Welcome to another installment of RETRO REVIEW, where we take a look at films made before the year
2000. Today we’ll be looking back at a film from the the great director
Jonathan Demme who passed away recently…THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.
The Silence of the
Lambs is a 1991 crime thriller directed by the extremely talented Jonathan
Demme. The film is famous for being one of only four films in history to win
the Big Five at the Academy Awards (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and
Screenplay). The film stars Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, and Ted
Levine. This review won’t shock anyone. The
Silence of the Lambs is one of the great films of our time. It is a film
that is brilliantly paced, cleverly made, amazingly performed, and well
directed.
The first thing one notices when watching The Silence of the Lambs is the
brilliant pace of the film. This is a movie that is always moving forward and using
one great scene to propel it to the next. It’s easy to see how this film
spawned the age of criminology procedurals we’ve seen for the past quarter
century. By having such compelling, yet horrifying, characters like Hannibal
Lecter playing off of the more straight-laced FBI special agent character,
Clarice Starling, the film develops an interesting duality that keeps the
viewer addicted and hanging off every single moment.
Further, the filmmaking in this is excellent. Demme and
company develop systematic visual cues throughout the movie that make the
viewer connect and identify moments in the film with imagery and motifs they’re
familiar with from other media. The “descent into hell” sequence when Agent
Starling goes to visit Lecter for the first time is a brilliant example of this
and a sequence for the ages. By taking an unmanageable wasps nest of ideas and
neatly designing a narrative to create a story with focus and clarity is
incredibly impressive and is the hallmark of The Silence of the Lambs.
The film also takes an incredible risk by taking one of the
great characters in all of cinema and reserving him to less than 20 minutes of
screen time in the entire feature. Anthony Hopkins delivers the performance of
a lifetime (rightly earning him the Oscar) and finds a way to lord over all of
the events of the film despite not being the main character or main antagonist.
He finds this weird space to operate that is unbelievably compelling and draws
audiences back to this film time and again.
In addition to Hopkins, the rest of the cast is also
brilliant. Jodie Foster as the lead character, Clarice Starling, delivers the
best performance of her entire career. She has this subtlety and nuance that
make her character incredibly believable and inspiring for many audience
members. Ted Levine, as the antagonist Buffalo Bill, is also incredibly strong.
He is transformative in this performance and represents an interesting subtlety
in a character that doesn’t fully know who he is and is taking out his demons
on a large number of victims.
Finally, credit for this film’s brilliance rests squarely at
the feet of the late Jonathan Demme. There are lots of great pieces in this
film, but without the brilliance of his guiding hand the stitching between
these elements would quickly split and the film would crumble into yet another
forgetful crime movie. Demme elevates a property to the next level in ways
lesser directors would be unable to accomplish.
I don’t think The Silence
of the Lambs is immune from some critique though. I think it definitely
stands the test of time, but the certain threads that run beneath the surface
feel thin. The film offers a lot narratively, but not a lot to remember in
terms of a message. Many criticisms have arisen surrounding questions about
representation and violence in this film. I think it largely spins away from those
things by staying entirely on the surface. This doesn’t mean I think it’s a
weakened effort, not by a long shot. Films that remain narratively compelling
can be better than films that try to say something but aren’t interesting in
and of themselves. There is a lot of brilliance here and I just wanted to point
out one small issue I have with the film.
Overall, The Silence
of the Lambs is a truly great film and one everyone should watch and have
in their personal film collection. It is impactful and interesting and it
deserves every ounce of praise it has ever received in its 26-year life. If you
haven’t seen it, watch it ASAP. If you have, watch it again. Rest in Peace
Jonathan Demme and thank you for this wonderful film.
Ryan’s Score: 9.5/10
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