The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Director: Jonathan Demme
Screenplay: Ted Tally (based on the novel by Thomas Harris)
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster, Ted Levine 
Music: Howard Shore
Time: 118 minutes
Bottom-line: Utterly terrifying and immensely captivating in equal measure; will haunt you for days. 

My 200th review: co-written by Taruna Sudhakar.

Well, Clarice, have the lambs stopped screaming?
1991 is a year that saw few of the most memorable Hollywood villains, and Dr. Hannibal Lecter takes the cake! In a year that introduced us to the new Max Cady and T-800, this horror thriller gave us the brilliant psychiatrist/cannibal, portrayed in the most magnificent manner by Anthony Hopkins (who surprisingly has barely twenty minutes of screen time!). The film co-stars Jodie Foster, Scott Glenn and Ted Levine.

Quantico: FBI trainee Clarice Starling (Foster) is called upon by Jack Crawford (Glenn) to interview cannibalistic serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter
(Hopkins), who might prove useful in tracking down another serial killer Buffalo Bill (Levine), who skins his female victims’ corpses. Dr. Lecter is kept beyond unbreakable Plexiglas at the Baltimore State Hospital for the criminally insane. He agrees to help Clarice and profile Bill in return for being transferred from the doctor who’s in charge of him. But soon Clarice realises that when it comes to Dr. Lecter, nothing is as simple as it seems. Before she knows it, their encounters turn into a deadly psychological game...

Hopkins as Lecter

Starling, believe me, you don't want Hannibal Lecter inside your head.  
Well Clarice may be an FBI trainee who can (almost) successfully tune her mind into keeping Lecter out of there, but the viewers like us are stuck with him for the rest of our lives! He is however an extremely gifted psychiatrist capable of delving into people’s minds and figuring out who exactly you are, your history, your deepest, darkest secrets... he knows you better than you know yourself, so much so that he can predict your actions and invariably make you do what he wants you to. This power he has is what makes him so terribly scary. From the first scene in the prison where we see him taunt Clarice, blatantly invading her personal space, till the last scene where he leaves us with a chilling “I'm having an old friend for dinner. Bye”, the movie revolves around Lecter. The crux of the film is not about how the FBI catches Buffalo Bill, rather, it is about the relationship between Lecter and Clarice.

Foster as Clarice

What starts out purely as an attempt to “use one to catch one”, turns into a battle of wits. Lecter uses his method of “quid pro quo. I tell you things, you tell me things” to delve into Clarice’s traumatic past memories, while Clarice must use her willpower and mental strength to complete her job of capturing Bill, without breaking down . His clues are never direct, they are difficult riddles, anagrams that are brilliantly composed. It’s his way of showing off and toying with Clarice at the same time. The part which involve Buffalo Bill, and the climax where Clarice encounters Bill are not as exciting as the psychological games between Lecter and the others. The reason the film is categorised as “horror” is probably because of a few bits of gore and one grizzly sequence where Lecter attempts to escape from his prison. Seeing Lecter go from the calm old man with impeccable manners to the raving monster he becomes, those 15 minutes of intense violence will truly shock you. He oscillates between exceedingly vile and atrociously charming. In contrast you get the minor villain: highly clichéd transsexual, Buffalo bill, who yearns to be a proper woman. He hates himself rather than his victims and it is this self-hate that drives him into killing. He is exactly what you expect him to be - uncouth, depressed and angry with obvious behavioural ticks that put you on guard at first sight. This is unlike Lecter who, mind you, is highly functioning and immensely proud of it.

Levine as Buffalo Bill

Anthony Hopkins plays this role to perfection. He has the excellent balance of emotion, voice modulation and body language that make one of the most terrifying movie characters ever – in fact, Dr. Lecter was voted the #1 villain of the century by the American Film Institute. It is never his physical violence or cannibalism that makes him dangerous, although watching it visually will scare you, but it is the fact that he has such a powerful control on his victims’ mind that makes him so terrifying.Who can forget the famous “A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chi-an-ti”. Jodie Foster does a remarkable job. As another critic put it, her character is the short woman in an elevator full of tall men. I liked the way she plays the strong, brave woman and the way she tries her best to stay calm and bold in front of Lecter, despite knowing she is powerless, is amazing to watch.

The Silence of the Lambs won the “big five” at the Oscars – Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay, the only film to do so after One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and It Happened One Night. So with sublime acting, spectacular cinematography (especially those close ups of Lecter’s eyes that hypnotise and petrify you; he looks right at you, into you), subtle metaphors bordering on genius along with a good dose of violence and “horror”, this 1991 psychological thriller is something you will never forget. Believe me, you don’t want Hannibal Lecter inside your head... but he’s going to end up there nevertheless.

My Rating: 4.5/5
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 95%