Silence of Lambs at 30: Still Crazy After All These Years

By Steve Evans

Having seen more than 15,000 films in a lifelong love affair with the cinema, I can say to a certainty that only four have truly terrified me and one of those is The Silence of the Lambs, released 30 years ago today. Like Alien (1979), Jaws (1975) and Psycho (1960), it is difficult to convey the sensation of dread that Silence of the Lambs invokes in the first-time viewer. You have to experience it for yourself.

Most people know the picture. Fewer know that the film runs 2 hours and 18 minutes or that Anthony Hopkins is on-screen for a mere 16 of those minutes, yet his presence is felt constantly. B-movie producer Roger Corman, who gave director Jonathan Demme his start in the business, makes a cameo as the director of the FBI. A professor of mine in grad’ school went to college with Ted Levine, who plays serial killer Buffalo Bill. The professor told me it wasn’t a huge acting stretch. Michelle Pfeiffer turned down the role of Special Agent Clarice Starling, claiming the material was too violent. This, from the woman who co-starred in Scarface (1983). Gene Hackman was originally slated to direct and play a supporting role as Detective Crawford, the part that ultimately went to Scott Glenn. But Hackman pulled out and Demme took over in the director's chair.

Hindsight being 20/20, what makes Demme such an interesting choice to direct Silence of the Lambs is he got his start making sleazy, sexist women-in-prison flicks in the early 1970s, but in Silence he created one of the greatest feminist motion pictures of all time. As Clarice, Jodie Foster is ogled by men within the first 10 minutes of the movie and continuously thereafter until the end credits. She works for the FBI, one of the most patriarchal organizations in existence. She elegantly rebuffs the repugnant advances of a criminal psychologist in the insane asylum where she interviews Hannibal Lector and is met with further indignities by the inmate-patients in the dungeon-like hospital. And, of course, she is in pursuit of a monster who murders and skins women in order to become a woman himself within the twisted corridors of his pathology. Quite the ordeal. Yet Clarice prevails.

Let’s see…one other bit of trivia I can offer: in the climactic scene, when Buffalo Bill is stalking Clarice in a darkened room, he uses night vision goggles to observe her (the male gaze again) and you can see the shadow of his pistol on Clarice’s back – a revealing mistake that they were using green lighting effects and dialing down the aperture on the camera to make the room appear pitch-black (where there should be no shadows). A minor quibble from a film obsessive. C’est moi.

Certain crime stories and subsequent film adaptations like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo are the direct descendants of The Silence of the Lambs. So enduring is the character of Clarice that CBS recently launched a television show centered around her FBI career. I’ve read the reviews and do not plan to watch it.

Silence also holds the distinction of being the last film – and only the third in history – to sweep the Holy Quintet of Academy Awards – best picture, director, actor, actress, and screenplay. The best picture win alone makes it unique among horror films.

Rich, multilayered and scary as hell, The Silence of the Lambs became an instant classic. So pull the cork on a nice Chianti, serve up some spicy buffalo wings and watch the film tonight with someone you love. It is, after all, Valentine’s Day.

Cinema Uprising copyright © 2021 by Steve Evans. All rights reserved.