The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Winner of the Oscar for Best Picture of 1991, The Silence of the Lambs is one of the few movies to sweep the major awards. It also won that year for Best Director, Actress, Actor, and Adapted Screenplay, and it arguably deserved them all. I can't say that I particularly enjoyed watching this film again because it always gives me the creeps. However, I do admire the skill with which it is made.

Jodie Foster plays Clarice Starling, an FBI agent-in-training, who is recruited to talk to convicted killer Hannibal Lecter, played by Anthony Hopkins. Lecter, infamous for cannibalizing his victims, may be able to provide assistance in the case of a serial killer who has been kidnapping women and removing their skin. Starling and Lector have a series of encounters, culminating in her deducing the location of Buffalo Bill, who (it turns out) has been attempting to make himself over as a woman by creating a "body suit" out of the skins of the women he has kidnapped.

I realize that some will think that I have just revealed a key plot point. However, knowing the motive behind what Bill is doing in no ways lessens the suspense of the film. And I need to talk about the way that Bill is represented in the film. To do that, you have to address whether or not the film is homophobic (or, perhaps, more accurately, transphobic) in its depictions of him. There were many protests at the time of this film's release about that very issue. It isn't difficult to see where such ideas arise. Bill is certainly meant to be "diseased" or "ill" or "dangerous." Yet I think the film's story is a bit more complex than that. Bill is obviously unhappy with himself, unable to accept himself as he is. His actions, gruesome as they are, reveal some sort of mental illness, certainly. Whether or not it is a result of repressed homosexuality, as some felt the film suggests, I cannot definitively say.

Speaking of repressed homosexuality... is there a more gay-identified character than Hannibal Lecter? What with his fastidiousness and his love of gossip and his affection for classical music and art, Hannibal seems almost as repressed as Bill. And then there's the whole cannibal thing, which I will try not to make into too much of a metaphor. I would only point out that most of his victims seem to be men; at least, the ones shown in the movie are all men. He even quotes show tunes to Clarice upon one of her arrivals: "People will say we're in love." And notice that he keeps a copy of Bon Appetit magazine in one of his cells--that's a rather perverse touch. Perhaps it's this equation of homosexuality or gay-identified behavior with serial killers that set off the protests?

Hopkins gets the flashier role here, and he certainly seems to relish playing it. He's quite the object of fascination for a moviegoer. Foster is almost his equal, what with her tightly coiled personality and flashes of emotion. Her eyes reveal a great deal of what's going on inside Clarice's head. It's a remarkably mature performance from Foster, a clear sign that she had the talent to make the transition from child star to adult actress and sure evidence that The Accused, which had won her an Oscar only a few years earlier, was no fluke.

The suspenseful nature of the film is enhanced not only by the performances but by the use of close-ups throughout the story. I remember watching The Silence of the Lambs for the first time and feeling very uneasy. It later dawned on me that it was, at least in part, because of the intensity of Hopkins' stare during the interrogation scenes. Both he and Foster are often shown in close-up during those scenes, and Hopkins continues to be seen in close-up all the way through his portions of the film. It's a pretty intense way to keep an audience riveted, and it is used quite effectively here.