The Silence of the Lambs (1991) Review

 The Silence of the Lambs (1991) 9/10

[this was also part of a Halloween marathon that I watched a few years ago]

“You know what you look like to me, with your good bag and your cheap shoes? You look like a rube. A well scrubbed, hustling rube with a little taste. Good nutrition's given you some length of bone, but you're not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you, Agent Starling? And that accent you've tried so desperately to shed: pure West Virginia. What is your father, dear? Is he a coal miner? Does he stink of the lamp? You know how quickly the boys found you... all those tedious sticky fumblings in the back seats of cars... while you could only dream of getting out... getting anywhere... getting all the way to the FBI.”

-Hannibal Lecter

Hello everyone. I’m here with movie number two of my little marathon. The next movie is The Silence of the Lambs. Now I’ve been meaning to watch this film for a very long time now and I’m glad I finally got around to watching it. Silence of the Lambs was originally released on February 14, 1991 with the director being Jonathan Demme. Valentine’s Day, huh? Anyway, my initial thoughts on the movie: fucking great film. I can already say this now, this is one of my favorite horror movies now. Let’s begin.

Our story takes place in 1991. FBI-in-training Clarice Starling is tasked with profiling infamous serial killer Hannibal Lecter in which she is tasked with trying to find a connection between him and a current serial killer nicknamed Buffalo Bill. Utilizing her training and Hannibal’s psychiatric profiling, she’s slowly putting the pieces together in this case. While doing this, Hannibal seems to be getting inside her head and doing therapy sessions to help her with her childhood trauma.

I love the story for this movie. I love the chemistry between Starling and Lecter. I love how the story unfolds around these discussions. I also love how we get to see Buffalo Bill’s side of the story as he has his way with his victims. The story is very solid and the characters are written very well.

One of the movie’s strong suits is the acting. Everyone played their role phenomenally. Jodie Foster (Clarice), Anthony Hopkins (Hannibal), and Ted Levine (Buffalo Bill) stole the show with their performances, with Anthony Hopkins being the best actor here. His take on Hannibal was masterfully done. 

Cinematography was well executed. The movie seemed to be much more experimental with its camera use instead of every other movie out there. The close up shots during Clarice and Hannibal’s sessions really struck insecurity into the viewer. The whole scene where we first meet Lecter is masterful from all perspectives of film making. And the confrontation with Buffalo Bill was great too. Right when the lights turned off and the movie switched perspectives to Buffalo Bill’s with the night vision goggles was amazing. The way he’s taunting her was so creepy, I love it.

The sound design was great too. The main thing I want to point out here is that the movie’s score was composed by Howard Shore, who did The Lord of the Rings. Great music from a great artist.

I think my only issue with the film is that I wish they did some slight development for Starling’s boss Jack Crawford. He was integral to the story, but he could’ve been done better. Other than that, the movie is basically perfect. Great story, great acting, great dialogue, great camera work, and great music. The entire movie is great. If you haven’t seen this film, I highly recommend it. There are some disturbing moments in the film (such as Hannibal’s escape and the confrontation with Buffalo Bill), but if you can get past that, then you’re good.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time.

This is Zorgak, signing off.