This entry is about the 2002 film. For other entries with similar names, see Red dragon.
Red Dragon is a
2002 thriller film, based on the
novel of the same name written by
Thomas Harris and featuring
psychiatrist and
serial killer Dr.
Hannibal Lecter. The film was directed by
Brett Ratner and written by
Ted Tally, who also wrote the screenplay for
The Silence of the Lambs; it stars
Edward Norton as FBI agent
Will Graham and
Anthony Hopkins as Lecter — a role he had, by then, played twice before in
The Silence of the Lambs and
Hannibal.
Red Dragon is, in publishing chronology, the first story in the Lecter saga (
Hannibal Rising, a later-published origin story, was released in 2007).
Red Dragons story takes place before the events in The Silence of the Lambs
, and after Lecter's original capture and incarceration. While Lecter plays a central role, Red Dragon
focuses more on the characters of Will Graham and the tortured serial killer, Francis Dolarhyde.
Plot
In his
Baltimore townhouse, famous local psychiatrist Dr.
Hannibal Lecter 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, 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 before Lecter returns and attacks Graham, wounding and nearly killing him before Graham resists and subdues him.
Lecter is subsequently sentenced to
life imprisonment in an institution for the criminally insane while Graham, severely
traumatized by the experience, retires from the FBI.
Years later, another serial killer appears. 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 who suffers from schizophrenia and worships 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 turns 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, a
tabloid reporter 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, where Lecter provides Dolarhyde with Graham's home address, endangering Graham's wife and child, who 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 realise 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 the Tooth Fairy into a trap, Graham gives Lounds an interview in which he gives disparaging details about what the FBI believe the killer to be:
impotent and pathetic — whereas in fact they consider him cunning and highly dangerous. This provokes Dolarhyde but instead of Graham he kidnaps Lounds, tortures him, forces him to recant his allegations before setting him on fire and depositing him outside his newspaper's offices.
At about the same time, Dolarhyde falls in love with a blind co-worker named
Reba McClane. Dolarhyde's new-found love conflicts with his homicidal urges, which manifest themselves in his mind as 'The Great Red Dragon'. After his association with Reba, Dolarhyde attempts to stop the Dragon's "possession" of him. In order to stop killing, he believes that he must dominate the dragon by consuming the original painting. Dolarhyde goes to the
Brooklyn Museum, beats a museum secretary unconscious, and eats the original Blake watercolor of
The Red Dragon.
Graham eventually realizes that the killer knew the layout of his victims' houses from their home videos, which he only could have seen if he worked for the home video editing company that transfers home movies to
video cassette. Dolarhyde's job gives him access to all
home movies that pass through the company. When he sees Graham interviewing his boss, Dolarhyde realises that they are on to him and goes to see Reba one last time. He finds her talking to a co-worker, Ralph Mandy, a man whom she actually dislikes. Enraged, Dolarhyde kills Ralph Mandy, kidnaps McClane and, having taken her to his house, sets the place on fire. He intends to kill her and then himself, but finds himself unable to shoot her. After Dolarhyde apparently shoots himself, McClane escapes.
Graham is given Dolarhyde's scrapbook, saved from the wreckage of the house, which 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.
However, it turns out Dolarhyde did not shoot himself but left behind the body of Ralph Mandy in order to stage his own death. Dolarhyde then surprises Graham at his Florida home, holding Graham's son at knifepoint. In order to save the boy, Graham slings insults at his son that are reminiscent of the ones that Dolarhyde's grandmother had used against him, which Graham found in the scrapbook. This enrages Dolarhyde, who attacks Graham, allowing his son to escape to safety. Both Graham and Dolarhyde are severely wounded in a close-range shootout with each other when Graham's wife, Molly, ends the horrific ordeal by shooting and killing Dolarhyde.
After recovering, Graham receives a letter from Lecter, which bids him well and hopes that he isn't too "disfigured". Dr.
Frederick Chilton then informs Lecter that there is a young woman from the FBI waiting to speak with him (presumably
Clarice Starling). Lecter thinks for a minute, looks up, and asks what her name is.
Differences between versions
The story of
Red Dragon has been filmed twice. The first film, released in 1986 under the title
Manhunter, was written and directed by
Michael Mann and focused on FBI Special Agent Will Graham, played by
William Petersen. Lecter (renamed Lecktor) was played by
Brian Cox.
Manhunter is often recognized as a looser adaptation, leaving out Dolarhyde's backstory and having him die at Graham's hands during the climactic scene of the movie. Ratner's
Red Dragon was more faithful to the novel in some respects. Lecter in Ratner's adaptation appears numerous times, and even the opening sequence was filmed specifically to show the audience how he got caught by Will Graham (in a version modified from the book).
Red Dragons chronology also does not match that of the novel.
The character Ralph Mandy corresponds to Ralph Dandridge in
Manhunter, and a composite of Dandridge and Ralph Mandy in the novel. Also, the body of Ralph Mandy found in the burned down house in the novel is instead that of a gas station attendant with whom Dolarhyde had a previous confrontation.
At the end of the film version of
Red Dragon, the family is whole and sailing together on a boat. Will reads a letter from Lecter (transcribed verbatim from the book) and throws it into the ocean in contempt. The book ends with Graham in the hospital recovering from Dolarhyde's attack. Jack Crawford intercepts the letter before Graham ever learns of its existence. He reads it and destroys it without telling Will.
Critical Reception
Red Dragon was a box office success, earning $92,930,005 in the US
[Red Dragon - Movie Reviews, Trailers, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes]. It received mainly positive reviews from many critics. Response to this film was even more positive than to its predecessor
Hannibal. While some reviewers compared it negatively to
Manhunter, others, such as
Roger Ebert, were enthusiastic about the remake. The average
Rotten Tomatoes rating was 'fresh' with a rating of 68 percent.
[Red Dragon - Movie Reviews, Trailers, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes].
[
Bueller house southeast view.JPG|thumb|Southeast view of the [[Los Cerritos, Long Beach, California|Long Beach, California] home used in
Red Dragon as the home where the police found a family slaughtered by the serial killer. Known as the Bueller family home, the house also appeared in the films
Ferris Bueller's Day Off and
Not Another Teen Movie]].
Cast
