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TCFHE Press Release: The Silence of the Lambs (Blu-ray)

post #1 of 29
Thread Starter 
DEVOUR ONE OF THE MOST INTELLIGENT THRILLERS
IN HIGH DEFINITION
THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
Five-Time Oscar Winning Film Starring Anthony Hopkins And Jodie Foster
Comes To Blu-ray Disc March 3 From MGM Home Entertainment

LOS ANGELES, CA – The infamous psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer, Dr. Hannibal Lecter consumes his way onto Blu-ray Disc in The Silence Of The Lambs, arriving March 3 courtesy of MGM Home Entertainment. Based on the frightening best-seller by Thomas Harris, The Silence Of The Lambs stars Academy Award® winners Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs) and Jodie Foster (The Silence of the Lambs, The Accused) in their most highly acclaimed roles. Clarice Starling (Foster) is a young FBI trainee who seeks the advice of the imprisoned psychiatrist and diabolical cannibal Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Hopkins) on catching an elusive serial killer known only as "Buffalo Bill” (Ted Levine; "Monk,” Joy Ride). As Bill’s most recent abductee garners national media attention, the rookie agent meets with Lecter, demanding information about her personal life in exchange for clues and forming a strangely intimate connection in the process. The Silence Of The Lambs made history in 1992 as the third film to ever win the top five Academy Awards® – with wins for Best Picture, Best Director (Jonathan Demme), Best Actor (Hopkins), Best Actress (Foster) and Best Screenplay (adapted). Dr. Lecter, deliciously portrayed with gleeful malice by Sir Anthony Hopkins, was later voted by the American Film Institute to be the most memorable villain in film history.

The Silence Of The Lambs Blu-ray Disc goes behind-the-scenes and behind-the-mask to uncover a buffet of thrilling extras from the film including the behind-the-scenes featurettes Breaking The Silence and Understanding The Madness (in high definition), a documentary featuring the two-part The Silence Of The Lambs: From Page To Screen and a featurette about the film’s frightening score. Also featured are Inside The Labyrinth: Making The Silence Of The Lambs, an original “making of” featurette from the film’s 1991 theatrical release, over 20 deleted scenes, an outtake reel, TV spots and a special phone message from Sir Anthony Hopkins. The Silence Of The Lambs Blu-ray Disc is available for the suggested retail price of $34.99/U.S. and $37.99/Canada. Prebook is February 4th.



The Silence of the Lambs Blu-ray Disc Synopsis
A psychopath nicknamed Buffalo Bill is murdering young women across the Midwest. Believing it takes one to know one, the FBI sends Agent Clarice Starling (Foster) to interview a demented prisoner who may provide clues to the killer’s actions. That prisoner is psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Hopkins), a brilliant, diabolical cannibal who agrees to help Starling only if she’ll feed his morbid curiosity with details about her own complicated life. As their relationship develops, Starling is forced to confront not only her own hidden demons but also an evil so powerful that she may not have the courage – or strength – to stop it!

Blu-ray Disc Special Features
The Silence Of The Lambs bonus features include:
o Breaking The Silence Feature
o Understanding the Madness Feature
o Inside The Labyrinth: Making The Silence Of The Lambs documentary
o The Silence Of The Lambs: Page To Screen two-part documentary
§ A Wealth Of Talent
§ Preparation And Authenticity
o Scoring The Silence featurette
o Original 1991 “Making of” featurette
o Deleted Scenes
§ Clarice Meets Lecter
§ Clarice on the Firing Range
§ Ardelia find a Newspaper Article
§ Clarice at a Storage Unit (Excerpts)
§ John Douglas at Quantico
§ Second Meeting (Excerpts)
§ Clarice Gets Her Gun
§ Crawford and Clarice (Excerpts)
§ Clarice Reviews Phony Deal
§ Third Meeting (Excerpts)
§ Buffalo Bill Sews (Excerpts)
§ Clifton Taunts Lecter (Excerpts)
§ Kack Crawford at Johns Hopkins
§ Krendler Discovers Phony Deal
§ Clarice Meets Barney
§ Lecter’s Escape
§ Clarice Gets Suspended
§ Clarice’s Decision
§ Inside Buffalo Bill’s Lair
§ Mr. Bimmel and the Birds
§ Buffalo Bill and Clarice (Excerpts)
§ Lecter’s Phone Call
o Outtakes Reel
o Anthony Hopkins Phone Message (audio only)
o TV Spots
§ Mind Against Mind
§ Clue For Clue
§ Only Hope
§ Hangs In The Balance
§ Teacher
§ FBI
§ Rookie
§ Bookwing Flap Teaser
o Theatrical Trailer
o Teaser Trailer

The Silence of the Lambs Blu-ray Disc
DVD Price: $34.99 U.S. / $37.99 Canada
Prebook Date: February 4, 2009
Street Date: March 3, 2009
Catalog Number: M107151
Rating: R
Screen Format: Widescreen
Audio Features: English 5.1 DTS Master Audio, Spanish and French Dolby Digital
Subtitles: Spanish, French, Korean, Cantonese and Mandarin
Closed Captioned: Yes
post #2 of 29

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Silence of the Lambs (Blu-ray)

This film is one of my TOP 10 Favorites & will always be repurchased in each new format & each new "Better" version. (Better being how I define Better)
post #3 of 29

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Silence of the Lambs (Blu-ray)

I take it still no Criterion commentary of course. Do you think Criterion is asking a ridiculous price to license or you think nobody bothered to inquire?
post #4 of 29

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Silence of the Lambs (Blu-ray)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rolando
I take it still no Criterion commentary of course. Do you think Criterion is asking a ridiculous price to license or you think nobody bothered to inquire?

Not according to the specs info on BluRay.com. I'll have to keep my Criterion DVD around until will either get the Criterion commentary on a BD or someone else does a commentary.
post #5 of 29

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Silence of the Lambs (Blu-ray)

So we get two new featurettes in HD?!? But were are the 53 minutes of interviews with Jodie Foster and Jonathan Demme from the "2-DVD Collector's Edition"?
post #6 of 29

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Silence of the Lambs (Blu-ray)

Quote:
Originally Posted by ChristianLiemke
So we get two new featurettes in HD?!? But were are the 53 minutes of interviews with Jodie Foster and Jonathan Demme from the "2-DVD Collector's Edition"?
I'm assuming those are part of either or both of the new featurettes.
post #7 of 29

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Silence of the Lambs (Blu-ray)

Has this been cancelled or postponed? It is supposed to come out next week but Amazon doesn't list it as a pre-order.
post #8 of 29

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Silence of the Lambs (Blu-ray)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Danny_N
Has this been cancelled or postponed? It is supposed to come out next week but Amazon doesn't list it as a pre-order.

Yeah scary .. I just noticed it was pulled from amazon.com also... this is odd and VERY last minute.
post #9 of 29

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Silence of the Lambs (Blu-ray)

It is still showing up for March 3 on Amazon.ca, DVD Empire, and Columbia House at least.
post #10 of 29

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Silence of the Lambs (Blu-ray)

I have an order placed with DVD Pacific, so I've got my fingers crossed.
post #11 of 29

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Silence of the Lambs (Blu-ray)

It's reported as shipping from non-Amazon online stores, FWIW.
post #12 of 29

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Silence of the Lambs (Blu-ray)

someone at Avs already has it in hand
not to excited (or surprised given the lack of caring by many studios these days) by his comments

Quote:
My copy arrived today....First thing i checked was the back cover which states it's an MPEG2 encode release. ( yuck )

Interesting....I feel they have DNRed away grain and fine detail...It still looks ok and many will find it acceptable but i feel it's lost the finer detail which should be present in HD films on Blu Ray.

Check out the trailer which is in AVC HD....More fine detail ( more grain than was probably present in the actual film print ) - I feel the trailer actually blows away the film on the disc in regards to fine detail and just looking like proper film even though it most likely has stronger grain than was present in the actual film print release.
Now it could be the trailer has also had slight sharpening applied but there is no denying the grain removal on the main feature.

This release reminds me of the movie The Descent....The MPEG2 edition has been degrained although still looks ok just nowhere near as good as the AVC encoded grain edition. ( Xylon can make a comparison thread from this one )

Disappointing to say the least and i think i'm going to be selling my copy....It just looks too smooth but i'm figuring they thought most people would be turned off by the grain. It's amazing that classic fabulous films like this get such bad treatment and i am really disappointed.
post #13 of 29

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Silence of the Lambs (Blu-ray)

urgh

Quote:
OK, I lucked out and found this on the shelf at a video store for rental. After skipping through the blu-ray comparing it with the last dvd release this afternoon, I think FoxyMulder actually understated how poor the new blu-ray transfer is, especially when compared to the (last MGM) dvd release.

The color saturation is significantly toned down and leans more towards cool blues on the blu-ray compared to the warmer and much more natural colors of the dvd. Fleshtones take on a cool, almost pallid look on the blu-ray version. More importantly, significant fine detail has been lost compared to previous dvd releases (including the old non-anamorphic Criterion dvd), no doubt due to digital noise reduction/smoothing.

I can't do screen caps but a good example is comparing the beginning of Chapters 3 and 5 (both the dvd and blu-ray are chapter marked at the same spots through the film) where you can directly compare a portrait framed shot of Dr. Chilton talking while holding a pen and an extreme closeup of Jack Crawford's face between the blu-ray and dvd. Yes, film grain is "washed" away along with the tiny details in the actor's faces.

The color timing changes on the blu-ray work to some extent in shots such as the Lecter prison scenes where the feeling of the cold, damp surroundings in Lecter's cell is better conveyed, but for much of the rest of the movie, especially well lit or daylight scenes, everything simply looks unnaturally desaturated.

Of course, the added resolution of blu-ray over dvd on larger screens will bring out the drawback of the dvds smaller resolution, but imo, I preferred the dvd over the blu-ray by a wide margin on a 1080p 50" screen using a crappy old Toshiba 6200 dvd player (vs the Panny BD30).

A very disappointing no buy for me.

T.B.
post #14 of 29

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Silence of the Lambs (Blu-ray)

There are also several comments from AVS saying it's not that bad:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee K
This looks way better than the DVD.

It sounds DRAMATICALLY better.

Totally worth a buy. It could be better, but it's no Dumb & Dumber. There are a lot of spots where the focus is off and on but that's not a transfer problem, its a focusing issue (closeups of Crawford are a prime example).

I wish they would have nailed this on the first attempt, but I'm sure we'll get a totally redone version in the future. For me, the sound makes it totally worth the upgrade. Picture quality is just an added bonus.

Visually, in terms of visual levels and color... the original DVD is still the best (this BD kills it in the resolution department though). The basement scenes with Lecter are way too bright on the remastered DVD and this new BD and the skin tones have some gray areas (looks like a gamma issue) to them which is kind of irritating.

This is one of the best movies of all time EASILY -- and skipping this one for any reason is just pretentious. Enjoy the movie and stop trying to be elite -- I noticed none of you mentioned the sound either, which was pretty funny.
Quote:
Originally Posted by eric.exe
I doubt MGM/Fox applied additional DNR for the BD release. I've seen the movie a few times in HD on HBO and HDNet and it had a slightly smoothed look everytime. Just the way the current master is I suppose.

Some of the AVS regulars like to exaggerate flaws. It's quite telling that these guys don't provide screenshots.

10 to 1 that when we do see screenshots, the whole "washed away" and "no fine detail" comments will have proven to be wildly overblown.
post #15 of 29

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Silence of the Lambs (Blu-ray)

I've read a review of the German release over at Area-DVD. While the disc is different contentwise (no extras apart from the trailer) it also features an MPEG2 encode, and unfortunately the review pretty much confirms everything quoted for the US release in MatS' posts.
post #16 of 29

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Silence of the Lambs (Blu-ray)

Does anybody know for sure if the Canadian release is going to be identical to the US release? The press release makes it sound that it will be but if I look at the listing at DVDBoxoffice (where I have an account) the Canadian release is going to be identical to the German one, ie no extras apart from a trailer.
post #17 of 29

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Silence of the Lambs (Blu-ray)

beaver review
The Silence of the Lambs Blu-ray - Jodie Foster Anthony Hopkins
post #18 of 29

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Silence of the Lambs (Blu-ray)

Nice looking BD there, if perhaps not completely perfect. Think I'll be picking this one up on release week (or so).

BTW, checking through the differences (in extras) between the various releases, looks like I should still keep the old Criterion DVD around as expected. Maybe I'll go ahead and sell the more recent 2-disc MGM CE DVD though.

Thanks for the link, Mat.

_Man_
post #19 of 29

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Silence of the Lambs (Blu-ray)

Picked this up at Wal-Mart today.

Very pleased with this release -- this is the best I've seen this movie look ever.

It is interesting to me why this release was delayed as much as it was. I'm assuming the MPEG2 transfer used on this disc was originally completed when the disc was slated to be released in 2007. Despite the fact that this might be an old encode, it still tip-top. There are not any distracting image artifacts and there is good detail throughout, except for a few scenes I suspect were shot different than the rest of the film (most notably the scenes shot from the air).

No complaints about the audio, either. There is minimal surround use, and everything is tasteful and atmospheric.
post #20 of 29

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Silence of the Lambs (Blu-ray)

I haven't watched this yet, but the DVD beaver screenshots show grain in each one (despite the yelling going on at another forum that it's been DNR'd away) - although one image seemed it might have had some compression issues - however, will this be visible during motion or real world viewing? I doubt it. On my 60" display at 1080p/24, I often don't see some of the minor compression problems that are visible in screenshots.
post #21 of 29

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Silence of the Lambs (Blu-ray)

For those who have this: Are the subtitles that show locations (i.e. FBI Headquarters, Quantico Virginia) the burned-in ones from the original movie or are they player generated?

Thanks!
post #22 of 29

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Silence of the Lambs (Blu-ray)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Carlo Medina
For those who have this: Are the subtitles that show locations (i.e. FBI Headquarters, Quantico Virginia) the burned-in ones from the original movie or are they player generated?

Thanks!

I watched this last night, and I am virtually certain they are the burned-in ones from the original movie.
post #23 of 29

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Silence of the Lambs (Blu-ray)

Princess Bride will probably be MPEG-2 also since it was one of those cancelled 2007 titles.
post #24 of 29

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Silence of the Lambs (Blu-ray)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Arnette
I watched this last night, and I am virtually certain they are the burned-in ones from the original movie.
Call me a nerd, but this news just made this a must-buy for me...
post #25 of 29

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Silence of the Lambs (Blu-ray)

You're a nerd.
post #26 of 29

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Silence of the Lambs (Blu-ray)

According to a couple of screenshots at AVS, it appears the BD image is vertically stretched compared to the trailer which is on the disc. Has anyone noticed this at all?

I still haven't picked this disc up yet, but I'm still wondering if I should hold off.
post #27 of 29

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Silence of the Lambs (Blu-ray)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave H
According to a couple of screenshots at AVS, it appears the BD image is vertically stretched compared to the trailer which is on the disc. Has anyone noticed this at all?

I still haven't picked this disc up yet, but I'm still wondering if I should hold off.

AVS always reminds me of this quote from Office Space:

Quote:
It was a "Jump to Conclusions" mat. You see, it would be this mat that you would put on the floor... and would have different CONCLUSIONS written on it that you could JUMP TO.

In that very thread, the claims of vertical stretching have been recanted because someone wisely realized it was the trailer that was the incorrect aspect ratio and the not film.
post #28 of 29

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Silence of the Lambs (Blu-ray)

Well if it wasn't for AVS that crowd would be posting over here.

God bless AVS.
post #29 of 29

Re: TCFHE Press Release: The Silence of the Lambs (Blu-ray)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim_K
Well if it wasn't for AVS that crowd would be posting over here.

God bless AVS.

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