Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine, Anthony Heald, Kasi Lemmons, Frankie R. Faison

Director: Jonathan Demme

Summary: Jonathan Demme directed this genre-bending thriller in which Jodie Foster portrays Clarice Starling, an ambitious FBI student who is on the verge of graduation when her superior enlists her help to track down a serial killer. When a senator's daughter turns up missing, the feds determine the most likely suspect is Buffalo Bill, who is murdering women and doing something terrible with their skin. But to find him, Starling is forced to enlist the aid of another notorious serial killer--the terminally incarcerated ex-psychiatrist known as Hannibal the Cannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins). Hannibal is the only one who truly understands the killer's mind and motive. He agrees to help Clarice, but in exchange, she has to tell him her deepest secrets. Slowly she wins Hannibal over as he discovers that unlike most heroes, she is more moved by vulnerability than she is attracted to power. Clarice's relentless search for the killer and Hannibal's unorthodox analysis are chilling. The screenplay is based on the best-selling novel by Thomas Harris.

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Based on Thomas Harris's novel, Jonathan Demme's terrifying adaptation of Silence of the Lambscontains only a couple of genuinely shocking moments (one involving an autopsy, the other a prison break). The rest of the film is a splatter-free visual and psychological descent into the hell of madness, redeemed astonishingly by an unlikely connection between a monster and a haunted young woman.

Anthony Hopkins is extraordinary as the cannibalistic psychiatrist Dr Hannibal Lecter, virtually entombed in a subterranean prison for the criminally insane. At the behest of the FBI, agent-in-training Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) approaches Lecter, requesting his insights into the identity and methods of a serial killer named Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine). In exchange, Lecter demands the right to penetrate Starling's most painful memories, creating a bizarre but palpable intimacy that liberates them both under separate but equally horrific circumstances.

Demme, a filmmaker with a uniquely populist vision (Melvin and Howard, Something Wild), also spent his early years making pulp for Roger Corman (Caged Heat) and he hasn't forgotten the significance of tone, atmosphere and the unsettling nature of a crudely effective close-up. Much of the film, in fact, consists of actors staring straight into the camera (usually from Clarice's point of view), making every bridge between one set of eyes to another seem terribly dangerous. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

On the DVD: On disc one, the film itself looks clinically sharp in a faultless widescreen (1.85:1) anamorphic transfer, while the Dolby 5.1 soundtrack makes the most of the chilling sound effects and Howard Shore's masterfully understated score. Unlike the Region 1 Criterion Collection, however, there is no audio commentary at all. On the second disc, the all-new hour-long "making-of" documentary features contributions from the screenwriter, producer, composer, costume designer, make-up effects people and even the moth wrangler ("There were no moths harmed in the filming!") as well as Ted Levine (Buffalo Bill) and Anthony Hopkins, who talks at length about creating Lecter. Conspicuous by their absence are Jonathan Demme and Jodie Foster. Aside from the usual trailers and stills gallery there are 21 deleted scenes, many of which are not whole scenes but deleted excerpts, a promotional featurette made in 1991 and an outtakes reel that proves the cast really did have fun making this scary picture. For those who want to scare all their friends, there's also an answerphone message from Anthony Hopkins "in character". --Mark Walker

Aspect Ratio:	1.85 Wide Screen, 16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	The Making Of The Silence Of The Lambs, Deleted Scenes, Anthony Hopkins Phone Message, Original Featurette, Outtakes Reel, Stills Gallery, Teaser Trailer, Hannibal Trailer, Original Theatrical Trailer, TV Spots
Subtitles:	Croatian, Czech, Danish, English, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish
Year:	1991
Release Date:	August 6, 2001
Runtime:	113 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	15907 C D V D
Keywords:	Special, Harris, Silence, General, Edition, Wide, Screen, Lambs, Thriller
Genre:	Thriller