OVERALL: Draw

The R1 Criterion release has a 4K restoration, the audio commentary, an additional critic interview, and most of the features from the previous releases. Note the Page to Screen feature has been slightly cut and the "Buffalo Bill Sews (Excerpts)" deleted scene is not included, nor are the minor Teaser trailer, TV spots, & still galleries extras.

The R2 UK Definitive Edition has an English DTS track with most of the available extras, except the Criterion audio commentary, critic interview, and storyboard/text features. It has corrected the missing credits & pixelation errors that plagued some previous Ultimate Edition releases, but note that it is currently unconfirmed if it has the original burned-in location subtitles, or if they are player-generated like previous R2 releases.

Note the R0 Criterion release has some unique text & storyboard galleries, and the R6 has a DTS-ES 6.1 soundtrack with fewer extras.

Note, that there are some differences with the non-4K transfers and it seems that both were actually approved by cinematographer Tak Fujimoto (many still prefer the colors of the non-anamorphic Criterion transfer).
* Criterion: "Digital transfer was made from the 35mm interpositive and the 35mm Dolby® stereo magnetic master in consultation with cinematographer Tak Fujimoto." (source: Criterion)
* MGM: "We were able to make sure that the filmmakers got a chance to approve it. I know [cinematographer] Tak Fujimoto was involved with the new telecine, and [sound designer] Skip Lievsay approved the 5.1 mix." (source: DVD Verdict)

A picture comparison between the R0 Criterion and R2 UK SE is available on Whiggles.

Notes about deleted scenes:
No single DVD or Blu-ray release has a complete amount of the deleted scene footage. The original R0 Criterion DVD and subsequent MGM releases did not have the same set of deleted scenes. Each release had some completely unique scenes, and they also had some scenes in common; but even the scenes in common contained different angles/takes to be different edits of the same deleted scene.

Some MGM DVDs had 21 individual selections and some had 22, but they were the same set of footage, just divided differently.

The Criterion Blu-Ray and DVD reissue has mostly combined the footage from those previous releases, however it is not a complete combination. It is completely missing one brief deleted scene from the MGM releases, labeled as "Buffalo Bill Sews (Excerpts)."

In addition, for scenes that the original Criterion DVD & MGM releases had in common, the Criterion Blu-Ray and DVD reissue has re-edited the scenes, trying to combine as much footage as possible; however, this means that some scenes, especially "Clarice Gets Suspended", have 3 different edits of the same scene across the releases, with unique footage exclusive to previous releases.

The transfer of the MGM deleted scenes was of higher quality than the Criterion DVD. Where they have overlapping footage, the Criterion Blu-Ray and DVD reissue mostly uses the higher quality MGM footage, but not 100% of the time.

The only deleted footage that seems to be unique to the Criterion Blu-Ray and DVD reissue is a brief extension at the end of "Brother Jim with The Word" footage of Jim Roche receiving some applause.

CUTS:

• R0 America- Criterion Collection - No cuts (118:22 NTSC).
• R0 America- Image Entertainment - No cuts.
• R1 America- MGM Home Entertainment - No cuts (118:24 NTSC).
• R1 Collector's Edition America- MGM Home Entertainment - No cuts (118:25 NTSC).
• R1 Re-release America- Criterion Collection - No cuts (118:47 NTSC).
• R1 Special Edition America- MGM Home Entertainment - No cuts (118:24 NTSC).
• R2 Collector's Edition France- MGM Home Entertainment - No cuts (113:34 PAL).
• R2 Special Edition Germany- MGM Home Entertainment - No cuts (113:34 PAL).
• R2 Special Edition Holland- MGM Home Entertainment - No cuts (113:34 PAL).
• R2 Ultimate Edition Holland- MGM Home Entertainment - No cuts (113:40 PAL).
• R2 Collector's Edition Italy- Cecchi Gori Home Video - No cuts.
• R2 Ultimate Edition Japan- Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment - No known cuts.
• R2 Poland- Imperial Entertainment - No cuts (113:34 PAL).
• R2 Special Edition Scandinavia- SF Film - No cuts (113:34 PAL).
• R2 Ultimate Edition Scandinavia- SF Film - No cuts (113:40 PAL).
• R2 Special Edition Spain- MGM Home Entertainment - No cuts (113:34 PAL).
• R2 United Kingdom- MGM Home Entertainment - No cuts (113:34 PAL).
• R2 Definitive Edition United Kingdom- MGM Home Entertainment - No cuts (113:40 PAL).
• R2 Special Edition United Kingdom- MGM Home Entertainment - No cuts (113:34 PAL).
• R2 Ultimate Edition United Kingdom- MGM Home Entertainment - No cuts (113:40 PAL).
• R3 Special Edition Korea- MGM Home Entertainment - No cuts - however some visual censorship (blurring) does appear.
• R4 Australia- MGM Home Entertainment - No cuts (113:34 PAL).
• R4 Special Edition Australia- MGM Home Entertainment - No cuts (113:34 PAL).
• R6 China- Excel Media - No cuts (118:24 NTSC).

Do you own a release not listed? Then please visit our forums and let us know!

Comparison added by Adrian_Busby on 31/07/01
Comparison last updated by James-Masaki_Ryan on 25/03/23

UPDATE LOG:

26/04/10: Addition of R6.
16/12/13: Update of R1 CE (confirmed to have original location captions) and R4 SE specifications, and comparison clean-up.
13/09/17: Added the French and no-frills UK Amazon links.
28/09/18: updated year
28/03/21: Updated DVDBeaver link, added R0 Image, R1 Criterion, R1 MGM FS barebones, Holland UE, Poland, Spain, & UK DE; updated tagline, added/updated film/extras runtimes & notes on multiple releases, added additional ASINs, updated overall.
25/03/23: Capsaholic.