Classic Chat: The Silence of the Lambs
Anthony Hopkins eats up the scenes in The Silence of the Lambs
Fava beans and chianti will never be the same
What’s The Silence of the Lambs About?
FBI trainee Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) is brought in to help with the investigation of brutal serial killer Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine). Starling is assigned to visit imprisoned serial killer Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) and enlist him to aid in the profile of Buffalo Bill.
But Lecter, a former psychiatrist, is more interested in looking through Starling’s head than he is in helping the FBI. Thus begins a quid-pro-quo for the ages, with Starling trading bits of her past trauma to Lecter, in order to gain his tentative help in stopping a killer.
Why Is The Silence of the Lambs A Classic?
It’s hard to imagine a world before Hannibal Lecter. Though Thomas Harris’ serial killing psychiatrist was a sensation when he was introduced in 1981’s novel Red Dragon, he didn’t become a cultural touchstone until Hopkins played Hannibal the Cannibal in 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs. Hopkins was such a hit that he won the Best Actor Oscar for just a performance that takes up less than 30 minutes of screen time. After The Silence of the Lambs, Lecter’s legacy has been picked apart and parodied in every way from some truly dismal sequels to a joke in the Shaun the Sheep Movie.
So why is Hannibal Lecter still so scary?
In this case, it’s brains over brawn.
Hopkins’ Lecter is the smartest person in every room. Speaking in a voice that Hopkins described as half Katherine Hepburn, half Truman Capote, Hopkins absolutely dominates every scene he’s in with a quiet composure that’s downright terrifying. Stillness is one of Hannibal’s greatest assets when it comes to creating an otherworldly threat. Hopkins is the unblinking unmoving eye of the storm around him. That eerie, unflappable calm is both soothing and utterly terrifying. You’ll never know Hannibal Lecter is upset until he’s killing you.
In fact, both Hopkins and director Jonathan Demme seemed to know exactly what to do to make Lecter (and the film) as creepy as possible. Demme unsettles the audience with a combination of filmmaking tricks from set design to angles. He loves having characters talk directly to camera. In most films, characters don’t make eye contact with the camera itself, as it unsettles audiences and can sometimes feel like a challenge or invasion of the viewer’s space. In The Silence of the Lambs, Demme embraces this. Lecter often looks directly into the camera, commanding where it goes and invading the audience’s safe little bubble. It’s legitimately unnerving to have to maintain eye contact with Anthony Hopkins for long periods of time.
Demme also paid careful attention to sets. Every new location has a sense of menace to it. As Clarice goes to see Lecter in the bowls of an insane asylum, the sets transform from stately offices to dungeon-like rock cells. It’s as if Clarice herself must descend into hell to find the answers she needs. Demme also chose to have Lecter framed in plexiglass instead of behind prison bars. This works for the film in two ways: One, it was a pain to film through bars. Two, by putting Lecter behind glass, he never appears to be imprisoned. It feeds into the idea that Hannibal Lecter can never be permanently contained. In the closeups, he’s looking directly at the audience, with no barrier to protect them.
The film also plays with camera angles to subtly show the audience power dynamics. When you watch the movie, pay attention to where the camera is. Is the camera looking down on someone? Whose point of view are we seeing things through?
And while Lecter might be the cultural touchstone in the film, The Silence of the Lambs also features one of the most resourceful and resolute female protagonists in film history. Clarice Starling is flung into deep waters when she is given the task of pulling information from Lecter but she not only works with Hannibal the Cannibal, she impresses him.
Starling’s femininity, which is a millstone around her neck while dealing with law enforcement officers, is what helps her solve the murders. It’s Starling’s unique ability to see what the men don’t that ultimately helps her win. She spots a key piece of evidence in a woman’s body, she finds evidence in the room of a victim long after the FBI searched it. Starling does the one thing the other agents can’t seem to: she sees the victims, and cares about their stories.
Anything Cringe?
There are a couple of cringe elements in The Silence of the Lambs. First and foremost, there’s the issue of Buffalo Bill. Though the movie does make a point that he isn’t actually trans, it must be said that many members of the Trans community believe the portrayal to have encouraged the negative stereotypes they combat on a daily basis. There were even protests about the portrayal of Buffalo Bill at the time from activists who saw the film as hurting the LGBTQ+ community more than serving it.
The other embarrassing thing about The Silence of the Lambs might just be the films that followed it. What happens to the character of Clarice Starling in the books and films is one of the great crimes in pop culture history, and I’m still not sure there shouldn’t have been charges brought up against Harris and Ridley Scott for what they did to her.
The character of Hannibal Lecter went from terrifying to camp in the span of the two sequels and prequel we were given. While the TV show Hannibal did restore some of the scares and Giallo-inspired visuals to the Thomas Harris universe, it was under-seen and certainly underappreciated. If you love Silence of the Lambs, I’d recommend that you check out Manhunter and actively ignore the rest of the film catalog.
Verdict
Despite its dated portrayals of the LGBTQ+ community, The Silence of the Lambs is the gold standard when it comes to serial killer films. It ushered in, for better or worse, the era of the strong female detective character. It holds an iconic horror performance. And most importantly, it’s still damn scary, 31 years later.
The Silence of the Lambs is rated R and available to stream on Prime
