Silence of the Lambs
Director:
Jonathan Demme
Cast:
Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling
Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Hannibal Lecter
Ted Levine as Jame “Buffalo Bill” Gumb
Genere:
Serial Killer movies
Silence of the Lambs
“Jonathan Demme”
Today is 26/03/2020. The world is in total fear of Corona and our company declared work at home to keep us safe. Well you all know that working at home will not happen like the way we expect. However, I did finish some of the reports that I had to submit on urgent basis and emailed all to my manager.
Well what to do again, its movie time!
I decided to watch a movie based on serial killers and Silence of the Lambs came top among online search list
Released back in 1991, this movie revolves around two important characters
- Clarice Starling a student of FBI training academy.
- Hannibal Lecter – A former psychiatrist who ends up in prison for a series of cannibalistic murders. (Now a highly dangerous psychopathic murderer)
The story of this movie progresses’ as Clarice Starling seeks help of serial killer Hannibal Lecter in order to track down another serial killer named “Buffalo Bill” who targets young females as his victims and skins them after killing.
Review
The first impression I have about this movie is the haunting music played in the opening scene, where Clarice runs through the woods.
Clarice Starling is an FBI trainee at the behavioral science unit. Her senior Jack Crawford instructs her to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter an intelligent psychiatrist who is now in prison for cannibalistic murders. Jack hopes to use Hannibal’s ideas and insights to capture Buffalo Bill.
While watching this movie I was totally blown away by the acting of Anthony Hopkins (No wonder why he got best actor for Oscars for this movie). Honestly, I never felt anything special about Judie Foster’s acting when compared to Anthony Hopkins, but Judie’s role as Clarice did portray beautifully the struggles faced by women especially in the field of police force or FBI. So many scenes in the movie show this.
The scene where Clarice enter the elevator full of men, all of them looks at her strangely.
The scene where Clarice struggles to command the cops to leave to room of the funeral house.
Now moving to direction, the director really played with the camera frames in many scenes of the movie to portray the evilness of Hannibal Lecter (Close up and mid shots). When combined with Anthony Hopkins acting, those scenes became the memorable frames in movie history. Below two shots from the movie, one can observe those intense look given by Anthony Hopkins which makes the audience feel as if the character itself is talking to them directly. (There are so many scenes in the movie similar to this)
(Close up tight frame)
(Mid Shot)
The performance by Ted Levine as Buffalo Bill is also worth mentioning. I felt he had really prepared well for the role. I really liked his change in voice and facial expressions as a complete psycho throughout situations and circumstances. Especially during the climax scene where Clarice comes and seeks him at home and when he looks down the dry well and talks to senator’s daughter whom he kidnapped and kept captive.
From a cinematographer’s point of view, below is the only frame from the movie that I found special. Here the camera is framed with tree on the rule of thirds and road as the leading line in which Clarice and Jack Crawford returns in their car after investigating a crime scene, the silhouette effect to the whole frame is what makes this beautiful.
Conclusion
Both Clarice and Hannibal Lecter shares only few scenes together in the movie and this doesn’t make audience feel that the character “Hannibal Lecter” is kind of a supportive role, but throughout the movie one can feel his presence.
Below are some of the scenes from the movie that gave me a horror type of feeling
Scene 1 – Hannibal Lecter is tied up and carried to speak with US Senator Ruth Martin (Diane Baker). Here senator promises Hannibal to be transferred to another prison if he reveals the identity of Buffalo Bill, which may help to find her daughter.
Scene 2 – The escape scene of Hannibal Lecter where he removes the human face mask and reveals himself.
Scene 3 – Climax sequence where Buffalo Bill stalks Clarice with his night vision goggles.
The film won the Five Academy Awards in 1991 for the below categories:
Best Picture
Best Director (Jonathan Demme)
Best Actor (Anthony Hopkins)
Best Actress (Judie Foster)
Best-Adapted Screenplay (Ted Tally)
For me direction and acting (Anthony Hopkins) is what I felt special about this movie. However, if you are considering a movie where you are expecting to have lots of mystery, plot twists etc. then I do not say this is that kind of a movie.
Author: Aromal Anil