It's a minor point, but I don't understand how a police detective can afford that incredible beach house? Was Graham or his wife independently wealthy? I'm thinking that maybe this was explained in the book, which I haven't read.
So if anyone out there knows the answer, please let me know.
Good question but I'll answer it for you as far as the film goes...
-Michael Mann loves those shots. He used it in 'Heat' as well. Conveying a sense of running away as far as possible... But it's never far enough. It's reminiscent of a painting(I'll have to look that up), just a Visual Theme Mann uses.
-The turtles... Not sure if you're familiar with them but they hatch with the Lunar Cycle. Obviously coinciding with the New Case. "He's on a Lunar Cycle" is one of the first lines we hear. Their survival is tied in with the next family. Dollarhyde feeling he's connected with the Moon, his "Transformation" etc...
... Could he afford it? Probably not lol, I'm as curious as you. I don't remember the Novel well enough. Hopefully we get an answer. I just know that it's a reoccurring visual for Mann. DeNiro in Heat, with his view of the Ocean. It's almost identical as far as Color Scheme goes.
As a former FBI agent, Graham made more money than a state or local police detective. Was that realistically enough to afford a prime real estate beach house? Probably not, so the money had to have come from somewhere else. His wife mentions her parents having property in Montana, perhaps they're wealthy landowners or developers.
shareIf i remember well Graham's house in the book was also quite cool!
Dollarhyde's house is also quite incredible, full of weird posters and lights...the set design of Dollarhyde's house was influenced by the architect Albert Speer, if i remember well, who worked in the 40's during the fascist era.
I always assumed he got a big payoff from the FBI over the whole Lector nearly gutting him thing. Either that or he got left it in a will.
I think the payoff for being disabled on the job is the most likely explanation. He probably was given a pension and all kinds of perks. When you think of how much money they were spending to catch Lecter, probably had a few million dollars of reward money out like in Hannibal for information on him.
shareGraham was a FBI profiler on a GS-13 pay scale. A beach house in Marathon FL would not have been that expensive in 1985 ( or in 1981 when the book was released ) Now, it would not be possible.
shareI think it the book they stated that Graham became a successful author after he left the FBI, like Robert Ressler who the character was modelled after.
shareParents of him or his wife was rich.
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