My Favorite Movies: #4—The Silence of the Lambs

4. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) 

Genre: Suspense Thriller 

Director: Jonathan Demme 

Writer: Ted Tally (screenplay), Thomas Harris (novel) 

Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster, Scott Glenn 

Awards: 5 Oscars—Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Adapted Screenplay

Metacritic score: 85 

IMDB Ranking: #23

My blog club buddies Steve Lewis and Jeff South have already written great blogs about this movie, both gentlemen writing eloquently about the genius that is the classic film The Silence of the Lambs. (Read both their blogs, linked with their names above, about this film to get their take on the mastery of the acting and the filmmaking.) So rather than go back over territory that has been properly covered, let me take a different angle toward this movie.

The Silence of the Lambs follows the classical pattern of the Greek and Roman hero story, but in this case, our hero is a woman. The pattern is as follows: a) The function of the hero is to redeem humanity; b) The hero's final burden is confronting his own mortality; c) He pursues death to achieve immortality of reputation; d) He is isolated from others yet craves companionship and love; e) women are either a distraction or a threat; f) His heroic skills puts his home city at risk.

How does Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) fulfill this heroic pattern? Her task is to redeem humanity in the person of Catherine Martin (Brooke Smith), who stands to be the next victim of serial killer Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine). As Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) so astutely perceives, she thinks that if she saves Catherine, maybe it will exorcise her own demons in her past—to make the lambs stop screaming.

In order to do so, she confronts the reality of death at every turn. She is forced, in her conversations with Dr. Lecter, to talk openly about the death of her father, the primary event of her childhood that haunts her. She pursues death in getting the advice of a cannibalistic serial killer in order to catch another killer who skins his victims to make himself a woman suit. She assists in autopsies and comes face-to-face with the darkest aspects of human depravity.

Her special talents as an investigator bring her into the service of FBI agent Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn), but that isolates her from the rest of her FBI Academy classmates. She only has one close friend, Ardelia, a fellow cadet, but men loom over and around her throughout the movie. Director Jonathan Demme shows us over and over again how men are constantly looking at Clarice with either distaste or lust. Every man in this movie is either a threat or a distraction to her, even those who help her. Her skills don't put a city at risk, but because she finds Buffalo Bill separate from her FBI colleagues, it puts both herself and Catherine Martin at great risk.

Greek heroic stories also followed a predictable pattern that is mirrored in Clarice's story. Heroes often had to avoid death as an infant. In Clarice's case, she has to survive being orphaned rather than dying herself. Heroes often had prophecies spoken about them. For this movie, Hannibal Lecter is the Oracle who is called upon to provide the secret knowledge needed for Clarice to complete her quest.

The heroic journey follows, taken either alone or with companions, in which the hero faces multiple challenges, usually consisting of monsters. Clarice has Ardelia and Agent Crawford helping her, but she faces the monsters of Lecter, Bill, and Dr. Frederick Chilton (Anthony Heald, so creepy!) on her own. Part of the quest involves a descent into the underworld in order to learn how to complete the quest. Clarice descends into the underworld twice, the first time she meets Dr. Lecter (look how she goes down, down, down, how everything is red and then cold and dark...brilliant!) and when she descends into Bill's basement to confront her final terror.

The victorious hero in Greek mythology was often rewarded with a throne and a bride. Clarice gets to graduate from the FBI Academy, which was her initial goal. The movie itself did something almost no other movie in American pop culture history has ever done—sweep the five major Oscar categories: Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Screenplay. Even more amazing, this movie was released in February of 1991, 13 months before the Academy Awards that it would dominate.

This is not just an absolutely terrifying movie (although it is, and you really can't get a sense for how scary it was unless you see it in a dark theater for the first time), it is a brilliant psychological thriller as well as a master class in writing, acting, and directing. It is an absolute masterpiece.