Silence of the Lambs

Last week I opined that Red Dragon, while a good novel, was not a great novel as asserted by many of my classmates, and there were strong, well stated reactions to my beliefs that Red Dragon was full of stereotypes, cookie cutter characters and tired plot devices. I want to clarify my position a little before I move onto the film version of the second book in the Hannibal Lector series, Silence of the Lambs. I very much enjoyed Red Dragon, and I thought it was revolutionary for its time. I just thought it failed to live up to its incredible potential.

Silence of the Lambs – both the print and film versions – did more than live up to its potential; it exceeded it. Further, the film version – much more so than the original print version of Red Dragon – arguably launched the serial killer/forensics/cold case craze that now dominates much of cinema/television and a rather large section of your local bookstore.

About now you must be thinking I’m a nutjob, or at the very least an idiot, for the preceding statement. I can’t seriously be crediting a film that came out more than a decade AFTER Red Dragon was first published with being more groundbreaking than it’s a predecessor, can I? I am. Here’s why:

The film version of Silence of the Lambs was such a critical and commercial success that it introduced the “criminal horror” genre to two different but vitally important groups: Oscar voters, as well as their ilk, and the Great Unwashed. Both groups had virtually ignored the genre up to this point. When the film came out in 1991, it swept the Academy Awards for that year and had the effect of making the American moviegoer do the unthinkable: pick up a book and read. Yes, they devoured Harris’s second novel in the Hannibal Lecter series then followed that up by revisiting Red Dragon. They clamored for a third book, then a fourth. (For the record, I loathed Hannibal Rising and refuse to apologize for saying so.) And they set out to read/watch every similarly themed book/movie they could get their grubby little hands on. The release of the film Silence of the Lambs did far more than its literary predecessor Red Dragon did to inspire and incite the criminal horror craze.

In my view, Silence of the Lambs was a hit for a host of reasons, chief among them it’s simply a superb film. The acting is marvelous. There’s no question Foster and Hopkins deserved their Oscar wins. Hopkins especially made the role of Hannibal Lecter his own, and I’ll never be able to read any of novels in the series without picturing his face (and voice and overall creepy demeanor). Speaking as someone who was roughly thirteen when this film came out, I can assure you half the girls at my middle school wanted to grow up to be Clarisse Starling as portrayed by Jodie Foster, and I think that Foster’s performance as a strong, capable female advanced the very cause of feminism.

The film’s storyline is very engrossing and the villains – both Lecter and Buffalo Bill – never fail to terrify me. Lecter is my favorite character in the Harris series and this particular story seems to be more about him than when we first meet him in Red Dragon (the book). Here is a serial killer I admire, even if I find his dietary habits reprehensible. He’s smart, articulate, educated – what Stephen Dobyns might call a “professional man” – not to mention downright likable when he’s not murdering people in bizarre ways and consuming their flesh along with “a side of fava beans and a nice Chianti.”

In conclusion, I very much enjoyed this film the first and last twenty plus times I’ve seen it. It’s one of those films I consider a classic and enjoy having the chance to revisit on occasion.