The Lowdown: The serial murderer Buffalo Bill is abducting young women, seemingly without a pattern or purpose. New FBI recruit Clarice Starling is assigned to the case, and explores the use of an already incarcerated killer, the cannibalistic Dr. Hannibal Lecter, in helping track Buffalo Bill before he kills again.
The Breakdown: When I set out to do this column this film stuck out in my mind as the shining example of exactly where disturbing, gothic horror can be used to make a phenomenal film. While this certainly isn’t the only time a horror film has transcended its’ genre and garnered critical and commercial acclaim, it is one of the most significant. Lambs earned Best Picture the year it was released, and it is easy to see why. Jodie Foster is, simply, brilliant as Clarice, the mildly timid yet strong and independent woman trapped in a world dominated by men. She is completely out of her element throughout the film, and is one of the only female characters in the story. Director Jonathan Demme shoots conversations throughout the film in such a way that the camera, subtly, becomes Clarices’ perspective, putting the audience in her shoes. Whether it’s simple scenes where her superior, played by Scott Glenn, is giving Starling her orders, or even pivotal moments where, outside a funeral parlor, Foster is surrounded by police officers staring at her, you really identify with Clarice and understand how tough it must be to be successful in her world.
Of course, there’s no way to mention Lambs without speaking highly of Anthony Hopkins. His performance of Hannibal Lecter defines the film, largely. His performance here is the stuff of legend, and cemented his status as one of the absolute greatest actors of his generation. His calm, disturbing delivery and maniacal thought process is what makes him such a compelling, dominant and strangely sympathetic person. When his bursts of violence and rage happen, it is genuinely surprising due to his characters’ seemingly meek persona. You fear for the characters’ on screen and, when we finally bear witness to just how dangerous Lecter is in a brilliant mid-film action sequence, you can really appreciate Hopkins’ level of skill.
There is a third, oftentimes overlooked performance in the film, given from character acting legend Ted Levine as Buffalo Bill. He has been parodied to death at this point but his “It puts the lotion in the basket” routine is bone chilling. Everything about his character is the ultimate in home-grown psycho cliche’, but here it works well. Starling and Bill’s final confrontation is especially great in that Levine sells his character as a voyeuristic child, hesitating instead of taking a shot when he clearly could have. In a lesser film his presence wouldn’t have been important but here, with Demme transcending modern horror conventions, he is a well developed and wholly realized adversary.
The Comedown: There are a handful of horror films that film snobs, aka douchebags, will always carry around as theirs. While The Silence of the Lambs may be one of those, that shouldn’t deter you from it as it’s an absolute titan of a film. Not many films can combine brilliant performances with gut wrenching and genuinely disturbing gore, but somehow Lambs weaves its’ tale well and with class. While not necessarily a film you can easily associate with Halloween, it is a brilliant alternative to the regular slasher and torture-porn flicks abundant right now.