The text below was initially used for our review of Criterion's Blu-ray release of The Silence of the Lambs from 2018, which can be accessed here. That’s the case with Johnathan Demme’s thirty year-old police procedural thriller, The Silence of the Lambs. The last time I viewed Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs in its entirety was probably sixteen, possibly seventeen years ago. I own a couple of older DVD releases of it, with the most recent one being the widescreen Special Edition Hannibal Lecter earned the morbid action figures and lasting pop culture impact. It’s no wonder – he’s an engagingly evil movie villain, beyond psychotic, beyond demented. Anthony Hopkins plays the part with a frigid stare that suggests outright sadism, even when speaking normally. As written, he’s a thinking, calculated character who rests at the center of this grand studio thriller. Silence of the Lambs took out the ‘big five’ at the Oscars the following year, but it is ultimately Anthony Hopkins' iconic turn as Hannibal that wins the day here. It is Foster’s movie, narratively speaking, and she holds her own in each and every scene, but SOTL’s tantalizing moments with Dr Lecter are just enough to enthrall and keep you wanting more. He is pitch-perfect in the role and one of the greatest immersions of actor to character that has ever been seen.

Jonathan Demme and Jodie Foster (52:30) is a three-part documentary from 2005 and features interviews with the director and star discussing the process of how the film got off the ground, into production and the reception. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (software uniformly simulated HDR) ,The narrative concerns the F.B.I.’s quest to find a killer of young, plus-sized women who’re found floating in rivers, partially skinned. Demme rhymes the violence inflicted on the victims with the aggression that F.B.I. trainee Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) weathers in the corridors of government offices and other realms that she investigates while searching for the killer. Throughout the film, Demme contrasts the diminutive Clarice with her tall and burly male colleagues, revealing her existence to be casually rife with battles for respect that many men take for granted as a birthright. Scenes are often shot from Clarice’s point of view, framing men’s faces so that they’re talking directly to the camera, forcing the audience to confront Clarice’s sense of being under siege as she’s sexually harassed, brushed aside, or endlessly condescended to.

Here’s a news flash, The Silence of the Lambs is one f’ing amazing movie. I realize I’m on an island alone on this opinion, but hey, got to be honest. In all seriousness, I’ve probably seen this movie 3 or 4 times over the years and each viewing is as thrilling as the next; it’s downright a perfect movie on all fronts. We have included two sets of screencaptures with this article. Screencaptures 1-11 are from the Blu-ray disc and are displayed in native 1080p. Screencaptures 14-26 are from the 4K Blu-ray disc, but are downscaled to 1080p. Therefore, when you view them, you should keep in mind that they do not accurately reflect the quality of the 4K content on the 4K Blu-ray disc, including the actual color values of this content. Without overly debating the colors, the Dolby vision, the HDR transfer in 3840 X 2160 resolution really Deleted Scenes (37:58) – Here we get 22 scenes that were either cut down or removed and might not be in the best condition, but nice to get them here. Included is the outtakes reel and Anthony Hopkins’s phone message.

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The Silence of the Lambs is a genuine classic. The third and to-date last film to win the Oscar Grand Slam of Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Picture. A classy drama/thriller wrapped up in the trappings of a slasher horror feature, this is a film that sequels and reboots simply can’t touch. After nearly a dozen home video releases later, The Silence of the Lambs makes its first impression on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray. This film’s every frame oozes tension and terror. It’s unrelenting in its exposure of the crimes these offenders commit, the worlds they inhabit and the banality they prey from, with its choice of locations, its framing, and its drab, understated treatment of the visuals. It grounds the film in a reality of sorts that allows for these larger than life monsters to terrify characters we can instantly relate to, and it does it in such a masterfully subtle way you are never conscious of it. You’re completely immersed in Starling’s plight, both to catch the killer and to prove herself in a man’s world with dignity. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) 4K Ultra HD was sent to us at HD MOVIE SOURCE to Review from Kino Lorber. The opinions in this review are my own. Reviewed By: Carl Mulder VIDEO SCORE: 4.25 OUT OF 5 THE BASICS: NICE JOB KINO / NOT PERFECT BUT GOOD

There are then a couple of interviews recorded in 2004 and 2008 respectively, one with composer Howard Shoreand then another with the title of Understanding the Madness, which features interviews with retired FBI agents Richard L. Ault, Jr., Roger L. Depue, James R. Fitzgerald, Robert R. Hazelwood, R. Stephen Mardigian, and Michael R. Napier. The Shore interview is a 16-minute discussion about the development of the score while the agents’ interview compilation, running under 20-minutes, goes into detail about the Behavioral Science Unit and the idea behind profiling. This latter one is interesting but admittedly a little clinical. There have been a number of special editions for the film over the years, from both MGM and Criterion, and with their new edition here Criterion does manage to carry most of them over, though somewhat sadly not all, with a number of features from their own DVD edition not making it. Criterion spreads the features over the two discs. Scoring "The Silence" - in this archival interview, award-winning composer Howard Shore recalls how he approached the scoring of The Silence of the Lambs and discusses how the music and the character developments are actually closely intertwined. The interview was conducted in 2004. In English, not subtitled. (16 min). a tense but often formal mainstream depiction of serial killer profiling which would be something of a progenitor for all the similarly-toned thrillers since, up to and including David Fincher's recent Mindhunter Deleted Scenes - presented here is a large collection of deleted scenes that were cut from The Silence of the Lambs. The footage is sourced from the best available materials. In English, not subtitled. (36 min).

As mentioned earlier, This is a port of previously released bonus material with the exception of film critic and historian Tim Lucas providing a sometimes heavy-handed, yet always educational running commentary of all aspects of the film's legacy. Definitely the highlight of this 30th anniversary release but hardly a reason to upgrade. Criterion’s previous DVD was basically a port of their LaserDisc edition and used a non-anamorphic master. All-in-all it actually didn’t look too bad on a standard 4:3 CRT but upscaled it was, well, not great. MGM’s latter DVD and Blu-ray editions were improvements but looking at the Blu-ray again not too long ago it still has a fairly dated and somewhat processed look that could easily be improved upon. The only horror Best Picture in Oscar history, and one of just three films to win the Big Five Awards, 'Lambs brought the cannibal psycho Lecter into the mainstream, earning Hopkins his first Best Actor statue and rebooting a now enduring franchise.