Two Cents is an original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team will program films and contribute our best, most insightful, or most creative thoughts on each film using a maximum of 200 words each. Guest writers and fan comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future entries to the column. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion.
The Pick
We lost a true American original last week with the passing of Jonathan Demme. Frequently acclaimed but often underrated, Demme charted an eclectic course moving from drama to comedy to music and interweaving genres in a way unlike anyone else.
Demme’s career saw several hits, but nothing hit with quite the same ten megaton impact as The Silence of the Lambs. Lambs wasn’t just a box office smash, and it wasn’t just an Oscar juggernaut. No, Silence of the Lambs was the kind of success that redefined mainstream horror and created an icon that seems set to be remembered for decades to come.
It’s easy to forget that there was once a time before Hannibal Lecter was ubiquitous in popular culture. When the character appeared in Manhunter, played by Brian Cox, the film came and went quickly and left little imprint.
Demme’s direction, in conjunction with Sir Anthony Hopkins’ performance, transformed Hannibal the Cannibal into a boogeyman on a shared cultural level with Freddy, Jason and Michael Myers.
There are a number of additional iconic elements to Silence of the Lambs, including Jodie Foster’s acclaimed work as Clarice Starling, canny supporting turns by Scott Glenn and Anthony Heald, and the unforgettable work by Ted Levine as “Buffalo Bill”.
But Bill’s presence complicates the legacy of The Silence of the Lambs. Even in 1992, the film was charged with homophobia and transphobia, though the film contains dialogue asserting that Bill is not a ‘real’ transsexual. Demme appeared to take this criticism to heart, and he followed Lambs up with Philadelphia, a film now considered to be a landmark for LBGTQ representation and AIDS awareness.
So how well does The Silence of the Lambs hold up? Have decades of returns to the cannibal well robbed the good doctor of his bite, or does this film pack the same fearsome punch in 1991?
Did you get a chance to watch along with us this week? Want to recommend a great (or not so great) film for the whole gang to cover? Comment below or post on our Facebook or hit us up on Twitter!
Next Week’s Pick:
We’ve been treading in some dark waters in recent weeks, so let’s lighten the mood a bit.
Next week, we’ll journey into the unknown with Kubo and the Two Strings, the highly acclaimed but woefully underseen film from Laika Studios.
Kubo features the voice talents of Charlize Theron, Matthew McConaughey, and Ralph Fiennes, and is currently available to stream on Netflix Instant and to rent on Amazon Prime.
Would you like to be a guest in next week’s Two Cents column? Simply watch and send your under-200-word review to twocents(at)cinapse.co!
Our Guests
Silence of the Lambs is perhaps one of Jonathan Demme’s most acclaimed films. In a sense it blends the exploitation trappings of his early work for Roger Corman’s New World Pictures with the glossy slickness of early 90s Hollywood. The film is most interesting when it transposes a sense of gothic horror into an otherwise standard police procedural. For example — Hannibal Lecter isn’t just kept in a maximum security cell; he is held in a dungeon-like chamber seemingly in the institution’s basement. Buffalo Bill’s home similarly evokes this aesthetic, especially near the end of the film.
Jodie Foster as Clarice anchors the film, offering an authenticity that stands in contrast to the performances and manipulations of the other characters. This may be sacrilege, but Anthony Hopkins isn’t my favorite Hannibal. However, opposite Foster he brings an intensity that is virtually magnetic. His Hannibal is most terrifying when caged; the buildup to his introduction imbues him with violent potential, making his psychological games even more dangerous. By contrast the scene where he escapes seems far more conventional.
I haven’t talked much about Buffalo Bill, played by Ted Levine, partly because that character is probably the most dated aspect of the movie. While the novel and film try to emphasize that the character is neither gay nor trans, the very concept of the character and the underlying fears he plays on are unfortunately rooted in late-80s/early-90s homophobia. Ted Levine is a good actor, but watching the film now and in context his scenes are uncomfortable (and not in an enjoyable “horror movie” kind of way). Because of that it’s hard to say that Silence of the Lambs completely holds up, but even so the influence of the film is undeniable, and it remains one of the most iconic horror films of the last 30 years.(@T_Lawson)
Adrianna Gober:
There’s a whole lot to love about The Silence of the Lambs, but what I want to focus on is one of its less-discussed virtues: Demme’s genius for pop music on screen. Diegetic music plays a crucial role in The Silence of the Lambs, underscoring the action and emphasizing aspects of the characters’ personalities and experiences through masterful short-hand storytelling.
In a windowless basement in Belvedere, Ohio, The Fall’s calamitous “Hip Priest” blares menacingly from a distant source. It’s a disorienting maelstrom of sound, coming from seemingly nowhere and everywhere all at once. The noise follows Clarice Starling, winding from room to room along with her, overwhelming each harrowed movement and jump of the camera. The unbearable weight of Starling’s paranoia and fear is palpable, furiously compounded by the droning noise as she bravely pushes toward the inevitable end of her cat and mouse game.
In Memphis, Dr. Lecter’s post-bloodbath meditation is guided by a cassette tape of Glenn Gould’s interpretation of the Goldberg Variations. As he sways in reverent surrender to the transcendent beauty of the aria, finding serenity amid the carnage around him, the strange dichotomy of Hannibal Lecter the Man is never more clear.
When we first see Catherine Martin, she’s in her car, singing along to Tom Petty’s “American Girl” at the top of her lungs, tapping out the beat on her steering wheel. She is blissfully unaware of any imminent danger, and just about everything else; she’s too wrapped up in a good song.
In the film’s most infamous scene, we catch glimpses of Jame Gumb through a series of deliberate close-up shots as he prepares for his transformation. We often learn about ourselves through the relationships we form with art, and when we see Gumb for the first time as he wants to be seen, as “Goodbye Horses” carries him through his private ritual and he sings into the camera, I wonder what secret significance it holds for him in the tortured cell of his heart. (@jeerthelights)
I don’t dislike Silence of the Lambs, but it is a movie I always come out of wondering what all of the fuss is about. It’s also not a film that I find any significant faults in either; it’s just fine and nothing more. It doesn’t enthrall me like it does other people and I’ve never found Hopkins as Hannibal Lector to be an interesting take portrayal of the character, especially after seeing Brian Cox’s iteration first and being blown away by it, and Mann’s film. In fact, the only time I’ve been underwhelmed by the Hannibal franchise is with the films starring Hopkins, who is an otherwise brilliant actor in my book. Even the much-maligned Hannibal Rising is an interesting take on the character: cold, incestuous, yet somehow quite sympathetic and easy to root for as he embarks on a revenge mission. And by cranking up the exploitation elements to superfluous extremes, is, if nothing else, very entertaining. Plus, I don’t care what anybody says: Gaspard Ulliel delivered as our cannibal pal.
Anyway, back to Silence of the Lambs… The film does have plenty to commend. It’s well-made and the performances are mostly impressive. To start with, Jodie Foster’s performance as Clarice Starling is spectacular, and Ted Levine as Buffalo Bill is effectively deviant. However, I fail to see the appeal of Anthony Hopkins’ here — his performance is cartoonish and lacks the menacing intimidation he was clearly going for (and that others seem to think he succeeded with, apart from me, so what do I know?). Now, don’t get me wrong: I can rock with cartoonish and hammy, but in the context of Silence of the Lambs I felt it disrupted the tone. On the other hand, I feel it works well in Ridley Scott’s Hannibal to a certain degree and the film benefits for embracing the more grotesque sensibilities of genre cinema. I enjoy that movie more than Lambs because Ray Liotta gets his head cut open and Hopkins feels like a Hammer villain, and it works for the most part.
Overall, Silence of the Lambs is just fine. I don’t love it, I don’t hate it. It’s perfectly fine for an evening’s entertainment if there’s nothing else on TV and I don’t want to leave the couch to scroll through my collection for something better to watch. We all have movies we’ve entered with high expectations because of their acclaim and never felt that connection to them others do. For me, Silence of the Lambs is one of those movies. (@HairEverywhere_)
Jaime Burchardt:
It’s incredible when a movie you haven’t seen in over a decade brings back intense feelings right from the opening moments. Jodie Foster is going through the obstacle course, and Howard Shore’s iconic score starts to creep in. The floodgates were wide open from the get-go. The Silence of the Lambs stands out for an overwhelming number of reasons. Foster’s performance as Clarice Starling, trying to find Buffalo Bill while overcoming sexism, her past & the whims of a monster, is just as brilliant as ever. Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter virtually needs no praise at this point; his performance is a vessel all on its own. The aforementioned score, award-winning screenplay, cinematography, they all come together to form a masterpiece. But the real star of the show has been, and always will be, Demme’s direction. He’s made some wonderful films in his career, but I don’t know if any other film would’ve garnered the same emotion as The Silence of the Lambs did for me just now. As I was watching Demme’s design, shot compositions and gentle-yet-methodical touch being displayed in all its wonder, I started to sob. Rest in peace, Mr. Demme. And thank you. (@jaimeburchardt)
The Team
I was a 15-year-old sophomore in high school when I saw The Silence of the Lambs for the first time. I was fresh off reading the spellbinding book and couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into the film version. Not only did it not disappoint, but Demme’s adaptation managed to surpass the novel in many regards and stand up on it’s own as a masterclass in filmmaking and a virtually flawless cinematic experience. There isn’t an aspect of the film which doesn’t connect or work perfectly. The casting is top notch, giving Foster and Hopkins a pair of career-defining roles, the music is both subtly creepy and intensely horrifying, the script is damned near poetic, the editing and pacing are as both superb and the film’s overall look still holds up as a Renoir-infused work of art in terror movie trappings.
Yet it’s the ending of The Silence of the Lambs which sticks in my memory most of all. The image of Clarice coming face to face with one of the most vivid representations of evil in Buffalo Bill is unnerving from the moment she locks eye on him until their ultimate showdown. The film is ranked as one of the top 100 films of all time by the American Film Institute and it’s so easy to see why. The film remains Demme’s masterpiece; a stirring character study as well as a true picture of middle America and the evil that can exist within it. (@FrankFilmGeek)
Seeing as how Brendan and Austin like to steal others’ thunder, I am not surprised that they chose the very same movie for Two Cents this week as I chose for Cinapse Selects last week (EDITOR’S NOTE: Which you can read HERE). However, it’s hard to complain about extra coverage of a movie this fucking good.
The late great Jonathan Demme was the filmmaker who made many remarkable films. Some were commercial hits and some were less so. There were some that receive critical praise but not much in the way of financial success. Today’s film remains a critical masterpiece, an audience favorite, and a film that did a lot for future mainstream forays into the horror and thriller genres.
I wish to focus on that last point. This Oscar winning film featured legitimate terror, realistic gore, and a creep factor never seen in such a widely accepted and praised film. It allowed future genre filmmakers to work in a bigger budget mainstream world. It also pushed the already famous and revered Anthony Hopkins into fame on a whole new level; his remarkable performance as psychotic genius supervillain Hannibal Lecter left an imprint on the film world that’ll be there for eternity, for the entire civilized world still knows exactly who “Hannibal the Cannibal” is.
In short, this is a brilliant and important film that has impacted millions of people, myself obviously included. Goodbye Mr. Demme and thank you for your films! (@thepaintedman)
While The Silence of the Lambs has been eclipsed in my heart by the foaming-at-the-mouth madness of Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal TV series and the sleek edge of Michael Mann’s Manhunter, there’s no disputing that this is a first-class thriller (unless you’re Kieran, I guess).
Lambs is the kind of film that so nails the mainstream, procedural elements that you can almost forget how off-beat and idiosyncratic its voice is. Demme’s emphasis on POV shots and close-ups (which creates the feeling that when characters are talking to Starling they’re actually talking to YOU) is deeply off-putting, as well as submerging you into Clarice’s perspective so that when reality becomes fluid or the danger becomes palpable, you are as off-balance as she is.
It’s impossible not to wince somewhat at the film’s portrayal of Buffalo Bill, largely becomes the set design and Levine’s performance lean into the stereotypes associated with gay and trans people to create a monster that is, if not a ‘true’ transsexual, is an embodiment of everything that conservatives view as ‘deviant’ about those groups. The issue gets even more complicated thanks to the various choices made in designing Bill’s lair (why are there swastikas everywhere?) which create the impression that Bill is less of a character and more an amalgamation of everything that made people uncomfortable in 1991.
It’s a problematic element that is only going to get more pronounced as time goes on, which is a shame because The Silence of the Lambs truly is a terrific film, a rousing bit of pulp elevated to new heights by the talent behind and in front of the camera. (@TheTrueBrendanF)
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Silence Of The Lambs – [Blu-ray] | [DVD] | [Instant]
Next week’s pick: