Catch up on the series and find new installments daily here.
__________________________________
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
__________________________________
TYPE OF FILM: Detective/ Suspense
STUDIO: Orion
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Gary Goetzman
PRODUCERS: Edward Saxon, Kenneth Utt, Ron Bozman
DIRECTOR: Jonathan Demme
SCREENWRITER: Ted Tally
SOURCE: The Silence of the Lambs, novel by Thomas Harris
RUNNING TIME: 118 minutes
PRINCIPAL PLAYERS:
Jodie Foster…………………………………………………………………………Clarice Starling
Anthony Hopkins…………………………………………………………..….Dr. Hannibal Lecter
Scott Glenn………………………………………………………………………….Jack Crawford
Ted Levine……………………………………………………………………………James Gumb
Anthony Heald………………………………………………………………Dr. Frederick Chiltern
Brooke Smith…………………………………………………………….……….Catherine Martin
Diane Baker……………………………………………………………..…….Senator Ruth Martin
Kasi Lemmons……………………………………………………………………….Ardelia Mapp
Charles Napier……………………………………………………………….……Lieutenant Boyle
__________________________________
DID YOU KNOW?
__________________________________
Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter, one of the most chilling villains in the history of literature and cinema, is loosely based on a real person. Ed Gein, a multiple murderer and eater of his victims, who also served as the prototype for Norman Bates in Robert Bloch’s Psycho (later filmed by Alfred Hitchcock), as well as inspiring Deranged, the 1974 motion picture directed by Jeff Gillen and starring Alan Ormsby, Robert Blossom, and Cosette Lee. Finally, Gein influenced the making of the cult favorite, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), which is less violent than its title and reputation suggest and was directed by Tobe Hooper and starred Gunnar Hansen, Ed Neal and Marilyn Burns.
__________________________________
THE STORY
__________________________________
Clarice Starling, still a student at the FBI Academy, is recruited by the head of the behavioral science unit, Jack Crawford, to seek help form the imprisoned Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter in capturing another serial killer, who removes the skins from his raped and murdered victims. Nicknamed “Buffalo Bill” by the press (because he skins his humps), he has murdered at least five young women and the pressure to capture him escalates when he kidnaps the daughter of a senator from Tennessee.
Dr. Lecter, a brilliant psychopath who ate parts of his victims (he describes one incident to Starling in which he ate a man’s liver, “with fava beans and a nice Chianti”), agrees to help the young FBI trainee if she will help him get a cell with a view. Starling comes back with an offer: He will be transferred to another prison and given a week each year at a guarded beach in exchange for a profile of the serial killer.
Lecter and Starling exchange information—she about her childhood, he about the killer, including an explanation of why a moth’s cocoon was found stuffed down a victim’s throat. But Dr. Frederick Chiltern, the ambitious head of the facility housing Lecter, reveals to Lecter that the offer was bogus and makes him his own offer, for which he received approval from the senator. Lecter provides the name and physical description of the killer in a face-to-face meeting with the senator.
Lecter quickly escapes from a new facility: After killing his two guards, he changes into the uniform of one, smears himself unrecognizable in blood, and is rushed into an ambulance, after which he kills the doctor and drivers.
Meanwhile, Crawford and a large team of agents has gone off on a wild-goose chase to the believed residence of “Buffalo Bill.” Starling, alone, conducts interviews regarding an earlier victim and goes to the house of her acquaintance, only to discover that “Bill” now lives there and has imprisoned the senator’s daughter in the basement. After nearly being killed herself, Starling shoots and kills the deranged killer.
At the graduation celebration at the FBI Academy, Starling receives a phone call from the still-free Lecter, who wishes her well. As he spots Dr. Chiltern, Lecter says he’d like to chat longer, he says, but he’s “having an old friend for dinner.”
***
The Silence of the Lambs was an enormous best-seller by Thomas Harris and is one of the best serial-killer books ever written. It was a sequel to the even more suspenseful Red Dragon, which introduced “Hannibal the Cannibal” in a small role and which was filmed as Manhunter in 1986, written and directed by Michael Mann. It starred William L. Petersen as a somewhat imbalanced retired FBI agent who was called back to help track the ruthless genius; Brian Cox wonderfully played Lecter.
Just as Psycho brought on a wave of imitations by lesser talents who created the slasher movie with graphic depictions of violence, The Silence of the Lambs spawned an overwhelming flood of serial-killer books and movies, some of which have been excellent but many of which have attempted to be more violent or outlandishly grisly than anything that has preceded them.
Academy Awards were given for Best Picture, to Demme for Best Director, to Foster for Best Actress, to Hopkins for Best Actor, and to Tally for Best Adapted Screenplay. The Mystery Writer’s of America gave an Edgar Allan Poe Award to Tally for his screenplay.
__________________________________
BEST LINE
__________________________________
Clarice Starling has come to visit Hannibal Lecter in his new prison, and a guard asks her, “Is it true what they’re saying? He’s some kind of vampire?” Starling replies, “They don’t have a name for what he is.”
