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. 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. Winner of multiple Oscar Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, Jonathan Demme's "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991) arrives on 4K Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on this release include new audio commentary by critic Tim Lucas; deleted scenes; multiple archival featurettes; archival documentaries; and more. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free. 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.

The 4K Blu-ray release of The Silence of the Lambs is sourced from the same beautiful 4K master that was used by the folks at Criterion when they prepared their Blu-ray release of this classic film in 2018. You can see our review of this release here. 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. Complete with some strong supplements, a great looking DigiPak, and a stunner of a restoration, this is the best edition for the film I’ve come across yet. A really superb release. An FBI trainee enlists the help of an infamous Serial killer, to gain insight into the mind of another killer. To date, how many horror movies have ever won the Best Picture Oscar? Just one.The Silence of the Lambsearned that distinction not because of its grisly subject matter, which includes murder, dismemberment, and cannibalism, but because of its brilliant direction, searing performances, and substantive script. Always riveting and endlessly fascinating no matter how many times you see it, Jonathan Demme’s adaptation of Thomas Harris’ acclaimed novel is a true work of cinematic art and that rare motion picture that combines expert storytelling with superior craftsmanship in every category. It may be scary and disturbing, but its dazzling style, layered narrative, and complex underlying themes temper the horror and transform a straightforward detective yarn about a frantic hunt for a serial killer into a richly textured journey into the dark recesses of the human psyche...The later novels and films Hannibal and Hannibal Rising and the 2002 Red Dragon all strained to keep Hopkins’ iconic cannibal alive on screen but they were pale efforts. They were all chasing the glory of Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs with the riveting interplay between Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. That’s the kind of cinematic lightning in a bottle that just can’t be recaptured. Two television series of varying success later and Hollywood is probably now trying to figure out how they can revisit everyone’s favorite cannibal and F.B.I. agent again. One thing will always be true, no matter how many times they revisit or reimagine the characters, there will only ever be one true The Silence of the Lambs. 30 years after its theatrical release, this film still has bite. It’s still a terrifyingly visceral experience.

SCREENSHOTS FROM DVDBEAVER: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film10/blu-ray_review_159/the_silence_of_the_lambs_4K_UHD.htm

The Silence of the Lambs 4K Audio

Jonathan Demme’s first foray into the thriller is considered by most to be a mould-breaker: here we’re presented with a strong female protagonist’s role, traditionally tailored for a male. Archetypal, it is her journey to walk into the lion’s den and rescue the princess. Because she is a woman—a role so easily made to fit the victim, not the victor—her fish out of water presence in this oppressively dark and violent world does with ease what a male protagonist must almost overdo to make his journey compelling: make the threat to them palpable.

Clarice Starling ( Jodie Foster) is a headstrong, diligent cadet in training at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. She is summoned by her mentor, Crawford, to interview the captured serial killer Hannibal ‘the Cannibal’ Lecter ( Anthony Hopkins), under the unwitting pretext of a general profiling questionnaire. What this leads to is a showdown with an active serial killer by the name of Buffalo Bill, a sadistic butcher of women. During the course of this investigation, Clarice must let the utterly insane Dr Lecter further and further inside her mind to save the next abductee from becoming Bill’s next victim. Beyond the well defined trio of central characters, the film just works as a pure thriller including a tense finale that, even though I’ve seen it a few times now, still is absolutely gripping and ultimately satisfying. Credit goes to the source material by Thomas Harris, fittingly adapted by Ted Tally and helmed by Jonathan Demme, both taking home Oscars, as did the film itself. Jonathan Demme may not be remembered for much before or since (notwithstanding the valiant effort put into the Denzel Washington remake of The Manchurian Candidate, or the underrated Rachel Getting Married, featuring one of Anne Hathaway's best performances) but the early nineties saw two of his features attracting Oscar attention, with his most memorable moment coming in '91, where he crafted a tense but often formal mainstream depiction of serial killer profiling and hunting which would be something of a progenitor for all the similarly-toned thrillers since, up to and including David Fincher's recent Mindhunter TV series. I'm just coming off of watching The Columbia Classics Collection 4K, so it will be interesting to see how much better Kino Lorber transfers look vs Sony. The Silence of the Lambs is absolutely a classic movie. I'm really excited about taking a look at this. Lets go! 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.The trailer for Old certainly had me intrigued, but you know me by now. How's the picture quality? Let's see. Jonathan Demme and Jodie Foster - this documentary focuses on the history of The Silence of the Lambs, from its conception through its evolution and ultimately critical and commercial success. Included in it are excerpts from interviews with Jonathan Demme and Jodie Foster, as well as plenty of archival production content. The documentary was directed by Laurent Bouzereau 2005. In English, not subtitled. (53 min). 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. Detective thrillers often concern contests of male ego, involving investigators who confront physically superior and equally brilliant psychopaths. Often lost among such face-offs are considerations of the lives that are destroyed over the course of the narratives, as these thrillers exist to evoke and satisfy our own fears and resentments. By contrast, Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs, adapted from Thomas Harris’s 1988 novel, is grounded in the psyche of a ferocious yet unproven female protagonist, whose thoughtful fragility intensifies the film’s violence, invigorating it with a sense of dread and violation. The film is a strange and still novel mixture of coming-of-age character study, murder mystery, and Grand Guignol horror spectacle. The writing, adapted from Harris’s novel by Ted Tally, is succinct but never simple; its subtext is complex and open to many interpretations, while never getting bogged down in the police procedural element of the story. Deceptively simple in plot, the film’s many turns creep up on you and never fail satisfy.

New to this edition is an 18-minute interview with Maitland McDonagh, here to talk about various aspects of the film and the Hollywood/public fascination with serial killers. During the feature she also talks about the character of Hannibal Lecter, author Thomas Harris’ original intent (he didn’t want him likeable) and talks about how the character is portrayed by Anthony Hopkins and Mads Mikkelsen (Brian Cox really only gets a mention, but then that’s more than what Gaspard Ulliel gets). It’s a rather entertaining and enlightening discussion, though is admittedly a bit of a hodge-podge also going into behavioral science. I have a feeling its primary purpose for being here is to replace text features found on the original Criterion DVD, which went into detail about serial killers, behavioral science, and so forth, none of which has been ported over to this edition. All the same, it’s a good feature, though sadly the only new interview to be found here. One thing I really liked about this disc is that there are zero bit-depth errors. Small color fades around faces are delineated perfectly. This is Dolby Vision, and the color is superb throughout. 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. 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. 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.The Silence of the Lambs is, without question, an all-time cinema classic. (Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for brief cameos by filmmakers Roger Corman and George A. Romero.) Thankfully, Kino Lorber Studio Classics has not disspointed with the film’s first appearance on 4K Ultra HD. This is definitely a disc that cinephiles will want to add to their video shelves. It’s highly recommended. 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). 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 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. In fact, all the actors in this cast play their parts with convincing relish, from Scott Glenn’s clinical Crawford and Ted Levine’s terrifying Buffalo Bill to Anthony Heald’s deliciously sleazy Dr Chilton. As we watch Starling navigate her way through them to save the day, everyone is so damn good they hold your attention.