Redeeming the visual: Aesthetic questions in Michael Mann's Manhunter
2003; Salisbury University; Volume: 31; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0090-4260
Autores Tópico(s)Digital Games and Media
ResumoDespite its position as first chapter in trilogy of films based on Thomas Harris's Hannibal novels, Michal Mann's Manhunter has received relatively little attention. Jonathan Demme's The Silence of Lambs, based on second novel in Harris's trilogy, has received significant amount of critical attention and there seems to be growing anticipation for Ridley Scott's Hannibal, based on third novel in trilogy. Yet, Mann's adaptation of Harris's Red Dragon remains forgotten chapter in Lecter trilogy.1 Even Mann's increasing importance as filmmaker, especially with critical success of Heat and The Insider, has not brought much attention to Manhunter. Where film has been discussed it has largely been in relation to other Mann films (see Combs; Smith) or its vastly more popular sibling The Silence of Lambs (see Garrett; Hantke).2 Part of reason for this academic neglect may be film's failure to garner either critical or popular acclaim.3 Widely regarded as box office flop, Manhunter received generally negative reviews. Many of these reviews found fault with Mann's overly stylized directorial style, finding strong parallel between film's visual style and that popularized in Mann's hit television series Miami Vice. Walter Goodman's review for New York Times noted the main trouble is Mr. Mann's taste for overkill; attention keeps being diverted away from story to odd camera angles, fancy lighting (C6), and Dolores Barclay called it a Miami Vice clone. Sheila Benson, writing in Los Angeles Times, summarized contemporary criticism by noting, With Manhunter, there seems to be some danger that style has overrun content, leaving behind vast, chic, well-cast wasteland (6:1). Mann's visual style, honed in television series like Starsky and Hutch, Miami Vice, and Crime Story, is distinctive. His camera lingers on still scenes in an almost photographic style; backgrounds are striking with their large blocks of solid colors and smooth white surfaces, and shots are often filtered with deep colors.4 The settings of his films are filled - with exception of period piece Last of Mohicans-with gleaming, slick modern architecture. Yet, unlike other highly stylized filmmakers like Terry Gilliam, Mann's films are deeply rooted in real places: bright, smooth curves of American urban spaces. In words of Gavin Smith, Mann forges an idiom of hyperrealism, in which reality is reconstructed with painstaking accuracy, yet within heightened, dreamlike stylisation (72). Indeed, striking visual style of Manhunter continues to set film apart among numerous subsequent films which have adopted many of its serial killer elements: FBI profiler, cunning genius, procedural focus (see Simpson). Rafik Djoumi notes,if Manhunter still surprises today, it is most of all because of its aesthetic bias. Seen one way, disjuncture between menacing, noir subject matter and bright, flashy visual style contributes to film's general failure. Certainly other films, like Silence or Seven, chose different visual style to complement their dark storylines. Seen another way, highly stylized visuals of Manhunter fit perfectly in film that is, essentially, about looking. This second sense of relationship between Manhunter's style and content is focus of present essay. As opening quotations, taken from film, suggest, act of looking is of central importance. The first, spoken by FBI investigator Will Graham, describes essential quality of obsession of film's serial killer-seeing. The second is uttered by FBI director Jack Crawford at beginning of film as he tries to draw Will Graham, film's protagonist, out of retirement. Graham, we learn, is crucial to finding killer, who murders entire families on lunar cycle, before he kills again. …
Referência(s)