Red Dragon (2002) is a psychological horror thriller and the second film version of Thomas Harris‘s 1981 novel. The first was Michael Mann’s Manhunter (1986). Brett Ratner directed it from a script by Ted Tally, who wrote The Silence of the Lambs. Anthony Hopkins plays Hannibal Lecter for the third and last time, opposite Edward Norton as FBI profiler Will Graham and Ralph Fiennes as the killer Francis Dolarhyde. It is a prequel to The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal (2001). Critics generally rated it above Hannibal but below Silence. It earned more than $209 million worldwide.
At a glance
| Release date | September 30, 2002 (Ziegfeld Theatre premiere); October 4, 2002 (US) |
| Director | Brett Ratner |
| Writer | Ted Tally (screenplay) |
| Based on | Red Dragon (1981) by Thomas Harris |
| Starring | Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton, Ralph Fiennes, Harvey Keitel, Emily Watson, Mary-Louise Parker, Philip Seymour Hoffman |
| Runtime | 124 minutes |
| Rating | R (US) |
| Budget | $78 million |
| Box office | $209.2 million |
| Franchise | Hannibal Lecter series: prequel to The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Hannibal (2001) |
Plot summary
In 1980, FBI agent Will Graham consults the brilliant psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter on a series of murders and realizes that Lecter himself is the cannibal killer he is hunting. The two badly wound each other. Lecter is found not guilty by reason of insanity and locked away in the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. A traumatized Graham retires to Florida with his wife Molly (Mary-Louise Parker) and son Josh.
Years later, a killer the press calls the “Tooth Fairy” has murdered two families, the Jacobis and the Leedses, each under a full moon. With another full moon approaching, Graham’s old boss Jack Crawford (Harvey Keitel) persuades him to come back. To get inside the killer’s mind, Graham has to visit Lecter again. The Tooth Fairy is Francis Dolarhyde (Ralph Fiennes), a St. Louis film-lab worker scarred by childhood abuse from his grandmother. He believes he is turning into the “Great Red Dragon” of William Blake’s painting, which is tattooed across his back. His one connection to ordinary life is a blind co-worker, Reba McClane (Emily Watson).
Spoiler section: the ending
Lecter secretly sends the killer Graham’s home address through the personal ads of the National Tattler, and Graham’s family has to go into hiding. Dolarhyde kills Tattler reporter Freddy Lounds (Philip Seymour Hoffman) by setting him on fire in a wheelchair. Desperate to escape the Dragon, he eats the original Blake watercolor at the Brooklyn Museum. Graham realizes the killer chose his victims from home movies sent to his lab. Dolarhyde fakes his own suicide and then attacks the Graham home in Florida, taking Josh hostage. Molly shoots him dead. Later, Lecter sends Graham a letter of praise, and Dr. Chilton tells Lecter that a young woman from the FBI has come to see him, which leads into The Silence of the Lambs.
Production and behind the scenes
After the success of The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, producers Dino and Martha De Laurentiis decided to adapt the first Lecter novel as a prequel. Dino said people thought he was “crazy,” because the book had already been filmed as Manhunter, with Brian Cox as Lecter. The two films share cinematographer Dante Spinotti and actor Frankie Faison. Hopkins hesitated, worried that three Lecter films might be too many. Tally had turned down Hannibal and many other serial-killer scripts, but liked the idea of the Hopkins films forming a trilogy. “If it ends here, it will end gracefully,” he said. “I would hate to see this become Hannibal Lecter XIII.” To meet audience expectations, Tally added Lecter scenes that are not in the novel, which he called a “commercial reality.” Harris backed him and sent him dialogue and ideas.
Both Norton and Fiennes admired The Silence of the Lambs but had not enjoyed Hannibal. Tally’s script won them over, and Fiennes said it worked “only on suspense.” Norton and Ratner disagreed about Graham’s first visit to Lecter’s cell. Ratner wanted a visible sign of fear, while Norton thought the scene should speak for itself. They compromised by showing sweat stains on Graham’s shirt when he takes off his jacket in the next scene. Hopkins aimed to play Lecter with more “danger and rage” than before, while Fiennes tried not to overplay Dolarhyde. Fiennes spent 90 minutes a day for months building his physique, wore a prosthetic to give Dolarhyde a cleft palate, and sat for about eight hours each time the dragon tattoo was applied. Danny Elfman composed the score.
Release and reception
Red Dragon premiered at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York on September 30, 2002, and opened on October 4 in 3,357 theaters. It took $36.5 million in its first weekend, then a record for an October opening, and stayed at No. 1 the following weekend. It went on to gross $93.1 million in the US and Canada and $209.2 million worldwide. Audiences gave it an “A−” CinemaScore. It holds 69% on Rotten Tomatoes and 60 on Metacritic.
Roger Ebert gave it three and a half stars out of four and admitted, “To my surprise, Ratner does a sure, stylish job.” Richard Corliss of Time called it “darkly seductive” and “flawlessly acted,” and Variety predicted audiences would watch “in rapt, anxious silence” despite a sense of déjà vu. Others were cooler. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer said it confirmed “the old adage that the final work in a trilogy is invariably the weakest.” The Village Voice found the formula “risible and rote.” Emily Watson won the Empire Award for Best British Actress.
Legacy and influence
Red Dragon was the last film distributed by Universal in the series and Hopkins’s final performance as Lecter, closing his three-film run that began in 1991. The next film, Hannibal Rising (2007), recast the character as a young man. Because it adapts the same novel, it is regularly compared with Manhunter. Film Threat’s David Grove wasn’t sure it was better than Mann’s film, but found its ending “altogether different and much more realized.” David Sterritt of the Christian Science Monitor called Fiennes “scarily good” as Dolarhyde.
Trivia
- Ellen Burstyn, who starred in The Exorcist, provides the voice of Dolarhyde’s grandmother.
- Anthony Heald returns as Dr. Frederick Chilton, the role he played in The Silence of the Lambs.
- Frankie Faison is the only actor in all four Lecter films made before Hannibal Rising, including Manhunter. Here he again plays the orderly Barney Matthews.
- Tyler Patrick Jones, who plays Josh, won a Young Artist Award for the role.
- Home video releases included a featurette with FBI profiler John E. Douglas. A 4K disc from Kino Lorber followed in 2023.
Related links
- Hannibal Lecter and Will Graham (characters)
- Hannibal Lecter series
- Manhunter (1986), the earlier adaptation of the novel
- The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Hannibal (2001)
- Thomas Harris (author) and Ted Tally (screenwriter)
- Anthony Hopkins (Lecter)