A few words about...™ The Hannibal Lecter Collection

The Hannibal Lecter Collection from M-G-M via Fox is an almost Hannibal Lecter Collection.

There are currently five films in the series:  Manhunter (1986), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Hannibal (2001), Red Dragon (2002) and Hannibal Rising (2007), if one cares.  The first three, controlled by M-G-M make up the collection.  The other two are unavailable on Blu-ray at this time.

One of the things that I dislike when "upgrading" is not getting the original material, or at least most of them, on the new disc.  Fortunately, while the new collection makes no note of any extras, those originally on the standalone Silence Blu-ray are included.

The top of the line here, in terms of quality, remains to be Silence of the Lambs.  This is (and was) a quality transfer, with good grain characteristics, a lack of any problematic "DNR" and no real enhancement to be noted.

The earliest in the group, Manhunter, is to my eye the second best.  A decidedly low budget affair, the film comes off well in Blu-ray.  It it what it is, and is generally problem free.

I had expected more from Hannibal, but what I'm seeing is an image slightly grain-reduced and then sharpened, with occasional, but not disturbing EE.

The Hannibal films are a terrific series, and are well worth the street price of $45 for the 3.  I'd like to see Red Dragon made available by Universal to round out the set.

Niggling problems with Hannibal aside, this is a quality set, fairly priced and Recommended.

RAH

I won't be buying this boxset since I already own "Silence of the Lambs" on BRD and will wait until "The Manhunter" and "Hannibal" are released separately.  Thanks for your comments anyway.






Crawdaddy

As much as I despise this trend of boxing previous releases with new to BD titles, I'm tempted just to get Manhunter which is the best of the 3 IMO. 

However the choice in packaging is even more irritating.

I could ebay off my standalone SOTL but I have no desire to watch Hannibal ever again and due to the packaging won't be able to chuck that turd off on Ebay.

This type of release is one of many things that has sapped my enthusiasm towards this format and HT in general.

I'll be skipping this as well until Manhunter is available separately.

I've yet to buy Silence, but I only want the first two films on BD.  I'm content to stick with the regular DVD for Hannibal as I haven't watched it since 2001 and haven't had much desire to. 

Manhunter has a history of being made available in various cuts, not all of which are as good as the others.  The cut on this release appears to be one that hasn't been available for some years and one which Michael Mann seems to have chosen not to use when preparing his commentary track for the 2005 DVD release.  Ironically, the cut chosen for this bare-bones Blu-Ray release is, imo, the best of the lot in that it includes dialogue from Will Graham comparing the killer as a child and what he has become, which has been deleted from all later DVD releases.   So this is must buy for me.

The MGM/Fox 2007 widescreen DVD release has this cut.

ScottJH, I didn't know that so many thanks for that useful pointer.  I have the 2 disc Region 1 2000 Anchor Bay Limited edition and the UK Momentum 2003 release, four cuts in all and none of which have the dialogue I referred to above. You wouldn't happen to know if Michael Mann had any input into the the 2007 MGM release ?  I seem to recall he doesn't favour retaining those lines of dialogue in his preferred cut of the movie (I could be wrong on this as well !).  

Was this version absent from the 2001 Anchor Bay double disc release?

I could've sworn it was, but I haven't watched the film in a while.

I don't know but the fact that it's a barebones release leans me toward no input/involvement. 

There are four versions of Manhunter available in the US.  Anchor Bay initially released a DVD featuring what was called the "theatrical" version but wasn't actually, and a two-disc set including both that pseudo-theatrical version and a "director's cut."  Anchor Bay later released a "restored" director's cut, which was actually a slightly different version of the film than the previously-released "director's cut."  Finally, MGM/Fox eventually released the true theatrical version, initially in fullscreen only, but later in widescreen as part of the Lecter Collection box set.  I think it was subsequently released individually in widescreen, as well.  This is the version that Scott is talking about, so I guess the original theatrical version is the one that Robert likes.

I haven't seen it myself, but a bit of online research tells me that the UK Momentum release includes both the theatrical version and the director's cut (I presume it's the "restored" director's cut, because it includes a Michael Mann commentary, which, as far as I know, was only ever recorded for that version of the film).

If that's true, though, then Robert actually does already have the version he likes--the theatrical version--on DVD in the Momentum release.  So, either Robert is mistaken about not having it among his four versions, or else the Momentum release's "theatrical" version is, like the initial Anchor Bay release, not actually the theatrical version, but is instead a fifth version of the film.


Edited by cafink - 9/28/09 at 9:14pm

I apologise for obsessing about this, and probably boring a lot of people, though the Manhunter cut I prefer encapsulates the fate of the killer in the story (which is why I prefer it).  Just checked the 2 disc UK Momentum release and neither version has the lines of dialogue.  I've been told that they do appear on the 1999 Japanese DVD release around 1hr.33mins PAL speed, during the masterly sequence in which Will Graham works out how the killer is selecting his victims. I haven't watched the movie for a couple of years because I've been waiting for it to be released on an HD format, so I'm impatient for my Blu-Ray box set to arrive !  

Perhaps my review of the UK Manhunter DVDs might be of use?

That's a superb read and very useful indeed, many thanks JulianK !  I remember when Manhunter was first released back in the mid 80s there were producer rights issues which prevented it from being shown in UK cinemas for almost a year.  So, while newspaper critics like the Guardian's Derek Malcolm enthused about what they'd seen at European film festivals, we movie-goers had to wait impatiently for this intriguing work which appeared to be based on Thomas Harris's exciting crime novel, Red Dragon.  It was well worth waiting for because when it finally opened in, I think, 1987 it was clear that this was a thrillingly intelligent and stylish take on the then fairly new serial killer genre.  Manhunter is a movie which has grown in stature over the years and can now be seen IMO as probably Michael Mann's best work.

 $31 at Amazon.

Well, I not only bought this boxset, but got it for $21.99 because in addition to the $31.99 price, Amazon gave me another $10 off as thanks for buying Snow White.





Crawdaddy