The Darker Side of Human Nature Explored Through a Very High-Quality Yet Disturbing Film

Rating: 10/10 (25 May 2011)

The Silence of the Lambs, based on the Thomas Harris book of the same name, is one of the most disturbing films based on fictional material to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Director. When you consider that films like "My Fair Lady", "the Sound of Music", "Gandhi", "the Hurt Locker", "Schindler's List", "Driving Miss Daisy", "Rain Man", and "Forrest Gump" have also earned the Best Picture prize, Lambs stands alone; similarly disturbing films are predominantly historical dramas. The only other Best Picture winners equaling the horror of "Lambs" are "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", "Platoon", and "Unforgiven". But none of these movies ever dealt with not one but two serial-killer sociopaths in a suburban-rural setting.
An outstanding horror-suspense film, "Lambs" is not for the feint of heart. "Lambs" centers around three characters dealing with intense psychological dysfunction. Each character in turn not only reacts to their dysfunction in their own style but is in very different circumstances. Two of the three engage in horrific behavior of extreme violence, succumbing to the darkest side of human behavior as a result of their mental illness and dysfunctional pathology. At the story's beginning, one of them is in an institution for the criminally insane, having had a history of violent and sadistic behavior. The second is on the loose, dispatching young women for reasons yet unknown. The third character deals with her psychological issues by joining the FBI, and her reason d'etre becomes a mission to stop such behavior and rescue potential victims at the hands of psychological killers.
If a "story" is about the growth and change of a character, then Lambs' narrative is really about Clarice Starling, an FBI trainee who is majoring in the Behavioral Science division which does psychological profiling of criminals, particularly serial killers. Her first real task, or test in a sense, is to psychologically profile the serial killer Hannibal Lecter, nicknamed "the Cannibal", played with such a believable yet sadistic sensibility by Anthony Hopkins that make Dracula and Frankenstein's monster seem more like Saturday morning cartoon villains by comparison. Lecter is possibly one of the most fascinating and simultaneously repulsive characters in fiction and film. He is a fusion of an Ivy League liberal arts professor who easily quotes ancient philosophers and the Monster of Venice, an Italian serial killer who dispatched victims, usually women, without a shred of empathy. But Lecter also has a fondness for high culture, displayed by his drawing of the Duomo in Milan. Italy.
We learn Lecter had been a university professor of psychology who made it a habit of eating human victims. At story's beginning, he resides at a prison of mentally disturbed criminals where Starling first meets him in person. Also, we learn the FBI is hot on the trail of a strange woman-killer, the second character nicknamed Buffalo Bill by the press. Starling and Lecter form a strange yet compelling bond, not quite true friendship but something more meaningful than mere acquaintance. Part of the story is the evolution of Starling's and Lecter's relationship. A very subtle undertone of sexual flirting is hinted at in some scenes and yet we know that these two worlds could never permanently mesh.
Eventually, Starling begins to solicit the help of Lecter to arrest the perpetrator of the horrid acts . We believe it's an accidental interaction at first, but then we learn that the solicitation is the brainchild of the head of the FBI's criminal behavioral division, Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn). Other agents had tried and failed to convince Lecter to assist, so he tries another tact: send a green trainee to Lector without telling her Crawford's real intentions. Buffalo Bill has dispatched five women, but no one at the agency can figure out his motive. With Lecter's help, Starling begins to unravel who Buffalo Bill is from a psychological standpoint as a means of finding out his identity and where he lives. Part of the narrative involves the revealing of both Starling and her target Buffalo Bill, although the most interesting and colorful character, Hannibal Lecter, remains completely enigmatic. The story then pushes into a new direction when a young woman from a prominent family is kidnapped and it is believed she has been abducted by Buffalo Bill. Can Starling extract enough information from Lecter to save the young woman before Buffalo Bill dispatches another innocent victim?
One of the first elements that strikes you about Lambs is its foreboding atmosphere with some scenes having a quasi-medieval flavor. When Starling first visits the corridor inside the mental prison which houses Lecter, you feel like you're walking into a medieval dungeon. The stone brick is dirty and damp, and the inmates seem like something right out of Dante's Inferno (Hell). The same is true for Buffalo Bill's hideout, a maze of dark corridors filled with strange objects, like mannequins and costumes. The place where he imprisons his victims rings of something out of the Spanish Inquisition. Themes of raw sexuality permeate the entire story, although there is no love affair between any of the characters. Simultaneously, there are also overtones of objectifying human beings. Dr Chilton, the doctor in charge of Lecter at the hospital, boasts of having his sociopath patient, "So rare to capture one alive. From a research point of view, Lecter is our most prized asset," as if Lecter is a rare object rather than a person. Also, the serial killers objectify their victims as a means of rationalizing their behavior.
"The Silence of the Lambs" is one of the best horror-suspense films of its type with absolutely first-rate acting by the leads and the supports. And one of the most disturbing. But if you're looking for escapist innocent fun, Lambs will have you running under the covers, or at least switching to "My Fair Lady". Lecter and Buffalo Bill are the stuff nightmares are made of.