The Silence of the Lambs:
Clarice Starling, a young, determined trainee for the FBI, is assigned by her elderly boss, Jack Crawford, to interview Dr. Hannibal Lector in a mental institution, to get possible information on new serial killer "Buffalo Bill", who skins women for unknown reasons. She begins interrogating him, and begins to fall under a strange, psychological spell. Meanwhile, the FBI hunt down Buffalo Bill, who proves a more strange, complex, and elusive figure than they possibly imagined. The cast are incredible. Jodie Foster (who just was coming off her role in The Accused) is phenomenal as Starling. She comes off as independent, smart, sweet, but serious, but alos inexperienced and gullible to Hannibal's games. Speaking of which, Anthony Hopkins completely steals the show as Lector. he is so strange, smart, witty, quick, cunning, and brutal, it's unsettling. How his burning questions about life and your psyche burrow under your skin is unsettling, because once Lector's in your head, you can't get him out. Hopkins won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, for a performance that covers just 17 minutes of screen time, that's the smallest ammount of screen time ever awarded that Oscar. Scott Glenn is good as Jack Crawford, albeit not as good as Harvey Ketiel in 2002's Red Dragon (a remake of 1986's Manhunter). Ted Levine (who would later play the tuck-driving killer in the stupid slasher film Joy Ride) is good as Jame Gumb, aka Buffalo Bill. He is a quiet, strange, distubred man with a psychotic fixation on moths, and an even bigger fixation on getting a sex change, which he ensures through his crimes. Anthony Heald plays the sleazy, slimy Dr. Chilton, the corrupt owner of the asylum Hannibal is commited to. He seems like just an idiot at first, but when he scams Hannibal and tries to make a quick buck of the press, he's obviously just a douche in a position of moderate power, who abuses his position. Frankie Faison plays Barney Matthews, Hannibal's personal caretaker. He's a sweet, kind man, and one of the few people Hannibal respects and considers decent. Faison would later plays Barney in Red Dragon and Hannibal, and even had a previous role as a security guard in Manhunter, a Hannibal film starring Brian Cox instead of Hopkins. Faison is definitely tied to this series. Diane Baker plays Ruth Martin, a senator who's daughter is kidnapped by Buffalo Bill. She starts to become a real bitch and start to almos tuse the FBI as pawns in the finding of he rdaughter, and almost doesn't care about the other girls Bill has slain. Brooke Smith plays Catherine, the senator's daughter. She appears as a somewhat likeable girl when kidnapped, so her screams of absolute terror in Buffalo Bill's basement of horrors are bone chilling. Roger Corman (famous B-movie producer known for his super-cheaply made movies, for those of you who don't know) even makesa cameo as the FBI director named Hayden Burke. The music is haunting, almost like a creepy lullaby tune at times. The film not only got controversy due to the graphic content, but also because many people thoguht the character of Buffalo Bill was anti-transgender. Ironically, Lambs director Jonathan Demme's next film, Philadelphia, showed the GLBT community as heroes, fighting oppression and AIDS. Back on the film, The Silence of the Lambs is a deeply disturbing, shcoking, gruesome, and psycholigically provoking horror-thriller, which will haunt you forever. 5/5 stars.
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