Silence of the Lambs, an emotional ride of disbelief and terror

Rating: 9/10 (3 May 2014)

The 1991 suspense thriller, Silence of the Lambs, finds Clarice Starling, actress Jodi Foster, as a student at the FBI academy in Virginia. She's been chosen by her instructor, actor Lawrence Bonney, due to her noticeable keen senses, to visit with Dr. Hannibal Lecter, actor Anthony Hopkins, an incarcerated murderer. The intention is that Starling can use Lecter's insight into the mind of a murderer to find Buffalo Bill, actor Ted Levine, a serial killer whose victims are young girls.
The theme of this film is control or power. In the film Clarice Starling is controlled by her drive to succeed as an FBI agent. She also has not found the power to control her memories of her childhood and the screaming of the lambs, which through her dealings with Dr. Lector she realizes. Ironically Dr. Lector himself, through his ability to manipulate minds, is perfectly able to control any and all situations; even through his incarceration has the power to affect others. Buffalo Bill on the other hand believes himself to be a transsexual and had been turned down for sex change surgeries from all major hospitals in the area. Therefore, his only way to express his control was by abducting young girls and murdering them and using their skin to create a woman's body. Ironically enough there is a pattern here. The majority of the power and control struggles are between Clarice and the men throughout her life and the story line, and with Buffalo Bill and his sexuality, and the young girls that he kills.
The lighting and the angles used in the basement scene where Agent Starling was in the home of Buffalo Bill attempting to arrest him also aided to the theme of control. Buffalo Bill had shut off the lighting to the basement, leaving Starling unable to see a thing. Consequently, Buffalo Bill had on night goggles and was able to see every move Starling made. A terrified Starling scrambled around the basement, although blinded, searching for Bill. Finally, the simple sound of the trigger of Bill's gun being pulled back was all it took for Starling to locate bill and shoot the deadly shots that ended his terror (Bloch 1960). The overall lighting of the scenes throughout the film also aided to the theme of control. Early on the scenes tend to be more dark and dismal, but it seemed as though as Clarice gained more control, by having increased confidence, more insight, more acknowledgment from Crawford, and more trust from Lector, and got closer to solving the crime, the lighting itself became brighter throughout.
The plot of the movie is to find a missing girl in West Virginia and to end serial killer Buffalo Bill's rampage. Special agent Jack Crawford, actor Scott Glenn, chose Cadet Clarice Starling for the task of interviewing a psychotic murderer Dr. Hannibal Lector in hopes that he could aid in the arrest of Buffalo Bill. Throughout the film Starling runs into obstacles and snares that seem to stand in her way, however her drive in solving the crime is stronger than those things standing in her way. One such obstacle is Dr. Frederick Chilton, actor Anthony Heald. Dr. Chilton is, to me, a little squeaky, weasel type character. He is out for self gain only and is trying to use Lector and his knowledge for his own benefit. Ultimately, Dr. Chilton met his doom in the end of the film by none other than Dr. Lector himself. After a botched attempt, at the direction of Jack Crawford, to find the most recent missing girl, Crawford and Starling were not permitted to speak to Lecter further. However that did not stop her from attempting to find and speak to him in attempt to find the killer. Although the male FBI agents had their leads, Starling had her own, and she was the one that ultimately solved the case.
I can compare the theme of control and power of this film to that of Alfred Hitchcock's film Psycho. This film also has heavy displays of gender and power. The circumstances that stand out to me most are that of mental illness displayed in both films, the way that Norman Bates and Buffalo Bill have similar conflicts and are somewhat trapped in their roles and act out in a sinister way. There is one particular scene that I recall that immediately brought to mind the comparison of the two films. The scene where they were reviewing pictures of some of Buffalo Bill's victims showed a young girl lying face down, naked. Her eyes were wide open (Bloch 1960), and as they showed a close up of that picture I instantly saw the shower scene where Janet Lee lay on the bathroom floor, eyes wide open, and the shower water running (Bloch, 1960).
Overall, I rate this movie very high. The suspense thriller allows the viewer to enter into the minds of Agent Starling, Hannibal Lecter and Buffalo Bill. It exhibits the affects of control and power, be it strong and weak, psychologically stable or unstable, educated or uneducated, male or female. Silence of the Lambs, takes us on an emotional ride of disbelief and terror as we see the story unfold.