Absolutely perfect

Rating: 10/10 (12 July 2009)

I'm going to try to be brief with this write-up, since almost everyone can already agree that Silence Of The Lambs succeeds as a nail-biting thriller, one of the best examples of ensemble acting in modern cinema, and more simply as a brilliant motion picture. I won't be able to add much on that front, certainly.
However, Silence Of The Lambs is most truly notable for being the only genuine horror film to ever win a Best Picture Oscar. Now, I'm not one to consider this a particularly profound achievement, since I have almost never agreed with the choices of the Academy in regards to their silly statuettes (this one being a rare exception). But, the nomination and victory of Silence Of The Lambs is also a victory for the horror genre, a much maligned and at times unfairly targeted film classification that has been deemed damaging by the moral powers that be. It may be going too far to say that the recognition of SOTL is an acknowledgment that horror films can be accepted as art (especially since most fans would argue that landmark films like Dawn Of The Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Halloween proved that distinction a full decade before), but it certainly speaks volumes about horror's acceptance into mainstream culture and bridges the gap between decades where genre films opened on a meager amount of screens and our current climate, where horror films routinely top the box office upon their release.
It's also worth noting that SOTL is the one film largely inspired by the infamous tale of real-life sicko Ed Gein that doesn't tout this inspiration. This is further ironic since Silence Of The Lambs is a much more accurate visualization of Gein's deeds that the two most famous films that are historically viewed as on-screen representations of elements of the Gein story, Psycho and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Since nearly any horrific deed a writer of the macabre can conjure has likely happened through the course of real events (or be found in the writings of Poe and Shakespeare, for that matter), it's unlikely that the film-makers were unaware of the connection between Gein and Jame Gumb, but their distancing actually serves the film, because we become singularly focused on Gumb instead of comparing his work to Gein's (even though I just did so here... I'm definitely overthinking this, and I'm already being way more long-winded than I was intending).
So, awards and all that crap are definitely nice, but the true impact of Silence Of The Lambs must come from the film itself, and not from any historical or achievement-based standpoint. In that regard, SOTL must be considered one of the most classy, well acted, and generally terrifying horror films of all time.
Every performance in this film serves as a defining role for the players, and though all eyes are deservedly on Anthony Hopkins' textbook perfect essay of Hannibal Lecter, I'd rather spend my two minutes here saying publicly that Ted Levine delivers by far the most nuanced and well-realized screen portrayal of a serial killer ever put to film. This is especially impressive considering how little screen-time Levine has in the film, and every moment spent developing his character adds a new layer to his twisted and complex megalomaniacal portrait of the sickness that dwells within humans on this planet filled with as much self-loathing and everyone else-loathing as Jame Gumb. Amazingly, despite the truly horrific deeds we seem him commit, he remains a sympathetic character, and Levine's portrayal is so precise that we always see the loneliness and misery that permeates this dejected predator between his bouts of pathos-seeking rage.
The word "masterpiece" doesn't come from this keyboard lightly, but Silence Of The Lambs is simply a perfect film, and not only the best picture of 1991, but one of the best of all time. If you are reading this entry because you agree with that assessment, then I thank you for celebrating one of my favorite films with me. However, if you are genuinely seeking out information on SOTL because you haven't seen it, then the preceding minutes you spent reading this are only delaying you from experiencing this incredible film for yourself. Since you should have stopped reading this several paragraphs ago and just started watching the thing, I won't keep you any longer.