The Silence of the Lambs is an operatic, chilling and ultimately unmissable classic...

Rating: 9/10 (5 March 2006)

Number 1 - 1991
Top 20 - 1990s
"A census taker once tried to test me...I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti..." Dr. Hannibal Lecter
Jonathan Demme's tightly constructed and chilling thriller swept all 5 major 1991 Academy Awards (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Screenplay). In a slow year for cinema, The Silence of the Lambs was the finest film of the year...
Adapted from the Thomas Harris' best selling novel, the film explores the relationship between Agent Starling, a rookie FBI agent and Dr. Hannibal Lecter, with Starling (Foster), assigned to gather evidence about the notorious Buffalo Bill, a disturbed transsexual who eviscerates his female victims, from Hannibal Lecter, a fiendishly clever doctor who used to eat his patients.
The most fascinating aspect of the film, and the reason it has become a classic, is the unique and compelling relationship between Starling and Lecter...This is the part of the film that made it a Best Picture Oscar winner...Other aspects of the film, are routine police thriller material, but the 10 minutes or so spent between Starling and Lecter are electrifying...Foster and Hopkins are terrific, and richly deserved their Oscar statuettes for their performances...
A few minor flaws do not diminish the power of Demme's dark and intoxicating picture...
9/10