It has been a long time a-coming, but now that it’s here, the collector’s edition of the 1991 Oscar-winning “The Silence of the Lambs” (Criterion Collection CC1344L, two discs, $99.95) has emerged as a state-of-the-art example of laserdisc presentation.
Drawn from pristine original sources and processed in the new THX system of quality control for picture and sound, the movie has been splendidly reproduced in its letterboxed, chapter-encoded format.
On an alternate soundtrack, skillful interweaving of reminiscences and commentary by director Jonathan Demme, stars Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, scenarist Ted Tally (all Academy Award winners for their work), and FBI agent John Douglas create a fascinating running account of the making of the movie.
Bountiful extras added at the end of the movie include several outstanding and occasionally quite long scenes that were deleted for the theatrical release, side-by-side comparisons of storyboards and scenes from the movie, profiles of serial killers from an FBI crime manual, and printed critical overviews on the careers of Demme, Foster and Hopkins by Pauline Kael, B. Ruby Rich and Lucy Hughes-Hallet, respectively.
Not nearly so extensive, but excellent in its detailed descriptions of the craft of moviemaking, is the informative director’s commentary by John Frankenheimer that has been recorded on an alternate soundtrack for the handsome new letterbox edition of “The Train” (MGM/UA Home Video ML104896, two discs, $59.98). Filmed 30 years ago in black-and-white widescreen, the movie consists of an engrossing duel between a cultured Nazi colonel (Paul Scofield) determined to transport Impressionist masterpieces out of France before the end of World War II and a gritty French railroad worker (Burt Lancaster) equally determined to halt the train carrying the paintings.
Leon Ichaso, the director of the saga of “Sugar Hill” (Fox Video/Image Entertainment 1624-85, two discs, $49.98), with Wesley Snipes as a Harlem drug dealer trying to escape the criminal life, treats the sharply transferred letterboxed release of his 1993 movie as a labor of love, introducing the film, providing running commentary on an alternate soundtrack and winding up with a few closing words and a selection of outtakes.
– Aside from a theatrical trailer tacked on at the end of the movie, “Aladdin” (Walt Disney Home Video/Image Entertainment 1662CS, two discs, $49.99) has no extra features. It does, however, have a THX widescreen transfer that makes this laserdisc version of the wildly successful animated feature glow with color and boom with sound. This edition, in the CAV format, with about a half-hour of material recorded on each of the disc’s sides, allows for easy fast- and slow-motion play and makes it possible for film cartoon buffs to study the advanced animation techniques in detail.
Home video collectors of vintage TV programs should enjoy the laserdisc boxed set of six episodes of “Thriller” (MCA/Universal Home Video 42117, three discs, $89.98). Each hour-long program (minus commercials on disc) of these selections from the early ’60s black-and-white suspense series was introduced by Boris Karloff, who also played parts in a few of the shows.
– Other laserdisc releases of note this month are:
“All the President’s Men” (Warner Home Video 1018, two discs, $39.98), the 1976 Watergate drama, with Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford and directed by Alan J. Pakula, with widecreen cinematography by Gordon Willis. The package includes three theatrical trailers for the movie.
“Earthquake” (MCA/Universal 42072, two discs, $39.98), a 1974 “event” epic which engulfs an “all-star” cast (Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, George Kennedy, Lorne Green, Genevieve Bujold) in “the most catastrophic earthquake of all time” in southern California. Interesting for its Oscar-winning special effects and for its rattle-rattle-thunder-clatter boom boom boom stereo soundtrack.
