Writings > DVD Image Comparisons > The Silence of the Lambs

The Silence of the Lambs

Region 0 (USA) - Criterion
vs. Region 2 Special Edition (UK) - MGM

Details

Bit Rate

Criterion

MGM

Screen Captures

Example 1

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Criterion | MGM

Example 2

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Criterion | MGM

Example 3

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Criterion | MGM

Example 4

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Criterion | MGM

Example 5

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Criterion | MGM

Example 6

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Criterion | MGM

Example 7

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Criterion | MGM

Example 8

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Criterion | MGM

Comments

Criterion's now out of print release of The Silence of the Lambs was one of their first DVD transfers, taken directly from the LaserDisc master, and as a result leaves something to be desired. It's non-anamorphic, analogue-sourced and a bit noisy. It does, however, outside of the slightly soft credits sequence, have a decent amount of detail, especially when you consider its origins.

Taken entirely on its own terms, the MGM release has a pretty nice transfer. It has decent clarity, little edge enhancement, solid encoding and average-to-good detail. As an accurate representation of its director's intentions, however, it is a disgrace: its colours and brightness levels manipulated and "normalised" to high heck, and severely cropped on the left hand side most of the time (around 5% of the image missing). Whoever at MGM was in charge of creating the master for their DVD clearly did not understand that the scenes "down in the dungeon", to quote Dr. Lecter, were meant to be dark and red-tinted. Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins' faces should look as if they are poorly lit by cheap underground lighting, not bathed in a neon glow! Contrast this with Example 7, where little to no colour goosing has gone on and the two versions are more or less identical in terms of hue. Sorry, guys, the Criterion has the edge.

The MGM release drops the original 2.0 soundtrack in favour of a 5.1 remix. Sorry, guys, again the Criterion comes out on top. In terms of extras, the two are pretty evenly matched, both containing features you won't find on the other. A real fan will probably want both.

Ultimately, Criterion's release of the film is crying out for an anamorphic, film-sourced re-release, but obviously this is not going to happen so long as the incompetent brigade at MGM hold the rights.

Summary