The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

5 Oscar at The Academy Awards 1992 

Stars   :  Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins 
Score  :  7.8 / 10

 

This review has a connection with the previous (Red Dragon), because The Silence of the Lambs is a sequel of Red Dragon. As I mentioned before, those are part of trilogy based on a book by Thomas Harris. In this sequel, there are two striking differences from the previous, protagonist character and the story focus. This time, the story involved a beautiful protagonist character, Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster), a woman who was an apprentice in FBI. If Red Dragon story focused on murder cases, the Silence of the Lambs focused on Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins). Why? A simple reasonable answer is The Silence of the Lambs is a bridge to get to third sequel, Hannibal, which told a lot about Lecter.

The FBI unit chief, Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) ordered Starling to an important task with a big risk. Crawford chose Starling because of her credibility even tough she was an apprentice at the FBI. Starling has a good potential and gets satisfactory academic results. Besides of that, this task was related to subject taken by Starling in the FBI, science of psychology. Crawford asked Starling to met the most dangerous psychopaths in Baltimore prison, Lecter. Starling should interview Lecter to help FBI create a behavioral psychology profile. But, Crawford has a purpose more than that and Starling already guessed it. Crawford hoped that Lecter would help FBI to solve a series of murders committed by Bufallo Bill.

Dr. Hannibal Lecter

Buffalo Bill is a psychopath. He conducted a series of murders against women. All the victims were found dead with some parts of the body skin was lost. Bill accidentally took the body skin of his victims. Back to Starling, she met Lecter in Baltimore. Starling got sympathy from Lecter because of her beauty and intelligence, especially after she got a rude experience from another prisoner. Lecter gave a clue to Starling, a name called Hester Mofet. Starling tried to find the answer. She got an anagram of garage name rented by Lecter. In that place, Starling found a piece of head in a jar. 

The victim, a head in a jar

A few days later, local police found the body of a woman who became victim of Buffalo Bill. FBI including Starling did the autopsy and found a cocoon in the victim's mouth. It seems that Buffalo Bill was accidentally put it into the mouth of victim. On the next day, Cathrine Martin, a daughter of Senator Martin was reported missing. The police suspected that Cathrine was kidnapped by Buffalo Bill. The FBI worked hard to find Cathrine. This time, FBI requested Lecter to help identify the profile of Buffalo Bill. As a reward, the FBI would give a fictional special offer using the name of Senator Martin to Lecter.        

FBI and Starling did the autopsy

a cocoon in victim mouth

Unbeknownst the FBI, a head of Baltimore, Dr. Frederick Chilton (Anthony Held) heard the conversation between Starling and Lecter. Chilton unload the FBI's secret plan about fictional offers. Senator became angry and ordered the transfer of Lecter into Memphis. Who have thought that it provided Lecter an opportunity to escape from the prison? Lecter finally broke out of prison.

When comparing between Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs, I can say that both are equally good. Each of them has its own privileges. Red Dragon is superior in thriller and crime. Psycho character, Tooth Fairy was exposed well in Red Dragon, so the ension of terror can be felt. The audience more familiar with the Tooth Fairy character than Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs. The action was also shown better with FBI agent, Graham (Edward Norton).

Not same as Red Dragon, the character of Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs was floated and fuzzy. So, the tension of thriller and crime less felt, more prominent the drama. But, the dialogue content happened between Lecter and Starling in this movie more interesting than Lecter and Graham in Red Dragon. Starling made this film more softly and so feminine. Fortunately, Foster's acting was able to keep this movie interesting to watch.  

Starling

Lecter character which is more frequently displayed and more explored, made Hopkins gave the best performance. So, it was not surprised if Foster and Hopkins managed to bring together two Oscar in category best actor and actress in a leading role in a single movie at the Academy Awards in 1992. The Silence of the Lambs also successfully won three other Oscar in category Best Picture, Best Director and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published.

Lecter killed guards and escaped from the prison

The shortage of this movie is only on Buffalo Bill stories that seem just a complementary and accompaniment for the duet of Starling and Lecter. If Buffalo Bill was more exposed like Tooth Fairy, I think this movie will be better. But of course it will take the duration of this film longer than before. But in my opinion, the duration is not a problem for the audience during the film has an interesting story.

One thing that caught my attention and made me smile was when I look at the text on label in the collar worn by the victim of Buffalo Bill. As told in the film, that Buffalo Bill always chose his victims based on their clothes size, so there was a scene which showed the clothing label closely. In the label, on fourth line, there was a text said "MADE IN INDONESIA", Woooww Indonesia :). Does anyone know why clothe made by Indonesia was selected? I tried to think positive, at least the name of Indonesia well-known in 1991. In addition, the character who used this clothe is Cathrine Martin, a daughter of Senator Martin, which certainly chose a good quality clothe to wear. So the clothes made by Indonesia have a good quality.

Clothes made in Indonesia in The Silence of the Lambs

The Silence of the Lambs Book Cover