The Silence of the Lambs movie review
The Silence of the Lambs movie credits:
Directed by: Jonathan Demme
Written by: Thomas Harris and Ted Tally
Cast:
Jodie Foster (Clarice Starling)
Anthony Hopkins (Dr. Hannibal Lecter)
Ted Levine (Buffalo Bill)
Release date: 1991
Spoiler alert: some crucial elements of the movie are commented in the following review. Be warned!
My bloody rating:
The Silence of the Lambs movie review:
"The Silence of the Lambs" is a powerful movie featuring a great duel between Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins! In fact, both of them won the Oscar in their respective categories that year for the same movie!
The movie also won best picture while Jonathan Demme was voted as the best director! Rarely a thriller has won so many golden statuettes in the history of Hollywood!
The plot is simple, but very fascinating: A young FBI trainee is trying to save a woman from being killed by a sadistic serial killer named "Buffalo Bill" who skins his victims!
To do so, she must convince another serial killer who is behind bars named Hannibal Lecter to work with her in order to enter into the psychopathic serial killer's mind!
Of course, things don't go as expected and Lecter will take advantage of this opportunity to put his (secret) plan into execution!
Even if the movie does have a few creepy and disgusting scenes, the main event here is the interaction between Foster and Hopkins.
This one is very good at playing with the poor FBI trainee's mind in order to get what he wants. Even if some scenes are long and loaded with dialogues, I was never bored watching "The Silence of the Lambs"!
Here, the words are more powerful than any weapons, monsters or any other cheap effects a traditional horror movie could have!
Hopkins is able to create a fascinating character that the audience loves to hate, but hates to love! Hannibal is a complex character filled with simple needs!
The camera work of Jonathan Demme is subtle and very well-done. Nothing too flashy or annoying as it would be irrelevant and obtrusive!
The supporting cast also does a great job even if most of the screen is occupied by both stars. The movie is far from being perfect, but it's a solid and intelligent film that doesn't use simple tricks to scare you!
Some might argue that it's unlikely that a young FBI trainee would get such an important part in a case involving a sadistic murderer, but that's the beauty of this movie. Even if it's unlikely to happen, it does work pretty well!
Chances are that you will remember some scenes of this movie even years after watching it, but it's probably not for the reasons you would've figured out in the first place!
This is a good example of what a good (and efficient) horror thriller should be, even if this one is almost blood free!
The Silence of the Lambs movie review written by: Martin Berube
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