The Silence of the Lambs

Rating: 10/10 (22 January 2020)

Director, Jonathan Demme has created a pure masterpiece with The Silence of the Lambs. The suspenseful mystery has an exciting plot along with Oscar winning acting performances. I found The Silence of the Lambs to be a perfect balance between horror and crime. The thoughtful and witty way the movie is put together leaves viewers at the edge of their seats for the whole hour and fifty eight minutes.
The Silence of the Lambs is about the FBI working with a convicted serial killer to catch an active serial killer. The convict, Dr. Hannibal Lector, is a killer who is known for eating parts of his victims after killing them. Although he is a psychopath, Dr. Lector is extremely intelligent so the FBI wants to study him. The young FBI student, Clarice Starling is sent in to try and talk to Dr. Lector. While meeting him for the first time Clarice discovers that Dr. Lector has information on the known serial killer, Buffalo Bill. Following this discovery, agent Starling makes it her mission to find out what Dr. Lecter knows about Buffalo Bill. Through this process Clarice learns a lot about Dr. Lecter and about herself.
The biggest part to this movie's success is its uniqueness. No other movie can directly compare to the genius of the plotline and the pure skill in the acting. The Silence of the Lambs is about the psychology of serial killers to try and help people to understand why they do what they do. The truth is that there is no way for most normal people to understand this because it is insane. Most of all I found that The Silence of the Lambs is a film about personal redemption. I first saw this when Clarice talks to Dr. Lecter about her childhood. She talks about why she wanted to be in the FBI and how as a child she tried to save a lamb from being slaughtered. She heard the lambs screaming and she thought that if she just saved one of the lambs she would feel better. Clarice feels the same way about the girl that was kidnapped as she did about the lambs. Clarice thinks that if she saves the missing girl she won't hear the screams of the lambs waiting to be slaughtered anymore. This is where the title of the movie comes in and the profoundness of the plot becomes apparent.
My only complaint for this movie is that the supporting acting was a bit weak at times. The police scenes and a few miscellaneous other scenes seemed a bit cheesy. Nevertheless, the main actors save the day with fantastic performances all around. Jodie Foster does an amazing job as Clarice Starling with the emotion and the pure confidence shown. Yet Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lector steals the show. His dead stares in the close ups and the way he can sound insane but intellectual at the same time is amazing. Hopkins acts flawlessly in one of the toughest roles someone can be in. In my eyes, Hopkins as Dr. Lector rivals Jack Nicholson's role in The Shining.
The Silence of the Lambs was a success because of its creative storyline and its remarkable acting. I believe any fans of the horror genre or anyone looking for a good thriller with a tremendous plot would love this movie. However I will warn that if you aren't a fan of parts of people's faces being eaten off this may not be the movie for you.