Anthony Hopkins’ performance is at the core of The Silence of the Lambs. He scooped the Academy Award for Best Actor, despite being on screen for only 16 minutes or so. As a true testament to the terror of his performance as the cannibal Dr. Hannibal Lecter, Hopkins’ presence can be felt in scenes in which he does not appear. It is hard to remember a single character with such impact over the feel of a film, as the character of Lecter truly embodies dread throughout Jonathan Demme’s psychological thriller.
The Silence of the Lambs is based on Thomas Harris’ book of the same name. The film is based around the second Hannibal Lecter book from Harris, while the first book, Red Dragon, introduces Lecter for the first time. The latter was adapted originally in 1986 for the Michael Mann film Manhunter and again in Brett Ratner’s 2002 Red Dragon.
Jodie Foster stars as FBI agent Clarice Starling. She is partaking in FBI training when she is pulled from her exercises to present a questionnaire to Hannibal Lecter (Hopkins). Starling learns that the assignment actually correlates to the capture of serial killer Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine). She begins to gather clues from her meetings with Lecter and draws closer to solving the case. Things heat up when Buffalo Bill kidnaps the daughter of a prominent United States Senator. It’s up to Starling to break the case wide open, save the Senator’s daughter, and keep Lecter from getting into her head.
What separates The Silence of the Lambs from other psych-thrillers is the element of Hannibal Lecter himself. The performance from Hopkins is perfectly prepared, never rushed, and always on point. His first appearance in the film is haunting and notorious: hands at his sides, standing precisely in the centre of his cell, waiting patiently. Hopkins has the voice right, too. He speaks like a man brimming with so much egotism that he can barely contain himself. Somehow, though, Lecter finds himself believing in this mysterious creature Clarice Starling. Somehow he wants to help her. Is he in love with her?
Like most thrillers, there’s enough gore and fun stuff to keep things moving at a fair clip. Some moments do degenerate into mild action-thriller fodder, but Demme directs them with precision and amps up the thrills to allow enough twists and turns to hold interest. Even the final showdown between Bill and Clarice has a lingering appeal as she traces the killer (or the killer traces her) through the darkness of a gloomy hideout. The film works because it focuses in on many central phobias: darkness, kidnapping, cannibalism, large insects, decomposing bodies, and so on. Harris knew what it took to make the mind play tricks on itself.
Foster is actually the centrepiece of the film. Her character’s dependability and normalcy are what keeps things afloat and in balance with Lecter. We see moments of her personality, sure, but for the most part Clarice Starling is trying to play the good FBI agent. She attempts to disguise her accent, for example, but fails. She tries to use her brawn to clear out a room of FBI agents and falters but gets the job done. Her nerves never get the better of her, but they do nearly bubble over the surface. When it counts, Clarice gets it done.
The Silence of the Lambs is one of the finest psychological thrillers around. In a genre that is often inhabited by overzealous direction and performances, this 1991 film ditches the norm (for the most part) and offers suspense and thrills based on the minds of the characters. Less is made of the terror that men do here and more is made of the aftermath and the discovery of such horrors. With top-notch performances, capable direction, and a chilling score for Howard Shore, The Silence of the Lambs is one of the best.
9/10
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