"widescreen" Silence Of The Lambs out of print, while "fullscreen" remains avail (1 Viewer)

[Jay_B!]

I noticed that the widescreen versions of this title are becoming very scarce to find (luckily, I have this as well as the Criterion) but yet the fullscreen version is still easy to find just about everywhere. According to Amazon and DVDAficinado, the widescreen MGM version is now deleted, yet the pan-and-scam is still available. Is there any real reason why the original aspect ratio has been taken off the market, while the fullscreen version is easy to find at every b&m? it's one of my favorite movies of all time and something you can't really appreciate until you've seen it in widescreen.

 

[Josh Simpson]

In the day and age of more people owning widescreen tv's, taking the Widescreen off the market doesn't make much sense, but unless you are a HT enthusiast, you might not even care that much. I'm guessing that is their reasoning, but they could just make it OAR only and that would be fine with me.

 

[Steve Tannehill]

The fullscreen version probably did not sell, thus it is still around. Once it is gone, the high definition version is sure to follow.

- Steve

 

[Harry-N]

I have an old "Image" LaserDisc of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS that came in an odd "digipak" jacket. It was strange to see a LaserDisc released that way, and I've never run across another. That disc was released fullscreen, but really, when comparing it to the MGM widescreen DVD, the LaserDisc was just an open-matte of the film.

Though that open-matte presentation gave more picture information, I still prefer the film widescreen, as eliminating the extraneous information top and bottom adds to the claustrophobic feel of the film.

Harry

 

[Dave H]

Yes, this is one title that I could see getting released as HD relatively soon.

 

[ScottR]

When I went to dvdbeaver, I noticed that the Criterion version shows a lot more on the sides in many of the screenshots than the MGM version does. Why does the latter crop so much for a 1.85:1 film?

 

[ChristopherDAC]

Interestingly, not only was this one of the small group of LDs released by Image in a "Digipak" [they actually were running some kind of study — I think the discs came with a comment card asking for reactions], it was also one of the small group of films released in Japan on High Definition MUSE LaserDisc — ALSO in a Digipak! Most MUSE LDs were packaged that way.

 

[GuruAskew]

There have been FOUR editions of "Silence" on DVD:

non-anamorphic bare-bones Image release
non-anamorphic Criterion Collection release
anamorphic widescreen MGM Special Edition
fullscreen MGM Special Edition
fullscreen MGM "Hannibal Lecter Collection" edition

that last one is probably the one that's still commonly available. A year or two ago, MGM re-released "Silence", "Hannibal" and "Manhunter" as "The Hannibal Lecter Collection". Sadly, they were all bare-bones editions with fullscreen transfers, which is really unfortunate in the case of "Manhunter" because it's the only version of the true theatrical cut available anywhere in R1.

Another option for getting the anamorphic widescreen Special Edition of "Silence" is to pick up MGM's "Hannibal Lecter Anthology". Sure, "Hannibal" is vastly inferior but it's a packed 2-disc edition.

 

[Jon Martin]

Now that Sony owns the MGM catalogue, guess they are doing the same thing they did with most of the Sony DVDs, letting the widescreen versions go out of print and reissuing full frame only versions.

Maybe it is just to get it off the market to force people into Blu Ray early, but it doesn't make sense any other way.

And I also remember the SILENCE laserdisc packaging. It WAS the only one I remember that way as well. And didn't it have a lower price tag as well?

 

[Jesse Skeen]

I bought a sealed copy of FX2 since it came in a laser-digipak, just to have one. Someone later gave me the Silence of the Lambs disc in the same type of cover, and I've seen Little Man Tate in one too. All of these were from Orion.

 

[JulianK]

There's a very good chance that a new DVD version of The Silence of the Lambs will be released in the US soon.

The UK gets a new Ultimate Edition in two weeks' time, and it has a bunch of new content that was produced by Laurent Bouzereau.

Review of the Ultimate Edition

 

[PaulP]

Would be nice to have a real "Ultimate" Edition: all the extras from Criterion and this new UE, plus a new Criterion transfer...

 

[Mike Wadkins]

i agree the extras on this new "ultimate" edtion are all but the same.
Also on that review it shows the new mgm discs mess up the colour timing and the captions

 

[GuruAskew]

The R1 MGM "Silence of the Lambs" SE had burned-in subs. If this "Ultimate Edition" is released here, I imagine it would have the burned-in subs again, they would probably even use the same transfer.

 

[Mike Wadkins]

Bill i forgot the u.s. discs are not player generated my mistake.
The U.k. discs have the Euro subs on it hence the player generated titles and subs.

 

[Dave H]

That's not true about the color timing. This has been discussed previously and this transfer (as well as the Criterion) was approved by Tak Fujimoto.