The Hannibal Lecter Anthology (Hannibal / The Silence of the Lambs)

Starring:Anthony Hopkins, Julianne Moore, Gary Oldman, Ray Liotta, Frankie Faison, Giancarlo Giannini, Francesca Neri, Zeljko Ivanek, Hazelle Goodman, David Andrews, Francis Guinan, James Opher, Enrico Lo Verso, Ivano Marescotti, Fabrizio Gifuni, Alex Corrado, Marco Greco, Robert Rietty, Terry Serpico, Boyd Kestner
Director: Ridley Scott, Jonathan Demme
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
Based on Thomas Harris's novel, Jonathan Demme's terrifying Silence of the Lambs really contains 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. 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. The Silence of the Lambs won 1992 Oscars^Â® for best picture, actor, actress, director, and adapted screenplay.

Amazon.com

Based on Thomas Harris's novel, Jonathan Demme's terrifying Silence of the Lambs really contains 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. 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. The Silence of the Lambs won 1992 Oscars ^® for best picture, actor, actress, director, and adapted screenplay.

Ten years later in Hannibal, Dr. Lecter (Hopkins) is living the good life in Italy, studying art and sipping espresso. FBI agent Clarice Starling (Julianne Moore, replacing Foster), on the other hand, is now a quiet, moody loner. A botched drug raid results in her demotion--and a request from Lecter's only living victim, Mason Verger (Gary Oldman, uncredited), for a little Q&A. Little does Starling realize that the hideously deformed Verger is using her as bait to lure Dr. Lecter out of hiding. Taking the basic plot contraptions from Harris's baroque novel, Hannibal is so stylistically different from its predecessor that it forces you to take it on its own terms. Director Ridley Scott adeptly sets up an atmosphere of foreboding, but it's all buildup for anticlimax, as Verger's plot for abducting Dr. Lecter doesn't really deliver the requisite visceral thrills, and the much-ballyhooed climatic dinner sequence wobbles between parody and horror. Hopkins and Moore are both first-rate, but the film contrives to keep them as far apart as possible, when what made Silence so amazing was their interaction. When they do connect it's quite thrilling, but it's unfortunately too little too late.

Customer Reviews:

Great buy for Lecter fans!.......2006-12-31

Considering the first two movies, Silence and Hannibal, were released before DVDs were the mainstream media, selling mostly as VHS tapes, and Red Dragon released later as DVD, it's a good idea to have the first two released again together as a DVD set. Such as in my case, I had them on VHS and then the DVD of Red Dragon; now I can get the other two on DVD for a low price and complete the set!

Just as you would not read only the first third of a good book, you should not see Silence of the Lambs without also watching Hannibal and Red Dragon. They are all essential and powerful parts of the Hannibal Lecter story. One should not cheaply judge these films as regular horror movies for their individual entertainment value because they are all part of the masterpiece Thomas Harris has created. I strongly recommend reading the (now four) novels to anyone who would dare criticize the films without doing so.

In my opinion, Hannibal is the greatest of the films, truly portraying Harris' Lecter for all he is, accompanied by Hans Zimmer's amazing original score and beautiful scenery/culture of Italy. Best of all, the movie focuses on the deranged genius Hannibal himself, not using him as an example as in the two other films. The beast is finally out of his cage and he will not be stopped.

I only hope now that the new film Hannibal Rising, to be released February 2007, will be comparable to the beauty of Hannibal, in its photography and in its musical scoring.

Great collection.......2006-08-20

The Silence of the Lambs remains one of the greatest crime thrillers of all time, and any real DVD collector needs this special edition. Hannibal is also a good movie, not in the same ballpark as the first one, but well worth it anyway. Silence: 5 stars. Hannibal: 3 and a half stars. Also be sure to check out the excellent "Red Dragon."

Good Movies, Incomplete Collection, And Other General Misinformation.......2005-08-16

I see the word "anthology", but I think this word is obviously misused here because the pack really misses some important things!

On many occasions, I have told people that my favorite Lechter movie is Hannibal. When I ask them which movie was their favorite, they usually state their opinion in a way that sounds similar to this, "I liked the first one the best."

So I say, "You mean 'Manhunter'?"

Then they get a confused look on their face and say, "Silence Of the Lambs."

Then I have to explain to them that Lambs was not the first Lechter film; Manhunter was, and it was directed by someone who I find very interesting, Michael Mann.

Michael Mann was responsible for creating Miami Vice, then later directed Manhunter, Heat (with Pacino and DeNiro), the Insider (Pacino and Russell Crowe in his best-acted role), Ali (with Will Smith in the only role he acted in), and Collateral (with Jaime Foxx who won the Oscar for Ray that same year).

Manhunter, co-starring Joan Allen, is an exceptional film because it treats the police detective genre in a more recent contemporary character setting. It's also the first film I know of that primarily focused so well on the detective's mind during an investigation into serial murders in a contemporary setting.

In the role of Hannibal Lechter, the movie features Brian Cox. You may have seen Brian Cox playing Hermann Goering in the TNT television movie Nuremburg which is available on DVD, and that movie stars other greats like Christopher Plummer, Max von Sydow, and Alec Baldwin. Brian Cox also played the lead bad-guy in X-Men 2.

It's funny how many people like Silence Of the Lambs, yet they incorrectly believe it's the first Lechter movie, that Hannibal was the second, and that Red Dragon was the third and a prequel to the other two. Many people also do not know that Red Dragon was an exact remake of a previously existing film, Manhunter.

Since Manhunter was actually the first Lechter movie, and Red Dragon is a remake of Manhunter, how could Red Dragon advertise itself as a prequel? If Red Dragon was a remake of a film that was already first in its sequence, it technically can't be a prequel: it's a remake of a film that was already first!

Excluding Red Dragon on the basis that it wasn't comparably good enough to warrant itself, all three of these films are very good films, but all for different reasons. I also emphatically disagree with people who disliked Hannibal. Hannibal basically created Lechter out of the drama of Phantom Of the Opera (love story and mask included) and is suspenseful in the classic rendition of Jack the Ripper of the 1940s. To shame yourselves with that kind of talk never deminishes the greatness of director Ridley Scott, but rather belittles the people who refuse to accept this film as having any greatness when it pulled off that Mamet script. And on the subject of Ridley Scott, he is one of the top five biggest directors in the last two decades... Everyone should face facts and get with the program, that this is one of his more brilliant works of art which was better prepared than his Gladiator, and easily much better than his Black Hawk Down.

But disregarding preference, these two DVDs of Hannibal and Lambs are just fine, but my complaint again is the omission of Manhunter, which should have been here! Also on the subject of this set, I need to note that the great Criterion DVD company released the Silence Of the Lambs in a difinitive, 3-disc DVD edition. The Criterion edition of Lambs is, as usual, the preferred way to watch this movie for home video. Criterion has built up a reputation of authority in releasing important films and art films to DVD in thorough editions. If you go with anything else, you aren't getting everything.

For these above-stated reasons, this "anthology" gets a single-handed "thumbs down".

Only 1 DVD is Worthwhile.......2005-07-26

The Silence of the Lambs is a great film that makes you scared but makes you think. Hannibal just makes you numb from the onslaught of disgusting and griesome acts, like Passion of the Christ. I guess nothing will ever be rated NC-17 for gruesome violence and depravity. These nasty and un-dramatic sequels should be avoided unless you want to ruin your day and waste your money.

Food for thought.......2005-05-04

I recently had the opportunity to view all three of the Harris novel adaptations in rapid succession - Silence, Hannibal and Red Dragon. Having seen Manhunter already I can say I am far more impressed with Anthony Hopkins' performance in the first three films than I was with his replacement in Manhunter. And, unlike many people who say Manhunter is a brilliant film, I found it turgid, stylistically weak, and emotionally unengaging.

I went to the theater expecting to be horrified by Demme's landmark film so I walked into the experience emotionally armored. I didn't even need the equivalent of a sweater or light jacket to view Manhunter or the better realized Red Dragon. But I found myself involuntarily transfixed by the horrible marriage of beauty and spiritual bestiality in Ridley Scott's surprisingly good Hannibal.

Only a philistine could call Hannibal a less than magnificent piece of cinema. Perhaps its several qualities (all adequately defined by other viewers in this forum) owe their value to Harris's reportedly mixed literary pleasures. I haven't read the books (and don't know if I could after seeing Scott's film) so I can't compare the two.

What I will say is that I expect Hannibal Lecter to lay uneasily on my mental palate for some time after tasting Scott's delectable but fundamentally indigestible meal. Perhaps that is what all these books and films mean to do - to allow us to consume the length and breadth of our capacity both to reach for heaven through strength of soul, and to realize hell through the power of our capacity for creative depravity.

I say watch the whole bunch of them and learn from them. They have a powerful and necessary lesson to teach about the soul of Western culture. The writers set Hannibal in Florence but I kept thinking about Rome, and seeing Russel Crowe astride a hot and angry horse, shouting:

"At my command, unleash hell!"
With fava beans, and a good Chianti.

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