Manhunter DVD screwed up!!! buy at your own risk

[Mark]

I got the new Manhunter 2 disc set and I wanted to give a heads up to anyone who hasn't gotten it yet. You might want to wait as I'm sure there will be a major recall of this DVD.

Here are the problems with this disc:

1 The director's cut on disc 2 is VHS quality at best.

2 The version on disc 1 is NOT the theatrical cut of the movie! It appears to be taken from a tv or airplane edit.

Just thought you should know.

By the way does anybody know who to e-mail at Anchor Bay about getting this fixed?

Peace

Mark

[Brock Landers]

The director's cut on disc two was not remastered from its original version and looks like a VHS tape that has been rotting in a damp cellar for many years...this is because Anchor Bay chose to put it in the set as "supplemental material" so people could see what was deleted...they might have done better just to have the deleted scenes taken out and presented separately...the theatrical version on disc 1 has a great 16x9 enhanced widescreen transfer...it looks great on my television and is the same length as the previous video theatrical release...there's nothing wrong with the DVD set, except that you probably thought both versions would look good...

[Mark]

Hey Brock,

I'm sorry to say but you are mistaken, unless ofcourse Anchor Bay released more than one version. In the version that I have the running time on the theatrical cut has a 2 minute diffrence from my old VHS, and there are several noticable changes.

First, dialouge is missing from a scene where Graham is talking to Atlanta police about Lecter.

Original Version:

Cop: "Lecter killed 9 people right?"

Graham: "9 that we know of, 2 didn't die."

Cop: "What happened to them?"

Graham: "One is on a resperator, the other is in a mental institution."

Cop: "What did the doctor's say is wrong with Lecter?"

Graham: "The doctor's call him a psychopath.... They don't know what else to call him.

Cop: I hear he cut you pretty good."


DVD Version:

Cop: "Lecter killed 9 people right?"

Graham: "9 that we know of, 2 didn't die."

Cop: "What happened to them? I hear he cut you pretty good."

Not only does this leave out important information on Lecter, the cut is so abrupt that the scene no longer makes sense.

Second, two rather uninteresting scenes from the director's cut have been restored to the "theatrical" cut.

The first scene shows a real estate agent showing Graham the house of one of the victims.

The second is the scene where Molly vistis Graham in the hotel and we see Grahams scar for the first time.

These scenes without the rest of the deleted material don't add anything to the movie and they slow the pacing.

Third there is another piece of very important dialouge that is missing from both discs:

I forget all of it but it basicly has Graham talking to Crawford about the "Tooth Fairy's" childhood. Graham tells Crawford that his heart bleeds for the killer as a child, but at the same time as an adult he is irredeemable and should be blown out of his socks.

These changes are on the DVD that I bought, is your DVD diffrent.

Peace

Mark

[Sean]

I was blown away by the DVD. The picture is excellent, the sound is excellent, the extras are limited but very good. Also, the Director's Cut is certainly watchable. You guys were pretty hard on it. It's only purpose is to show you a slightly different cut of the film, so it didn't really bother me that the quality was not great. I am just happy that the theatrical version is good.

[Deckard]

I think its a conspiracy. Dino De Laurentis produced Hanibal & Manhunter but not Silence Of the lambs.
In my opinion & it seems many others on the web agree, Manhunter is the best of the three, but it didnt have box office success so they want to remake it.
My thought is the producers are afraid if the Manhunter DVD is great people through word of mouth now 10-15 years after its release will discover it is a cinematic triumph, then remaking becomes redundant.
No matter how much money they make on the DVD version of Manhunter they know its only a drop in the ocean compared to the money to be made in remaking it.
In other words I think its all about money, if Manhunter slowly dissappears or in some way isnt perfect itll be the excuse the producers need to commit a travesty & remake the best of the trilogy!
Ridley Scott already said no out of respect for Micheal Manns version which he feels is more than satisfactory.
You may be right, I may be crazy.....then again maybe Im not, only history will tell.