I had not watched Silence of the Lambs for the longest time before the latest Fox Blu-ray release found its way into my player. The reason being my DVD version would begin skipping and bouncing around just as Starling (Jodie Foster) would enter Buffalo Bill's (Ted Levine) house. Suffice to say I would never get to that fantastic night-vision sequence as the disc would stop outright before I ever had a chance. You want to talk about frustrating, that was one way to assuredly piss me off. However, Fox has lifted my spirits with a Blu-ray release that looks and sounds fantastic and could only be improved upon if Criterion were to once again obtain the rights to the feature and make available the wealth of features they had on their now out-of-print anamorphic release.

To go into the story of Silence of the Lambs at this point seems a bit silly considering anyone who pays attention to movies knows it already, but one thing I found interesting when I started thinking of additional commentary for this title was I realized this is the only Hannibal Lecter story written by Thomas Harris I have not read. After seeing Ridley Scott's Hannibal I thumbed through, and thoroughly enjoyed Harris' original story. I then moved on to "Red Dragon" which I enjoyed much more than Brett Ratner's 2002 release. Finally there's "Hannibal Rising," which didn't exactly earn fans for its novel or its film, but I will say the novel at least was something of a fun read and far more entertaining than the terrible film adaptation.

However, with Silence of the Lambs I never felt the urge to pick up the novel, I didn't see a need to. Sure, the book may be better (as is typically the case) but I am so happy with the film I doubt I will ever pick up the paperback even though I bought it about 10 years ago at a used bookstore. I figure it is best left collecting dust in storage until the day this film no longer holds any value for me, a day I don't imagine ever arriving.

One other detail I didn't realize until someone just recently pointed it out to me is Silence of the Lambs was released on February 14, 1991, and then went on to win five Oscars (Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, Adapted Screenplay). I guess that whole "award season" thing doesn't matter all the time.

For anyone that enjoys this film and is looking for the definitive picture this is the release you are looking for. Silence of the Lambs is not a glossy horror thrill ride, it is a gritty nail-biter and this transfer loses none of that edge. The blacks are evenly balanced and film grain is still present. The new features that weren't included on the 2007 Collector’s Edition DVD begin with the in-movie picture-in-picture feature called "Breaking the Silence" which features all new interviews with Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster and Scott Glenn. The other new feature is titled "Understanding the Madness" and takes a look at actual serial killers and in an interesting fashion discusses the killers used to create both Lecter and Buffalo Bill. From there you have the deleted scenes, outtakes, a scoring feature with Howard Shore, a page-to-screen feature as well as vintage featurettes, trailers and a voice mail message recorded by Hopkins as Lecter.

The only real question when it comes to deciding whether or not to purchase this title involves a couple of factors. First off, do you own a copy already and are you satisfied with it? If so then you may want to wait because in two years we will be hitting the film's 20th anniversary and who knows what kind of remastering will be done and perhaps we will get the Criterion audio commentary 'ported over or perhaps even an all new one recorded. The other factor is money. Blu-ray discs aren't cheap, but adding to that I will say I don't think you should be buying most Blu-ray titles anyway. Silence of the Lambs, on the other hand, is a title not to necessarily ignore considering this is the best it has ever looked and, outside of a brand new remastering and a wealth of new features, I can't see you ever worrying about replacing this disc.

Related post categories: Home Video News, Reviews : Silence of the Lambs

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