cannibal, Doctor Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins).
While the film has an an amazing all star cast and great acting, Red Dragon just doesn't deliver the dark, eerie, ominous vibe that The Silence Of The Lambs did, and the story just didn't really pull me in at all.
Red Dragon is a very well acted film, yet doesn't even come close to The Silence Of The Lambs in terms of creepiness, and the story just isn't all that interesting.
For a movie that features a stellar cast in Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton, Ralph Fiennes, Harvey Keitel, Emily Watson & Philip Seymour Hoffman, one would usually expect a cinema that's destined to be great, and that expectation rises even more when the source material turns out to be such a popular novel.
The only way one can see it failing is if the directional duties are assigned to a turd director like Brett Ratner, and it's exactly what happened here.Based on Thomas Harris' novel of the same name and serving as a prequel to The Silence of the Lambs, the story of Red Dragon follows the former FBI agent & gifted psychologist Will Graham who is coerced out of early retirement to assist Jack Crawford in determining the psychological profile of a serial killer nicknamed "The Tooth Fairy" but in order to gain a better perspective, turns to someone he himself apprehended a few years ago, Dr. Hannibal Lecter.Written by Ted Tally & directed by Brett Ratner, Red Dragon had so much potential & talent to come out as a really great movie but thanks to Ratner's style over substance approach, it falls short in a number of things, fails to keep its tense atmosphere alive for the most part & isn't even able to carve out one excellent performance from its skilled cast.
The performances are a letdown as well for Hopkins really overdoes his character at times, Norton stays on the same level, Fiennes' character is still overshadowed by Hopkins' weak rendition, Hoffman is able to sell his character, while Watson does well with what she's given.On an overall scale, Red Dragon is a wasted opportunity for the script was good even if too familiar, the casting was an acting powerhouse yet none of them leave a lasting impression, and Ratner's direction makes sure that a promising story like this never realises its potential.
Definitely the weakest of the three movies that feature Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter, this prequel is a dull, at times boring, other times unintentionally funny picture that doesn't give the fans of the book or film series their money worth of entertainment and is as utterly disappointing as it is frustrating..
Watch silence of the lambs first, even though red dragon is a prequel i think it is better that way.
Michael Mann had done it with Manhunter in the 80's but an adaptation that was more fitting to the style of the Anthony Hopkins Lecter films was necessary considering audiences wanted to get the most out of Hopkins' incredible portrayal of the maneating psychopath.Red Dragon is the prequel to Silence of the Lambs and it follows former FBI agent Will Graham, the man responsible of the capture of Hannibal Lecter.
Red Dragon is a film starring Anthony Hopkins, Ed Norton, Harvey Keitel, Ralph Fiennes, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Mary Louise Parker.
Edward Norton is great as Will Graham and Ralph Fieness is amazing as Frances Dolarhyde and their performances alone are worth the praise alone, but it's Anthony Hopkins's third go around as Hannibal Lector that makes this film the crowd pleasers that it is.
Even though Mr Hopkins has aged 11 years since Silence of the lambs and 1 year since Hannibal, he still looks great and I couldn't imagine anybody else playing the role of Dr Lecter.
The actors, Anthony Hopkins and Edward Norton played great parts in this movie.
Fiennes Is so good that he almost Steals the movie away from Norton and Hopkins with a very tight and modulated performance that is sad and utter frightening at the same time.All of this and a great script makes this not only a worthy entry in this series, but it might also be the best suspends film since it's forefather, The Silence of the Lambs.On a side note, The Movie called Manhunter was the first adaptation of Thomas Harris novel Red Dragon, but compared to this film, the movie does not come close to it's excellence..
Ed Norton, Ralph Fiennes, Emily Watson, and of course, Anthony Hopkins were great in every aspect of this movie.Definately not as disturbing as Silence and Hannibal but definately as well-made as the previous two.
Though I enjoyed the Manhunter interpretation, I have to admit after seeing Silence of the Lambs and reading Red Dragon, I longed for two things: (1) a more book-faithful story (particularly the ending) and (2) to see Anthony Hopkins portray the part of Hannibal Lecter.