Blu Ray Screencaps of The Silence Of The Lambs.
The Silence Of The Lambs is a film which i recommend you watch late at night with all the lights off, it's a film that has earned a reputation as being more violent and gory than it actually is and thats a credit to the film makers who have crafted the film to allow us to use our imagination and that is always far more scary than anything they can put on film.
A serial killer called Buffalo Bill is on the loose and his latest victim is a senator's daughter, FBI rookie Clarice Starling is brought in to interview the notorious Hannibal "the cannibal" Lecter, Lecter has information that may help the investigation but has so far been unwilling to talk, as well as being highly intelligent he is also very dangerous, Clarice is warned not to let Lecter in her head but in order to get the information she needs thats exactly what she must do.
Click here for our blu ray film review of The Silence Of The Lambs.
The Silence Of The Lambs is one of the most tense and thrilling movies ever made, the performances by all the cast are excellent, Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins play off one another superbly and Ted Levine as Buffalo Bill is extremely creepy, Brooke Smith who plays the senators kidnapped daughter is also very good and Scott Glenn is solid as Jack Crawford.
I first watched this in the cinema back in 1991, my heart was pumping fast and the movie gripped from the beginning to the end, few movies have held my attention as much as this one and although repeat viewings have diminished some scenes it's still one hell of a film that is a joy to revisit although i wish i could wipe my memory and recreate the first viewing experience.
The image quality on The Silence Of The Lambs is good although it's possible the colour timing has been changed and i feel the use of MPEG2 has seen some minor grain reduction especially during some of the earlier scenes with Clarice in Jack Crawfords office, i was originally less forgiving of the transfer due to the trailer which is in HD showing far more prominent grain, i now concede it's likely that the trailer is several generations removed from the original film print and this would explain why it is much grainier, having said all that i do feel this transfer should have more visible film grain and with it i think there would be more fine detail, perhaps a new AVC encode would provide the ultimate transfer but for now this is a reasonable effort.
The soundtrack was originally Dolby 2.0 but has been remixed into 5.1, its atmospheric, the surrounds are mainly used for ambience and the occasional discrete effect, i never had an issue hearing speech and the music score sounded good, not a film where the subwoofer really kicks in low but it's there for some scenes and to backup the music score.
After the success of The Silence Of The Lambs author Thomas Harris was under pressure to create a sequel to his original novel, it was called Hannibal and took years to reach bookshelves and was a disappointment, it betrayed the character of Clarice Starling and it just showed that Hannibal was far more effective a character when he was caged than on the loose, the film sequel was also called Hannibal and was directed by the usually reliable Ridley Scott, like the book it too was also a disappointment, indeed Jodie Foster did not like the script and declined to return to her role which Julianne Moore took over, the film sequel did have some effective moments but overall it just felt hollow and unnecessary when compared to Manhunter/Red Dragon or The Silence Of The Lambs. Maybe i am harsh on Hannibal but i feel it isn't a good sequel.
I watch this film every couple of years and this release is reasonable, it's the best the film has looked on any home format but i hope that one day director Jonathan Demme is involved in the transfer and we get a better release that keeps more of the film grain and fine detail intact.
View blu ray screencaps of The Silence Of The Lambs below. Click twice for the full HD image.
