The Silence of the Lambs (film)

The Silence of the Lambs
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jonathan Demme
Produced by	Kenneth Utt Edward Saxon Ron Bozman
Written by	Screenplay: Ted Tally Novel: Thomas Harris
Starring	Jodie Foster Anthony Hopkins Scott Glenn Ted Levine
Music by	Howard Shore
Cinematography	Tak Fujimoto
Editing by	Craig McKay
Distributed by	Orion Pictures
Release date(s)	February 14, 1991 (1991-02-14)
Running time	118 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$19 million[1]
Gross revenue	$272,742,922 (worldwide)
Preceded by	Manhunter
Followed by	Hannibal

The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 American thriller film, which blends elements of the crime and horror genres. It was directed by Jonathan Demme and stars Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, and Ted Levine. It is based on the novel of the same name by Thomas Harris, his second to feature Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer.

In the film, Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee, seeks the advice of Hannibal Lecter, an imprisoned cannibal, for help in apprehending a serial killer known only as "Buffalo Bill". With the help of Lecter, Clarice tracks down the killer and saves his most-recent abductee, a daughter of a U.S. Senator.

When The Silence of the Lambs was released on February 14, 1991, it received much critical acclaim. The film won the top five Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Director and Best Screenplay.

Plot

Clarice Starling is pulled from her training at the FBI Academy at Quantico, Virginia, by Jack Crawford of the Bureau's Behavioral Science Unit. He tasks her with interviewing Hannibal Lecter, a former psychiatrist and incarcerated cannibalistic serial killer, believing Lecter's insight might be useful in the pursuit of a serial killer nicknamed "Buffalo Bill" who skins his female victims' corpses. Starling travels to the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, where she is led by Dr. Frederick Chilton to Lecter's solitary quarters. Although initially pleasant and courteous, Lecter grows impatient with Starling's attempts at "dissecting" him and rebuffs her. As she is leaving, one of the prisoners obscenely flicks semen at her. Lecter, who considers discourtesy "unspeakably ugly", calls Clarice back and tells her to seek out an old patient of his. Clarice is led to a storage lot where she discovers a man's severed head. She returns to Lecter, who tells her that the man is linked to Buffalo Bill. Though Lecter denies killing this man, he offers to profile Buffalo Bill if he can be transferred away from Chilton, whom he dislikes.

In light of Buffalo Bill's recent abduction of a U.S. Senator's daughter, Crawford authorizes Starling to offer Lecter a fake deal promising a prison transfer if he provides information that helps find Buffalo Bill and rescue the abductee. Instead, Lecter begins a game of quid pro quo with Starling, offering comprehensive clues and insights about Buffalo Bill in exchange for events from Starling's childhood, something she was advised not to do. Chilton secretly records the conversation and reveals Starling's deal as a sham before offering to transfer Lecter in exchange for a deal of Chilton's own making. Lecter agrees and is flown to Memphis where he reveals personal information on Buffalo Bill to federal agents. As the manhunt begins, Starling visits Lecter at his special cell in a Tennessee courthouse and confronts him with her decryption of the name he provided ("Louis Friend", which is an anagram of "iron sulfide"). Lecter refuses Starling's pleas for the truth, as she believes everything he stated was false, and forces her to recount her traumatic childhood. She tells him how she was orphaned, relocated to a relative's farm, discovered a lamb slaughterhouse and failed in an attempt to rescue one of the lambs. Lecter gives her the case files on Buffalo Bill, after their conversation is interrupted by Chilton and the police who escort her from the building. Later that evening, Lecter manages to escape from his cell, killing his two guards in the process, and disappears.

Starling analyzes Lecter's annotations to the case files and realizes that Buffalo Bill's first victim knew him personally before he killed her. Starling travels to the victim's hometown and discovers that Buffalo Bill was a tailor, with dresses and templates identical to the patches of skin removed from each of his victims. She telephones Crawford to inform him that Buffalo Bill is trying to fashion a "woman suit" of real skin, but Crawford is already en route to make an arrest, having cross-referenced Lecter's notes with a hospital's archives and finding a man named Jame Gumb who once applied for a sex-change operation. Starling continues interviewing friends of Buffalo Bill's first victim while Crawford leads an FBI tactical team to Gumb's address in Illinois. Starling is led to the house of "Jack Gordon", who she realizes is actually Jame Gumb. She pursues him into his multi-room basement where she discovers the recently-abducted Senator's daughter alive, but traumatized and trapped in a dry well. After turning off the basement lights, Gumb stalks Starling in the dark with night vision goggles but gives his position away when he cocks his revolver, and is shot to death by Starling.

Some time later at the FBI Academy graduation party, Starling receives a phone call from Lecter, who is at an airport in Bimini. He assures her that he does not plan to pursue her and asks her to show him the same courtesy, which she says she cannot do. Lecter then hangs up the phone, saying he's "having an old friend for dinner", and begins following a newly-arrived Chilton, who is fleeing since Lecter is at large.

Cast

• Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling
• Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Hannibal Lecter
• Scott Glenn as Jack Crawford
• Ted Levine as Jame Gumb, "Buffalo Bill"
• Anthony Heald as Frederick Chilton
• Brooke Smith as Catherine Martin
• Kasi Lemmons as Ardelia Mapp
• Frankie Faison as Barney Matthews
• Diane Baker as Sen. Ruth Martin
• Charles Napier as Lt. Boyle
• Danny Darst as Sgt. Tate
• Alex Coleman as Sgt. Jim Pembry
• Dan Butler as Roden
• Paul Lazar as Pilcher
• Ron Vawter as Paul Krendler
• Roger Corman as FBI Director Hayden Burke
• Chris Isaak as SWAT Commander
• Harry Northup as Mr Bimmel
• Masha Skorobogatov as Young Clarice Starling

Pre-production

Casting

Michelle Pfeiffer was initially offered the role of Clarice Starling, but turned it down. She has said about her rejection of the part, "that was a difficult decision, but I got nervous about the subject matter."^[2] According to Jonathan Demme, there were 300 applicants for the role of Clarice Starling.

Production

The Silence of the Lambs was distributed by Orion Pictures; MGM (who bought Orion in 1997) currently holds the rights.

Response

Critical

Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster gained overwhelming acclaim with their portrayals of Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling, even though Hopkins' screen time in the entire film is just over 16 minutes.^[3] Their respective portrayals won both of them Academy Awards in 1992.

The Silence of the Lambs was a sleeper hit that only gradually gained widespread success.^[4] The film ultimately received widespread critical acclaim; Rotten Tomatoes records that The Silence of the Lambs received a 96% positive response from critics. Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster also received praise for their performances. Roger Ebert specifically mentioned the "terrifying qualities" of Hannibal Lecter,^[5] and has since recognized the film as a "horror masterpiece," alongside such classics as Nosferatu, Psycho, and Halloween.^[6] However, the film is also notable for being one of two multi-Oscar winners disapproved of by Ebert's colleague, Gene Siskel, the other being Unforgiven.^[7]

Box office

Awards and honors

Jonathan Demme won an Academy Award for Best Director. Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins both won Oscars for their roles as Clarice Starling and Dr. Hannibal Lecter, respectively. The film won additional Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture.

Other awards include "best picture" from CHI Awards, the "best film" from PEO Awards, and Best Film from National Board of Review, all in 1991. Jonathan Demme was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for best director. The film was nominated for "best film" at the BAFTA Awards (British Academy of Film and Television Arts). In 1992, Ted Tally received an Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay. In 1991, the film was awarded Best Horror Film of the Year during the 2nd Horror Hall of Fame Telecast. Vincent Price presented the award to the film's Executive Producer Gary Goetzman.^[8]

In 1998, the film was listed as one of the 100 greatest movies in the past 100 years by the American Film Institute.^[9] In 2006 at the Key Art Awards, the original poster for The Silence of the Lambs was named best film poster "of the past 35 years".^[10]

The Silence of the Lambs placed seventh on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments for Lecter's infamous escape scene. The American Film Institute named Hannibal Lecter (as portrayed by Hopkins) the number one film villain of all time^[11] and Clarice Starling (as portrayed by Foster) the sixth greatest film hero of all time.^[11]

American Film Institute recognition

• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies – Number 65
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills – Number 5
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains:
  • Clarice Starling – Hero Number 6
  • Dr. Hannibal Lecter – Villain Number 1
• 2005, AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes – Number 21
  • "A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti."
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – Number 74

Accusations of homophobia and sexism

Upon its release, The Silence of the Lambs was criticized by members of the gay community for being what they perceived as another in a long line of negative on-screen portrayals of LGBT characters in the absence of any positive portrayals^[12][13], but the director Jonathan Demme's next project was the AIDS-related drama Philadelphia which featured a homosexual as the protagonist.^[14]

In a 1992 interview with Playboy magazine, notable feminist and women's rights advocate Betty Friedan stated, "I thought it was absolutely outrageous that The Silence of the Lambs won four Oscars. [...] I'm not saying that the movie shouldn't have been shown. I'm not denying the movie was an artistic triumph, but it was about the evisceration, the skinning alive of women. That is what I find offensive. Not the Playboy centerfold."^[15]

See also

• List of films based on crime books

References

External links

• The Silence of the Lambs at the Internet Movie Database
• The Silence of the Lambs at the TCM Movie Database
• The Silence of the Lambs at Allmovie
• The Silence of the Lambs at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Silence of the Lambs at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
• Criterion Collection essay by Amy Taubin