This week seems like the perfect opportunity to take a look back at 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs, since its sequel, the highly anticipated Hannibal, will be released on Friday.
The Silence of the Lambs is quite simply a modern masterpiece, with riveting performances, fabulous camerawork and start-to-finish suspense. The film was a smash hit with both critics and audiences and won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture of the Year, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress. Upon closer inspection, the film still resonates and sets a high standard for the upcoming sequel.
In the original, Jodie Foster stars as Clarice Starling, a smart but inexperienced FBI Academy student. Starling’s first real FBI work involves interviewing the imprisoned serial killer Dr. Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter. Anthony Hopkins plays Lecter, the brilliant but psychopathic psychiatrist-turned-murderer who has a penchant for devouring his unfortunate victims. Both Foster and Hopkins won Oscars for their roles in this movie, and deservedly so.
Foster accurately portrays both the initial fear of encountering a renowned madman and the desire to focus on the job at hand. Hopkins gives the best performance of a distinguished career as Lecter, the eloquent, cannibalistic genius who torments his cellmates, doctors and especially young Clarice with his mind games.
The most memorable aspect of this film is the frequent dialogue between Starling and Lecter. Starling’s focus is on obtaining any information from Lecter about an on-the-prowl serial killer nicknamed “Buffalo Bill.” Lecter eventually agrees to help Clarice, but only in exchange for personal details about Starling’s own psychological background. The dialogue between the two hyper-intelligent characters provides the audience with a plethora of information about the characters and their motivations, as well as delivering some of the most memorable quotations in recent movie history.
Director Jonathan Demme, also an Oscar winner for this film, is at his best in framing the scenes involving Starling and Lecter. Demme fills the frame with Starling’s face as she reacts to Lecter’s responses and makes Lecter seemingly emerge from the shadows during his initial encounters with Starling.
As their meetings continue, Starling’s reactions become more subdued. At first, she is shocked and scared by Lecter, but as time progresses, she is clearly more at ease and maintains her professional composure. As odd as it may seem, Lecter and Starling develop an unusual sort of friendship as they learn more about each other.
This develops into an interesting but unspoken sexual tension between the two characters. Without a doubt, the film’s sequel will continue to develop this intriguing relationship between Lecter and Starling. While the interaction between Lecter and Starling makes this movie superb, the main action of the plot involves the FBI’s search for “Buffalo Bill.” Starling’s findings from Lecter are essential in searching for the killer, but Starling is often pushed to the wayside during the investigation because she is a rookie and because she is a woman.
Clearly, gender roles are another interesting and understated theme of this film. As the search for Buffalo Bill intensifies, so do Lecter’s mind games. The film shifts between Lecter’s dealings with the FBI and scenes involving Buffalo Bill, the serial killer who has all of Lecter’s violent psychotic tendencies but little of his charm and intelligence. It is difficult to describe any more of the film’s brilliantly scripted plot without ruining the myriad of twists and turns along the way to its thrilling conclusion.
The Silence of the Lambs is a modern film treasure and features dazzling performances, loads of suspense and a close look inside the heads of a criminal mastermind and an equally intelligent FBI agent. Led by Hopkins’ and Foster’s tremendous acting ability and Jonathan Demme’s direction, this film certainly earned all its critical and popular accolades and is worth multiple viewings. If you are planning on seeing the forthcoming Hannibal, another look at The Silence of the Lambs seems essential. A