Definitely one of the best thrillers of all time.

Rating: 10/10 (30 January 2001)

I'm normally not one to spend much time concerning myself with who won what Oscar and who didn't win that Oscar, but if anyone but Anthony Hopkins had been awarded the Best Actor Oscar in 1991 I would have been bitterly disappointed. In my opinion, Hopkins' performance as the deceptively charming Hannibal Lecter is one of the best performances ever caught on film. Especially if you have read the novel by Thomas Harris, Hopkins flawlessly captures all sides of the tremendously complex personality of Hannibal Lecter, providing for one of the main things that made The Silence of the Lambs such a spectacular film.
(possible spoilers ahead) Another person who performed amazingly well was Ted Levine as the horribly disturbed murderer Jame Gumb. Levine presents a startlingly convincing portrayal of the disgustingness of this character, as well as his psychological isolation from the normal world and other people in general, shown with great effectiveness through the way that he talks to his victims (`It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again.'). Jame Gumb (whose first name, Jamie, had been misspelled on his birth certificate, but he insisted on leaving it that way) is the man that the FBI is utilizing Lecter's tremendous intelligence to try to capture. Gumb kidnaps full figured women and cuts portions of their skins off, which he sews together in order to make himself a full body human skin suit.
One of the amazing things about this film is that it was able to win a Best Picture Oscar while having such a gory premise, and this obviously has something to do with the tremendous quality of the movie. It was so good because there were so many things going on in the film. I guess you could say the plot was extremely thick. Clarice Starling, played excellently by Jodie Foster, is an FBI trainee who is assigned the emotionally and psychologically dangerous task of trying to get Lecter to talk to her, because he sees right through all of the questionnaires and surveys given to him by countless other, more experienced, personnel. Beyond that, Starling is also fighting her own personal demons; she's struggling through her training, she has to ward off the amorous advances of at least one of her superiors, and now she is faced with an assignment that dwarfs all of those problems. Then you have the story with Jame Gumb, and on the other side, you have the struggle of dozens of people trying to control Lecter and get him to talk without damaging anyone emotionally or psychologically (evidently he was able to talk the insane inmate in the cell next to his into swallowing his tongue one night). You also have a very detailed subplot about the types of insects that are found on the bodies of Gumb's victims. And, of course, you have Lecter's stunning insights, providing in one very tense scene, the meaning of the title, The Silence of the Lambs.
Clearly, Thomas Harris deserves a lot of credit for his outstanding novel, but so do the filmmakers for their efforts at crafting this first rate thriller. This is not exploitative cinema in any way, and it is extremely unique in both its story as well as its presentation. Some scenes really stood out in their originality, particularly Dr. Lecter's escape, although it is never clearly explained how Lecter, while in restraints, was able to get a hold of Dr. Chilton's ballpoint pen, which he had been eyeing as it lay on the desk and which he eventually used to open his handcuffs. Luckily, the quality of the film as a whole overshadows trivial things like this, making them more than excusable. This is a very graphic film, make no mistake about that, but it is so well done that it can be enjoyed by virtually anyone.