The Silence of the Lambs (film): Difference between revisions
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*In one scene of the film [[Joe Dirt]], the main character, played by [[David Spade]], is held captive by a killer named "Buffalo Bob" in a scenario very similar to the captivity of Catherine by Buffalo Bill. Bob even imitates the famous line "It rubs the lotion on its skin, or else it gets the hose again." |
*In one scene of the film [[Joe Dirt]], the main character, played by [[David Spade]], is held captive by a killer named "Buffalo Bob" in a scenario very similar to the captivity of Catherine by Buffalo Bill. Bob even imitates the famous line "It rubs the lotion on its skin, or else it gets the hose again." |
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*In one scene of the film [[Austin Powers in Goldmember]] Dr. Evil is imprisoned in an all glass cell resembling several of the scenes from Silence of the Lambs. Upon being asked about Goldmember Dr. Evil replies: "Quid pro quo, Mr. Powers" asking to be transferred to another facility. |
*In one scene of the film [[Austin Powers in Goldmember]] Dr. Evil is imprisoned in an all glass cell resembling several of the scenes from Silence of the Lambs. Upon being asked about Goldmember Dr. Evil replies: "Quid pro quo, Mr. Powers" asking to be transferred to another facility. |
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* In "[[South Park]]" episode [[Bebe's |
* In "[[South Park]]" episode [[Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society]], [[Eric Cartman]] is shown playing 'Lambs' in his basement. Cartman lowers a basket to a doll at the bottom of a hole in the floor, and quotes lines from the movie, including the "it rubs the lotion on its skin" line. He also refers to a toy dog next to him as 'Precious'. |
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==See also== |
==See also== |
Revision as of 13:18, 11 January 2008
The Silence of the Lambs | |
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Directed by | Jonathan Demme |
Written by | Ted Tally |
Produced by | Kenneth Utt Edward Saxon Ron Bozman |
Starring | Jodie Foster Anthony Hopkins Scott Glenn Ted Levine |
Cinematography | Tak Fujimoto |
Music by | Howard Shore |
Distributed by | Orion Pictures |
Release dates | United States: February 14, 1991 Australia: May 9, 1991 United Kingdom: May 31, 1991 |
Running time | 118 min. |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $19,000,000[1] |
The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 Academy Award-winning horror/thriller film directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. It is based on the novel by Thomas Harris, his second to feature Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer. In the film, Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee, seeks the advice of the imprisoned Lecter on catching serial killer Buffalo Bill. The film won five Academy Awards including Best Picture.
Plot
Promising FBI Academy student Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) is pulled from her training at the FBI Training Facility at Quantico, Virginia by Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit, who tasks her with presenting a VICAP questionnaire to the notorious Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), a brilliant forensic psychiatrist and incarcerated cannibalistic serial murderer. After learning the assignment relates to the pursuit of vicious serial killer Buffalo Bill, Starling travels to the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane and is led by Dr. Frederick Chilton to Hannibal Lecter, a sophisticated, cultured man restrained behind thick glass panels and windowless stone walls. Although initially pleasant and courteous, Lecter grows impatient with Starling's attempts at "dissecting" him and viciously rebuffs her. As Starling departs, another patient flings fresh semen onto her face, enraging Lecter who calls Starling back and offers a riddle containing information about a former patient. The solved riddle leads to a rent-a-storage lot where the severed head of Benjamin Raspail is found. Starling returns to Lecter, who links Raspail to Buffalo Bill and who offers to help profile Buffalo Bill if he is transferred to a facility far from the venomous, careerist Dr. Chilton.
Hours and miles away, Buffalo Bill abducts Catherine Martin, the daughter of United States Senator Ruth Martin. Starling is pulled from Quantico and accompanies Crawford to the American Midwest, where the body of Bill's recently-discovered victim resides, and where Starling helps perform the autopsy and extracts the chrysalis of a Death's-head Hawkmoth from the victim's throat. At Quantico, as news of Catherine Martin's abduction sweeps the country, Crawford authorizes Starling to offer Hannibal Lecter a fake deal promising a prison transfer to Lecter if he provides information that helps profile Buffalo Bill and rescue Catherine Martin. Instead, Lecter begins a game of quid pro quo with Starling, offering a comprehensive clues and insights about Buffalo Bill in exchange for events from Starling's traumatic childhood. Unaware to both Starling and Lecter, Dr. Frederick Chilton tapes the conversation and after revealing Starling's deal as a sham, offers to transfer Lecter in exchange for a deal of his own making. Lecter agrees and following a flight to Tennessee reveals Buffalo Bill's real name, physical description and past address to Senator Martin and her entourage of FBI agents and Justice Department officials. As the manhunt begins, Starling travels to Lecter's special cell in a local Tennessee courthouse, where she confronts him about the false information he gave the Senator. Lecter refuses Starling's pleas and demands she finish her story surrounding her worst childhood memory. After recounting her arrival at a relative's farm, the horror of discovering their lamb slaughterhouse and her fruitless attempts at rescuing the lambs, Lecter rebuffs her, leaving her with her case file before she is escorted out of the building by security guards.
Later that evening, Lecter escapes from his cell. The local police storm the floor, discovering one of his guards barely alive and the other disemboweled and strung up on the walls. Paramedics transport the survivor onto an ambulance and speed off while a SWAT team searches the building for Lecter. As the team discover a body in the elevator shaft, the survivor in the ambulance peels off his own face, revealing Lecter in disguise, who kills the paramedics and escapes to the airport.
After notified of Lecter's escape, Starling pores over her case file, analyzing Lecter's annotations before realizing that the first victim, Frederica Bimmel, knew Bill in real life before he killed her. Starling travels to Bimmel's hometown and discovers that Bimmel was a tailor and has dresses with templates identical to the patches of skin removed from Buffalo Bill's victims. Realizing that Buffalo Bill is a tailor fashioning a "woman suit" of real skin, she telephones Crawford, who is already on the way to make an arrest, having cross-referenced Lecter's notes with Johns Hopkins Hospital and finding a man named James Gumb. Crawford instructs Starling to continue interviewing Bimmel's friends while he leads a SWAT team to Gumb's business address in Calumet City, Illinois. Starling's interviews lead to the house of "Jack Gordon," who Starling soon realizes is actually James Gumb, and draws her weapon just as Gumb disappears into his basement. Starling pursues him, discovering a screaming Catherine Martin in the dry well just before the lights in the basement go out, leaving her in complete darkness. Gumb stalks Starling in the dark with night vision goggles and prepares to shoot her when Starling, hearing the machinations of his revolver, swivels around shoots Gumb dead.
Days later at the FBI Academy graduation party, Starling receives a phone call from Hannibal Lecter, now in the Bahamas. As Lecter assures Starling he has no plans to pursue her, he excuses himself from the phone call, remarking that he's "having an old friend for dinner," before hanging up and following Dr. Frederick Chilton through the streets of the village.
Pre-Production
Michelle Pfeiffer was initially offered the role of Clarice Starling, but turned it down. She has said about her rejection of the part, "that was a difficult decision, but I got nervous about the subject matter."[2] Kim Basinger, Emma Thompson, and Meg Ryan were also considered for the part before it went to Jodie Foster.
Sean Connery was initially offered the role of Hannibal Lecter, but turned it down.
Actor Gene Hackman was originally slated to direct the film, but changed his mind after reading the first screenplay draft done by Ted Tally, supposedly due to the level of violence the script contained.
Production
The Silence of the Lambs was distributed by Orion Pictures; MGM (who bought Orion in 1997) currently holds the rights.
The majority of the film was shot in Pittsburgh because it has highly variable landscapes and architecture. This variety made it easier to display many different parts of the country.
Both the scene of Lecter in his cage at the "Memphis Court House" and the Baltimore jail scene were filmed at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Pittsburgh.
None of the action of the film is set by the storyline as being in Pennsylvania, even though the registration stickers on the windshields of all of the vehicles indicate a Pennsylvania residency.
Response
Anthony Hopkins gained huge acclaim with his portrayal of Hannibal Lecter, even though his screen time in the entire film is just over 16 minutes. His portrayal won him an Academy Award in 1992, and as of 2007 remains the shortest lead role to ever win an Oscar.
The film received widespread critical acclaim. Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster also received praise for their performances. Roger Ebert specifically mentioned the "terrifying qualities" of Hannibal Lecter. Not surprisingly, both actors won Academy Awards for their performances.
Silence of the Lambs received a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Box office
Domestic summary:
- Opening Weekend: $13,766,814 (1,497 theaters)[3]
- % of total gross: 10.5%
- Close date: October 10, 1991
- Total U.S. gross: $130,742,922
Worldwide gross: $272,700,000
Awards and controversy
This article needs additional citations for verification. (June 2007) |
Academy Awards record | |
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1. Best Actor, Anthony Hopkins | |
2. Best Actress, Jodie Foster | |
3. Best Director, Jonathan Demme | |
4. Best Picture, Edward Saxon, Kenneth Utt, Ronald M. Bozman | |
5. Best Adapted Screenplay, Ted Tally | |
Golden Globe Awards record | |
1. Best Actress, Jodie Foster | |
BAFTA Awards record | |
1. Best Actor, Anthony Hopkins | |
2. Best Actress, Jodie Foster |
Jonathan Demme won an Academy Award for Best Director. Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins both won Oscars for their roles as Clarice Starling and Dr. Hannibal Lecter, respectively. Hopkins' performance as Lecter remains the shortest lead acting, Oscar-winning performance ever, as Hopkins is on screen for less than 17 minutes throughout the course of the film. The film won additional Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture. The Silence of the Lambs is only the third (and most recent) film to win the five most prestigious Academy Awards (after It Happened One Night, 1934 and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, 1975).
The film is second in the department of most Oscar nominations for a horror film (7) tying the record previously set by Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte in 1964; The Exorcist is in first place with 10 nominations.
Upon release, The Silence of the Lambs was criticised by members of the gay community for being what they perceived as another in a long line of negative on-screen portrayals of LGBT characters in the absence of any positive portrayals (see also Basic Instinct and JFK). Following the announcement of the film's many nominations, rumors began circulating almost immediately that gay rights groups like Queer Nation were planning to disrupt the live Oscar telecast should the film win any awards. While ultimately no such protests materialized, the rumors did lead to balanced coverage of the story, including discussion of Hollywood's attitudes toward sexual minorities and an overview linking the rumored protests to other Academy Awards controversies, in media outlets ranging from the CBS Evening News to The National Enquirer. In the years following The Silence of the Lambs there was an increase in the number of gay-themed films and gay characters. Significantly, director Jonathan Demme's next project was the AIDS-related drama Philadelphia.
Other awards include "best picture" from CHI Awards, the "best film" from PEO Awards, and won Best Film from National Board of Review, all in 1991. In 1991, Jonathan Demme was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for best director. In 1992, Ted Tally received an Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay. In 1991, was nominated for "best film" from British Academy Awards. In 1998, it was listed as one of the 100 greatest movies in the past 100 years by the American Film Institute.[4]
In 2006 at the Key Art Awards, the original poster for The Silence of the Lambs was named best film poster "of the past 35 years".[5]
The Silence of the Lambs placed 7th on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments. The American Film Institute named Hannibal Lecter as portrayed by Hopkins the number one film villain of all time [6] and Clarice Starling as portrayed by Foster the sixth greatest film hero of all time.[7]
Cast
- Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling
- Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Hannibal Lecter
- Scott Glenn as Jack Crawford
- Anthony Heald as Frederick Chilton
- Ted Levine as Jame Gumb/Buffalo Bill
- Frankie Faison as Barney Matthews
- Brooke Smith as Catherine Martin
- Kasi Lemmons as Ardelia Mapp
- Charles Napier as Lt. Boyle
- Danny Darst as Sgt. Tate
- Alex Coleman as Sgt. Jim Pembry
- Dan Butler as Roden
- Diane Baker as Sen. Ruth Martin
- Roger Corman as FBI Director Hayden Burke
- Chris Isaak as SWAT Commander
- Masha Skorobogatov as Young Clarice Starling
Differences from the book
- All references of Will Graham (played by William Petersen in Manhunter, and Edward Norton in Red Dragon) were eliminated in the film.
- Starling's struggles as an FBI trainee are downplayed, with only occasional hints at difficulties, often based on sexism. It is not directly suggested that she was in danger of flunking out due to missing classes whilst conducting her work in the search for Buffalo Bill.
- Crawford's subplot, regarding the death of his wife, is eliminated for simplicity (neither Crawford nor his wife were in Hannibal either, and no mention of Crawford's wife is made in Manhunter). Likewise, Klaus is removed, with Raspail's head being found in the jar instead. Lecter's relation to Gumb is as his former therapist.
- Lecter's red herrings are altered to include anagrams: Clarice is told to investigate "Miss Hester Mofet" ("miss the rest of me") and his false Buffalo Bill name becomes "Louis Friend" (iron sulfide, a.k.a. fool's gold); however, the novel has the false name Billy Rubin, which is a play on bilirubin, the pigment found in feces. This turns out to be a multiple pun, as Lecter later leaves the formula for bilirubin in his cell, annotating it to spell CHILTON, and the FBI agents who discovered the anagram also compared the color of bilirubin to Dr. Chilton's hair.
- Lecter never tells Starling that Buffalo Bill wants "a vest with tits on it." Starling deduces this specific motive of Buffalo Bill on her own after seeing a dress in Bimmel's closet. He also never says "He has a two-story house."
- After escaping from his cell in Memphis, Lecter is next shown at the end of the movie contacting Starling by telephone immediately following her graduation ceremony from the FBI Academy. Lecter, who informs Starling he is "having an old friend for dinner" is shown ostensibly on a Caribbean island while his nemesis Chilton nervously disembarks nearby.
- Lecter neither has maroon eyes nor six fingers on his left hand as described in the books, instead both hands are normal and his eyes are blue as portrayed by Hopkins. (However, in the film 'Hannibal', Lecter is asked about a scar on his hand and he replies that he had surgery to alleviate Repetitive Strain Injury. This ties in with the books, in which he had surgery to remove his sixth finger.)
- In the film, Lecter states that he ate the census taker's liver and fava beans with a "nice Chianti", while in the novel he eats them with a "big Amarone".
- While in the book Starling tells Lecter that as a child she attempted to rescue an old, tame horse from being slaughtered, the film has her attempting to rescue a lamb instead. In both versions, however, it is the screaming of lambs about which she has nightmares.
Influences
Jame Gumb was based on three real-life serial killers:
- Ed Gein, a Wisconsin man who robbed graves and murdered women in order to flay their bodies and make clothing out of them. Gein was also the inspiration for Norman Bates in the Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho as well as Leatherface in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
- Ted Bundy, who killed dozens of women in the 1970s, often luring victims by pretending he was injured with a cast on his arm, a technique Gumb used to lure Catherine Martin into his van. Similar to Lecter, Bundy also offered to help investigators find other serial murderers by "giving insights" into their psychology while he was in death row, specifically about the Green River Killer.
- Gary M. Heidnik, who held women captive in a deep hole in his basement.
Hannibal Lecter bears some similarities with Andrei Chikatilo (a Russian serial killer), in that during their childhoods both experienced a sibling being cannibalised during a famine. (It is not known however how true the story of Chikatilo's experience is). He has also been compared to the infamous cannibal and child murderer Albert Fish, as well as Robert Maudsley, who ate the brain of a fellow inmate while he was incarcerated. Some critics view Lecter from a more mythological origin: Dracula. The reason being that Lecter has physical and behavioral traits in the novel series that are strikingly similar to those of Dracula and traditional vampires. Lecter is also, like Dracula, an Eastern European Count.
The moth covering Jodie Foster's mouth in the advertising poster is not the natural pattern of the Death's-head Hawkmoth, but a miniature image of Salvador Dalí's In Voluptas Mors. This is in homage to Luis Buñuel's and Salvador Dalí's surrealist film Un Chien Andalou, which contains a Death's-head Hawkmoth.
The image of the Death's-head Hawkmoth upon the lips may also be a reference to a line in Richard le Gallienne's The Worshipper of the Image: "The eyes of Silencieux were wide open, and from her lips hung a dark moth with the face of death between his wings."
Manhunter sequel confusion
This article possibly contains original research. (September 2007) |
Three of the characters from this film (Hannibal Lecter, Jack Crawford, and Frederick Chilton) also appeared in an earlier film, Manhunter, though portrayed by different actors. Some[citation needed] argue that The Silence of the Lambs is a sequel to Manhunter, but the fact that Orion was willing to produce the film without the rights to the three characters that previously appeared in Manhunter suggests that it was never intended to be a cinematic follow up to Manhunter. In Ted Tally's second-draft script, he notes: "For legal reasons, the names of three of Tom Harris's characters have had to be changed. It is my hope, and certainly Tom's, that the original names can be restored in time for the making of this movie. For the purposes of this draft, however, Jack Crawford has become 'Ray Campbell,' Frederick Chilton has become 'Herbert Prentiss,' and Dr. Hannibal Lecter is called 'Dr. Gideon Quinn.'" Manhunter producer Dino De Laurentiis saw little future potential for the characters and allowed Orion to use the characters of Lecter, Crawford and Chilton for free. Further distancing The Silence of the Lambs from Manhunter is the fact that Frankie Faison and Dan Butler appear in both films, but as completely different characters. This matter was settled in 2002 when Manhunter was remade as Red Dragon, in which Hopkins, Faison and Heald reprised their roles from The Silence of the Lambs, establishing itself as the official prequel as it relates to the other two Hopkins films. It should also be noted that, in Manhunter, Lecter's last name is officially spelled "Lecktor", and no mention is ever made of cannibalism. He is stated to have killed young women, in effect condensing Lecter and another character mentioned in Red Dragon for time's sake. In addition, the events of Red Dragon are mentioned several times in the novel The Silence of the Lambs, but were all omitted in the screenplay.
Parodies
This section may be too long to read and navigate comfortably. |
Like other popular films, The Silence of the Lambs has been parodied:
- The two musicians Jon and Al Kaplan made a Silence of the Lambs musical called "Silence! The Musical".[8]
- Ezio Greggio created The Silence of the Hams where rookie FBI agent Jo Dee Foster (Billy Zane) goes to Dr. Animal Cannibal Pizza (Dom DeLuise) to track a serial killer.
- At the 1992 Academy Awards, Billy Crystal made his initial appearance on stage wearing the same straitjacket and mask that Hannibal Lecter wore in the movie, making the comment that he felt he looked like the "goalie for the SAG (Screen Actors Guild) hockey team".
- In The Simpsons episode A Star Is Burns, the character of Hannibal Lecter auditions for the role of Mr. Burns for a movie that Mr. Burns is making about himself, in order to win at the town film festival. In his dangerous prisoner restraints & mask, Lecter recites Mr. Burns's famous quote "Excellent", followed by his infamous hiss (from his own famous quote, "I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti"). In another episode, recurring villain Sideshow Bob is held by restraints similar to Lecter's - but including restraints on Bob's individual locks of hair.
- In the film Clerks 2, the character of Jay (played by actor Jason Mewes) performs the entire Buffalo Bill dance sequence, from imitating Bill putting on make-up right up to standing naked with his genitals tucked back.
- In one scene of the film Joe Dirt, the main character, played by David Spade, is held captive by a killer named "Buffalo Bob" in a scenario very similar to the captivity of Catherine by Buffalo Bill. Bob even imitates the famous line "It rubs the lotion on its skin, or else it gets the hose again."
- In one scene of the film Austin Powers in Goldmember Dr. Evil is imprisoned in an all glass cell resembling several of the scenes from Silence of the Lambs. Upon being asked about Goldmember Dr. Evil replies: "Quid pro quo, Mr. Powers" asking to be transferred to another facility.
- In "South Park" episode Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society, Eric Cartman is shown playing 'Lambs' in his basement. Cartman lowers a basket to a doll at the bottom of a hole in the floor, and quotes lines from the movie, including the "it rubs the lotion on its skin" line. He also refers to a toy dog next to him as 'Precious'.
See also
References
- ^ IMDb Box office/ Business Information for The Silence of the Lambs Retrieved 14 March 2007.
- ^ The Barbara Walters Special, American Broadcast Company, 1992
- ^ IMDb Box office/ Business Information for The Silence of the Lambs Retrieved 14 March 2007.
- ^ AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies Accessed 14 March 2007.
- ^ 'Sin City' place to be at Ket Art Awards Hollywood Reporter, retrieved 2007-10-07
- ^ AFI 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains Accessed 14 March 2007.
- ^ AFI 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains Accessed 14 March 2007.
- ^ http://www.jonandal.com
External links
- Template:Amg movie
- The Silence of the Lambs at IMDb
- The Silence of the Lambs at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Hannibal Lecter Studiolo
- Criterion Collection essay by Amy Taubin
- 1991 films
- American films
- Best Horror Film Saturn
- Best Picture Academy Award winners
- Films whose director won the Best Director Academy Award
- Edgar Award winning works
- Films directed by Jonathan Demme
- Films featuring a Best Actress Academy Award winning performance
- Films featuring a Best Actor Academy Award winning performance
- Films featuring a Best Drama Actress Golden Globe winning performance
- Hannibal
- Orion Pictures films
- Pittsburgh in film and television
- Psychological thriller films
- Police detective films
- Serial killer films
- United States National Film Registry
- English-language films