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By
NICK ZEGARAC
"The Silence of the Lambs" is an unsettling suspense/thriller with a diabolical twist ending. This is the movie that made cannibalism fashionable in the evil incarnate of Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins). Lecter is the FBI's most prized psychotic in captivity, a psychiatrist who ate his patients and is currently serving a life sentence inside a maximum security clinical facility. Jodie Foster is Clarisse Starling, a fledgling FBI protégé who is sent by her superior (Scott Glenn) to pick Hannibal's mind for clues into a new series of copycat mutilations and murders. Ted Levine's performance as serial killer, Buffalo Bill is equally disturbing.
MGM's remastering effort of this important movie is nothing short of a revelation. Both Criterion and Image tried to give us an adequate DVD. Neither was anamorphically enhanced and both suffered from insufficient contrast levels, weak blacks. This DVD fixes those problems. The image quality is superb. Colors are deep, rich and well balanced. Film grain is kept to a minimum. Edge enhancement, shimmering and aliasing are nonexistent. The audio has been remixed to 5.1 and is incredibly stirring, especially the music tracks.
Extras include a thorough documentary that unfortunately does not involve the participation of Jodie Foster. Some deleted scenes and test footage round out the extras, including bios, theatrical trailers, television spots and an audio commentary. |
