THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
When your line of work involves stopping bad guys, you’re gonna be introduced to a whole new layer of evil you never thought you’d see until now if you haven’t already.
PLOT
Based on the titular Thomas Harris novel, The Silence of the Lambs follows FBI trainee Clarice Starling assigned by her superior Jack Crawford to interview the imprisoned psychiatrist turned cannibal Hannibal Lecter, hoping to gain insight of serial killer Buffalo Bill who kills & skins overweight women. At Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, Lecter considers rebuffing her due to knowing Crawford’s intentions, but when a prisoner next door named Miggs flings his own semen at her, he angrily reconsiders and gives her to visit Miss Hester Mofet. The name takes her to a storage unit, which she finds a jar containing the severed head of a man named Benjamin Raspail who was one of Lecter’s patients. Around the same time, Miggs would be so revolted of his actions that he took his own life by swallowing his own tongue. And when another victim is found dead, she finds a moth lodged in the throat. When Starling sees Lecter again, the cannibal confirms Raspail was one of Buffalo Bill’s first victims and only found him when he died. He offers a profile to the killer if he transferred away from administrator Frederick Chilton who he detests. Before she considers agreeing to his terms, Bill has struck again by abducting Catherine Martin (Brooke Smith), daughter of US Senator Ruth Martin (Diane Baker). With the stakes at its highest, Starling gives a false promise that she’ll agree to the prison transfer if Bill is stopped in time. Instead, Lecter demands quid pro quo where he will give clues in exchange of her giving personal information. She agrees and instantly shares how her father was a town marshal who was shot in an attempt to foil a robbery and died after a month in comatose; Lecter keeps his word by declaring the moths represent change, meaning Bill identifies as transexual but was deemed too violent to apply for a sex change. With Chilton overhearing this conversation, he later tells Lecter that Starling & Crawford are still using him and offers a legit transfer arranged by Ruth if he identifies Bill by name and Catherine is rescued in time. Being taken to Memphis, he chooses to give an accurate description of Bill and shares Raspail’s previous suspicion of him before he died, but intentionally gives the wrong name “Louis Friend”. Not knowing that he lied, he is still moved to the middle of a museum before a scheduled return to Baltimore. Starling confronts him of his bluff, due to how the name originates from an anagram. In her last act of quid pro quo, she shares of having nightmares of her past; She’s been heavily traumatized of hearing lambs screaming as they were being slaughtered at a cousin’s barn when she was a child and when she tried to run away, she would be sent to an orphanage. Although he doesn’t give the real name, he returns her her case file and gives his final clue that Bill’s motives aren’t sexual. Hours after she leaves, Lecter escapes from his confinement and kills multiple people on his way out. By the time Starling finds out what happened, she continues looking at the case file of Bill. This time, she realizes the first victim Frederika Bimmel was someone he knew personally. Upon traveling to Bimmel’s hometown, she discovers she was a tailor and had an affair with Bill in her lifetime; She also finds enough evidence via dressmaking pattern that Bill is making a suit of human skin. By the time she shares this to Crawford, he tracks down the address of possible suspect Jame Gumb. He tracks down said address in Illinois, but turns out being a dead end when the house is found empty inside. Needing more evidence for the link between the murders, she interviews more of Bimmel’s peers, which leads to her Gumb’s actual address. Gumb tries to maintain the facade he’s not who she’s after by calling himself Jack Gordon, but she quickly realizes who he is when spotting a moth. When she chases him into his basement, she does find Catherine trapped in a dry well. Buffalo Bill tries to isolate the trainee by shutting off the lights and stalk her via night vision. The plan backfires because when he cocks his own revolver, she hears it and acts fast by shooting him down. Starling would be praised for rescuing Catherine, who would go on to reunite with her mother. At an FBI grad party, she gets an unexpected call from the escaped Lecter who’s been hiding in the Bahamas. He congratulates her for her success and assures her he won’t pursue her with the request she doesn’t do the same, although she can’t make that promise. The film ends with Lecter hanging up on her as he declares having an old friend for dinner, pursuing Chilton in the crowd.
THOUGHTS
Horror works as a genre because it knows how to surprise people in many shapes & forms. Director Jonathan Demme understood this and was able to craft a stunning journey in the process. Dread is a key word I use for these kind of movies because that’s the feeling expected to feel in such an environment. With a chilling score by Howard Shore and a powerful combo of editing & cinematography, the pedal that is pushed for tension to be present and you can never be sure if it’ll go away even when a threat is dealt with. The violence is grounded yet doesn’t feel exploited, which works because this is a setting that is the realest without being a biopic. Everyday, there are killers who leaves behind a gruesome path of destruction and were given an ideal example of how bad the trail can look. I think this film earns its accolade as the genre’s first Best Picture Oscar because it has an incredible epiphany of how we have to unmask ourselves and be authentic in order to do what’s important. It’s a beautiful allegory I never thought I’d digest through a unique array of characters that are played by a fantastic cast. When you look back at previous films like Taxi Driver and The Accused, you can argue that Jodie Foster had not played a character with control until it came to playing Clarice Starling. She makes an iconic protagonist out of her because she’s so pensive in her line of work and chooses to surrender her emotions for her greater good. We root for her because we want her to prove doubters wrong that is a world full of men who literally look down on her and doubt her potential. Whether it is Scott Glenn making Jack Crawford an overprotective mentor or Anthony Heald making Chilton a sleazy prick who chooses to not respect anyone at all, it becomes part of Starling’s drive to exceed everyone’s expectations about her. However, what she really wanted more was to be able to put the past behind her and little did she expect a dangerous man to pave the way. Anthony Hopkins makes a god damn enigma out of Hannibal Lecter because he makes his calculating attitude oh so bone chilling you’re in awe of it. We don’t know why he chose to eat people yet despite being deranged, he still has his own sanity by choosing to respect Starling because he has no reason to dislike her. Due to being a psychiatrist before his evil doing, he senses she’s troubled and wants to heal her the way he’s healed others if he wasn’t eating them. You don’t even want to want him to break free yet you respect him being smart enough to do it and accept his unlikely therapy sessions helped Starling get the job done. However you feel about Chilton by the end of it, you accept the inevitable that Lecter will kill him because he again proves his intelligence by being more deceptive than anyone can prepare for. He’s such an iconic villain, yet there is irony that he ain’t even the main threat in this story. Ted Levine was incredibly bombastic as Buffalo Bill for being an angrily disturbed individual. He is livid that society denied him for an identity he was seeking and chooses to inflict harm as he can to get what he wants. I don’t know how he could roam around in public with a skin suit, but it’s terrifying determination he set for himself. Thankfully for Catherine, his reign of terror ended before his task could be complete. Even though terror in society lives on with more people continue choosing to do bad, it won’t stop brave people like Starling will be there to confront them each and every time. This movie holds up for all the right reasons, but even great stuff like this have their own questionable moments. For example, I don't even see the point of Crawford to straight up tell Clarice why she's assigning him to interview Lecter when it's obviously related to Bill due to her noticing the obsession wall behind him. Like the least he could've done at that point was give her time to shower, since he pulled her from training, if he ain't gonna be upfront yet. The trippy thing about seeing Lecter's cell is that next to him are stairs that likely go nowhere because I don't see the point in having that if the end Starling is coming from requires two gates. I know there is an impressive dramatic effect on introducing Lecter, but it would've been 1000 times more effective if those stairs weren't there. Or there could've been just effective of a decision if she went down the opposite, expect the worst when seeing portraits of past inmates only see him infamously standing while patiently waiting. Moving on, how come the newspaper doesn't explain the origin of the nickname that is Buffalo Bill according to Lecter? I mean that is something the media would totally chew up on. Also, ain't it crazy Starling wasn't briefed about Catherine's abduction and had to find out on the news? That was the most essential time to be briefed on the case and Crawford fucks up big time not calling her at the very least. I then wonder how come it took so long to find moths in the victims mouths? I know Raspail's head was hidden, but there had to have been a pattern after Bimmel died. Lecter's escape is forever thrilling, but there is a huge continuity error in the midst of it: He kicks one guard with the gate in one take, only for it to be completely out of the way by the time he bites his face which is so confusing. He could've jus kicked him without the door if it wasn't going to be effective or show the gate swing back. That bothered me more than the fact he is allowed a radio at the museum when he could've made anything sharp out of that. I even feel like there should've way more than two guards to deal with a freaking cannibal that has documented history of violence towards a nurse. Lastly I don't want to get picky, but the crowd at the graduation ceremony was not loud enough when applauding Clarice. She took down Buffalo Bill on her own and should get an eruption like it was a Wrestlemania match. Hell, her friend Ardelia (Kasi Lemmons) could've gotten up from her seat and tried to rally the crowd for crying out loud. That bothered me more than how no one pays attention to her talking to Lecter on the phone and saying his name multiple times in public. Ignore this, then you'll still love this movie for what it is. In conclusion, The Silence of the Lambs is not just the best of its genre but one of the best movies all time for finding new forms of terror and master suspense at every given turn. If you love real life horror, see this now.
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