The Silence of the Lambs (film)
The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 Academy Award winning horror/thriller film directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. It is based on the novel by Thomas Harris, his second to feature Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer. In the film, Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee, seeks the advice of the imprisoned Lecter on catching serial killer Buffalo Bill. The film won five Academy Awards including Best Picture.
Tagline : Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Brilliant. Cunning. Psychotic. In his mind lies the clue to a ruthless killer. - Clarice Starling, FBI. Brilliant. Vulnerable. Alone. She must trust him to stop the killer.
Cast
Jodie Foster - Clarice Starling
Anthony Hopkins - Dr. Hannibal Lecter
Scott Glenn - Jack Crawford
Anthony Heald - Dr. Frederick Chilton
Ted Levine - Jame 'Buffalo Bill' Gumb
Frankie Faison - Barney Matthews
Kasi Lemmons - Ardelia Mapp
Brooke Smith - Catherine Martin
Paul Lazar - Pilcher
Dan Butler - Roden
Lawrence T. Wrentz - Agent Burroughs
Don Brockett
- Friendly Psychopath in Cell
Frank Seals Jr-. Brooding Psychopath in Cell
Stuart Rudin - Miggs
Masha Skorobogatov - Young Clarice Starling
Plot
Promising FBI Academy student Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) is pulled from her training at the FBI Training Facility at Quantico, Virginia by Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit, who tasks her with presenting a VICAP questionnaire to the notorious Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), a brilliant forensic psychiatrist and incarcerated cannibalistic serial murderer. After learning the assignment relates to the pursuit of vicious serial killer Buffalo Bill, Starling travels to the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane and is led by Dr. Frederick Chilton to Hannibal Lecter, a sophisticated, cultured man restrained behind thick glass panels and windowless stone walls. Although initially pleasant and courteous, Lecter grows impatient with Starling's attempts at "dissecting" him and viciously rebuffs her. As Starling departs, another patient flings fresh semen onto her face, enraging Lecter who calls Starling back and offers a riddle containing information about a former patient. The solved riddle leads to a rent-a-storage lot where the severed head of Benjamin Raspail is found. Starling returns to Lecter, who links Raspail to Buffalo Bill and who offers to help profile Buffalo Bill if he is transferred to a facility far from the venomous, careerist Dr. Chilton.
Hours and miles away, Buffalo Bill abducts Catherine Martin, the daughter of United States Senator Ruth Martin. Starling is pulled from Quantico and accompanies Crawford to the West Virginia, where the body of Bill's recently-discovered victim resides, and where Starling helps perform the autopsy and extracts the chrysalis of a Death's-head Hawkmoth from the victim's throat. At Quantico, as news of Catherine Martin's abduction sweeps the country, Crawford authorizes Starling to offer Hannibal Lecter a fake deal promising a prison transfer to Lecter if he provides information that helps profile Buffalo Bill and rescue Catherine Martin. Instead, Lecter begins a game of quid pro quo with Starling, offering a comprehensive clues and insights about Buffalo Bill in exchange for events from Starling's traumatic childhood. Unaware to both Starling and Lecter, Dr. Frederick Chilton tapes the conversation and after revealing Starling's deal as a sham, offers to transfer Lecter in exchange for a deal of his own making. Lecter agrees and following a flight to Tennessee reveals Buffalo Bill's real name, physical description and past address to Senator Martin and her entourage of FBI agents and Justice Department officials.
As the manhunt begins, Starling travels to Lecter's special cell in a local Tennessee courthouse, where she confronts him about the false information he gave the Senator. Lecter refuses Starling's pleas and demands she finish her story surrounding her worst childhood memory. After recounting her arrival at a relative's farm, the horror of discovering their lamb slaughterhouse and her fruitless attempts at rescuing the lambs, Lecter rebuffs her, leaving her with her case file before she is escorted out of the building by security guards. Later that evening, Lecter escapes from his cell. The local police storm the floor, discovering one of his guards barely alive and the other disemboweled and strung up on the walls. Paramedics transport the survivor onto an ambulance and speed off while a SWAT team searches the building for Lecter. As the team discover a body in the elevator shaft, the survivor in the ambulance peels off his own face, revealing Lecter in disguise, who kills the paramedics and escapes to the airport.
After notified
of Lecter's escape, Starling pores over her case file, analyzing Lecter's annotations
before realizing that the first victim, Frederica Bimmel, knew Bill in real life
before he killed her. Starling travels to Bimmel's hometown and discovers that
Bimmel was a tailor and has dresses with templates identical to the patches of
skin removed from Buffalo Bill's victims. Realizing that Buffalo Bill is a tailor
fashioning a "woman suit" of real skin, she telephones Crawford, who
is already on the way to make an arrest, having cross-referenced Lecter's notes
with Johns Hopkins Hospital and finding a man named James Gumb. Crawford instructs
Starling to continue interviewing Bimmel's friends while he leads a SWAT team
to Gumb's business address in Calumet City, Illinois. Starling's interviews lead
to the house of "Jack Gordon," who Starling soon realizes is actually
James Gumb, and draws her weapon just as Gumb disappears into his basement. Starling
pursues him, discovering a screaming Catherine Martin in the dry well just before
the lights in the basement go out, leaving her in complete darkness. Gumb stalks
Starling in the dark with night vision goggles and prepares to shoot her when
Starling, hearing the machinations of his revolver, swivels around shoots Gumb
dead.
Days later at the FBI Academy graduation party, Starling receives
a phone call from Hannibal Lecter, now in the Bahamas. As Lecter assures Starling
he has no plans to pursue her, he excuses himself from the phone call, remarking
that he's "having an old friend for dinner," before hanging up and following
Dr. Frederick Chilton through the streets of the village.
Anthony
Hopkins gained huge acclaim with his portrayal of Hannibal Lecter, even though
his screen time in the entire film is just over 16 minutes. His portrayal won
him an Academy Award in 1992, and as of 2007 remains the shortest lead role to
ever win an Oscar.
Jonathan Demme won an Academy Award for Best Director. Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins both won Oscars for their roles as Clarice Starling and Dr. Hannibal Lecter, respectively. Hopkins' performance as Lecter remains the shortest lead acting, Oscar-winning performance.
Parodies
The
two musicians Jon and Al Kaplan made a Silence of the Lambs musical called "Silence!
The Musical".
Ezio Greggio created The Silence of the Hams where rookie
FBI agent Jo Dee Foster (Billy Zane) goes to Dr. Animal Cannibal Pizza (Dom DeLuise)
to track a serial killer.
At the 1992 Academy Awards, Billy Crystal made his
initial appearance on stage wearing the same straitjacket and mask that Hannibal
Lecter wore in the movie, making the comment that he felt he looked like the "goalie
for the SAG (Screen Actors Guild) hockey team".
In The Simpsons episode
A Star Is Burns, the character of Hannibal Lecter auditions for the role of Mr.
Burns for a movie that Mr. Burns is making about himself, in order to win at the
town film festival. In his dangerous prisoner restraints & mask, Lecter recites
Mr. Burns's famous quote "Excellent", followed by his infamous hiss
(from his own famous quote, "I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice
Chianti"). In another episode, recurring villain Sideshow Bob is held by
restraints similar to Lecter's - but including restraints on Bob's individual
locks of hair.
In the film Clerks 2, the character of Jay (played by actor
Jason Mewes) performs the entire Buffalo Bill dance sequence, from imitating Bill
putting on make-up right up to standing naked with his genitals tucked back.
In
one scene of the film Joe Dirt, the main character, played by David Spade, is
held captive by a killer named "Buffalo Bob" in a scenario very similar
to the captivity of Catherine by Buffalo Bill. Bob even imitates the famous line
"It rubs the lotion on its skin, or else it gets the hose again."
In
one scene of the film Austin Powers in Goldmember Dr. Evil is imprisoned in an
all glass cell resembling several of the scenes from Silence of the Lambs. Upon
being asked about Goldmember Dr. Evil replies: "Quid pro quo, Mr. Powers"
asking to be transferred to another facility.
In "South Park" episode
Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society, Eric Cartman is shown playing 'Lambs' in his basement.
Cartman lowers a basket to a doll at the bottom of a hole in the floor, and quotes
lines from the movie, including the "it rubs the lotion on its skin"
line. He also refers to a toy dog next to him as 'Precious'.
Animation
- Comedy - Crime
- Documentary
-
Family - Foreign
Language - Historical
- Horror - Musical
- Political
Recommended- Romance- Science Fiction and Fantasy - Sport Movies -- Thriller - War - Western - Wildlife
A map of where different US films & TV programmes blanket across the USA are
ZANADU - A FUN BASED SITE, WITH SOME FILM RELATED SECTIONS
Flight Las Vegas Nevada - Find a flight to Las Vegas
Cheap flights Beijing - Get your tickets here Fly to Beijing
Bank Interest Rates - A Website on Bank Interest Rates
Car Cheap Insurance - Get Cheap Car Insurance from here
Flights London - Want to fly to or Visit London get your Flight and Hotel place here
Get
your fave music here for your IPOD
Buy DVD Rent DVD Get your DVDs from here