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THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS You see, the one we want most refuses to
cooperate. I want you to go after him again today in the asylum. Who’s the subject? The psychiatrist, Hannibal Lecter. Hannibal 'the Cannibal' The little movie with a $22 million dollar
budget that came out of nowhere in February of 1991. The film, adapted from
the best-selling novel by Thomas Harris, scared audiences who flocked to see
it in droves and was praised by critics nationwide for being a smart and taut
thriller. The film introduced us to two of cinema’s greatest characters, with
Special Agent Clarice Starling (played masterfully by Jodie Foster), and Dr.
Hannibal Lecter, whom the chilling Anthony Hopkins of course plays to sheer
perfection. Both Foster and Hopkins surprised many during the 1991 Oscar
ceremonies by both taking home the Oscar, but the biggest surprise of the
night was that THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS won for Best Picture and Best
Director (Jonathan Demme). Ted Tally won for Best Adapted Screenplay, and
with these wins became the third film in Oscars history to win in the five
major awards (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Screenplay), right after
1934’s IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT and 1975’s ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S
NEST. The film also caught fire with audiences
worldwide, as people flocked to see the suspense thriller in large numbers. THE
SILENCE OF THE LAMBS was of course a financial and critical success, but
also shows that truly great movies have a magnificent staying power. And for
the past ten years, Clarice and Lecter have never left the scene. The film starts off perfectly, with Clarice
Starling running through an obstacle course, foreshadowing her future
struggle in the film. She is called into the office of Special Agent Jack
Crawford (Scott Glenn), in the Behavioral Science Services section of the
Academy at Quantico. While waiting in his office she notices a wall dedicated
to newspaper clippings and reports about a serial killer nicknamed Buffalo
Bill. There on the wall lie several grotesque pictures of horribly mutilated
women. Crawford enters the office and gets right to the point. Being
impressed with her profile, he assigns Clarice to interview the insane Dr.
Hannibal Lecter in the Baltimore Asylum. The FBI, stumped by the killings of
Buffalo Bill, is attempting to create a psychological profile by interviewing
all known serial killers locked up that will help in this case and possibly
future cases. Dr. Lecter is the only one unwilling to cooperate, and Crawford
sends Clarice in to perform the interview. Given a special badge, a
questionnaire and a dossier on Lecter, Clarice heads to the asylum where she
is met by the smug Dr. Chilton (Anthony Heald), who makes unpleasant passes
on Clarice (Are in Baltimore long? he inquires. Because it can be
quite the fun town with the proper guide.). But Clarice, seeing through
his obvious flirting, makes it clear she is to investigate Lecter and report
back to Quantico as soon as possible. While heading towards the basement, where
Chilton keeps Lecter, he warns her: Do not touch the glass. Do not approach the
glass. You can pass nothing but soft paper. No pencils or pens. No staples or
paperclips in his paper. Use the sliding food carrier, no exceptions. If he
attempts to pass you anything, do not accept it. The reasons for such precautions, is that on
the afternoon of July 8, 1981, he complained of chest pains and was taken to
the dispensary. His mouthpiece and restraints were removed for an EKG. When
the nurse leaned over him, he did this to her? The doctors managed to re-set
her jaw more or less, and save one of her eyes. His pulse never got above
eighty-five, even when he ate her tongue. The films most classic scene is of course when
Clarice is walking down the long, dark hallway towards Lecter’s cell. From
her point of view, we see the monster standing perfectly still as if
expecting her arrival. He is locked in a glassed-in cage; with the only thing
noticeable about the dungeon aside from Lecter himself are his charcoal
drawings. Lecter keeps his eyes focused on her, with his chilling and dead
eyes and excellent posture. He extends a polite welcome, Good evening My name is Clarice Starling, may I speak
with you? Lecter insists on Clarice showing him her FBI
badge, urging her to step closer to the window. That expires in one week.
You’re not real FBI are you? Clarice admits she is only a trainee at the
Academy, and a little insulted, Lecter knows that it was Jack Crawford who
had sent her to him. I'm here to learn from you. Maybe you can decide for
yourself whether or not I'm qualified enough to do that. Lecter begins to
take an interest in the young woman, and inquires what Multiple Miggs hissed
at her in the next cell over. When Clarice was walking down the hall, Miggs
made vile comments towards her. Clarice tells Lecter exactly what was said.
Honesty. When she asks about the drawings in the background, Lecter explains
that it seen from the Belvedere in Florence. Memory, Lecter admits, is all he
has left instead of a view to the outside world. Clarice attempts at humor
fail when she foolishly says, Perhaps you can lend us your view on this
questionnaire. Lecter is unimpressed, being that she had made a great
first impression: No, no, no, you were doing fine. You had
been courteous and receptive to courtesy. You had established trust with the
embarrassing truth about Miggs, and now this ham-handed segue into your
questionnaire. It won't do. Lecter knows Crawford has sent his protégé to
gain information about Buffalo Bill. He’s interested to know why he’s been
nicknamed Buffalo Bill, and Clarice explains it started off as a bad joke in
Kansas. They said this one likes to skin his humps. Lecter sarcastically asks what Clarice thinks
about it. It excites him. Most serial killers keep some sort of trophies
from their victims. When Lecter, with a devilish smile says that he
didn’t keep any reminder of his victims, Clarice says, No, you ate yours.
More and more impressed with her
straightforward attitude, he asks for her to send in the questionnaire but is
merely insulted by what he reads. In another of the films most classic
moments, his polite demeanor (before beginning to read the questionnaire he
even gives he a little wink), has turned vicious: Oh Agent Starling, do you think you can
dissect me with this blunt little tool? Clarice is caught off guard. You're so ambitious, aren't you? You know
what you look like to me with your good bag and your cheap shoes? You look like
a rube. A well-scrubbed hustling rube with a little taste. Good nutrition's
given you some length of bone, but you're not more than one generation from
poor white trash, are you Agent Starling? And that accent you've tried so
desperately to shed, pure West Virginia. What does your father do? Is he a
coal miner? Does he stink of the lamp? You know how quickly the boys found
you. All those tedious, sticky fumblings in the back seats of cars, while you
could only dream of getting out. Getting anywhere, getting all the way to the
F.B.I… What he is saying obviously has a deep and
profound effect on Clarice, as she sits there in a hypnotic state listening
to these words that are tearing her character apart. However, she gathers
herself together and shoots back: You see a lot, Doctor. But are you strong
enough to point that high-powered perception at yourself? What about it? Why
don't you, why don't you look at yourself and write down what you see? Or
maybe you're afraid to Lecter slides back the questionnaire and looks
directly into Clarice’s eyes. A census taker once tried to test me. I ate
his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti. Lecter
dismisses Clarice and turns his back on her (though in the novel he waits
until she is gone before he turns around, out of good manners). Clarice walks
down the corridor, disappointed by his refusal. But while passing Miggs cell,
he throw semen towards her face and hitting her in the hair and forehead.
Mortified about what has just happened, Lecter hollers for Clarice to return
to him, obviously embarrassed at what has just happened. I would not have
had that happen to you. Discourtesy is unspeakably ugly to me. Though
Lecter refuses to do the test, he says he’ll give her advancement and tells
her to look deep within herself. He then tells her to go seek out an old
patient of his by the name of Ms. Mofet. He then orders her to go. Once
outside, the visibly shaken Clarice walks towards her car and memories of her
childhood and her father, a deputy come flooding back. She begins to sob by
her car. Later that night Crawford informs Clarice that
Lecter, to amuse himself, whispered to Miggs all day and told him to swallow
his own tongue. Following up on the Mofet lead is difficult, being
that Lecter destroyed everything concerning his patience records before he
was captured. However she eventually uncovers the your self reference
and that leads her to the Your Self Storage house. She investigates
the warehouse and discovers a severed human head in a jar. It’s a mans head
and has smeared make-up in it. Clarice rushes back to the asylum to interview
Lecter once again. Clarice, wet from the rain outside and suffering from a
cut on her leg she got while in the warehouse, sits on the floor in front of
Lecter’s cage. It's an anagram isn't it Doctor? Hester Mofet, 'The rest of
me. Miss The-Rest-of-Me,' meaning that you rented that garage. Lecter
slides a towel through the tray and then comments that her bleeding has
stopped. In the films more humorous scene, Lecter explains whose head was in
the jar: His real name is Benjamin Raspail, a former
patient of mine whose romantic attachments ran to, shall we say, the exotic.
I did not kill him I assure you. Merely tucked him away, very much as I found
him after he'd missed three appointments Clarice wonders who could have killed him if
Lecter did not. Who can say? Best thing for him, really. His therapy was
going nowhere. He explains that Raspail was a garden-variety
manic-depressive and that he was trying to transform into something else.
That he was a transsexual. Lecter than begins to ask Clarice personal
questions, to get to know her better through psychoanalysis. He even goes as
far as to ask even she believes Crawford is sexually attracted to her and
visualizes scenarios. That doesn't interest me doctor. Frankly, it's, it's
the sort of thing that Miggs would say Not anymore Lecter says with restrained
glee. The lights suddenly come on and Clarice notices
that Lecter’s drawings and books are gone. Dr. Chilton took them away as
punishment for what he did to Miggs. Lecter stands up and begins to discuss
Buffalo Bill, but of course makes it clear that he wants a few benefits from
helping out. What I want is a view. I want a window where I can see a
tree, or even water. I want to be in a federal institution, far away from Dr.
Chilton. Lecter said something about a fledgling killer and asks if
he’ll kill again. Lecter offers to help Clarice catch Buffalo Bill, and
Clarice right off the bat knows that Lecter knows who the killer is. But
Lecter of course has no meaning of time, and taunts Clarice: All good things to those who wait. I've
waited, Clarice. But how long can you and old Jacky boy wait? Our little
Billy must already be searching for that next special lady. The next victim is Catherine Martin, daughter
of Senator Ruth Martin. While arriving home with a bag of groceries, she
notices an obviously handicapped man attempting, and failing, and lifting up
a chair and putting it into a van. She offers to help, but once inside the
van the man strikes her down and is pleased to learn that the girl is a size
fourteen… Meanwhile, another victim of Buffalo Bill has
been found in West Virginia and Crawford and Clarice fly down there. Clarice
examines the case file and looking over pictures of the latest victim.
Crawford explains: He keeps them alive for three days. We don't
know why. There's no evidence of rape or physical abuse prior to death. All
the mutilation you see there is post-mortem. OK. Three days. Then he shoots
them, skins them, and dumps them, each body in a different river. The water
leaves us no trace evidence of any kind. That's Frederica Bimmel, the first
one. Her body was the only one he took the trouble to weight down, so
actually she was the third girl found. After her, he got lazy. While driving towards the funeral home,
Crawford asks Clarice what she sees: He's a white male. Serial killers tend to
hunt within their own ethnic groups. He's not a drifter; he's got his own
house somewhere, not an apartment. What he does with them takes privacy. He's
in his thirties or forties. He's got real physical strength combined with an
older man's self-control. He's cautious, precise, and he's never impulsive.
He'll never stop. Why not? Crawford inquires. He's got a real taste for it now. He's
getting better at his work. Clarice is bothered by the fact that Crawford
had sent Clarice in to interview Dr. Lecter without any sort of game plan.
She is still bothered by her first encounter with the good doctor. If I'd
sent you in there with an actual agenda, Lecter would've known it instantly.
He would have toyed with you then turned to stone. At the funeral home tensions arise between
local police officers and the presence of the FBI. Crawford whispers to the
officer in charge and goes and talks in private away from Clarice, who is
left uncomfortably in a room full of male officers. In the next room a
funeral procession is taking place. Clarice begins to have memories of her
own fathers’ funeral and walking towards the coffin. Crawford comes in and gets
Starling, bringing her into a backroom where the body of Brimmel is ready for
examination. She then announces to the officers in the room that their time
has been appreciated, but their presence is no longer required. While
examining the body, Clarice observes what she sees, her voice crackling with
emotions as she describes into a recorder the physical condition of the
mutilated girl. She notices something lodged in the girl’s throat while
looking at a developing print that was taken during the examination. At first
believed to be merely debris from being in the waters for a long period of
time, it is actually a bug cocoon that was deliberately planted in her
throat. Clarice preserves the bug and brings it to two etymologists, who
conclude that the cocoon, nicknamed the Deaths Head Moth, is only
found in Asia and would have to be shipped over to the States. The next scene switches to a nightmarish scene
in a dark basement, the basement of serial killer Buffalo Bill where the
cries of Catharine Martin can be heard as she is trapped in a small, circular
pit. The news of the abduction makes national news,
as Senator Ruth Martin (Diane Baker) makes a personal plea to the kidnapper to
release her daughter unharmed. She continually repeats Catharine’s name and
snapshots of Catharine appear on the screen. Smart. Jesus that’s smart
observes Clarice’s friend Ardelia Mapp (Kasi Lemmons). If he sees
Catherine as a person and not just an object it'll harder for him to tear her
up, Starling observes. Clarice returns to the asylum where Dr. Chilton is
annoyed that Clarice refuses to share information for the third time
and that Lecter is his patient. Clarice brushes him and tells him to contact
her superiors if he has a problem. Before the madman once again, Clarice
makes a plea that if he helps the FBI catch Buffalo Bill and save Catharine
Martin’s life in time, then he will be transferred to another institution
with a view, as well as special privileges. However, Lecter himself wants
something personal from Clarice. With every piece of information he gives her
that will help her catch Buffalo Bill, she in return has to answer personal
questions about her life. Clarice agrees. Lecter inquires what was the worst
thing about her childhood. Tell me about it and don't lie, or I'll know,
Lecter orders. Clarice explains her father was a deputy marshal who was shot
one night when he surprised two thieves coming out the back of a drugstore.
Having lost her mother early on in life, her father was the word to her and
when he died she felt she had nothing. You're very frank, Clarice. I think
it would be quite something to know you in private life Now it’s Starling’s turn to ask the questions,
and inquires about the case. Lecter asks about the latest victim found and
her physical appearance. She was, as where all the victims. Clarice even
gives him information about the moth found in her throat, something that
hasn’t been made public yet but doesn’t know what it means. The
significance of the moth is change. Caterpillar into chrysalis or pupa, from
thence into beauty. Our Billy wants to change too. But Clarice knows
there is no connection between trans-sexualism and violence. That
transsexuals are very passive and not prone to violence. Clever girl.
You're so close to the way you're going to catch him. Lecter goes back to
Clarice, and asks what happened to her after the death of her father. Clarice
explains she went to live with relatives on a ranch that bred horses and
sheep. She ran away from the ranch a few months later despite the fact it was
a decent home and that she was treated nicely. Lecter then explains that Billy
isn’t a transsexual but believes he is. Chances are good that he has been
turned down for sexual reassignment at several institutions. Clarice asks for
what reasons would he have been turned down. Look for severe childhood
disturbances associated with violence. Our Billy wasn't born a criminal,
Clarice. He was made into one through years of systematic abuse. Billy hates
his own identity you see, and he thinks that makes him a transsexual. But his
pathology is a thousand times more savage… and more terrifying. All the
while Lecter and Clarice engage in conversation, Dr. Chilton has been listening
in on a microphone, having bugged the room. Once Clarice is gone, Dr. Chilton
goes into Lecter’s cell (with Lecter being heavily restrained of course), and
mocks him that he has been scammed and there was never a deal with
Senator Martin but there is now. Dr. Chilton, being the opportunist that he
is, is now in the one pulling the strings and demands that Lecter reveal the
name of Buffalo Bill. Lecter sit perfectly still, silently mocking Chilton by
not saying a single word. However, he notices that Chilton has left his pen
on the bed. Chilton agrees to divulge information, but only to Senator Martin
herself in Memphis. Lecter arrives in Memphis in the now famous
scene when he is lifted off the airplane with the hockey mask on and being
carted around. Like he did with Clarice, he begins to ask the Senator
personal questions, and having a little fun watching her in torment. He first
tells the Senator that Buffalo Bill’s real name is Louis Friend, but then
ignores all other questions and asks the Senator if she breast fed Catharine.
Toughened your nipples, didn't it? Amputate a man's leg, and he can still
feel it tickling. Tell me Mom, when your little girl's on the slab, where
will it tickle you? Disgusted and mortified by the remarks, Martin tells
them to bring this thing back to Baltimore. But Lecter, after having
his fun, yells out the description of this Louis Friend. As Martin turns away
Lecter has just one more thing to say, That's all I can remember but if I
think of any more I will let you know. Oh, and Senator, just one more thing.
Love your suit. Lecter is then moved to a large room in the
Baltimore Historical Society Room several floors up. Naturally he is confined
in a large cage, where he passes the time drawing and listening to classical
music. Clarice comes to visit him and return his drawings to him. This will
be their fourth and final confrontation, and their most intense, as Clarice
continues to give Lecter personal details about her private life, and her
life on the horse and sheep ranch with relatives. But Clarice knows the name
of Louis Friend is merely another anagram of his. Louis Friend? Iron
Sulfide, also known as fool's gold. Lecter tells Clarice that everything
she needs in order to catch Bill is in the case file. First principles, simplicity.
Read Marcus Aurelius. Of each particular thing, ask what is it in itself,
what is its nature? What does he do, this man you seek? Clarice says he
kills women, which angers Lecter. No! That is incidental.
What is the first and principal thing he does, what needs does he serve by
killing? Lecter explains that he covets. We begin by coveting what we
see every day. Don't you feel eyes moving over your body Clarice? And don't
your eyes seek out the things you want? Lecter now wants Clarice to finish her story
about the ranch. Clarice reluctantly tells Lecter the story of why she ran
away from the ranch. One morning she had heard screaming coming from the
outdoors and went to see what it was. When she went to the barn she saw lambs
screaming as they where being slaughtered. She tried to free them but they
wouldn’t run away, they just stood there. But she took one lamb and began
running from the barn. But being that the lamb was heavy and Clarice so
young, they didn’t get far before being picked up by the police. The lamb was
then slaughtered. You still wake up sometimes, don't you, wake up in the
dark, and hear the screaming of the lambs? And you think if you save poor
Catherine you could make them stop, don't you? You think if Catherine lives
you won't wake up in the dark ever again to that awful screaming of the
lambs. Lecter thanks Clarice very graciously, just as Dr. Chilton comes
and has her removed. But before she is gone, Lecter calls back and hands her
back the case file. Just as she reaches for it, Lecter grazes her finger
slightly with his own. The following scene is a gruesome and
terrifying one, as Lecter, using a small clip from Chilton’s pen, undoes his
handcuffs when the guards come in to feed him. Lamb chops. Extra rare
says one officer before the attack. Lecter handcuffs one guard to the cell
and brutally kills the other one with his own baton, after using mace on him.
Picking up the dead man’s switchblade, he then proceeds towards the other
officer. On the ground floor of the building, which is crammed with local
cops, gunshots can be heard on the top floor. When they investigate they see
an image of unspeakable horror, as the body of one of the officers is strung
up in the image of Christ on the bars. The other police officers lies on the
floor, barely breathing. He is hurried of to the hospital, but it is not one
of their fellow police officers. In the ambulance, the police officer sits up
and removes his own face. Except under it is Dr. Lecter. When Clarice learns of the escape she does not
fear for her life. He won't come after me. I can't explain it. He would
consider that rude. Clarice is still attempting to put the pieces
to the puzzle together. Her and Ardelia study the case file together, and on
one of the maps indicating where the victims where abducted and later found,
Lecter penned a little note: Clarice, doesn't this random scattering of
sites seem desperately random, like the elaboration of a bad liar?
Eventually, using Lecter’s covet lead, they come to the conclusion
that Bill had known the first victim on a personal level before killing her
because she was the only one he took time to weigh down in the river where
she was found (she was also the third girl found because of it). Clarice drives down to Belvedere, Ohio where
the first victim had lived. There she meets the father of the slain girl
where she is allowed to go into the girl’s room to investigate. While
searching the room alone, she comes across a group of pictures that show the
young woman posing in the nude for the camera. But the pictures are always of
her back as the looks over her shoulder with a big smile. Clarice is
horrified when she looks into the closet and sees unfinished dress with dress
patterns on them. On one of the dresses is a triangle shape pattern, two of
them. They are identical to the shape of skin missing from the back of the
girl in the funeral home in West Virginia. Buffalo Bill is kidnapping large
woman so he can create a woman suit. Clarice quickly contacts Crawford, but
he has already found out the identity of the killer, whose name is Jame Gumb.
Crawford wants Clarice in the meantime to find information while in Belvedere
that links Gumb to Frederica Brimmel before he is indicted. While in the pit in Gumb’s basement, Catharine
lures the killer obnoxious pet poodle towards the opening of the pit with a
piece of chicken bone and a string. Gumb is too busy to notice. Applying
make-up to his face, he is preparing for his transformation. Clarice is talking to an old friend of
Frederica and gets the address of a Mrs. Lipman, an elderly woman who
Frederica used to sew for. The action criss crosses between Crawford and
his SWAT team moving up towards a house, and Jame Gumb realizing that his pet
poodle has fallen down into the pit, where Catharine orders a phone to be
lowered down. When the SWAT team, in the guise of a flower delivery crew
rings the doorbell, a loud buzzer begins to ring in the basement. When Gumb
answers the door it is Clarice who he sees. Meanwhile, the SWAT team bursts
into an empty house. The wrong house. Gumb allows Clarice to come in. The house once
belonged to Mrs. Lipman but moved away to live with family. Clarice wonders
if the woman had left a number behind to get in contact with, and Gumb goes
into the kitchen to scrounge around. But Clarice notices a Death Head moth
fly about and realizes she is in the murderers house. Trying to remain calm,
she slowly puts her hand on her revolver, as Gumb is busy asking questions
about Buffalo Bill and if there are any leads. But when they exchange glances
again Gumb knows that his identity is known and flees into the basement.
Clarice follows and hears the screaming of Catharine Martin, and assures her
other officers will be here soon. As Clarice investigates each room, she is
horrified when she sees a bathtub filled with a murky substance with a human
hand reaching out if it. Just then the lights go out and she is in total
darkness. From Gumb’s point of view, we Clarice stumbling around in the dark
(Gumb is wearing nigh vision goggles). He moves closer and closer to Clarice,
positioning his hand right in front of hers and moving his hand gently just
inches away from her head. He then raises his gun to her, but the sound of
the trigger alerts Clarice to his whereabouts and she fires first, hitting
him several times in the chest. Jame Gumb breathes his last few breaths of
air and dies. Clarice graduates from the Academy and accepts
her diploma. Crawford, a man of few words, proudly praises Clarice for her
work. You’re father would have been proud. He extends his hand to
shake hers. He decides to duck out of the after party early and just then
Clarice receives a phone call, the voice on the other line very familiar to
her. Well Clarice, have the lambs stopped
screaming? Don't bother with the trace. I won't be on long enough. I have no
plans to call on you, Clarice. The world's more interesting with you in it.
Say, you take care now to extend me the same courtesy. You know I can’t make that promise. Clarice,
voice shaken tells Lecter as she silently watches Crawford gather his coat
and leave. I do wish we could chat longer, but I'm
having an old friend for dinner A shot of Dr. Chilton getting off a plane just
yards away. Bye. As Chilton walks down the road of a small
Southern American village surrounded by police, Dr. Lecter calmly walks
closely behind. THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS creates its
suspense on the notion of dread and fear of ourselves and our ambitions in
life. Clarice Starling in such a masterfully written character who feels the
need to bond with older men because of the hidden desire to have a father
figure in her life once again. She is a woman who lives in a very male
oriented word and works in a male dominated environment. Because of this she
must work harder and create a solid determination that cannot be broken while
under pressure. Jodie Foster’s performance here is nothing short of
stupendous. Though the accent slips now and then, Foster is working with
top-notch material here and fully fleshes out her characters vulnerability
and strengths. Again, the very first time we see her she is running and
struggling hard through an obstacle course, and it symbolizes her current
struggle and her future struggle. She rises above the prejudices of those
around her, from dealing with uncomfortable situations as the scene when she
is surrounded by cops in the funeral home who look at her as an object rather
then a person. To the scene where she is consulting two scientists about the
bug, and one asks her out on a date. Are you flirting with me? she
asks with genuine heart, seeing that the guy is quite harmless and has a
little crush on her. Of course there is Sir Anthony Hopkins
performance as the villain, Dr. Hannibal ‘The Cannibal’ Lecter, the role that
made him famous, despite being in films for a good twenty-three years before
taking on the part. Everything about his performance is perfect for he
delivers this hypnotic, nightmarish and ghoulish performance, and has all the
fun in the world with it. Hopkins is chilling, with his robotic voice and
dead eyes as he probes into the mind of Foster with both curiosity and
taunting glee. When the two are onscreen together, the chemistry and
brilliance that is involved is electrifying. He is the embodiment of pure
evil in the form of a very well refined gentleman. She is a brave, headstrong
young woman who is not afraid of him, but afraid to face what he knows about
her. Their sessions together are perhaps the most intense and intriguing
scenes ever put on film, as he is the teacher and her the student, as she
seeks out information about the case, and he learns information from her. The complexity of the characters, especially
Lecter, is done magnificently by director Jonathan Demme and writer Ted
Tally. Both have a flawless collaboration on the story, as they flesh out
their own version of Beauty and the Beast. They depict Starling’s
personality with painstaking efforts, and it shows. Like Sigourney Weaver in
the ALIEN films, it is her own determination that fuels her. She is
not blind to the world she lives in, but is in prime position to be a victim
of it, which she won't allow. However, through all the films masterfully
filmed scenes (the very first meeting of Clarice and Lecter for example has a
poetic feel to it), but the character development of Jame Gumb is a very
disappointing one. He could have been just as interesting as Lecter was. But
instead all the information we obtain about him is explained through other
characters. In the novel, we learn much more about him and who is was (we
learn a little about his mother, that he had killed his grandparents when he
was twelve etc). The movie is only one hour and forty minutes long, and I
think perhaps an extra twenty minutes of screen time couldn’t have hurt,
especially if it was dedicated to helping us understand better what kind of
monster Gumb was. There could have been an interesting parallel between him
and Dr. Lecter. But the film chooses to not take advantage of this, and
though the structure of the story remains firmly intact, I think it could
have benefited a little more with Jame Gumb. Aside from that, everything this movie does is
on the right track. Many have compared the movie to SEVEN, but such
comparisons is groundless and silly. That movie was more along the lines of
character behavior and how one deals with the ugliness of the world around
them. This is a character study, as the film of course uses metaphors and
symbolism to help us understand why Clarice is so dedicated to saving lives.
To saving that one lamb. A riveting and suspenseful film that deserves
its place in cinema’s history books. And one that will remain in the
imaginations of many generations to come. My Grade: A+ |