Review of The Silence of the Lambs (1991) by Ross B — 28 May 2013
Jonathan Demme directs the quintessential Hannibal Lecter film and also a modern psychological thriller masterpiece. Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) is an FBI Academy student who is brought in by Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit to help out with the dangerous Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine) case, a man whose female victims have been left in brutal condition.
Crawford sends Starling to talk to Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), a deadly cannibalistic serial killer himself who is currently under the care of Dr. Frederick Chilton (Anthony Heald) in Baltimore.
Crawford hopes that Lecter will be able to give the FBI a profile of Buffalo Bill due to the fact that Lecter himself is a brilliant psychiatrist and profiler. This comes right on the heals of Buffalo Bill kidnapping a US senator's daughter, Catherine Martin (Brooke Smith), Clarice and the FBI only have a short time to find Buffalo Bill before he claims his next victim.
The film provides some of the most bone chilling images ever caught on screen n fictional cinema. Hopkins portrays one of the screen's scariest villains by creating a Lecter that is conniving, grotesque, and deadly.
Demme many times does close ups of just Hopkins's stare, which is so piercing that it by itself gives the audience goosebumps. This is not to take away from Foster's own Academy Award winning performance in the film.
Foster brings to Clarice toughness while at the same time a vulnerability from her past and a fear of the horrors she is experiencing. Demme creates an atmosphere that seems to shine a light on the dark parts of humanity where Lecter and Bill both reside.
In the end, he is able to adapt Thomas Harris's novel into one of the greatest crime horror films of all time and a true classic of cinema.
This review of The Silence of the Lambs (1991) was written by Ross B on 28 May 2013.
The Silence of the Lambs has generally received very positive reviews.
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