B-Movies: Silence of the Lamb

B-Movies & Couch Classics
Reviews of Movies Often Overlooked or Forgotten

Silence Of The Lambs
1991, Orion Home Video

by Arik Ben Treston

About four years before Se7en made some people want to retch, there was the granddaddy of recent creep-fests, soon to be sequelized (again) in Hannibal. Of course I’m referring to the incomparable Silence Of The Lambs. Director Jonathan Demme’s masterpiece has to go down as one of the top ten thrillers (or movies, in my opinion) ever made. In itself, the movie is a sequel, of sorts, to Michael Mann’s 1986 Manhunter.

Manhunter was based on Thomas Harris’ book “Red Dragon.” Silence was based on a later novel of the same title and successfully stood on its own without officially being a sequel or having to depend on the viewing of Manhunter for any necessary exposition. With that said, if you haven’t seen Manhunter, do yourself a favor and rent it. It is a wonderful film that, while not living up to Silence, nonetheless stands on its own as a forceful murder thriller (with the great British actor Brian Cox as Hannibal). If you want to add this to your collection, the DVD is being released now in two versions, a collector’s edition and a special limited-quantity collector’s edition, which includes Mann’s longer cut of the film.

The Criterion Edition of Silence is a beautifully assembled DVD. With a great print of the film there is fascinating commentary by the director as well as Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster, screenwriter Ted Tally, and FBI agent John Douglas. Though they don’t seem to have recorded the commentary track together, they are pieced and paced well to complement each other and the film.

Deleted scenes, film-to-storyboard comparisons and an FBI crime classification manual are included, but most disturbing is the “Voices of Death” section, which are text-based transcripts of real serial killers and their accounts of what they have done. I don’t care how strong you think you are, reading these make you squirm in utter discomfort.

While I haven’t seen Hannibal yet, I’ll still bet that there will be no way for it to compare to the ingeniousness and pure craft that put all the working elements together in Silence, creating a near-perfect film that is impossibly difficult to top. As with the new release of Se7en, this is another DVD that should be in every home library (though be aware there is the stripped-down version, and then this Criterion Edition with all the goodies). Buy this, pop it in the player and sit down with a nice bottle of Chianti, an order of liver and some delicious fava beans. Save room for dessert.