A reviewer tried to give this set a bad review. His liver was eaten with some fava beans and a nice Chianti. Slurp. Actually, the set features a fine special edition of Silence of the Lambs and the only way (so far) that you’ll get Manhunter and Hannibal in high definition.
Manhunter (1986, 4 stars): A serial killer called the Tooth Fairy (Tom Noonan) is murdering entire families. FBI supervisor Jack Crawford (Dennis Farina) calls ex-agent Will Graham (William Petersen) out of retirement to help catch the Tooth Fairy.
Graham was nearly killed catching the cannibalistic Dr. Hannibal Lecktor (Brian Cox) and retired because of the trauma. Now he has to go back to work and stop the Tooth Fairy before another family falls victim and he also has to confront the “good” Dr. Lecktor for assistance in finding the serial killer.
Silence of the Lambs (1991, 5 stars): A serial killer called Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine) has kidnapped the daughter of a Senator. Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) asks FBI recruit Claire Starling (Jodie Foster) to interview imprisoned killer Dr. Hannibal Lector (Anthony Hopkins) for clues in tracking down Bill before he kills the daughter.
Hannibal is very willing to help, but requires “quid pro quo” in that he wants to psychoanalyze Starling. Lector is not one that you want messing about in your head. Fly away little Starling, fly, fly.
Hannibal (2001, 3.5 stars): Ten years have passed and Clarice Starling (Julianne Moore) is a disgraced FBI agent following a drug raid gone bad. Mason Verger (Gary Oldman) was one of Hannibal Lector’s (Anthony Hopkins) only surviving victims and was left disfigured and paralyzed from his encounter with the good doctor.
Now he has information of the doctor’s whereabouts and will only reveal them to Starling. Events cause Lector to come out of hiding and he’s looking forward to his dinner date with Starling and to avenge himself on Verger. Bon appétit.
Hannibal Lecter first came into being in the pages of Thomas Harris’ novel Red Dragon (1981). The book was adapted by Michael Mann into a Miami Vise-ish thriller Manhunter, renamed due to the cinematic failure of Year of the Dragon, with Brian Cox playing the role and a pre-CSI William Petersen in the lead role.
The movie failed to light fires at the box office. However, it has developed a cult following. The fire happened when Jonathan Demme adapted the 1988 thriller Silence of the Lambs into a film and Anthony Hopkins stepped into the role of Lecter.
The film would win five Oscars, including best picture, best director for Demme, best actress for Foster, best adapted screenplay for Ted Tally, and best actor for Hopkins for his serpentine performance.
The villainous headshrinker would become his signature role and he would even get the chance to redo Red Dragon (2002) in the same role.
However, before that he would star as Lecter in the adaptation of the 1999 novel Hannibal. The results wouldn’t be as iconic as Silence of the Lambs but director Ridley Scott adds some touches of his own. The past of the character would be explored in Hannibal Rising (2007) but Hopkins wouldn’t appear.
Red Dragon and Hannibal Rising don’t appear in this set because they belong to other studios, but Manhunter and Hannibal appear on Blu-ray for the first time in this set.
I found Manhunter very pleasing and thought the picture looked great. It may be because I hadn’t seen the film in a long time, but this time I noticed that the bars of Lecktor’s (as they spell it in the picture) cell have Plexiglas between them. The definition allows the reflections to be seen. I thought Hannibal looked good too.
What might be disappointing is that Manhunter and Hannibal are basically devoid of special features. Hannibal comes close in that it gets trailers, but not one for the picture. The nice special edition done for Silence of the Lambs is here though.
The films are presented in 1080p high definition transfers (2.35:1 for Hannibal and Manhunter, 1.85:1 for Silence). Special features for Silence of the Lambs are mostly in standard definition and include the picture-in-picture “documentary” called “Breaking the Silence.”
The lone high definition special feature is the 19 minute “Understanding the Madness” that takes you inside the behavior science unit of the FBI. The 66 minute “Inside the Labyrinth” looks at the making of the film. The 41 minute “Silence of the Lambs: Page to Screen” looks at adapting the book into the film. The 16 minute “Scoring the Silence” looks at Howard Shore’s score.
Next is a 8 minute 1991 making of feature, 20 minutes of deleted scenes, 2 minutes of outtakes, a 34 second phone message from Anthony Hopkins, 6 minutes of TV spots, and 3 minutes of trailers.
Silence is given much better treatment than the other films and that’s a bit sad since Michael Mann and Ridley Scott usually have good things to say about their films. If you hadn’t already bought Silence this gives you a nice way to pick up the three.
However, I did wish that Red Dragon and Hannibal Rising could’ve been included. I know I’ve enthralled you with my acumen, but this is a decent set. Must go back to my cell now, ready when you are Sergeant Pembry.
The Hannibal Lecter Collection [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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