I am not here only to review “Manhunter,” but I definitely recommend it. The obscure 1986 crime thriller is mostly remembered for being the first movie to feature iconic fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter, although the part is played by Brian Cox instead of Anthony Hopkins. It is a quality film, adapted from the Thomas Harris novel “Red Dragon” by director Michael Mann (Heat, Collateral, Public Enemies). All of the acting is phenomenal, with Cox’s understated performance as Lecter standing out as an interesting contrast from Hopkins’, Gaspard Ulliel’s and Mads Mikkelsen’s more deliberately charismatic interpretations. William Petersen is also intriguing as an internally tortured but brilliant detective named Will Graham, while Mann’s unique aesthetic and choices in music give the film a lush, evocative and unsettling vibe. (It is also very distinctly 1980s.)
Below here there be spoilers… and unapologetic Marxism! “Manhunter” speaks to me as a member of the so-called “fake news.”
Yet I’m not here to talk about the entirety of “Manhunter.” I want to write about the character arc of Freddy Lounds (Stephen Lang) and how I find it to be darkly — I might even say perversely — hilarious on a deeply personal level.
You see, I am a member of one of the most despised groups in America, at least if you’re a political news junkie: The media. I have written about politics, history, economics, science, culture and social issues as objectively as possible, which has inevitably required me to be left-wing since reality has a well-known liberal bias. (Yes, I am cribbing from Stephen Colbert, the Mark Twain of our time.) For this I am derided as a purveyor of “fake news,” an “enemy of the people,” the “lamestream media,” the “liberal media,” once even “the Jew media machine.” I’m supposedly someone sneaky and sinister and needing to be silenced (even as I also apparently infringe on the free speech rights of others). I’m told that I hate America, despise freedom, oppose nationalism and want to overthrow capitalism. (These last two accusations are accurate.)
Yet I do have flaws and I have made mistakes. Nevertheless I am proud of my career because I worked hard to achieve it — four years as a freelancer at sites ranging from Mic.com, The Daily Dot and The Good Men Project to Quartz, MSNBC and Salon) and then four years as a staff writer at Salon. If I show off, it’s because I am an autist and had to overcome a lot to do all of this. (And yet my pride in my own hard work does not mean that I would ever condemn anyone else to poverty, for any reason whatsoever, which is why I support a universal basic income.) In addition, despite my best efforts, sometimes I get my facts wrong simply because I am human, even though my years of study through my two careers (journalism and being a graduate student in history) make me correct about more important underlying truths.
These are the character flaws of Freddy Lounds in “Manhunter,” just writ on a smaller scale. Aside from gauchely invading a character’s privacy (contemptible tabloid behavior I will not defend), he is nothing more or less than a crime reporter trying to tell the world the truth about a dangerous serial killer. He clearly enjoys his job and acts like a showboat, but he can boast of a meaningful achievement — writing for a widely read publication. And when he reports inaccurate information about the serial killer known as the Tooth Fairy (Tom Noonan), it is because law enforcement officials Will Graham (William Petersen) and Jack Crawford (Dennis Farina) are manipulating him. Otherwise his reporting on that and other high profile crime cases is reliable.
What is his fate?
He is kidnapped by the Tooth Fairy (real name: Francis Dollarhyde), bound to a wheelchair, psychologically tortured, forced to report more fake news (this time the Tooth Fairy’s insane beliefs) and dies by having his lips bitten off and the wheelchair set on fire. The last time we see him, his body is revealed to the public in a way that deprives him of dignity even in death.
Why do I identify with him? How about the obvious reason that, while I can identify with Lounds, in this analogy President Donald Trump’s supporters are the Tooth Fairy?
Trump is a fascist and his movement is a form of fascism. For those desiring an in-depth breakdown of fascist ideology and how it applies to Trump and Trumpism, I highly recommend this video by YouTube’s Leon Thomas. Here it should simply be noted that the Tooth Fairy wishes to be reborn into something both greater and from the past, just like fascists talk about palingenetic nationalism (for example, Make America Great Again). He has delusions of self-grandeur that cause him to actively harm innocent people, especially those he considers beneath him. He does these evil things by being a serial killer. Trump does his evil things as president, and those evil things are whatever his supporters want. What they want do is ignore the fact that capitalism is the cause of our major economic problems and instead blame anyone and anything else (let’s face it, usually the left). As a result, global warming and other forms of environmental destruction are threatening civilization as we know it, the poor are needlessly suffering and systematic racism continues to ruin lives.
All of this happens as a pandemic consumes thousands of lives and President Trump repeatedly bungles the situation. And the upcoming presidential election veers toward crisis because Trump has made it clear from the get-go that he’ll never concede.
2020 is us being bound to the Tooth Fairy’s creepy old wheelchair. Not just “us” the media, but all of us. It’s just we’re the ones who have to tell the story — an honor in a way, and certainly a privilege and lots of fun, but one with dubious benefits given what tends to happen to us.
The reporters are right about the most important thing, and when they’re wrong every now and then it is because they either make ordinary human errors or fall victim to the errors of the incompetent. (In the case of “Manhunter,” the government.) And yet we’re still going to die, because being right makes no difference.
That’s why I find the Freddy Lounds story so funny. Although who knows? Maybe soon I won’t.
If you want to see my review for the 2002 remark of “Manhunter,” “Red Dragon,” click here.