‘The Final Cut’ Isn’t Quite Such a New ‘Manhunter’

Michael Mann‘s “Manhunter: The Final Cut” is a slight tweaking of the original 1986 “Manhunter”, which runs 120 minutes. The 4K-enhanced upgrade lasts three or four minutes longer. It opened Friday (7.24) at the IFC Center. and in other smarthouses around the country. Later this year it’ll be on Blu-ray and streaming. I mostly loved this psychological hunt-for-a-serial killer flick when I first saw it near the beginning of Ronald Reagan’s second term. I’ve re-watched it four or five times over the last few decades in my living room. Yes, it feels good to watch a generally admired Michael Mann film on a big theatre screen again. Before the lights came down I was seriously buzzed. But it doesn’t play as well in 2026. The swamps of time have taken it down a bit.The sound at the IFC Center is so weak you can barely hear the dialogue. Brian Cox’s Hannibal Lecktor is the only character who doesn’t whisper. It’s infuriating. Even Iron Butterfly sounds faint.Do yourself a favor and wait for it on the small screen. That way you can turn the sound up instead of complaining to the IFC center staff and you can turn on subtitles.Yes, the newbie “Manhunter” is slightly different. Cox might have a few more lines during that first all-white jailhouse interview scene with William Petersen’s Will Graham. There’s a little more dialogue in an Atlanta police station scene in which Graham explains the basic behavior patterns of Tom Noonan’s family-slaughtering Tooth Fairy. There’s a new scene near the end in which Graham visits a family that might have been killed but wasn’t. Who cares? None of these changes add much. Mann recently explained the need for a final 4K cut: “If the picture was left the way it was, it would be interesting, but you’d feel some distance…you’d be observing it somewhat. I’m more interested in its original intent impacting you the same way it may have in 1986…that is, to bring you into it again in the original way.” No way, Michael! “Manhunter” reeks of musty ‘80s antiquity. It’s an archaic time-travel thing. The hair styles, suit stylings, gray leather hipster lace-ups, families sending film and home movies to a central processing plant…please. “Manhunter” has very little story tension. There’s too much laid-back lolling around. A lot of Will Graham hanging with his family on the southwest Florida coast and brooding, brooding, brooding. There’s a lot of technical this-and-that, but much of it feels kinda flat. It’s almost dull at times.Boiled down, “Manhunter” is gripping because of four scenes — Lecktor in his snow white cell, sleazy Tatler reporter Freddy Lounds (Stephen Lang) being tortured and set aflame by Noonan’s Francis Dolarhyde, blind Reba McClane (Joan Allen) communing with a sedated Bengal tiger, and the absurd window-smash finale and shoot-out inside Dolarhyde’s home. On top of which the constantly smoking Petersen is a charisma vacuum.The best director’s cuts deliver significantly more — extra depth, darker detours, and an extra 20 or 30 minutes in length. My top two favorites are the special edition of James Cameron’s “Aliens” (154 minutes compared to an original 1986 running time of 137 minutes) and the “unrated extended cut” of Ridley Scott’s “The Counsellor” (138 minutes vs. the original 117). The longer “Aliens” and “The Counselor” are much richer, more resonant films than the initial theatrical versions. And let’s not forget Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now” (the original 1979 version ran 147 minutes vs. the 2019 “final cut” that added 35 minutes for a total of 182.)Compared to these other specials from Mssrs. Coppola, Scott and Cameron, “Manhunter: The Final Cut” — which according to Variety’s Owen Gleiberman, is the same as the “Restored Director’s Cut” of the film that came out on DVD in 2003 — is weak sauce, I’m afraid.There’s one casting choice that’s truly phenomenal. David Seaman, the kid who plays Will and Molly Graham’s blonde-haired son, is a spitting image of Molly. Same eyes, same hair, same mood vibe. It’s phenomenal because Hollywood casting directors never hire kids who look like their parents or vice versa. (Seaman is probably close to 50 years old now.)There’s a longish section in “Manhunter” in which Dolarhyde, who’s darkly intense and royally screwed up in more ways than anyone could count, takes Allen’s Reba McCLane to dinner and then to a local vet to vibe with the tiger. And then to his home.If there’s one thing that blind people are able to do, it’s detecting different kinds of spiritual energy. If you’re at peace with yourself, blind people will sense this. If you’re a quietly wackazoid serial killer, blind people can probably feel this also. And yet McClane not only agrees to hang with the seriously warped Dolarhyde but leans over and starts making out with him and then goes to bed with him. This doesn’t make the slightest bit of sense.What could be added to the original ’86 version that might make a real difference? How about some found video footage of Francis Dolarhyde’s taking selfies of himself after murdering a family? How about some flashback footage of Cox’s Lecktor murdering this or that victim and then being caught by Graham? Or, and this is truly painful to recite, an origin story or two showing Graham and Dolarhyde experiencing similar traumas as teenagers, which is why Graham seems to innately understand Dolarhyde as much as he does? How about an extra scene or two with the fetching Kim Griest, who plays Graham’s wife Molly? (Ms. Griest was 27 or 28 during the 1985 filming of “Manhunter” — she retired from acting a quarter-century ago, and now lives in Stamford, Connecticut.)These banal suggestions are obviously being offered in jest but here’s a serious idea. How about cutting out footage that shows Petersen doing his constantly-simmering, always-close-to-exploding routine? Or how about deleting all the cries of “Will! Will! Will!” from Dennis Farina‘s Jack Crawford whenever he chases after the agitated Graham in the second half? I don’t want to hear Farina yelling “Will! Will! Will!” ever again for the rest of my life. On another serious note, if you’re going to release an extended cut you have to offer something or other that really leaps out. “Manhunter: The Final Cut” does not.

‘The Final Cut’ Isn’t Quite Such a New ‘Manhunter’

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