A Masterpiece: The Silence of the Lambs

A Masterpiece: The Silence of the Lambs

       In the entire filming history, ever since the thriller genre was invented, the global audience has been marvelously led into a new realm of entertainment composed of extreme excitement, keen anticipation, as well as chilling fear. Thanks to the rare genius and skillful manipulation of emotions of Alfred Hitchcock, the greatest British director widely revered as the master of suspense, psychological thrillers focusing on the combination of the psychology of its characters and their unstable emotional conditions become a new and lasting favor among the public. Since the global success of Psycho, a classic Hitchcock film that has unprecedentedly taken the two factors to the extreme, there were doubts held by certain people that no other work could ever compare. Without any question, the unveil of The Silence of the Lambs in 1991 boosted much confidence, both from critics and film fans, by once again illustrating the powerful glamor of this particularly intriguing sub-genre of a thriller. Directed by Jonathan Demme, the overwhelmingly big Academy Awards winner created total surprise with its intense plots as well as incomparably outstanding performances. It is true that the film’s portrayal of the serial killer, Buffalo Bill, as transgender has aroused big controversy, especially from advocators for the LGBT organization. However, by examining plots construction, character development, superb cinematic technology, as well as its symbolic significance, this essay would regard the film as an artistic masterpiece, with extraordinarily charismatic features and immeasurable cultural and social values.

According to one study, by carefully weaving critical information in the plots and highlighting anxiety-arousing fight or murder scenes, successful thrillers are always capable of maintaining the viewers “on the edge of their seats (Olivia MN US Retrieved in 2015).' Apparently, The Silence of the Lambs falls into the category of its tightly-arranged and frightening dark scenes. Featured by Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster, who respectively wrapped Best Actor and Best Actress back home, the film comes out as an adaptation of the same name bestselling novel by Thomas Harris. It primarily focuses on a girl named Clarice Starling, who works as a young trainee at U.S. FBI. With her brilliant performance and good brain being highly appreciated, Clarice is chosen by the head of the Behavioral Science Unit at FBI, Jack Crawford, to assist in chasing a psychotic transgender serial killer popularly labeled as Buffalo Bill. Throughout the whole movie, what contributes to making it work gorgeous is the most mind-engaging and unforgettable encounters between Clarice and Doctor Hannibal Lecter, who is recognized as experienced and helpful in pursuing Buffalo Bill, a cruel expert at skinning women’ s corpses. Lecter possesses appallingly intimidating and seemingly paradoxical dual identities: a former psychiatrist, and cannibalistic killer, which makes him imprisoned and tightly scrutinized by the police. Two lines of dramatic suspense, under Demme’s designation, are hence rhythmically and ingeniously unveiled during their intelligent and mentally exciting conversations. The first revolves around the serial killer’s real profile gradually revealed by Lecter, probably the smartest character in the film. The second thread, less explicit, but exceedingly functional in defining the theme, lies in Clarice’s bitter reminiscence of her traumatic memory about saving the slaughtered lambs. In understanding the tremendous accomplishment created by the film’s extraordinarily thoughtful buildup of suspense, Roger Ebert, one renowned American film critic, claimed that it “illustrates that the best thrillers do not age (Roger Ebert 2001).” Fantastic scenes that concentrate on the exchange of information between the female protagonist and the incarcerated Lecter remarkably draw intense involvement from its viewers and bring high satisfaction to their curiosity, visual and psychological.

It is universally accepted that Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster’s incomparable and masterful performances are most beneficial in adding tastes and beauty to the work. Hopkins, who garnered unanimously high recognition after the film’s release, offers in rather straightforward manners as the most captivating appeal. There is no doubt that interpretations of morally good characters or ruthless villains could be equally challenging for any actor in thrillers or other films highlighting good and evil. Hopkins cleverly incorporates the two sides and blends them into unified one without looking unapproachable or confusing. By fully immersing into Lecter as a cannibal whose inhuman behavior is indelibly horrifying, the actor manages to reveal his courteous and decent side, either during his cooperation with Clarice, or his sympathetic emotions implied when dissecting her miserable childhood experience. Just as James Berardinelli, one film critic at Reelviews, observed, Lecter is “both a suave, cultured gentleman and an unspeakable fiend (James Berardinelli Retrieved in 2015).” One most famous line creepily said by him, which establishes that “I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti,” is a perfect example of his mixing of grace and ruthlessness. Jodie Foster’s cool acting style is also acknowledged as highly contributive to the excellent artistic level of the film. Exposed to a world predominated by men and eroded by twisted killings, Foster displays a substantial degree of maturity and subtleness in her explanation of the young girl who is motivated to take control, meanwhile, tortured by the sadness of losing her father, and by deep guilt for being unable to save the lambs she met. While there is a possibility that the actress is given more credits than she deserves in the film, her role as a brave heroine, a rare phenomenon in thriller history, would be repeatedly mentioned and studied.

Rotten Tomatoes comment that the film “teeters on the edge between psychological study and all-out honor (Rotten Tomatoes Retrieved in 2015)” gives a strong suggestion of its incredible cinematography. The chilling tension and terrifying atmosphere could be identified in one of the most fantastic plots where Clarice is assigned to visit the hell-like prison and collect clues from Lecter. By taking full advantage of the dark light and point of view shots, Demme remarkably allows viewers to observe from the angle of Clarice when she is walking towards the far end of the aisle in the cell. Ebert’s analysis that the unique advantage of the “Lambs” is its arriving at the cannibal through the girl’s eyes, instead of “starting with” him, indicates Demme’s large capacity for encouraging viewers’ participation. This pioneering shooting approach could also be seen when Clarice tracks down Buffalo Bill to his house. Through the perspective of Clarice, who is tiptoeing in the serial killer’s dark, messy room, the audience is presented with scary mannequins and intricate basement. Besides, the close-ups focusing on Clarice’s nervous face, the ear-piercing screaming of the kidnapped young girl named Katherine, and the depressingly sounding music collectively build suspenseful senses and invite people to experience and sympathize with the young trainee.

In the artistic creation, symbolism has been broadly used by artists of different fields as one effective way to inspire feelings and provoke thoughts, whether on the pattern of social culture or human’s moral senses. Without any doubt, the flexible application of this particular technique in The Silence of the Lambs and its psychological touch adds profundity to the thriller genre and helps the work transcend beyond mere descriptions of the story. Transferred from the novel into the silver screen, the lambs, which are universally perceived as the sign of weakness and helplessness, are implied in the film as the perfect embodiment of innocence. Clarice Starling’s experience of being haunted by her childhood failure to save the slaughtered lambs is an indication of her deep guilt for being powerless. The impressively courageous and desperate efforts exerted in hunting down the transgender serial killer is inarguably observed as her determination for saving innocence from killings and evil powers. Besides, being a young girl surrounded by polar-extreme forces composed of men’s privileges and unknown evils represented Buffalo Bill and part of Lecter, Carice herself is the symbol of a lamb. Removing the obstacles put by unfair treatment on women and dark strengths serve as one reasonable explanation of silencing her fear inside her. The rich consideration of symbolism, combined with the psychological knowledge of human activities, creates enormous benefits for making the film endure and expanding imaginations of its audience.

Ever since The silence of the Lambs was introduced, protesting voices have emerged either to question or criticize its way of expressions of gender. Of all negative receptions over the film’s portrayals of transgender, commonly adopted words are ‘inaccurate’, ‘problematic, or ‘discriminating’. In one article titled “The Not-So-Hidden Transphobia in Silence of the Lambs”, the film was even deemed as causing “a transphobic dichotomy with cisgender and transgender positioned as moral opposites (The Sociological Cinema August 2014)”. Given the accusations that the trope in it spreads the conception that being transgender is sick and harmful, the director replied by defining Buffalo Bill as not a gay character, but someone who just hated himself and wished he was a woman so that he could escape from himself. Regardless of the controversy, the film’s elegant presentations of aesthetic beauty, explorations of intellectual thoughts, and the most excellent suspense construction makes itself deserve the acclaim of being “culturally, historically or aesthetically (BBC 2011)” significant, which was made by U.S. Library of Congress in 2011.