Red Dragon (2002 film)

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Red Dragon
Red Dragon movie.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byBrett Ratner
Screenplay byTed Tally
Based onRed Dragon
by Thomas Harris
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyDante Spinotti
Edited byMark Helfrich
Music byDanny Elfman
Production
companies
Distributed byUniversal Pictures[1]
Release date
  • October 4, 2002 (2002-10-04)
Running time
124 minutes[2]
Countries
LanguageEnglish
Budget$78 million[3]
Box office$209.2 million[3]

Red Dragon is a 2002 psychological thriller film based on the 1981 novel by Thomas Harris. It was directed by Brett Ratner and written by Ted Tally. A prequel to The Silence of the Lambs (1991), it sees FBI agent Will Graham (Edward Norton) enlisting the help of serial killer Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) to catch another killer, Francis Dolarhyde (Ralph Fiennes). Harvey Keitel, Emily Watson, Mary-Louise Parker, and Philip Seymour Hoffman also star.

The novel was previously adapted into the film Manhunter (1986). Both films feature the same cinematographer, Dante Spinotti. After turning down the Silence of the Lambs sequel, Hannibal (2001), Silence of the Lambs screenwriter Ted Tally returned to write Red Dragon. It was released on 4 October 2002 and received mixed reviews, with some critics feeling the Lecter films had become formulaic.

Plot[]

In 1980, FBI agent Will Graham visits forensic psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter to discuss a case. Graham has been working with Lecter on a psychological profile of a serial killer who removes edible body parts from his victims; Graham says the killer is a cannibal. Realizing Graham is close to discovering he is the killer, Lecter stabs him, but Graham fights back, stabbing and shooting Lecter before they both fall unconscious. Lecter is institutionalized in a psychiatric hospital, and Graham, traumatized, retires to Florida with his wife, Molly, and young son, Josh.

Years later, another serial killer, nicknamed the Tooth Fairy, has killed two families during full moons. With another full moon approaching, Graham’s former boss, Jack Crawford, persuades Graham to help develop the killer's profile. After visiting the crime scenes, Graham concludes that he must consult Lecter. Lecter taunts Graham, but agrees to help.

The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun, ca. 1803–1805 Brooklyn Museum

The Tooth Fairy is Francis Dolarhyde, who kills as directed by his alternate personality, the Great Red Dragon, named after the William Blake painting The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun, which he has tattooed on his back. He believes that each victim brings him closer to "becoming" the Dragon. His psychopathology originates from being abused as a little boy by his grandmother.

Freddy Lounds, a tabloid reporter for the National Tattler who hounded Graham after Lecter's capture, pursues Graham for leads on the Tooth Fairy. A letter from the Tooth Fairy is discovered hidden in Lecter's cell, expressing admiration for Lecter and an interest in Graham, and suggesting that Lecter reply through the personals section of the Tattler. Lecter sends Dolarhyde Graham's home address in code, forcing Molly and Josh to relocate.

Hoping to lure out the Tooth Fairy, Graham gives an interview to Lounds, in which Graham disparages the killer as an impotent homosexual. An enraged Dolarhyde kidnaps Lounds, glues him to an antique wheelchair, forces him to recant his allegations on tape, and then bites off his lips and sets him on fire outside the Tattler offices. At his job in a St. Louis photo lab, Dolarhyde gives Reba McClane, a blind co-worker, a ride to her home and they begin a relationship. However, the Dragon demands that he kill her. Desperate to stop the Dragon's control over him, Dolarhyde goes to the Brooklyn Museum, tears apart the Blake painting, and eats it.

Graham realizes that the Tooth Fairy knew the layout of his victims' houses from their home videos. He deduces that he works for the company that edits the home movies and transfers them to video. He visits the company processing plant to ask for information, and is spotted by Dolarhyde as he returns from Brooklyn.

Dolarhyde goes to Reba's house and finds that she has spent the evening with a co-worker, Ralph Mandy. Dolarhyde kills Ralph, kidnaps Reba, takes her to his house, and sets it ablaze. He cannot bring himself to shoot her, so he apparently shoots himself. Reba escapes as the police arrive, and Graham comforts her.

Dolarhyde, having used Ralph's corpse to stage his death, infiltrates Graham's home in Florida and takes Josh hostage, threatening to kill him. To save Josh, Graham insults the boy with the same verbal abuse that Dolarhyde’s grandmother had used against him. Enraged, Dolarhyde attacks Graham. Both are severely wounded in a shootout, which ends when Molly kills Dolarhyde.

After recovering, Graham receives a letter from Lecter wishing him well and hoping he isn’t "too ugly". Lecter's jailer, Dr. Frederick Chilton, tells him that he has a visitor, a young woman from the FBI; Lecter asks, "What is her name?"

Cast[]

Production[]

The 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs, starring Anthony Hopkins as Lecter, was a critical and commercial success, winning five Academy Awards. Hopkins was the only major member of the Silence of the Lambs team to return for the 2001 sequel, Hannibal; it was also a commercial success, but received less positive reviews.[4] Both films were adapted from novels by Thomas Harris.[4]

Husband-and-wife producers Dino and Martha De Laurentiis decided to produce a film based on the 1981 novel Red Dragon, the first Hannibal Lecter novel, as a prequel to The Silence of the Lambs.[5] Dino said that people thought he was "crazy" for adapting the book, as it had been previously adapted as Manhunter (1986), with Brian Cox as Lecter.[4] Both Manhunter and Red Dragon had the same cinematographer, Dante Spinotti.[5]

Hopkins hesitated to sign on, worried that three Lecter films might be too much. Screenwriter Ted Tally, who wrote The Silence of the Lambs but not Hannibal, had turned down many offers to write more serial killer stories. He said he liked the idea of Hopkins' Lecter films forming a trilogy: "If it ends here, it will end gracefully. I would hate to see this become Hannibal Lecter XIII."[4] To satisfy expectations, Tally added Lecter scenes not in the novel, describing it as a "commercial reality". He had the support of Harris, who sent Tally dialogue and ideas for scenes.[4] Edward Norton and Ralph Fiennes admired The Silence of the Lambs but had not enjoyed Hannibal. The cast were persuaded to join by Tally's screenplay; Fiennes felt it worked "only on suspense", without overt violence.[4]

Norton and Ratner disagreed on the scene in which Graham approaches the incarcerated Lecter for the first time. Ratner wanted Norton to incorporate a gesture or look to indicate Graham's fear, but Norton felt the audience would not need this if it were filmed correctly. They compromised by showing Graham's sweat stains when he removes his jacket in the next scene.[4] Whereas Fiennes wanted to avoid overplaying his serial killer character, Hopkins aimed to play Lecter with more "danger and rage" than before.[4] Fiennes spent 90 minutes of each day for months building his physique, and wore a prosthetic to give him a cleft palate. The tattoo on his back took around eight hours to apply.[4]

Soundtrack[]

Red Dragon: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was composed by Danny Elfman, and produced by Mark Helfrich and Brett Ratner. Decca Records released it on September 24, 2002, in the United States and Canada.[6]

Reception[]

Box office[]

Red Dragon was released on October 4, 2002, and opened in 3,357 theaters in the United States, grossing $13,478,355 on its opening day and $36,540,945 on its opening weekend, ranking #1 with a per theater average of $10,885.[7][8] On its second weekend, it remained #1 and grossed $17,655,750 – $5,250 per theater.[9] By its third weekend it dropped down to #3 and made $8,763,545 – $2,649 per theater.[10]

Red Dragon grossed $93,149,898 in the United States and Canada and $116,046,400 in other territories. In total, the film has grossed $209,196,298 worldwide.[3]

Critical response[]

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 68% based on 190 reviews, with an average rating of 6.40/10. The site's consensus said the film is "competently made, but everything is a bit too familiar".[11] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 60 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[12] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[13]

Richard Corliss of Time gave the film a positive review, stating: "This darkly seductive, flawlessly acted piece is worlds removed from most horror films. Here monsters have their grandeur, heroes their gravity. And when they collide, a dance of death ensues between two souls doomed to understand each other."[14] Todd McCarthy of Variety also gave the film a positive review, saying that the "audiences will be excused for any feelings of déjà vu the new film might inspire. That won't prevent them from watching it in rapt, anxious silence, however, as the gruesome crimes, twisted psychology and deterministic dread that lie at the heart of Harris' work are laid out with care and skill."[15]

Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 1/2 stars out of four, praising Brett Ratner's directing and the film's atmosphere. He stated: "To my surprise, Ratner does a sure, stylish job, appreciating the droll humor of Lecter's predicament, creating a depraved new villain in the Tooth Fairy (Ralph Fiennes), and using the quiet, intense skills of Norton to create a character whose old fears feed into his new ones. There is also humor, of the uneasy he-can't-get-away-with-this variety, in the character of a nosy scandal-sheet reporter (Philip Seymour Hoffman)."[16] David Sterritt of the Christian Science Monitor gave the film a positive review, stated that "the most refreshing aspect of Red Dragon is its reliance on old-fashioned acting instead of computer-aided gizmos. Hopkins overdoes his role at times—his vocal tones are almost campy—but his piercing eyes are as menacing as ever, and Ralph Fiennes is scarily good as his fellow lunatic."[17]

David Grove of Film Threat, who gave the film four stars out of five, said: "Is Red Dragon a better film than Manhunter? I don't know. I think it stands on its own, but I wonder how much people who are intimately familiar with Manhunter will be shocked by it, although the ending is altogether different and much more realized, I think".[18] Rick Kisonak, who also wrote for Film Threat, also gave the film a positive review, but he gave it three stars out of five, saying: "The only downside to this delectable third course? The regrettable likelihood that Lecter fans will have to make do without dessert."[19]

Edward Guthmann of San Francisco Chronicle, gave the film a mixed review, saying that "in Hollywood, where integrity is rapidly consumed and careers defined by market value, there's trash and there's trash with a pedigree."[20] Stephanie Zacharek, for Salon, also gave the film a mixed review, stating: "If you buy the overprocessed headcheese of the serial killer as refined genius, you'll love Red Dragon. Or maybe not. Even Hannibal Lecter devotees may lose patience with this picture's grandiose, self-serious ponderousness—that's Lecterese for, 'It's kind of boring in patches, actually.'"[21] William Arnold of Seattle Post-Intelligencer, who gave the film a mixed review, said that the film "basically lives up to the old adage that the final work in a trilogy is invariably the weakest."[22] Michael Atkinson of The Village Voice gave the film a negative review; he stated: "Red Dragon's formula is so risible and rote by now that the natural reaction to scenes of peril, torture, and suffering is flippant laughter."[23]

Home media[]

The film was released on VHS and DVD on April 1, 2003.[24][25] It was released in two extras-packed DVD editions, a single-disc package and double-disc "Director's Edition". The single-disc package includes deleted scenes, director's commentary by Brett Ratner, Interview with FBI profiler John E. Douglas, Four featurettes: "The Hannibal Lecter Story," "The Making of Red Dragon," "The Art of Criminal Profiling" and "The Making of a Killer". The Director's Edition includes Ratner's video diary, featurette "The Red Dragon Tattoo", screen and film tests, and storyboard-to-final-feature comparisons.[24]

Awards[]

Red Dragon was nominated for 13 awards, and won several, including Empire Award for Best British Actress (Emily Watson) and Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film – Young Actor Age Ten or Younger (Tyler Patrick Jones).[citation needed]

Date Award Category Recipient Result
May 18, 2003 Saturn Awards Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film Nominated
Best Supporting Actor Ralph Fiennes Nominated
Best Supporting Actress Emily Watson Nominated
February 5, 2003 Empire Awards Best British Actress Emily Watson Nominated
February 13, 2003 London Film Critics Circle Awards British Supporting Actress of the Year Emily Watson Won
August 2, 2003 Teen Choice Awards Choice Movie – Horror/Thriller Nominated
March 29, 2003 Young Artist Awards Best Performance in a Feature Film – Young Actor Age Ten or Younger Tyler Patrick Jones Won

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Red Dragon at the American Film Institute Catalog
  2. ^ "Red Dragon (15)". British Board of Film Classification. September 26, 2002. Retrieved October 5, 2016.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Red Dragon (2002)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved July 22, 2020.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i Oldenburg, Ann (October 3, 2002). "Marquee names serve up another helping of Hannibal". USA Today. Retrieved November 2, 2020.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b French, Philip (October 12, 2002). "Film of the week: Red Dragon". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved November 13, 2020.
  6. ^ "Red Dragon [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]". AllMusic. All Media Guide. Retrieved July 24, 2012.
  7. ^ "Daily Box Office for Friday, October 4, 2002". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved July 22, 2012.
  8. ^ "Weekend Box Office Results for October 4-6, 2002". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved July 22, 2012.
  9. ^ "Weekend Box Office Results for October 11-13, 2002". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved July 22, 2012.
  10. ^ "Weekend Box Office Results for October 18-20, 2002". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved July 22, 2012.
  11. ^ "Red Dragon". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved February 14, 2021.
  12. ^ "Red Dragon". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved July 22, 2012.
  13. ^ "ELEKTRA (2005) B". CinemaScore. Archived from the original on December 20, 2018.
  14. ^ Corliss, Richard (September 30, 2002). "Here Be Monsters". Time. Time Inc. Archived from the original on November 15, 2005. Retrieved July 22, 2012.
  15. ^ McCarthy, Todd (September 26, 2002). "Film Reviews: Red Dragon". Variety. Retrieved July 22, 2012.
  16. ^ Ebert, Roger (October 4, 2002). "Red Dragon". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved January 22, 2021 – via RogerEbert.com.
  17. ^ Sterritt, David (October 4, 2002). "The doctor is in: Hannibal returns in 'Lambs' prequel". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved July 24, 2012.
  18. ^ Grove, David (October 4, 2002). "Red Dragon". Film Threat. Retrieved July 24, 2012.
  19. ^ Kisonak, Rick (October 8, 2002). "Red Dragon". Film Threat. Retrieved July 24, 2012.
  20. ^ Guthmann, Edward (October 4, 2002). "'Dragon' has no bite / All-star cast fails to make 'Silence of the Lambs' prequel appetizing". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved July 22, 2012.
  21. ^ Zacharek, Stephanie (October 4, 2002). "Red Dragon". Salon. Retrieved July 22, 2012.
  22. ^ Arnold, William (October 3, 2002). "Lecter series has run its course, but Hopkins is still delicious". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved July 24, 2012.
  23. ^ Atkinson, Michael (October 1, 2002). "Monsters, Inc". The Village Voice. Retrieved July 24, 2012.
  24. ^ Jump up to: a b Rivero, Enrique (January 22, 2003). "Red Dragon to Bow on Video April 1". hive4media.com. Archived from the original on March 4, 2003. Retrieved September 27, 2019.
  25. ^ Rivero, Enrique (March 31, 2003). "Red Dragon Helmer Plays Big Part on DVD". hive4media.com. Archived from the original on April 13, 2003. Retrieved September 27, 2019.

External links[]

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