An excellent Jonathan Demme picture

Rating: Null/10 (2 April 2006)

The Silence of the Lambs/1991/****
Main Stars: Anthony Hopkins Jodie Foster Ted Levine
Who would have thought such a peculiar story would have won five Oscars? Well, pretty much every one. There are so many Academy Award Winning films that are very unique including this one. It won five academy awards being BEST PICTURE, BEST DIRECTOR, BEST ACTOR, BEST ACTRESS, and BEST SCREENPLAY. I think that the BEST SCREENPLAY academy award is the most important mainly because the screenplay is what makes the film. The movie itself involving acting and directing could be crappy but yet if the screenplay itself is good, than the movie would still be good. That's my opinion and you have yours but yet many people agree with what I say (about the movies I mean). Examples of bad acting (somewhat) and directing (somewhat) films would be the original Star Wars films that had pretty bad acting (not counting the Emperor) from quite a few actors but yet the screenplay was adequate. So all the originals were average to good. But yet Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith was excellent! The acting wasn't bad at all (not counting Hayden Christensen) and the special effects and script were great! But not all films are that way too bad. Anyhoo, The Silence of the Lambs would be considered excellent and definitely deserved the Oscars it received. And this film definitely deserves to be on ECLASSICS. "Why was this film so excellent?" People ask me. "Because of the wonderful story by the author named Thomas Harris who wrote the book and the screenwriter named Ted Tally that transformed it into a movie." "Oh" This is an all-around film to me because it has a wonderful story, screenplay great acting especially by Anthony Hopkins, great directing, and great music! You see the story is mainly about two psychopathic killers (Hannibal Lector (Anthony Hopkins), and Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine). Hannibal Lector (as you all should know) is an intelligent cannibal. He enjoys beating people and BITING people to death but yet speaks rather calmly when talking to FBI agent Clarice Starling. The brilliant Lector has to tell her about another psychopathic killer who skins his victims named Jame Gumb or Buffalo Bill (his nickname). He's one deranged man. Not only does he skin his victims but he also shoves a bug cocoon down each of his victims' throats. But at least he doesn't eat people like a cannibal or Hannibal Lector. One good scene was when the FBI agents actually find out that Lector has killed two cops by releasing the hand0cuffs from his hands and beating them both, biting, etc. When the cops run to the door that leads to the enormous room with Lector's cell, you see a shadow on the door that's shaped like an angel. When they go in, one of them identifies the shadow being a person and the cop goes "O dear God". The camera instantaneously cuts to the scene with the cop. He is hung on the cell like an angel with a light pointed to his back to make him look glowing and the music goes crazy being so melodramatic, it gave me the chills. It was expected though. The gimmicky DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!! It was a freaky scene but a well-done scene the same. This movie was filled with great scenes including the end when he says he's going to eat an FBI agent (Jack Crawford played by Scott Glen) for supper that evening. Great ending, great! Then there are the sequels to this which weren't that good because they seem to be exactly the same as their predecessor just like almost all sequels are. Movie directed by Jonathan Demme.