As part of my fiction class, we were instructed to write about our favorite work of crime fiction, be it a novel, film, or television show. I feel like I already talked a bit about Pulp Fiction in class, so instead of risking monotony, I'll talk about another one of my absolute favorite films, The Silence of the Lambs.
I'll try to be brief here, so I'll skip the bits about how incredible Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins are as Clarice Starling and Dr. Hannibal Lecter (respectively), how overlooked and underrated Ted Levine is in the film, and how director Jonathan Demme perfectly strattles the line between straight up horror and bone-chilling suspense.
I think I love this film for one main reason. It's really, really scary. I see alot of movies, and I'm particularly fond of horror movies. I've seen everything from gore master Dario Argento's Suspiria, to Takashi Miike's bizarre Audition and everything in between. The thing is, no matter how many buckets of blood and bits of gore these guys throw at the screen, they'll likely never achieve what Anthony Hopkins did in this film. And he did it in a jail cell. That's the truly remarkable thing. Until late in the film, he could never actually get to Clarice, even if he wanted to, yet he manages to creep into our dreams with startlingly accurate estimations of Starling's childhood and nonchalant admissions of cannibalism.
What truly makes it interesting is that Starling needs Lecter so badly that she will risk her own security in exchange for his help in catching Levine's character, Buffalo Bill, a man who kills heavier girls to make suits out of their skin because he was denied a sex change operation. Whew. In any other movie, a villain like Buffalo Bill would steal the show, but Bill competes with Lecter in terms of the movie's most memorable baddie, and most would agree that he loses that battle.Hopefully this wasn't longer than the post was supposed to be. Take it easy out there.
Will
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