The Widescreen SE was listed OOP the 2nd week of August 2005. The Pan & Scan may not be considered officially OOP due to stock still in distributors' stocks.

Saw a WS at Target today for 10.00

I haven't seen any copies of the Pan and Scan version. The only two copies I've seen were the, "Widescreen Special Edition," as the banner said. My friend only saw the widescreen version, as well.

Why did the WS version suddenly go OOP? Are they preparing for another super duper edition or something, seeing it's Sony in control now?

I believe they did this with all of the Hannibal Lecter movies. Can't find Hannibal, Manhunter, or Red Dragon in widescreen. At least around here.

Because Sony are dumbasses and cater to the lowest common denominator. They believe that DVDs are made for Joe Six-Pack and have decided that most consumers prefer fullscreen, so they discontinue the WS versions of the DVD. They have done this with a lot more films like Gattaca, the Fan, the Juror, the Bear, Sweet and Lowdown and we can go on and on.

The reason you can't find Manhunter in widescreen is that MGM owns the rights and they've never released it in widescreen. Anchor Bay released three widescreen editions but they no longer have the rights to all of their versions are out-of-print.

MGM's release is the only one to include the true theatrical cut (and there's a very memorable scene between Graham & Crawford that's missing from every Anchor Bay edition) so it's a shame that they've only released it in fullscreen. I own all 4 cuts of "Manhunter" on DVD and they're all compromised in some way. The longest version (the "director's cut") has horrible video quality, the one with the best video quality (Anchor Bay's fake theatrical cut) is the worst cut, the additional scenes in Mann's "restored director's cut" look horrible compared to the rest of the film and the theatrical cut is MAR.

Oh well, it doesn't really matter anyway, "Red Dragon" was much better.

I just checked Deja-Vu Discs' (a used CD/DVD/game store, here in Ontario) website, and it says that they have the Silence of the Lambs Criterion available, at one of the local stores. They want $37.99 (CAD) for it. Do you think it's worth it? It seems to be in pretty high demand, but the prices on Ebay seem to be low compared to Amazon ($69.99 and up for new/used from sellers.) I've got them holding it for me, but I'm able to cancel my order.

I have a feeling $ony will re-release this eventually. The prequel has been delayed, so they may wait until that comes out to release it.

Yikes. I ditched my Criterion disc a long time ago for this and never actually picked it up. I guess I'll keep my eye open for it.. I doubt it'll be hard to find but better to be safe than sorry.

The main reason the Criterion is in demand is it still has one of the 5 best commentary tracks ever. The other bonuses are cool, but you can live without them, but that commentary track is amazing...