The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

A psychopath nicknamed Buffalo Bill is murdering young women across the Midwest. Believing it takes one to know one, the FBI sends Agent Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) to interview a demented prisoner who may provide clues to the killer's actions. That prisoner is psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), a brilliant, diabolical cannibal who agrees to help Starling only if she'll feed his morbid curiosity with details about her own complicated life. This twisted relationship forces Starling not only to face her own inner demons, but leads her face– to–face with a demented killer, an incarnation of evil so overwhelming, she may not have the courage or strength to stop him. Horrific, disturbing, spellbinding. This thriller set the standard by which all others are measured.

FBI trainee Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster, Nim's Island) is given a big break when she is assigned to interview and construct a psycho-behavioral profile of the deranged killer, Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter (Anthony Hopkins, Nixon). Starling assumes correctly that her assignment is more than she is told, and she enters into a brief battle of wits with the clever and manipulative Lecter, who finally surrenders to her a clue that may lead her down a path towards catching the notorious killer "Buffalo Bill." When Bill kidnaps the daughter of a prominent U.S. Senator, Lecter's knowledge of the killer becomes central to the investigation. His budding rapport with Starling leads him to agree to a deal that may ease the harsh restrictions placed on him as one of the world's most infamous criminals in exchange for sharing his knowledge of the Buffalo Bill case, assuming the kidnapped girl is recovered alive.

Based on the novel by Thomas Harris, The Silence of the Lambs is a story about a descent into hell, into both the deepest, darkest and most unforgiving crevices of both the Earth and of the human psyche. Hannibal Lecter is housed in a crude, unforgiving, windowless cell that offers roughly-textured stone walls, a filthy toilet, sink, and cot, and an impenetrable clear window that offers him no access to the outside world beyond his cage, the man denied even the bars that allow a criminal's hands and arms to experience brief moments of reprieve outside containment. Access to the cell is through rather plain and unassuming corridors and stairwells, until visitors are greeted by a harsh red light and a subtle yet foreboding rumble that signals the entrance into one of the world's most unforgiving prisons. Buffalo Bill's abode, like the hallways and staircases that lead to Lecter's cell, is ordinary and modest. Behind the pedestrian appointments of his living room and kitchen lies a labyrinthine, crude, musty, and inhospitable path towards both depravity and certain death, the grisly location ending at a deep, dark, and impossibly steep pit where the innocent await their deaths at the hands of a man as psychotic as perhaps any the world has ever known. Indeed, each locale suits its inhabitant and the themes of the film; Lecter and Bill are equally though differently deranged, Lecter in a smooth and almost unassuming intellectual fashion and Bill showing less physical control, his emotional make-up perhaps at odds with his deeper psychological and physical depravity. Each man lives in an Earthly representation of hell, and each man's mind, too, in their own unique way, exist almost in another plane of existence where reason, compassion, and morality no longer figure into the human condition.

Director Jonathan Demme (The Manchurian Candidate) and Cinematographer Tak Fujimoto (The Sixth Sense) smartly frame The Silence of the Lambs around a plain, unassuming visual style that reinforces the themes of depravity and the superficial simplicity but deeper complexities of the story, Demme's direction earning him a Best Director Oscar. The film is consistently drab, visually, even on the surface and far away from either Lecter or Bill. Bleak, depressing, cold, and unforgiving, the film represents basic filmmaking at its best, conveying a simple story that is wonderfully disturbing, one that draws audiences into a world too frightening and stripped of humanity to endure first-hand, where only movie magic may suffice in leading audiences through a world so depraved as this. It's part escapist entertainment at its best, and part nightmare that is both horrific and riveting, one that is too finely constructed from which to warrant or desire interruption or reprieve. It takes audiences into a world that seems too grisly for most to comprehend, but does so both competently and assuredly, crafting along the way a tour into the darkest and most grotesque levels of humanity where cannibalism, murder, and the absence of even the most fundamental of human consciousness is absent.

The Silence of the Lambs offers audiences a first-rate story directed with precision and chilling effectiveness, but it is the performance of its pair of lead actors that makes the film the unmitigated classic it is, and will continue to be, for generations to come. Hopkins' performance is rare, one of the finest in the history of motion pictures, his a complete transformation not physically but rather emotionally and psychologically, the actor exuding all the qualities of the Lecter character, those both admirable and despicable. Hannibal is a fascinating villain, a highly educated man with an impeccable memory and vocabulary, an uncanny ability to manipulate others, and able to fully read and understand other human being completely and precisely. From identifying their preferred brands skin cream and perfume to describing, in detail, the personal histories of others after only the briefest of encounters, Lecter may be one of the smartest and most refined men in the world, a man of exemplary taste with only the nasty habit of consuming his fellow man standing between him and greatness. Clarice Starling is the perfect match for him. She lacks his physical stature, experience, and unsurpassed sense of the world around him that Lecter feasts on when toying with his captors, but she is astute and insightful in her own right, and more so than most. She is willing and able to stand toe-to-toe with Lecter not necessarily intellectually but psychologically. Jodie Foster is astounding in this role, playing it perfectly as she lends a sense of shaky confidence to the part. As fine as her performance is, however, it is devoured by Hopkins' gargantuan and career-defining effort. Both Hopkins and Foster earned Academy Awards for their performances.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman

The Silence of the Lambs represents filmmaking and all that encompasses storytelling, acting, direction, pace, and thematic importance and structure, to name a few at its pinnacle. The film is a classic in the truest sense of the word, a picture that remains as intriguing, frightening, and compelling as ever thanks to its virtually flawless presentation, made possible by the contributions of top talent performing at their very best.

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