The Silence of the Lambs

Now we finally start the Hannibal Lecter series in modern day times with one of the best horror films ever made, “The Silence of the Lambs,” which came out in 1991. The secret about this movie is that it doesn’t start with Dr. Lecter or “Hannibal the cannibal” as he is called. Instead, the film arrives to him through a young woman. The movie is a story about a young FBI trainee named Clarice Starling, played by the very lovely and attractive Jodie Foster, and the story follows her without considerable disturbances. Dr. Lecter, played by the great Anthony Hopkins, waits at the central force of the story, a mean but somehow likable company. When I mean likable, I mean in the sense that he likes Clarice, and he says that he will not hurt her, but he helps her. Lecter is a side character and Clarice is the main person who drives the plot.

Roger Ebert comments about the director, Jonathan Demme’s work: “The popularity of Jonathan Demme's movie is likely to last as long as there is a market for being scared.” His work is in the same boat as other classic horror pictures like “Nosferatu,” “Psycho,” and “Halloween,” since the best thrillers don’t age. Fear is a universal emotion and one that everyone feels from the start of birth. The thing that is good about “The Silence of the Lambs” is that it’s not just a scary movie, but about two of the most memorable characters in cinema history, Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter, and their bizarre relationship. At one point, Lecter laughs when he tells Clarice, “people will say we're in love.”

Ebert says that these two share so much. You can see that in the film, especially when Ebert breaks it down by saying, “Both are ostracized by the worlds they want to inhabit--Lecter, by the human race because he is a serial killer and a cannibal, and Clarice, by the law enforcement profession because she is a woman.” They are both powerless since Lecter is behind a cell in a maximum security prison (think of how “King Kong” felt when they moved him), and Clarice has had men make her feel uncomfortable when they eye her in a way that she doesn’t like it. Both of them share a persuasion talent that is able to get them both out of their traps. Lecter does this by eliminating his cellmates by chocking on their own tongue, and Clarice is able to persuade Lecter to help her in finding a serial killer that goes by the name Buffalo Bill. Similarly, they both had rough childhoods. Lecter is able to connect with Clarice when she shares with him that her parents died when she was a child, was adopted by relatives who didn’t love her, and Lecter also had experienced child abuse. Demme says in the DVD commentary that he regrets going more in-depth on this.

Speaking of Buffalo Bill, also note that he and Lecter look like they are in the realm of Hades. Lecter is in a prison cell and Buffalo Bill is in his basement, and Clarice has to get to both of them by going down a number of stairs and opening countless doors. They are similar to Hades’ guard-dog, Cerberus. Also it is interesting to see that the camera focuses a lot on Clarice. Ebert mentions, “The point-of-view camera takes the place of the scrutinizing men in her life, and when she enters dangerous spaces, it is there waiting for her instead of following her in.” Another interesting note is that the film uses the colors of the USA flag a lot. Not only in the FBI scenes, but also there is a flag on a car in the shed, other flags in Bill’s lair, and the graduation cake at the end of the movie, which Ebert says, “the U.S. eagle in the frosting is a ghastly reminder of the way Lecter pinned a security guard spread-eagled to the walls of his cage.”

The soundtrack, goodness does it know how to carry the film’s theme throughout. At many points you can hear exhaling and sighs, like when the cocoon of the gypsy moth is taken by Bill from his first victim’s throat. Talk about heavy breathing. There are bottomless echoing and far cries and mourns, almost too low to hear, at central parts. There is the sound of a heart monitor. Howard Shore has music that can make a funeral type of manner. Ebert comments on the music, “When the soundtrack wants to create terror, as when Clarice is in Bill's basement, it mixes her frightened panting with the sound of Bill's heavy breathing and the screams of the captive girl--and then adds the dog's frenzied barking, which psychologically works at a deeper level than everything else.” Bill also has green goggles so that he can see Clarice when it is dark. Call it night-vision goggles.

Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins deserved the Oscar awards for best actor and actress, and the film also won best picture for Demme’s direction and Ted Talley’s screenplay, and was nominated for editing and sound. Don’t you find it strange that the Academy would remember this film, when it normally votes films that are either still in theaters or newly released on video? This proves that “Silence of the Lambs” could not go ignored and deserved to be talked about, since it was released 13 months before the Oscarcast.

Hopkins doesn’t have that much screen time compared to Foster, but he left a huge impact on audiences. When you first see him, it’s just an image that will be implanted in your retina forever. After Clarice is done climbing down the stairs and walking through all those doors, the camera shows her POV when she first sees him in his cell. You would think that he is a wax statue. Her next visit he is also still, but slightly flinches, then he opens his mouth. On the commentary track, Hopkins said that he was inspired by the HAL 9000 computer from “2001: A Space Odyssey,” which made him come up with Lecter’s personality.

With Foster’s character, Clarice, she is not only an orphan, but an inconvenient rough country girl who has worked tirelessly to get where she is at right now, and doesn’t really have as much confidence as she shows. When she sees the nail polish on one of Bill’s victims, she assumes the girl is from “town,” which is used by someone who is not. Her bravest moment is when she orders the gaping sheriff’s deputies out of the room when she is at the funeral home.

One thing about the film is that audiences will like Hannibal Lecter. This is slightly because he likes Clarice, and says that he won’t hurt her. Another reason is because he helps her search for Buffalo Bill, and save the girl he has trapped in his basement, played by Brooke Smith. But mainly it’s because Hopkins embodies this character in a way that he will always be remembered for this role. Just like how whenever someone says Jack Nicholson, they immediately think of the Joker, or when you say Harrison Ford, you’ll immediately remember both Han Solo and Indiana Jones. He may be a cannibal, but he doesn’t bore you to death, and is still interesting, since he is the smartest character in the movie.

Dr. Lecter has comparison with other movie monsters like Nosferatu, Frankenstein, Norman Bates, and King Kong. They have two similarities: They act according to their nature, and they are misread. Whatever these monsters do are not because of some “evil” way, but because they do not have any moral sense. Think of a computer like HAL 9000. They are programmed to act this sort of way, and have no choice. Whenever they are given the opportunity, they try to do the right thing (Nosferatu never had that opportunity, sadly). Kong wants to rescue Fry Wray, Norman Bates is a sociable guy who loves his mother to death (much like how Hitler was the same way), and Dr. Lecter helps Clarice because she does not insult him the way others have, and you could say that they both love one another, but not in the sense of going out.

All of this put together would not assure how long “Silence of the Lambs” would last if it wasn’t truly scary. I don’t think anyone could describe the reasons best as Roger Ebert could, so here are his reasons: “first in the buildup and introduction of Hannibal Lecter. Second in the discovery and extraction of the cocoon in the throat. Third in the scene where the cops await the arrival of the elevator from the upper floors. Fourth in the intercutting between the exteriors of the wrong house in Calumet City and the interiors of the right one in Belvedere, Ohio. Fifth in the extended sequence inside Buffalo Bill's house, where Ted Levine creates a genuinely loathsome psychopath (notice the timing as Starling sizes him up and reads the situation before she shouts “Freeze!”).” The reason why we get scared when watching this movie is because of its smart treatment of story and image, and we like Clarice, we can identify with her, and fear for her like Lecter does.

If you haven’t seen this film, well then….what are you waiting for? Go out and rent it, buy it, or catch it on TV, but definitely watch this. It’s definitely a film to watch around Halloween time. I give this film a solid 10.

Stay tuned tomorrow when I continue my “Lecter-a-thon” with an average sequel.