The Silence of the Lambs

Year Released: 1991

Runtime: 118 minutes

Directed: Jonathan Demme

Produced: Kenneth Utt, Edward Saxon, Ron Bozman

Starring: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine

Oscars: Won: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay Nominated: Best Sound, Best Film Editing

IMDb Plot Summary: A young F.B.I. cadet must receive the help of an incarcerated and manipulative cannibal killer to help catch another serial killer who skins his victims.

Context, Context, Context: What Created Silence of the Lambs, and Why it’s Still Relevant

Novel to screen. Hannibal Lecter was a familiar character to audience members deep in the horror genre; he is involved in the 1986 film Manhunter and the novel it was based on, Red Dragon (later remade into a film of the same title). In both those stories and this one, Lecter assists an F.B.I agent in catching another dangerous serial killer while playing some mind games with the agent. In 1988, Thomas Harris released his sequel to Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs. This time, a young female agent is tasked with using Lecter’s help to stop a serial killer who is killing women and cutting off their skins. The novel was met with some controversy due to these themes, as well as the character of Buffalo Bill, yet it was also successful and well-reviewed by critics. Gene Hackman briefly owned the rights to the film adaptation, intending to direct and play Crawford, but ultimately backed out while Ted Tally was still writing the screenplay. Orion studios stepped up to finance the film and found Jonathan Demme, who had previously graduated from B-movies into drama and directed concert films such as Stop Making Sense. He had developed a reputation for humanist themes and a showy sense of drama, both of which are on display here. Jodie Foster was far from Demme’s first choice for the role of Clarice Starling despite having recently won an Oscar, but ultimately her passion for the project combined with other high-profile actresses turning it down won her the role. Hopkins was second choice behind Sean Connery for the role of Lecter, but won it based off some of his previous work.

The legacy of SOTL. While neither Hopkins nor Foster was the first choice for each of their roles, they went on to win Best Actress and Best Actor, respectively. Hopkins’ portrayal of Lecter remains one of the best performances by an actor playing a villain of all time, and this character is beyond iconic. The film was initially a sleeper at the box office, but glowing reviews and word-of-mouth turned it into the 5th highest-grossing film of 1991. It also remains to this day to be one of only three movies to win the “Big Five” Oscars: Best Film, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay – and winning those awards in the year of Beauty and the Beast, JFK, Boyz N The Hood, and Thelma & Louise was no easy feat. It continues to be listed among the best films ever made and is incredibly popular even beyond just fans of the horror genre. Films like this that transcend their genre and whose legacy lasts this long beyond their release are rare; of the three that I’ve covered this October, this is by far the most widely known and adored.

The Story and its Characters

The right balance. This film is so compelling because it contains a perfect mixture of genre, themes, and moods. While this is technically a “horror” movie, it plays much more like a crime thriller – the crimes just so happen to be insanely appalling. Yet there are still terrifying moments at play, and while much of the violence goes unseen, the implications are all the audience needs. The thriller aspect comes into play a little later into the film paired with the escalating visual and thematic horror, as the second half of the movie sees Foster’s Agent Clarice Starling in a race against time to save the daughter of Senator Martin. There are scenes whose suspense hasn’t aged a day. The movie also has a fairytale aspect to it – our hero (in this case, heroine) rises from an undervalued position (FBI Academy, not a full agent) to save a literal damsel in distress; another reason why this movie feels timeless. Yet beyond any of these types of stories, this is primarily a character drama. Clarice Starling is a woman operating in a career and world full of men, and while some of these men are serial killers, the vast majority either hit on her or patronize her. In a wild twist, only Lecter seems to truly value her, and it is through the conversations with him that her backstory and motivation for becoming an FBI agent are revealed; more than an ambitious woman in a male-dominated field, she is a tortured soul who hopes to find inner peace by saving lives. These conversations also reveal the absolute force of nature that Lecter is in his psychopathy, charm, and genius all at once.

Thematic controversy. Both the book and the film were met with controversy regarding its themes, and it’s worth acknowledging though I think these claims are a little aren’t super grounded. The LGBTQ community decried the character of Buffalo Bill for being a transsexual serial killer. However, both the book and film make a point of mentioning that Bill is not really a transsexual, but rather a disturbed and traumatized individual who rejects his own identity – the reason he was denied sex reassignment surgery. In the late 80’s and early 90’s when society was far less accepting of the LGBTQ community, I can understand their frustration with what they perceived as an evil portrayal of people like them; however, the story does dismiss this notion. Another issue some critics raised was that the killing and skinning of women was anti-feminist, but Clarice Starling is such an iconic and important heroine as well as a detailed depiction of women occupying traditionally male-held roles that I think these critics may have missed the point. With that addressed, let’s get back to the film.

The performances. Plenty to shout out here, including two Oscar winners. Surrounding them are a terrific supporting cast, including Scott Glenn as ice-cold FBI Behavioral Sciences leader Jack Crawford. I’m also a huge fan of Anthony Heald as the absolutely scummy Dr. Chilton, and Diane Baker as Senator Martin is terrifically vulnerable. Brooke Smith is charming and charismatic as Catherine Martin, and believable in the moments that she’s subjected to absolute terror. Ted Levine should have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his turn as Buffalo Bill, but I think voters and audiences were too creeped out by the fact that he’s even more unstable and unsettling than Hannibal Lecter; this is probably the definition of an actor just going for it, and the “lotion in the basket” and naked dancing scenes are burned into the memories of everybody who watches the film. I’ve praised Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter before, and I’ll do it again briefly here: his performance continues to earn praise and admiration for the creation of something iconic. But Jodie Foster shouldn’t be overlooked – it is through Starling’s eyes that we are brought into this world, and her character is the proxy for the audience in an incredible way. When she is scared, we are too; when she shows grit and resolve to win, so do we. It’s a remarkable thing for a film that’s completely built around her – more on that below.

Technicalities

An exercise in subjectivity. In the hands of a director with less vision, this film is an interesting horror/thriller movie that follows a similar path as The Shining, with maybe even less commercial success. However, Jonathan Demme is no weak director, and is in complete control over the mood of each scene to terrific effect. Before I get more into how he does this, I want to quickly shout out just how perfectly paced this film is. Without ever seeming to rush through any scene or miss any character dynamic, the film moves at a brisk pace. Each scene necessitates the next and sets up each subsequent moment perfectly. Demme employs a lot of tools to make each scene so memorable, but they all seem to be an extension of his interest in character. With most of the violence occurring off-screen, Demme knows that the characters and their reactions to the world that they operate in will be the most crucial part of selling the film’s impact to the audience. He employs the dramatic score (composed by Lord of the Rings’ Howard Shore), intense lighting and ingenious staging to make everything feel dramatic. He also employs a lot of close-up shots, and frequent point of view to put the audience literally in Clarice’s shoes. We feel how men look at her, how Hannibal studies her, and every emotion that accompanies those brilliant shots.

John’s Highlight Reel

· First Lecter meeting. We all come into this movie waiting for Hannibal Lecter, and when he shows up we aren’t let down. During this scene, the POV camerawork feels especially impactful as Lecter gazes, unblinking, through the glass right into our souls being disturbing, profound, likable, and despicable in equal measures. Much like Clarice, we know this is dangerous but can’t seem to stay away.

· Second Lecter meeting. The film’s plot gets kicked into a higher gear following this. Buffalo Bill has been treated as a distant threat, not the driver of the plot up to this point. When Clarice confronts him about Raspail’s severed head, the conversation begins as playfully sinister, but ends with Lecter showing questionable vulnerability as he talks about his desire for a cell with a view. Acting masterclass on display here.

· Autopsy. Yeah it’s kinda gross but it’s a huge moment for Clarice’s character, played incredibly well. The transition into a dramatic flashback for Clarice from a moment in the present time is done so seamlessly it’s confusing at first. We also witness Clarice work through patronization in real time and get a couple of remarkable visual clues that will be a part of the case as the film progresses.

· Third Lecter meeting/fake deal. We finally get some clues into Buffalo Bill’s psychology here, and for once we see Lecter react to something, rather than being firmly in the driver’s seat. As the scene goes along, and Clarice is forced to reveal some of her personal traumas, Lecter takes back command of the scene. Watching these two exchange jabs, mixing personal with business, is why this film is so compelling.

· Bill’s lair. We see Bill’s lair a couple of times, and it’s just wild enough to still be realistic, which is a hard balance to pull off. The first time we’re introduced to it is through a brilliant tracking shot, and the “lotion in the basket” scene is a horrifying first look at Bill’s face and character that doesn’t come until halfway through the movie.

· “Where will it tickle you?” Demme really milks the dramatic tensions of this scene at the airport, and I love every second. Lecter wearing a modified hockey mask is an image that will stand the test of time in cinema, and his cycle of initial kindness and helpfulness to viciousness and cruelty to complimenting the Senator's fashion is what legends are made of.

· Screaming of the lambs. The final conversation between Lecter and Starling is the most profound, featuring incredible close-ups of Lecter where his face takes up literally the entire frame. Starling is at her most vulnerable, Lecter is at his most helpful, and we are at our most hooked that we’ve been the entire time. The frustration that Clarice feels when they’re interrupted is shared by us; not only are we still missing information on Buffalo Bill, but we’re upset that we won’t get any more of this dynamic. How did we get twisted into wanting to spend more time with Hannibal Lecter?

· “Ready when you are.” Lecter’s escape scene is an excellent slow-burn sequence with misdirection, mounting tension, dramatic reveals, and most of the film’s onscreen violence. It’s proof that Lecter does have the physical capabilities to match his mental prowess while remaining disturbingly calm as he brutalizes his guards. It also comes at the perfect point in the film; small clues that we may have just missed hint at the fact that Lecter has been planning this escape since his transfer of facilities. When this sequence pays off, it really pays off.

· Wrong Address. Following some clever cross-editing meant to mislead us, Clarice ends up at the home/lair of Buffalo Bill (right after his “Goodbye Horses” dance, an image I’m not forgetting this century). What follows is some brilliantly staged cat and mouse with the tension hitting 110% after the lights go out. This scene is very well shot and edited to make us feel out of our depths yet retain a minimum level of geography in the scene in order to follow the action, rather than being completely lost in a confusing maze.

· Ending. What a wonderful, open-ended way to end this film. Sure, we killed Buffalo Bill, but Lecter is far, far more dangerous and is now prowling for vengeance. Is the world safer or more dangerous than at the start of the film? Is it more…fun?

Came for _____, Stayed for ______

The only horror I could take. I first watched this movie as a part of a film studies class that I took my senior year of high school, and that class fundamentally changed the way that I appreciate the art form; I’m not sure if it ruined movies for me or saved movies for me, but when we got around to this film something had changed in me.

A new favorite, from a genre I wouldn’t expect. Despite this being the third horror movie that I’ve written about, I’m really not huge into the genre. Modern horror can feel so cheap with the only aim to generate a jump scare or gross its audience out. What I am a fan of is an effectively realized mood, and this film hits all its moods fantastically: suspense, drama, tragedy, redemption, black humor, aspiration, empathy – it’s all here and it’s all great.