‎The Silence of the Lambs (1991) directed by Jonathan Demme • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd
Part of Hoop-Tober
“People will say we’re in love.”
In the spring of 1992, one might have been forgiven for thinking the Academy Awards had turned a corner toward greater inclusiveness. Just one year earlier, at the 1990 Oscars, Kathy Bates had shocked everyone by winning Best Actress for Rob Reiner’s Stephen King adaptation, Misery. Next came The Silence of the Lambs, the first horror film to win Best Picture and only the third film ever to sweep the Oscars’ “Big Five” categories (Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, and Screenplay). Might horror/thrillers be ascending to a place of respectability?
No. As it turned out, the cultural moment that brought Jonathan Demme’s masterpiece to a sweep of the 1991 Academy Awards was…
10
One of the most intense, bone-chilling & edge-of-the-seat experiences I've ever had at movies, The Silence of the Lambs is a masterpiece of suspense, sustained thrills & nail-biting terror that blends the elements of horror, crime & psychology into one tightly packed & smoothly narrated story, features precision level of craftsmanship in all departments of filmmaking, and benefits immensely from exceptional performances turned in by its cast.
Based on the novel of the same name, The Silence of the Lambs follows young FBI cadet Clarice Starling who's pulled out from her training and is assigned a new task that requires her to interview the notorious psychiatrist & cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter for his inputs can provide possible clues that may help them apprehend another…
15
Jonathan Demme's 1991 film adaptation of The Silence of the Lambs opens with Clarice Starling running through the woods on FBI training. She struggles up a hill, and, out of breath, runs past a tree with signs nailed to it saying "Hurt. Agony. Pain. Love it." Within seconds the film has suggested one of its most important themes - the blurring of the distinction between pleasure and pain.
The key to the story’s success is that its characters are never two dimensional. The “baddies” are never understood by their crimes alone, and the “goodies” are flawed, meaning that judgement is never easy. Hannibal Lecter is a gentleman as well as a convicted murderer and cannibal, and has a surprising capacity…
30
The TV show Habbinal has ruined this for me in a lot of ways. Even more than the unpleasant portrayal of Buffalo Bill as some sort of violent quais-trans figure, the contrast between this and Bryan Fuller's fucked up network television magnum opus renders this disappointing. Not bad, entirely, but disappointing. Fuller has already copped so much from this in a lot of ways (the dead angel, for instance, is so much more incredible on the show; Miriam Lass's fate more disturbing than Clarice Starling's burgeoning infatuation; Miss Mofet's story retold dramatically differently). And of course, Hopkins' performance pales compared to Mads Mikkelsen's subdued, cultured menace. He exudes politeness and courtesy; Hopkins just chews scenery.
The show even tackles some…
6
The letterboxd synopsis for this movie is absolutely HORRENDOUS! It made me cringe. Okay I just needed to say that.
This is the second time I have seen this movie, the first time being back in very early high school. I remember this movie being slow and boring, but part of that probably was a result of the fact that I watched this as a freshman in high school at nearly 3 in the morning as I could barely stay awake. I now see that this movie is absolutely exhilarating... in a really off-putting way.
It may have been the fact that I watched this movie with 2 of my roommates, who are not very into movies, and my girlfriend,…