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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9786305050056
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Special Edition, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 6305050058
Label: Criterion
Manufacturer: Criterion
Number Of Items: 1
Picture Format: Letterbox
Publisher: Criterion
Region Code: 1
Release Date: July 15, 1998
Running Time: 118 minutes
Sales Rank: 25616
Studio: Criterion
Theatrical Release Date: February 14, 1991
Editorial Review:
Description:
From Thomas Harris' novel, director Jonathan Demme explodes and reconstructs a classic genre, laying a foundation of emotional and political commitment beneath a perfectly constructed psychological thriller. Fourteen years after her controversial role in Taxi Driver, Jodie Foster finally makes the transformation from helpless victim to rescuing hero in this dark, gender-bending fairy tale of an American obsession: serial murder. As Hannibal 'the Cannibal' Lecter, Anthony Hopkins is the archetypal antihero-cultured, quick-witted, uncontainable-a portrait of all the sharpest human faculties gone diabolically wrong. Winner of five Academy Awards®, including Best Picture and Best Screenplay Adaptation for Ted Tally.
Amazon.com essential video:
Based on Thomas Harris's novel, this terrifying film by Jonathan Demme really only contains a couple of genuinely shocking moments (one involving an autopsy, the other a prison break). The rest of the film is a splatter-free visual and psychological descent into the hell of madness, redeemed astonishingly by an unlikely connection between a monster and a haunted young woman. Anthony Hopkins is extraordinary as the cannibalistic psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter, virtually entombed in a subterranean prison for the criminally insane. At the behest of the FBI, agent-in-training Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) approaches Lecter, requesting his insights into the identity and methods of a serial killer named Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine). In exchange, Lecter demands the right to penetrate Starling's most painful memories, creating a bizarre but palpable intimacy that liberates them both under separate but equally horrific circumstances. Demme, a filmmaker with a uniquely populist vision (Melvin and Howard, Something Wild), also spent his early years making pulp for Roger Corman (Caged Heat), and he hasn't forgotten the significance of tone, atmosphere, and the unsettling nature of a crudely effective close-up. Much of the film, in fact, consists of actors staring straight into the camera (usually from Clarice's point of view), making every bridge between one set of eyes to another seem terribly dangerous. --Tom Keogh
Amazon.com essential video:
Based on Thomas Harris's novel, this terrifying film by Jonathan Demme really only contains a couple of genuinely shocking moments (one involving an autopsy, the other a prison break). The rest of the film is a splatter-free visual and psychological descent into the hell of madness, redeemed astonishingly by an unlikely connection between a monster and a haunted young woman. Anthony Hopkins is extraordinary as the cannibalistic psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter, virtually entombed in a subterranean prison for the criminally insane. At the behest of the FBI, agent-in-training Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) approaches Lecter, requesting his insights into the identity and methods of a serial killer named Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine). In exchange, Lecter demands the right to penetrate Starling's most painful memories, creating a bizarre but palpable intimacy that liberates them both under separate but equally horrific circumstances. Demme, a filmmaker with a uniquely populist vision (Melvin and Howard, Something Wild), also spent his early years making pulp for Roger Corman (Caged Heat), and he hasn't forgotten the significance of tone, atmosphere, and the unsettling nature of a crudely effective close-up. Much of the film, in fact, consists of actors staring straight into the camera (usually from Clarice's point of view), making every bridge between one set of eyes to another seem terribly dangerous. --Tom Keogh
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Criterion Collection Disc
This review will discuss the merits of the now rare and out of print Criterion Collection version of the film. One of the questions a viewer needs to ask him or herself is whether or not the added expense of a rare edition can be justified.
The Criterion dics presents the film in a letter boxed widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1 which appears to be the correct shooting format used by cinematographer Tak Fujimoto. The sound is standard 2.0 Dolby Surround. This is a fairly new film and ... Read More
Rating:  - Ugh
I'm surprised that most of the negative reviews on the Silence of the Lambs aim mostly at how boring and overdone of a film it is. I may give it a one star, but only because I think the way movies have become is heinous. Cinematically, this movie is very well done. It may not be like other horror movies and that's what makes it so effective. It doesn't use cheap thrills, or excess of guts and gore. It has all the atmosphere and psychological scare I've seen in a long time. There really isn't that ... Read More
Rating: - What a shame!
I cannot believe that Yahoo users have voted this movie as the No.1 horror movie of all time and I wonder how after all these years many people are still lauding this movie. Maybe 5 or 10 minutes into the movie where they pull out the insect from the mouth of a corpse and I realised I was going to watch one of the most ridiculous movies ever and it sure lived up to that reputation.
How many of the detectives out there in real life searching for serial killers (many of them who are still ... Read More
Rating:  - Wow
This is my favorite movie ever. With Jodie Foster as the vulnerable Clarice Starling, and Anthony Hopkins as the deadly Hannibal Lector it is not something you can afford to miss. Best movie by far, I am in love.
Rating: - Silence of the Lambs
I purchased the Criterion Edition for one reason only, that being the commentary provided by the director, writers and actors in the movie, which for some strange unfathomable reason, is not on any other edition.
It was worth the wait to purchase and view this DVD, it being denied the full 5-star rating because it does NOT include a sub-title track so that one can listen to the commentary and follow the dialogue on-screen. This is a personal foible of mine, but may not be relevant to other ... Read More
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