Quid Pro Quo

Rating: 8/10 (2 February 2020)

The Silence of the Lambs is based on the 1988 book by Thomas Harris. The film is directed by Jonathan Demme (Philadelphia, 1993 and Rachel Getting Married 2008), and stars Jodie Foster (Panic Room), Scott Glenn (Buffalo Soldiers, 2001) and Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs, 1991).
Anthony Hopkins, by the way, has done some other fantastic work. But this, undoubtedly, is the role of which he is best known.
There is something uniquely fascinating about 'psychopaths' - lack of empathy and indifference to the suffering of others. Dehumanised minds, inhabiting human bodies discreetly, blending in with the rest of the human population, there is something profoundly, beyond words, unnerving about this aspect of human nature.
There's a statistic that says that around 1% of the general population are psychopaths. Go along to prison and supposedly that rises to 25% of the community. And 5% of CEOs have the traits too, supposedly.
I find the 1% stat more terrifying. One in every 100 people that I walk past in the street would feel no emotional impulse to help me, should I lay down in a state of serious ill-health. But, they would trample over me, literally and figuratively, in pursuit of their own wants and needs.
Hannibal Lecter is of no garden variety psychopath, however. And the movie does an outstanding job of exploring this very real and disturbing side to human nature, embodied in the character played by Hopkins. The FBI trainee Clarice Starling (played by Foster) is the film's protagonist, called to work on catching 'Buffalo Bill', serial killer at large. The two characters are very different, and there relationship and interactions are the main force of the movie.
Jodie Foster's character stands in a mostly male-dominated FBI environment and the way the men react around her. Also, Foster is 5,3", which is also played upon. The movie leverages this to significant effect, both in creating some short, effective scenes; Starling standing in a lift surrounded by taller men, for example. Then also, using it to develop the characters quickly and believably. For example, the relationship between Starling and the FBI's behavioural science lead Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) becomes meaningful in its own right, as both characters interact with each other in this law enforcement world.
Starling's family history is also tied effectively to the whole. Clocking in at about the two-hour mark, this movie packs a lot in terms of character work and staying close to Harris's original approximation in the novel.
While this movie is entertaining, one might have guessed it's not always fun to watch, and I don't feel my review would be complete without mentioning that some of the scenes are truly disturbing and disgusting! This is not one to let the kids watch.
The only complaints are about small pieces, details of the whole. One is how did Lecter get his hands on the pen of Dr Chilton? All we ever see is him staring at it, and then later Chilton missing it. We only ever see him here incarcerated in the most visceral way, with the trademark face mask and his entire body locked vertical and straight into a sack truck. A detail probably brushed over in production, but one that I felt was a missed opportunity to elaborate the cunning of Dr H.Lecter.
The second is that I felt some of the actions of the law enforcement characters were slightly hokey compared to others.
I rewatched this movie last night, in 2020. Times may have changed, but the realities of human nature this movie explores in fiction remain as darkly alluring as ever.